Help / Frequently Asked Questions

Help / FAQs

Use the tabs below to find information on usage of the site. If you have a question not addressed here, please contact us.

General Information
Hub Community
Events
Alumni Travel
Business Directory
Greenroom Chat

Yes. The data you submit here is important and we take every measure to safeguard it. We have intentionally chosen to host this site on a German server in a German datacenter, and the data backups are not located outside of Germany. This is in order to preserve ownership of the data and ensure we comply with any and all data privacy laws within Germany and in the EU in general.

The datacenter in use by UWP Alumni Hub is located in Germany, and any and all duplication of data happens inside the datacenter purely for backup purposes.

You can decide yourself how much data you reveal to others. Your User Profile is stored inside the Social Commubnity component, and the settings for privacy can also be found there. Please look under the Social Community tab for further information.

Raw access to the database is limited to the one or two people needed to ensure the technical function of the site. Other UWP Alumni Hub staff may access the data only on a "need to know" basis. For example, if we plan to send an email to our users, the person preparing the email will need to be able to see which of our users have allowed email contact from the Hub.

The private messages you send to each other in the system are in principle private. HOWEVER, the technical support staff of the site, currently one person, has access to the raw database and therefore theoretically could view the private messages, although it would take considerable effort to do so. Quite frankly, we believe in privacy and that private messages should stay private, and we have no intent or desire to view them.

Should the site be used for illegal activities and we are requested by the law enforcement to provide the information, we will comply with any and all legal requirements as stated in the German and/or European laws and regulations.

This site is funded through donations. We are not charging anything for the access, nor will we. The approximate annual cost of 1,500 USD per year is so far covered through personal donations by the founders and a donation from the German alumni club.

We do welcome donations from both individuals and alumni groups, but donations do not result in any added privileges on the site — just a heartfelt thank you from us!

If you wish to donate, you can either use the PayPal form here, or you can contact us at info@uwpalumnihub.org and we will make sure we find a way that is suitable for you.

Please consider supporting our efforts.

Amount

Yes of course. This is your right as per the European Privacy regulation (GDPR). If you wish to get an extract of the data the system has, please send a request through the "CONTACT US" Form and allow us some days to extract it.

Should you decide to leave us, you can just stop coming. This will however leave your profile still intact as well as all the content you have created (whether it is your profile, your posts, your messages etc.).
Should you wish all this to be deleted, please let us know as we will be able to do also that. Only some limited data will then remain (if you have replied to a post) however this would be then pseudonymized...ie. your name is no longer shown but some other title like "FORMER USER" or something like that.

Session Tracking:

When you visit our website, a session is initiated which involves:

Storing your IP address in the session data for security purposes, helping to prevent session hijacking.
Generating a session cookie in your browser with a unique, randomly generated hash.
Deleting the session data, including your IP address, after the session expires or when you exit the browser.

Logging System:

The website logs your IP address in its files.

These logs record activities such as core updates, invalid login attempts, and errors.

Authentication via Cookie:

If you opt to use the "Remember Me" feature during login, a cookie (joomla_remember_me) is created.

This cookie is used to automatically log you in on subsequent visits if you're not already logged in.

Think Facebook, but with much better data privacy and no ads. You can friend people, create groups, create events, and choose who can see your posts. Interact with everyone in the Hub, or select a smaller group of people to interact with, such as your cast.

Go to the Hub Community, and in the menu bar on the left, hover over the "Profile" selection, then choose what you want to edit from the drop-down menu. The fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required fields for the operation of the website.

You will be able to change your password if you choose the "Account" tab in your profile.

On the right-hand side of each of your profile details, there is a small globe icon. Clicking it will reveal the privacy options for that particular data element.

Public / Site Members = All registered users of the site are allowed to see this data. It means also that the search function is allowed to use the data. So if someone uses the "Member Search" function on the field "country" (just as an example) and you have set your Country-field as Public or Site Members, your record will be shown on the list of results.
Friends - Only those on your "Friends"-list are allowed to see this info.
Only Me - Nobody apart from you is allowed to see this info.

These privacy selections also apply to the search functionality of the site.

Groups can be anything you want them to be: a cast, a regional club, a group of alumni with similar interests — you can create a group for anything you like. To create a group, select "View all groups" below the Groups tab on the left while in the Social Community, then select "Create Group" in the upper right.

In the Hub Community, just below the area where you would add a new status message or post, there is a line where you can select type of post. Choose "Event," add a title and description, then select the "event details" gear icon to add time, date, and location. Click "Done" when you're finished, and your event will be created.

Once you have entered the details, do not forget to click on the "Post" link to submit the event into the system.

Place your cursor within the status message field, and a menu bar will appear below the field with icons to choose to add emojis, add your location, and/or limit who can see your post. You can also use this menu bar to make your post into a poll or add a photo or video.

We have disabled direct video-uploads to this site on purpose. We simply can not afford hosting large video-files on the site.
However, should you have a video uploaded into one of the myriad of video-hosting services, you can link to them instead. You will be asked to provide a link to the video (please note that if the video is private on the hosting-service, it will not show up here either).
Once you have entered the link and provided the accompanying text with it, it will hopefully show up right there where you posted it...be it in the stream, in the group, your profile or wherever.
Should the content be copyrighted, we assume the video-hosting service is likely to take it down and in the process it will render our connection to it also invalid.

Events Calendar is a central calendar for all events published in the Hub-section. It is an easy way for people to find what Alumni-related events are taking place.

You can add events to the calendar simply by "posting" in the hub. There is a small icon for "event" there that allows you to enter the details of the event like date&time, place, description as well as allow to set some settings. Is the event private or public for example.

Just remember, only events that are relevant for other alumni should go there. If you are going to a concert, it should probably not be there, if you are organizing an event where you invite other alumni to go with you to the said concert, then it should be there.

As a regular user (not the "owner" of the event), you have 3...well technically 4 options in regards to an event. You can simply ignore the event....or you can mark yourself "going", "Can't go" or "Maybe going". This status is visible for everyone on the site.

The benefit of marking yourself as "going" is that you will then be able to upload content like photos and/or videos to the event to show everyone what they missed by not coming...or just share your photos of the event with the others.

Yes..this can happen....you either forgot or simply just decided on a whim to go after all. Now you have great photos to share with others but find out you can't because you were not marked as "going".

Well....there is still a way. Please get in touch with Kimmo who has access to the database and manually edit your participation in the event after the fact. It is not really the way it should work, but it can still be done. Just write a quick message to Kimmo or send an email to info@uwpalumnihub.org and we will get you sorted.

Good question....next one!

No..just kidding...the limit has been set to 10 photos (if I remember right) per user per event. However if you have more, there might be a way. Just let us know at the info@uwpalumnihub.org and we will do some testing....not on you but WITH you! :)

I have this great event planned but to cover the costs, I have to charge people a fee to attend. Can I still add the event to the calendar and better yet, have the site charge the users and send the money to me?

The short answer is: Yes and No

The long answer is:

Yes, you can add any event, entrance fee or not, to the calendar as long as it is relevant to the alumni at large. Just make sure people know it is going to be a "paid event" in the description of the event to avoid any awkward moments for yourself later.

As for the payment goes, technically yes...we COULD take care of the payment for you as well but we won't. Why is this I hear you asking? Because just like the Housing/Travel component, we do not wish to get involved in any financial transactions amongst our users for multitude of reasons. They can be liability, payment/refund issues and last but not least, tax-issues. We do not wish to become a payment-provider as it would also set some tax-related expectations on us that frankly we can live without.

Only UWP Alumni Hub registered users may list properties here. Registered users may not list a property on behalf of someone who is not a member of the UWP Alumni Hub.

Should you feel that the information provided did not accurately represent the property (since you visited them, for example) please first contact the alum who listed the property to resolve the issue and ask them to update the information. If you do not get a satisfactory response, let us know using the "Contact Us" option and we will try to make sure the information is corrected.

If you found a property you would like to rent, contact the owner. All financial transactions occur between the two parties involved outside the UWP Alumni Hub. The Hub is not responsible for any transactions or disputes involving payment.

Any transactions you enter into for renting, exchanging, or hosting must abide by your local laws and any agreements you have with your landlord. You are responsible for knowing any limitations on renting, exchanging, or hosting in your home.

Within the Alumni Travel page, you will find a button on the right hand side under the map saying "Add House." This will take you to a form to enter details of the property. You will also be able to upload images and pinpoint the location on a map. The fields marked with * are required.

After you have submitted the property, it will go to a queue on our site where our staff will validate the entry before approving it to appear on the site, which we will do as quickly as possible.

Any registered members of the UWP Alumni Hub may list their business. Registered members who co-own a business with a non-alum may also add a listing. Registered members may not list a business on behalf of a non-member.

Listings are free to registered users. Of course, if you find the listing valuable to your business and would like to show your appreciation by making a donation to the Hub to help us cover expenses, we would not object!

In general, no. Obviously any illegal activities will not be tolerated and can and will lead to not only the deletion of said entry, but possibly a prompt exit from the entire site. Pyramid marketing (aka multilevel marketing) companies are allowed provided they can be shown to be valid companies.

Within the Business Directory, choose the link "Add Entry" at the top right. Once you submit your entry, Hub staff will review the listing before approving it, which we will do as quickly as possible (may take up to 48 hours to appear).

Any and all services listed here are 100% responsibility of the people who listed them. We recommend you first try to resolve your complaint with the business owner. If you feel it is not resolved satisfactorily, let us know using the "Contact Us" option and we will note the complaint. Any business that accumulates multiple complaints is subject to removal from the Business Directory.

Greenroom Chat is a relatively new tool that allows real-time interactive chatting with other members who are online. Think Zoom or Teams, but with more real-time options to create chat groups. You can pop into the Greenroom to see who else is there, or you can schedule a Greenroom Chat with your friends.

No, this service is hosted outside the UWP Alumni Hub and is simply embedded on our site. The UWP Alumni Hub transfers NO INFORMATION from our side to the chatroom. Because of this, you will have to create your chat name and any other information separately there and, once you give access to your camera and microphone, they will be used for the chatroom. These preferences will be stored in a so-called cookie file on your computer, so unless you delete cookies or clear your history, the information will only need to be entered once.