U3A Oversights

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About U3A Oversights

Welcome to this website about the U3A Site Builder, and the many U3As which use it to present themselves on the web.

Sites for over 600 British U3As are hosted here, and between them they provide a representative sample of U3A activities. Our aim is to make interesting information from them accessible in various ways, and encourage exchange of ideas and expertise between their editors. As well as providing functions to search and summarise different kinds of information across all the published sites, the pages will contain helpful articles and content from individual sites selected for interest. Articles linked from the sidebar of this page explain some basic principles.

We hope the site proves useful for anyone who wants to find out what is happening in local U3As, and will help editors to use the Site Builder productively and contribute towards its future development.

Latest article: Who chooses Oversights content?
The answer is that, directly or indirectly, the content is chosen by Site Builder web site editors and other visitors to the site. Much of the content is automatically derived from published Site Builder sites i.e.
  • The summary list in the tag cloud of the Groups page is created from registered group names on the individual sites. Groups with names which don't occur there can be found by entering the name in the search box and pressing return. For a longer explanation see Group searching: clarification.
  • Lists on the Events come from registered events on the individual sites. By default, events for the present day are shown to provide a "snapshot" of what U3A members are doing across the country. Events for a future date can be found by entering the date in the search box and pressing return. You can also search by keyword — try entering "garden party" in the search box and pressing return. Is your own U3A's planned garden party included in the list? To make sure that it is, register it as a dated event on your site!
  • Pictures on the Pictures page come from registered pictures on the individual sites. The most recently-uploaded picture is shown automatically, so at busy time this page changes quite frequently! You can also do a keyword search on picture titles and details — try entering "bluebells" and pressing return to see a nice seasonal selection.

Apart from the automatic display and searching functions, the site content reflects feedback received from visitors — articles like this one are written in response to messages sent and stored in our database. But it is also possible for visitors to nominate content of interest — something which hasn't yet happened. You can nominate a site, group or picture, either one of your own which you feel proud of, or another one which has excited your interest. Send us a message about it explaining why you think it deserves wider publicity and we will show it!