Urban Guru Cafe

Urban Guru Cafe – Frequently-asked Questions

Q. What is the mission of the Urban Guru Cafe?
A. The mission of the UGC is to present interviews by those who are most clearly expressing what we call “nonduality”. The interviews are produced professionally and creatively with intermittent music, which is a unique presentation.

The UGC selects speakers based on their directness and clarity, focusing more on the immediate recognition of what you actually are and less on the idea of spirituality as an attainment.

Q. I’m having a technical issue – how do I get it resolved?
A. There may be technical issues with Wordpress or with the move to a new theme or added plugins. Additionally, you may find a podcast which doesn’t download or play.

If a podcast won’t play, try one of the other methods. You can click on the player “PLAY” button, you can open it in a pop-up, or you can download it. The most frequently-used method is to download the MP3 with the link. This will save off the MP3 to your computer and play it using your default MP3 player.

If you receive a page error, please refresh the page. Sometimes plugins can conflict with each other, causing the database to return an error. If you refresh, you should see the page.

If you experience any technical issues with the UGC which you cannot resolve, please contact the UGC Admin..

Q. What is UGC Chat?
A. UGC Chat is a special chat channel which registered and logged-on UGC readers can use to chat with other UGC readers. To access UGC Chat, go to the UGC Chat Page.

Q. Can I suggest my favorite guru to be interviewed?
A. Suggestions can either be posted in the Comments page or sent via email to UGC Email.

Q. How can I find all the podcasts featuring one speaker?
A. There is a section on the site called Podcasts by Speaker. Clicking on a speaker name will show all podcasts which feature that speaker.

Q. How do I find out about meetings for UGC Speakers?
A. There is a page called Events. This page lists many of the upcoming meetings for UGC Speakers, including the time, name and address of the location. For more information or to contact them about these meetings, please refer to the speaker’s website listed in the right sidebar on the UGC site.

Q. How do I change the icon or face I see on my comments?
A. This image or icon is called a “Gravatar”. It is a graphical representation of your account, like an Avatar. There is no way to change it within the UGC but you can change it if you create a Wordpress.com account. It appears that all Wordpress blogs use keys to identify user profiles.

Go to www.wordpress.com, at the top-right choose Sign Up Now. Enter your username, password and email address exactly as you have done on the UGC. You will be required to confirm this by responding to an email. Once this is done, you will be able to log on to wordpress.com, then at the top-left, drop down My Account, then choose Edit Profile. On the right of the Edit Profile page, you will see your default Gravatar and can select Change your Gravatar. Choose “Upload a new image from your computer” or one of the other selected methods. Once this has been done, save your profile and then come back to the UGC to view one of your comments. You should see the new Gravatar image.

If this does not work, double-check the username and email address being used and make sure it matches. If it matches and still does not work, try deleting your UGC profile and rejoining the UGC with the correct username/email address. Any further support will need to go to Wordpress.com.

Q. What is a “Tag Cloud”?
A. A Tag is like a keyword, attached to a post or episode. A Tag Cloud lists all the keywords and enlarges the tags used more frequently. Clicking on a Tag brings up all the posts which use that Tag.

Q. How do I subscribe to the UGC in a feed reader?
A. You can click on the button under “Subscribe to UGC Episodes” or one of the buttons under UGC Feeds. These will allow you to enter the UGC in a feed reader such as Google Reader, for both new posts and new comments. You can read the posts and comments outside of the UGC site, although you cannot post a comment from the reader.

Q. How can I subscribe to the UGC in iTunes?
A. The UGC iTunes podcast is now operational. To put the UGC podcasts on your iPod, please do the following:

1. Make sure you have iTunes correctly installed on your computer.
2. Plug in your iPod to your computer.
3. Go to the UGC
4. On the right of the page, you will see a section called UGC Feeds and a button called iTUNES. Click on that.
5. This will open iTunes and take you right to the UGC podcasts.
6. From there you can choose to download one or all of the podcasts. If you have iTunes set to sync with your iPod, the UGC podcasts will be put on your iPod.

Q. Why do you require registration for commenting?
A. We were receiving many complaints from UGC readers about the nature of a few commenters, mainly having to do with drama and negativity, and occasionally a link to a malicious virus or malware site. In addition, we received hundreds of SPAM comments which had to be manually reviewed and removed.

We implemented Reader Registration, along with comment rating, in order to reduce the unnecessary drama and erroneous comments, which will hopefully give the reader a better experience and encourage others who might have been hesitant to post a comment.

Read the Policy Page for more information.

Q. Does it cost to register or participate at the UGC?
A. The podcast episodes, registration and participation at the UGC is completely free, although there are costs associated with producing the episodes and making them available on the website. If you wish to donate to the UGC, you can go to the Donate Page. Donations can be made via PayPal or Credit Card.

Q. What are Comment Ratings?
A. Comment Ratings is a plugin to our Wordpress site which allows readers to vote up or down on comments from other commenters. This feature allows readers to vote down comments which make their experience on the UGC less desirable. Each user is restricted to one vote per comment, and if a comment receives a total or net of 10 negative votes, that comment is hidden by the plugin, so that readers can skip it if they desire. If they wish to read the comment anyway, a link is provided to unhide the comment for them.

Q. Where can I find out more information about the UGC in Second Life?
A. Visit the Virtual UGC Page to see pictures of the Virtual UGC and find out more about getting into SL. You can also view the schedule of upcoming meetings on the UGC Sidebar (right side of posts/comments).

Q. Will all the UGC Speakers be meeting in the SL UGC?
A. Currently only Jason Swanson and Randall Friend are going in SL. Gilbert has made a couple of visits and Kimo has also showed up a couple times. There are plans to have more UGC Speakers going in SL and speaking, and possibly even recording a UGC episode in SL. Stay tuned.

Q. Where is the Urban Guru Cafe produced?
A. The UGC is produced in Australia.