Long time JFP visitors will know that we went through a major upgrade to the site’s plumbing a year ago, and that while there are many strengths to the new system, one of the weaknesses is the way it treats comments in the Forums — they don’t feed through the Recent Comments feeds used elsewhere on the site, including on the main page.
So, the solution we’ve come up with is a simple one that we’re finally ready to test — the Community Blog. Now JFP Members and Guests can add their own entries to the community blog, and they’ll be treated link any other blog entry or JFP story — comments filter through the main Recent Comments system.
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/community/
Check it out, let me know if there are questions, concerns or other features you’d like to see. Once we get a few entries we’ll also make better use of the categories, sprinkling them throughout the site as relevant and making it so that you can few the entries by category at the Community Blog.
(Kudos, btw, to former JFP intern Logan Holleman who did a lot of the heavy lifting on this a few months ago; I just dusted off the interface and put it live in a fit of web-dev passion yesterday. 🙂
Previous Comments
OK, I’ll bite and try this thing. I encourage others to as well. This promises to be way cooler than the forums if it works right. 😉
#145733 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Apr 9 2009
I’m hoping to see Golden Eagle and some of the other regular Forum folks here as well. Let me know if there are questions about what we’re trying to do.
#145737 | Author: Todd Stauffer | Date: Apr 9 2009
I’ll give it a try!
#145739 | Author: golden eagle | Date: Apr 9 2009
I can’t make a comment. But then again, I’m not one of the regular Forum folks. Maybe that makes a difference.
#145743 | Author: Lady Havoc | Date: Apr 9 2009
It won’t let me comment, either, so don’t feel bad. I’ve requested help on this, but don’t seem to have any pull in this joint. Sniff.
#145744 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Apr 9 2009
You can’t comment on an existing entry? Whoops. Let me check.
#145745 | Author: Todd Stauffer | Date: Apr 9 2009
See, he listens to you, Lady. I told him hours ago. Sniff.
#145746 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Apr 9 2009
I just figured it was because I’m irregular. I figured if I ate more prunes, the comment box would show up. 🙂 Donna: two words for you. Nerf Bat. 😉
#145748 | Author: Lady Havoc | Date: Apr 9 2009
This is neat. How’s it going to work again?
#145749 | Author: Ironghost | Date: Apr 9 2009
I thought that one of the advantages to this would be that the entries would be viewable under “recent comments”. If so, that isn’t working on my end…
#145753 | Author: Rico | Date: Apr 10 2009
@Rico: No, the comments on the items will feed through Recent Comments. The posts themselves will appear under their own tab and elsewhere just like the Forum entries do. (So, if you go comment on a Community Blog entry, you should see that comment in the Recent Comments feed, like Golden Eagle’s comment on the entry “Good Neighbor Clause.”) That does remind me, though, that I need to put a recent comments feed *on* the Community Blog page. I thought it looked a little barren. 😉
#145755 | Author: Todd Stauffer | Date: Apr 10 2009
@Ironghost — like a combination between the Forum and a typical blog (ala Jackblog). Go to the Community Blog page, click Add Entry and you can add your own entry to the Community Blog, thus starting a thread of conversation. Unlike the forum, that conversation won’t be locked into a separate section of the site; the comments on those entries will filter through Recent Comments like the comments on any other story. Soon we’ll also have a feed of the headlines on the main page (and under a “tab” in the interface) so that the Community Blog entries are “front and center” for visitors to the site.
#145756 | Author: Todd Stauffer | Date: Apr 10 2009
