Truemors
I've been lurking and using the forums since we launched them; keeping in mind this is a rough beta system that we will improve and expand over time.... there are a handful of things that bother me about the current system, small things, that I think would help/improve things around here; my list is below (no particular order).
i know ANG wants a calendaring system... what would YOU like to see us add/address/fix in the newsroom?
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if you click into a post, we don't show the title
http://www.nowpublic.com/forum/161325
for example, "Opinions/Originals Tab" if you click into the detail, you loose the title... we should reiterate the full title at the top of the detail page
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what are these links at the top of the main forum page?
* My forum discussions.
* Active forum discussions.
* Post a new forum topic.
they should be formatted as / look like tabs (should just require CSS?) but they also don't really work; "my forum discussions" links to tracker but shows all of my posts, should only show forum posts, no? same thing for, "active forum discussions" takes me to a list of ALL recent posts but not recent posts just to the newsroom...
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can we add tinymce to the forum node creation page
http://www.nowpublic.com/node/add/forum/161325
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e-mail subscriptions to threads are not really apparent
it looks like on the right hand side track box logic to get emails / allows you to subscribe to a thread; we should add this to the form where you submit a comment (the same thing on story pages too for this) we should allow you to check a box to subscribe to the thread and all replies that would essentially set that track box option for you
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is it possible to differentiate forum URLs from the rest of the site?
i.e. you can't tell that this is a forum post:
http://www.nowpublic.com/how_to_add_a_new_blog_tech_question_for_develop...
can we have something like:
http://www.nowpublic.com/newsroom/how_to_add_a_new_blog_tech_question_fo...
at 11:30 on February 28th, 2007
It's no secret I'm a talker (thus the nickname) so I'll add a little commentary here before the Skype tonight.
Calendar: Google works for me. Specifically I like the fact I don't have to convert PST time to EST. Not that I can't add...but it's makes it more "idiot proof"
Post Title: I was going to bring that up tonight. On a positive note, it is in the browser title...but I agree it would help if it was present on the topic page.
Links: I would think a little CSS would help if you want them to be tabs like the other tabs on the site...but I wouldn't say it's that big of an issue.
Tracker: That might be a PHP issue, minor...just needs some flags/tags in the SQL statement to pull all items in the newsroom vs. the full site. If there isn't a way to differentiate posts in the newsroom vs the site, adding a field in SQL and then filtering the results on that field might be a workaround -however, it could cause a little lag on the request.
TinyMCE: No comment, just thought it was funny I had to look that one up!
Email subscriptions: I totally agree about adding it to other sections of the site, I would like to track discussions simply to continue to facilitate discussion. While I don't want 800 emails, I would really like to get an email if a contributor replies to a flag, that way I don't have to go to the tracker and look at all the stories I commented on and then decide if a story has 2 comments if that really means they replied, or was I the second comment? -right now there is not a way to tell.
URLs: good call
Wishlist...
I'm going to come from a ton of angles here to get everyone's wheels spinning with ideas and concepts. Some will seem quite intense, but I think they could help facilitate ideas from those of you with more experience in the journalism field as to what might be useful given our virtual presence.
I'm off in left field...
Newsroom as a one-stop-shop: This is in the future I know, but I like to think about it now...I would love log into NP and head to the newsroom to start my day. Think digital dashboard for what is going on at NP. Maybe have a link list of headlines for breaking news at the top so I know what's going on in the war room today. I'd like to see which editors are online (which could easily just be a skype vs. NP "online status"), a Red, Yellow, Green, Black status for stories/content needed, struggling in progress, working in progress, completed. A link to jump into the editor forum...maybe what topics are active.
This concept seems quite advanced for an independent news agency, but I also think it would help with time management for many of us that have a life outside of NP. Also something I want to talk about tonight: multipule sotry coverage and an idea I have to help with that (outside of the newsroom scope).
Additionally, I know a "light" version of this dashboard would be nice for each editor to monitor one or many catagories (maybe it's designed with tags in a dropdown menu so it's the same version as the newsroom, just filterd) that they frequent, so they can kind of oversee a hand full of NP contributors. Effectively assigning or at least watching the stories as they come out.
at 11:07 on March 2nd, 2007
In reply to #1 babblingdweeb at 11:30 on February 28th, 2007
Hey BD, I am so sorry I did not see this prior to our meeting. I will repost your suggestions for our agenda for our next meeting. I have also put your comments on our intranet where our entire dev team will see it.
Many thanks.
at 11:41 on March 2nd, 2007
In reply to #2 Actual News Guy at 11:07 on March 2nd, 2007
No worries! I wasn't going to bring it up because I thought it was outside what we wanted to talk about for the first meeting. I kind of just wanted to put a few feelers out there for the journalism folks to get their wheels spinning. Maybe have some random chatter before eating up meeting time.
at 15:25 on March 2nd, 2007
For the newsroom, maybe a typical forum approach migh be better, various boards for main topics etc.
surely a plugin for calendar is available so it is integrated into our current login...