Spotted® is a community-based, user-contributed multi-media site. The site has two main sections, "We Spotted" and "You Spotted".

"We Spotted" features photos and videos taken by the site's staff at events throughout the community.

"You Spotted" is the user-contributed section of the site that has photos and videos from our registered users. Registered users are free to create as many galleries and upload as many photos and videos as they want.

Spotted® is all about you and your community. By signing up for Spotted®, you are able to start sharing and interacting with your friends, family and community all for free. When you register you can:

• Create your own galleries and upload your own photos
• Upload your videos
• Upload photos and videos from your cell phone as well as your computer
• Post comments
• Participate in Spotted® contests
• Share your photo with Stars & Stripes and maybe see your photos in print

We ask you to register because we use registration to keep track of the photos and videos that are uploaded on to the site. We also use the registration information to better understand how our site is used so that we can make changes and improvements.

Our Anti-Spam Pledge - When you register at Spotted we ask you for several items of personal information. We pledge to respect your right to privacy. We will not provide, sell or lease your personally identifiable information - including name or email - to any third parties.

• To sign up for Spotted®, go to the signup page login, choose a user name and password, and enter your information.
• You can use letters, numbers, dashes (-) and underscores ( _ ) to create your user name. You can use letters, numbers, dashes, underscores, and exclamation points (!) to create your password. No other special characters will be recognized. Your user name is not case sensitive, but your password is.
• Click Create Account when you are done. If you want to clear the fields and start over, just click Reset.

To view photos, just click on a thumbnail of the photo that you'd like to see

Before uploading your photos, make sure than none of them are larger than 200MB. You won't be able to upload any photos that are larger than 200MB.

• Click the Your Photos link under the Upload Now section on any Spotted® page.
• Click the Add Photos  button. This will open a separate window that you can use to select the photos that you want to upload. Click the arrow on the Look in: drop-down menu. Select the photo(s) that you want and click Open.
  Note: Hold down the CTRL key and click multiple files to open more than one at a time.
• Type descriptions for all of your photos into the
  Add Tags
• Click Upload when you are finished.

To rate a photo, click the arrow on the drop-down box and select a number to rate the photo. 1 is the lowest, 5 is the highest. After you've selected your rating, click Rate to submit your rating.

First, click on the photo that you want to add to your favorites. Under the Photo Options heading, click Add to Favorites 

First, click the My Spotted tab. Under the My Favorites heading click Photos  or Galleries .

Areas divide up your area into the local communities. Click Areas in the Navigation Bar to see a list of your local communities. Then click on a community to view photos, videos, and events from that community.

Categories are used to group Spotted® content according to its subject matter. They are set up by the site administrator.

Posting comments is a great way to give people feedback on their photos and videos. To post a comment, just type it into the Post A Comment  field. Click Post Comment  when you are finished.

You can separate your photos and videos into galleries. This is very useful if you want to group your content by subject, event, date, or any other criteria.

• To make a gallery, click the My Spotted tab.
• Under My Galleries , click Create Gallery 
• Enter your information into the dialog box that appears and click Create Gallery  when you are finished

To view your galleries, click the My Spotted tab.

Under My Galleries, click View My Galleries 

You can view other people's galleries. In the Navigation Bar, just point your cursor to All Galleries. A drop-down menu will appear below this; click one of the options to check out some galleries.

• Newest: The galleries that have been created most recently.
• Most Popular (Today): The galleries that have highest average number of views per day.
• Most Popular (All Time): The galleries that have the overall highest number of views.
• Highest Rated: The galleries with the highest rating.
• Most Emailed: The galleries that have been shared the most.

You can easily rename a gallery from the My Galleries page. Just click Edit  for the gallery that you want to rename. Type a new name in the Gallery Name field. Click the Edit Gallery  button when you're done.

You can edit a gallery from the My Galleries page. Just click Edit  for the gallery that you want to rename. Edit your information in the Edit Gallery window that appears. Click the Edit Gallery  button when you're done.

You can easily delete a gallery from the My Galleries page. Just click Edit  for the gallery that you want to delete. Click Delete Gallery  in the Edit Gallery window that appears. Click OK  in the dialogue box that appears to confirm that you want to delete the galleries and all of the photos contained in it.

To add a gallery to your favorites, first click on the gallery that you want to add to your favorites. Under the Gallery Options heading, click Add to Favorites .

To edit your profile, just click the My Spotted tab, then the profile button to get started.

Then choose one of the option that you want to work with:

• My Avatar: This edits the Avatar, which is the icon that appears in your dashboard.
• My Username: This edits your username.
  Note: Changing your user name will not affect your login user name. To change your login user name, go to your account page and change your user name there.
• My Mobile Emails: This is where you can add the email address of your mobile device.
• My Bio: This is where you can edit your bio.

An avatar is an image that you can use to represent yourself visually on Spotted®. It will appear as an icon in your dashboard, and it is what other Spotted® users will use to identify you visually.

• First, click the My Spotted tab. Then click the Profile button. This will take you to the My Profile page.
• Click My Avatar. Under the My Avatar heading, you can choose a pre-created avatar, or upload your own.
• To choose a pre-created avatar, just click the Select Me  option next to the avatar of your choice and click Change Now .
• You can also upload your own image and use it as your avatar. You can type the path to the file you want to use in the field, or just click Browse  to find it. When you have found it, click Upload .

• First, click the My Spotted tab. Then click the Profile button. This will take you to the My Profile page.
• Click My Username. Type your new user name into the My Username field and click Change .
  Note: Changing your user name will not affect your login user name. To change your login user name, go to your account page and change your user name there.

It's easy to change your password. Start by clicking the My Spotted tab. Then click the Account  button. Click Change Password . You'll need to enter your old password for verification. Then enter your new password and repeat it for confirmation. Click Change Password  when you're done.

Yes, you can use a camera phone to send images to Spotted®. You'll need to add the phone's email address first.

Just send an email from your mobile to your regular email account. The address in the From  section is your mobile's email address.

• In order for us to identify your photos when you email them, we need to know what email addresses you may send us photos from. You can list up to 3 valid email addresses that you will use to send us photos.
• First, click the My Spotted tab. Then click the Profile button. This will take you to the My Profile page.
• Click My Mobile Emails. You can enter up to three email addresses into the boxes provided and click Change  when you're done.

Just send your photos to mobile@spotted.stripes.com. Then check your gallery to see your photos (it may take us a few minutes to process them).

• Note: You can use the subject line of your email to direct your photos.
• If you leave the subject line blank, your photos will automatically be placed in your Mobile Spot  gallery.
• If you put the name of an existing gallery in the subject line, your photos will be placed in that gallery.
• If you put any other text in the subject line, a gallery will be created with that name and your photos will be placed inside.

It's easy to enter info about yourself, and it helps other Spotted with similar interests find you and your stuff.

First, click the My Spotted tab. Then click the Profile button. Click My Bio. Fill in the boxes with your information, and click Change .

• Click the My Spotted tab. Under the My Friends heading, click See My Friends .
• Before you can add friends, you need to create a Friends List. You can create as many as you want, so you may find it useful to create separate Friends Lists for things like work, school, friends, and family.
• To add a Friends List, type a name for the list into the Add Friends List  box and click Add .
• To add friends to a Friends List, type their user names into the Add Friends List  under the corresponding Friends List and click Add .

Under the My Friends Lists heading, find the Friend List that you want to remove and click the Delete  button.

Find the friend that you want to remove in your Friends List and click Remove  next to their name.

Find the friend that you want to send a message to and click Send Message  next to their name.

Click the My Spotted tab. Under the My Messages  heading, click See My Mailbox.

To search for Spotted® content, use the Search tool located under the dashboard in the upper-right of the Spotted page. Type your keywords into the Search field. To narrow your search, click the arrow on the drop-down menu and select a category to narrow your search. When finished, click Go .

Tags are keywords or terms associated with or assigned to a picture or a video. You can think of them as labels that help describe your content so that others can more easily search for it.

For example, if you have a video of your dog, Benji, playing Frisbee, you could tag it "Benji dog terrier Frisbee."