New software features for Indymedia

national | indymedia ireland | news report

Tuesday July 26, 2011 23:01

by 1 of Indymedia

Updates to Oscailt software

The software that runs the Indymedia Ireland website known as Oscailt has been updated with two new features that will be of interest to our users. The software itself will be officially released in the next few weeks so that other sites using the software can include these updates too.

The first feature is a basic WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor has been added to the publish form. This uses the TinyMCE HTML editor. It has been configured to offer some basic operations such as bold, italics and underline. These were already present through the use of tags but it was apparent people were not aware or unfamiliar with manually using tags. This should make it easier to format your posts and highlight certains sections. A more extensive set of functionality has not been included because of the potential for the rest of the site HTML to be broken.

The second bit of new functionality is that when you publish a story, you will be able to edit it again for corrections for up to 2 hours. It will also be possible for editors to extend this time but for the extended period a password will be required. This password is generated when the story is published and displayed to you. An editor can also reset this password and issue you a new one. There is a toggle button which will turn off the WYSIWYG editor and allow you to work on the tags directly

For the first initial two hours though the software will use session cookies (these are widely used on practically all websites) to enable you to edit. This means when you view the story the software will check to see if your session matches the one temporaril stored against the story and if it does, then it will present you with the link to edit it.

Note: From the moment you publish a story to doing a re-edit, you will have to wait approximately 5 mins. This is part of the spam control software.

Hopefully people will find these new tools useful and the next few weeks will be used for sorting out any technical issues. If you have problems or suggestions please use the contact form to let us know

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Comments (8 of 8)

thanks

by Andrew

Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:02

both these sound like very useful additions

Why not allow people to register and log-in

by Kieran O'Sullivan - Personal Capacity

Fri Jul 29, 2011 14:45

The editor is a good idea but why not let people create accounts and edit their content when they need to.

Much easier for all concerned.

Otherwise this is a grate web site.

Just toggling , don't mind me

by Charles Drake Esq - SBU

Fri Jul 29, 2011 22:49

Just thought I'd have a go at doing the different toggles.The danger of course is that everything everyone posts in the future will be highlighted or italicised .

Perhaps you should incorporate this blablameter into the upgrade somehow.

http://www.blablameter.com/

new editing features welcome

by nightowl

Sat Jul 30, 2011 06:01

I am glad to learn that it will now be possible to put in italics, underlinings, bold lettering and other appearance-enhancing features in readers' posts. I am not technical with computers and hitherto haven't been able to do these things.

I think the editors have been doing a steady job of moderation and 'hiding' abusive, racist and misleading stories and posts from the usual suspect cranks and groups. I know you've edited and hidden posts to the annoyance of individual posters who might not consider themselves to be dodgy characters. If there was no editing and moderation some really scary and damaging things would appear on Indymedia - possibly leading to the destruction of the site. There are a lot of cranky, devious and harmful people and groups trawling the internet. It's a world of virtual reality in which there cannot be absolute freedom of expression.

Self editing of language, nuance of opinion, text length, internet manners and methods of supporting and opposing viewpoints are matters that all posters on Indymedia and allied sites will have to continually bear in mind if standards acceptable across the board are to be maintained. All societies try to function with unsaid rules of speech and behaviour. Other rules of play can be published and implemented. I hope a happy balance will continue to enhance the worth of Indymedia.

One reputation the Irish have, sometimes exaggerated no doubt, is an ability to be garrulous, expressive and inventive with words. If posters on Indymedia, myself included, continue to aim at upholding that national reputation we may achieve cultural and economic progress for Ireland in an interdependent world.

Keep trying, all you volunteer website maintenance people at Indymedia Ireland. You're collectively performing a quality service, and maybe not enough individual visitors make that clear to you. Rotten tomato throwers seem to have the loudest voices at times - and the most stinking intentions.

blablameter

by Nightowl

Sat Jul 30, 2011 06:13

PS: I just copied and pasted my above post into the intriguing Blablameter suggested by another poster, and here are the results. I'm only a 0.26 English bulshitter apparently. I can now boil up a breakfast knowing that my bullshit 'is within an acceptable range'.

Your text: 2001 characters, 329 words Bullshit Index :0.26 Your text shows some indications of 'bullshit'-English, but is still within an acceptable range.

thanks!

by wageslave

Thu Aug 04, 2011 22:52

Thanks for your comments nightowl. I'm sure I speak for all the volunteers at indymedia when I say that such (rare) comments are appreciated. Nice to hear something positive for a change instead of abuse! :-)

rgds
wageslave (personal capacity)

the whole website needs a revamp

by disagree - not indymedia

Thu Aug 04, 2011 23:30

sorry totally disagree cedarloungwordpress and politicalworld are much better forums for discussions. The only thing worth salvaging on indymedia is the events update.

disagree with disagree-er

Fri Aug 05, 2011 04:28

I don't know if cedarloungewordpress or politicsireland or any other fora are better discussion sites than Indymedia Ireland. It's a subjective judgement (as is my personal judgement of Indymedia) and may depend on the left orientation of a blogposter.

One objective way to gauge whether Indymedia Ireland has been playing a useful and vibrant role would be to obtain statistics concerning the number of 'hits' the site gets in any calendar year and to measure this against other sites, if their statistics can be calculated and revealed.

I'd say another way to gauge popularity with readers and comment posters would be to get an estimate of how many comments are posted in a month, and by how many individuals (difficult, this one - some individuals can post under multiple 'handles') and to compare results with the mentioned 'rival sites' (complementary sites might be politer).

Without knowing any statistics I can say without contradiction that Indymedia Ireland has served a big visiting readership since being founded. Which doesn't mean people agree with everything they read. But stimulating readers, maybe inspiring them to useful actions, rather than prolefeeding them counts for more than raw numbers.

It must be tough work moderating comments threads on this site. It must take lots of time, and there is probably no pay except occasional slagging jibes from disgruntled posters. So why not organize annual parties, Indymedia, as a form of celebration, fundraising and exchange of experiences?

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Comments (8 of 8)