Question: How do I find (contact..., etc.) a member?

Answer: A separate members-only help available for member information and for setting up your member profile. Click the Help link that is visible at upper right after you sign in.

Question: Help, help! I've lost my username and password!

Answer: If you do not know your login codes, follow the Lost Password link on the sign-in form; type your email address or your login name in the identification field and send the form.

If you did not choose your login name and password on registration, they were assigned during a 2006 system conversion. The system will send your login data to the address of record.

Finally, if you no longer have access to your registered address, contact the editor, who will tease you a bit and then help you get reconnected.

Question: I don't receive emails others have described to me.

Answer: We receive more bounced emails than we can count, mainly because (1) you have changed your address without telling us (naughty) or (2) you have put some sort of filter in place that does not recognize our address. For #1 see the Update Contacts page; For #2 add our domain (tchsalumni.org) to your filter as a permitted sender. We send no spam and sell no info, and a message from us is a terrible thing to waste.

Question: Who May Use This Site?

Answer: Many features of the site are free to all. Registration is required to appear in the alumni roster. Subscription is required to use certain features and to participate in elections or to hold office in TCHS Alumni News Association.

Question: How do I sign into the site?

Answer: The sign in link will take you to a form. Type your login name and password and off you go. Problems? See Troubleshooting.

Question: And how do I sign out?

Answer: A sign out link appears in the member control bar near the top of every page.

Question: How does 'subscription' differ from 'registration' here?

Answer: Subscription has a small annual fee and helps support the site and the association. Subscribers may vote on questions before the association and are eligible to serve on committees and boards. Dues were reduced to $12 per year for 2005. For about a buck a month you help keep 15,000 alumni connected. Any surplus goes to alumni association projects and services and to support of this website. This doesn't just happen.

Question: Is this a school district site?

Answer: This UNOFFICIAL site is operated by TCHS Alumni News Assn. It receives no support (financial or moral) from and is not a service of TC Unified School District. How can you be sure? It works right.

Question: Can my spouse and I use a common email address?

Answer: No. Each login ID is associated with one email address. If you have a legacy registration that defies this rule, you should change one of the addresses at your earliest convenience. If the process is not clear please write to us with the To The Editor form. This restriction allows us to manage our lists efficiently and provide better service to each member. (For those who think sharing an email prevents extra-marital affairs, think again!)

Question: Can I submit a question and answer to the site?

Answer: Yes. In fact we encourage you to do so. If you have a problem or cannot find something and then solve the problem yourself, we'd like you to share your solution with others. Just send the Q&A to the editor.

Question: Who has access to my data?

Answer: It is our policy that contact data for individuals is not published on the site. This includes your street address, telephone number(s) and email address(es). A contact form is maintained on your personal page, and a user of the site can send you a message, but the sender does not see your address. Naturally, if you reply, you will be revealing it.

If you post your contact data on your personal page or other plain text areas on the site or take other action to reveal it, we cannot, of course, prevent its distribution to all and sundry. The Web is inherently a public place.

Question: Do I need to sign out when I leave?

Answer: By signing out when you leave, you prevent another user of your computer from accessing your alumni page and listing. If you use a shared computer (family, library, school...) it is doubly important to sign out every time.

Question: How can more people be attracted to the site?

Answer: If each person who reads this question invites two unregistered friends who register, and if each of those members tells two, then we will register all 15,000 alumni with only two phone invitations each.

Question: Can I read the site with just any computer and browser?

Answer: We can give you a definite MAYBE on that. Almost any browser should correctly display our text pages. However, to enjoy all the features of the system, you should have a modern computer and browser. We test the system with several popular browsers, and it "validates" using the standards published by the WWW technical consortium, but we cannot test every page of every feature against every browser.

Try this link, load the desired browser and click here to access the site. On arrival, bookmark us.

CROSS-PLATFORM. Widely used cross-platform browsers include Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox and others. We have few complaints from users of those systems.

UNIX. A couple of Unix folk have written to confirm that they can traverse the site problem free with contemporary versions of Firefox, Chrome and Opera.

MACINTOSH. We have virtually no problem reports from Mac users, who represent about forty percent of our page views. Safari is by far the preferred browser among our readers, followed by Firefox and Chrome. Instructions: Take your Mac out of the box; plug it in; turn it on; type the address of the site into your browser; press Enter; enjoy.

WINDOWS. Just because Internet Explorer (MSIE) came with your computer does not mean you must use it. We recommend against any version before v.10. ALL MSIE versions before 7 are full of problems and are the home of popup windows, security holes, etc., as documented by the US Federal Government in 2004. Alternatives include Firefox, Chrome, Safari and others. We make no special attempt to accommodate Windows/IE-specific content and display quirks.

AOL, MSN... Proprietary browsers from "online services" are not tested by our staff. We have looked at the the system using AOL at friends' houses and have been able to read the site. Proprietary browsers are by their nature intended to keep you within the provider's world salivating over their popup ads.

FILTERS. If you are running filtering software that purportedly protects you from OOOOOH, BAAAAD things on the Internet, it may also affect this site. Some filtering software attempts to read web addresses and "interpret" the filenames. This is referred to in the industry as "stupid." You are a grownup; this site is for grownups; turn the filters off.

TIME MARCHES ON. If you are still running that 133MHz machine you bought on sale in 1995 with the creaking copy of Netscape 3, abandon all hope; you will not see correct colors, page layout or many graphics, and many interactive features like the forums may not work at all. It's time for a new system. You'll get a lot more utility from your system, and since price/performance has improved along with energy efficiency, you'll be able to afford to use the savings to join the association.

(This unbiased commentary by your editors may be reprinted without permission -- and preferably without attribution.)