Frequently Asked Questions
  1. What is MadPolitic?
  2. How much does MadPolitic cost?
  3. How do I get started?
  4. How much bandwidth will I need?
  5. How do I report a bug or send feedback?
  6. What is the URL for my new site?
  7. Can I use a different domain name?
  8. How do I map a domain to my MadPolitic site using GoDaddy?
  9. How do I add images to my website?

 

Organize your grassroots community initiative

What is MadPolitic?
MadPolitic is a web publishing system tuned to a specific purpose: to help you organize your community initiative. MadPolitic allows you to easily design your own live website. Other products allow you to design and publish your own website on the Internet, but these sites are static and one-dimensional. MadPolitic goes a step further by allowing you to truly interact with your community. Picking a style from dozens of professionally designed templates and adding your own content is just the beginning. You can create and run an online petition, write a blog, coordinate events through an online calendar and much more! Use MadPolitic's suite of customizable tools to reach out to your community and invite them to join in the effort. Top ↩

Build a website

How much does MadPolitic cost?
You can sign-up for free and start designing your site right away. Your free site will be available for up to 30 days but it also has a very limited amount of bandwidth, meaning only a small number of people will be able to view your website. Once you're ready to upgrade, there are several pricing options available. Top ↩

Create a blog

How do I get started?
Click the sign-up link, tell us your email address and pick a password. That's it! It's free to get started using MadPolitic. Try it out and see how easy it is to build a fully dynamic website for managing your community initiative. Top ↩

How much bandwidth do I need?
Every time a user views a web page, image, or file from your website, that file must be sent to them over the internet. Your available bandwidth controls how much data you will be able to send out in a given month. MadPolitic will alert you when your bandwidth is reaching capacity. Top ↩

How do I report a bug or send feedback?
Feel free to send feedback to feedback@madpolitic.com or bug reports to bugs@madpolitic.com. When sending bug reports, please be as specific as possible and send screenshots if you can. Top ↩

What is the URL for my new site?
Once you have signed up, your new site will be available to you and the rest of the world at http://sitename.madpolitic.com. For example, if you chose the sitename savethewhales, then your new site will be located at http://savethewhales.madpolitic.com. You can also purchase a domain through a registrar like GoDaddy or NetworkSolutions and have that domain mapped to your new MadPolitic site. See the FAQ on mapping your domain name. Top ↩

Can I use a different domain name?
So you want your users to be able to use www.yourcause.com instead of yourcause.madpolitic.com to reach your site? No problem. You can map any domain that you own to your MadPolitic site. In general, you'll need to purchase a domain and point it at your MadPolitic site using your registrar's administration interface. These are the general instructions for mapping a domain to your Madpolitic site.

Step 1 - Purchase a domain

To begin, you'll need to purchase a domain from a reputable registrar. Popular options are GoDaddy, Network Solutions and Namecheap. Whoever you choose, be sure that they offer complete DNS management.

Step 2 - Point your new domain at us

After purchasing the domain, you'll need to tell your registrar where to send requests for it. Log into your registrar's administration interface and look for something like 'DNS Manager' or 'Zone File Settings'.

To point your domain at your MadPolitic site, you'll need to edit something called the A Record. If you own mydomain.com, the A Record defines where requests for http://mydomain.com should go. Note that this does not affect requests for http://www.mydomain.com. If you also want http://www.mydomain.com to point to your MadPolitic site, you'll need to create a CNAME Record (see below).

Each registrar's interface is different but there should be three pieces of information for the A Record:

Host or Alias - enter '@'
IP or Points to - enter '72.249.74.216'
Type - should be 'A'

If you want subdomains of your domain to point to your MadPolitic site (like http://www.mydomain.com), you'll need to create a CNAME Record for each one. For the CNAME Record:

Host or Alias - enter 'www'
IP or Domain or Points to - enter 'www.madpolitic.com'
Type - should be 'CNAME' or 'Alias'

Step 3 - Configure Domain Mapping

The final step is to log into your MadPolitic site and visit the Administration section. Under General Settings is a place for Domain Mapping. Enter each of the domains you set up in the previous step here (for instance, mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com).

Note that it can take up to 48 hours for these changes to propagate throughout the Internet. Top ↩

How do I map a domain to my MadPolitic site using GoDaddy?
Please note that the domain mapping feature is only available to Professional and Premier accounts.

These instructions detail how to map your own domian to your MadPolitic site using GoDaddy's control panel. This assumes that you have already purchased a domain from GoDaddy. Also, remember that these changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate through the Internet.

Step 1 - Login to your GoDaddy account

Go to the GoDaddy website and log into the control panel using the credentials you used when you bought the domain.

Step 2 - Access the control panel for your domain

In the main menu, go to Domains => My Domain Names.
Access the control panel
You'll see a list of all the domains that you have registered with GoDaddy. Select the domain that you want to map to your MadPolitic site.
Select a domain

Step 3 - Access the Total DNS control panel

Click the link that says "Total DNS Control and MX Records" shown here.
Access Total DNS Control

Step 4 - Modify the host (A) record

Near the top of the page, you should see a single item in the A (Host) section. To the right of that item, under Actions, click the edit icon (looks like a pencil).
Edit the host record
Leave Host Name as '@'. For Points To Ip Address, enter 72.249.74.216. Hit 'OK'.
Enter MadPolitic's IP address: 72.249.74.216

Step 5 - Modify the alias (CNAME) record

In the CNAMES (Aliases) section, look for the row with a Host of 'www'. Click the edit icon for that item. Modify Points To Host Name to be 'www.madpolitic.com'. Hit 'OK'.
Set Points To Hostname to 'www.madpolitic.com'
You are now finished making the necessary changes to your GoDaddy account, so you can log off the GoDaddy website. There's still one more step to finish setting up domain mapping...

Step 6 - Tell MadPolitic about your domain

Log into your MadPolitic site and go to the Administration page. Click the 'Settings' tab. For Domain Mapping, enter each of the domains you want mapped to your MadPolitic site. If you configured both mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com with your registrar, be sure to enter both here. Click 'Update'.
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How do I add images to my website?
You can add images by selecting the Insert/edit image link [icon here] in the WYSIWYG content editor. During the beta period of MadPolitic.com, any images you wish to include have to already be hosted at a publicly available URL. There are many free services available online that you can use to host images. We recommend Photobucket. The brief tutorial below shows you the steps for adding a banner image to the top of your website.
[Add tutorial here]. Top ↩