How to use this website
Welcome to the Barrier Miner's website! This page serves as a guide to teach people how to use our website. If you're not a computer person, that's fine. In fact, this guide is made for people who are new to computers. We'll walk you through it.
My Miner Account
When you register for the dole, you're providing some basic information about yourself so the government can keep track of what you've done and then give you money. If you don't register with them, you can still look for jobs and request money from them, but they won't give it to you! A Miner Account on our website works in a similar way, but doesn't involve money at all.
When you register on the Barrier Miner's website, you're providing some basic information about yourself so the website can keep track of who you are, what you've done on the website and what information interests you. If you don't register, we don't know who you are and we therefore can't personalise your experience.
Registration is the process of creating a Miner Account. We ask for your name, email address, and some optional statistical information. Click here to go to the registration page. There is no downside to getting a Miner Account. It will be a fun new experience if you're not used to this sort of thing.
There is another term we should let you know about: logging in and logging out. If a random person goes to our website, we don't which Miner Account is theirs, or if they even have a Miner Account at all. "Logging in" is the process of providing your email address and secret password so our website can match it up with a Miner Account. You shouldn't tell your password to anyone or they'll be able to log into your Miner Account! Logging out works the other way - it tells the website to unassociate your computer from any Miner Account until you log in again.
Be sure to check the Why Register? page to see the benefits of creating a Miner Account.
I want to see the paper from December 16, 2005. Can I get it here?
Yes! All of our past newspapers are available for you to download. See our PDF Archives page. We call them PDF archives because the newspapers are in a format called PDF. Your computer may or may not be able to view PDF files, so you may need someone to install Adobe Reader for you (it's free).
The most current newspaper is always available on the right hand side of any page on our site.
Reading Articles
Our website is updated every Thursday at midday (Broken Hill time). At this time, new articles are displayed on the site and the new newspaper PDF becomes available for download.
Articles aren't just for reading. If you're logged into your Miner Account, you can write your own comments about the article and leave them for others to see. Other people may reply to your comment and start a discussion.
Home page content
The home page is the first page of our website. It's what people see when they go to www.barrierminer.com.au. If you have a Miner Account, you can customise what you want to see on this page, and where. You could put sports stories at the top of the homepage with weather forecasts right next to it. You could get rid of the sports altogether if that doesn't take your fancy. Your changes only happen to your Miner Account, not anyone else's. To customise your homepage to your liking, click "Customise my homepage" on the right (you must be logged in to your Miner Account).
On this page, you can choose what position you want the items to be in on the page by clicking the dropdown boxes next to each item. The reference diagram on the right of that page shows what position is where on the homepage. The ads cannot be removed. Once you're finished, click the Save button at the bottom. You'll be taken to the homepage where you can see your changes.
You can customise your homepage whenever you want. Just go back to the customise page and do it again.