Though TownNews.com representatives often participate in discussions, this is not a customer service site. For immediate help, call 800-293-9576 or submit a support request via our online ticketing system.
Incorrect Article Title and Preview showing up in Google
Sent in a ticket for this, but I wanted to also hit up the Community to see if anyone else has seen this:
I need help fixing a feed or article component problem. We are seeing errors when our articles show up in Google Alerts and I am wondering if it is just a scraping glitch or if we have our feeds set up improperly.
- Weather information in place of Article Preview.
- Photo Asset names in place of Article Titles
- The Menu Bar text in place of Article Preview
Seem familiar to anyone?
Marshall
Show me your newsletter!
Hello. We are going to increase our focus on our email newsletters in the coming months. Right now our Daily Digest is based on a URL and also includes a few extra blocks for sponsored content, calendars, featured photo, etc.
We want to take full advantage of the features that are available for newsletters within Blox and would like to see what some other TownNews customers have done to punch up their newsletters.
I know we would have more options if we worked directly in Constant Contact but our goal is keep building the newsletter within Blox to minimize the work needed.
Give me your top BLOX sites
The reason I ask this is because I'm always trying to improve my sites(we have three BLOX sites) and make them the best sites they can be. BLOX makes it so easy to add content and move it around the page but that also makes it easy to clutter the pages, especially the home page. With my site I try to balance information with simplicity. I would say the most annoying thing I have to deal with is balancing the right-rail with the main content. One seems to always be much longer than the other.
But I’d love for this to turn into a good discussion because we’re all using the same system, with a few differences here and there, and there are so many BLOX sites out there that it makes it hard to find the really standout ones. If you want to suggest your site, I guess feel free to do that. I’m my worst critic so it's hard for me to critique my own sites. None of the ones I'm suggesting here are my sites...
I like the design of this site:
http://www.visitingthesmokies.com
I don’t have any experience with the newer Flex sites but these are nice:
http://belvoireagleonline.com (I LOVE the left rail menu on this site)
http://www.taosnews.com
http://www.columbiamissourian.com
I recently found Richmond Times-Dispatch. I like how it gives you a good bit of information but doesn’t seem like info-overload. I’m not that fond of the bottom half of the home page.
http://www.richmond.com
Webinar | Introducing BLOX Now, a better mobile app for local media
Webinar recording now available.
Taking cues from social media, the BLOX Now mobile app eschews conventional news app design in favor of a single, continuously-scrolling stream of community news and events that keeps users engaged. At our June customer webinar, Susan Bell, BLOX Now senior product manager, and Christine Masters, director of product management, introduced the BLOX Now mobile app.
Topics included:
Increasing user engagement with a hybrid news and information app.
Feature highlights, including: in-stream video playback, push notifications, and convenient fly-out menus.
Monetizing your app with Google DFP integration.
Managing your app, website, and mobile site in one easy workflow.
. . . and much more.
Are you ready to get started . . . now? Webinar recording now available.
Webinar | Editorial masterclass for BLOX CMS
Webinar recording now available.
Editorial masterclass for BLOX CMS
At our November customer webinar, Christine Masters, Director of BLOX CMS for TownNews, gave a masterclass to highlight some advanced, and sometimes overlooked, editorial functionality within BLOX CMS.
Topics included:
- Using BLOX Notifier to keep readers in the loop and drive social media traffic.
- Enriching your stories with multimedia content using the drag-and-drop Article Designer.
- Customizing your site with expert block management tricks—from permissions to scheduling, and beyond.
- Writing headlines to improve SEO.
- . . . and much more!
Export custom user fields
Does anyone know how to export the custom fields that we are adding when our users register. I see the data on the Custom tab of the users' accounts, but when I export the users to a csv file the only fields that are exported are
| screenname | account_type | firstname | lastname | createtime | authtime | country | address | municipality | region | postcode | phone | gender | birthday |
There's nothing in the TN documentation about this. The documentation tells you how to add a custom field to the registration form, but it's not much good if we can't export that information.
Linking advertisement to phone number
I'm trying to link a banner advertisement to initiate a phone call. Normally that would be done by using tel:xxx-xxx-xxxx in an HREF. I try to put it into the Link URL: section, but it converts it to tel://xxx-xxx-xxxx which does not work.
Is there a way to do that?
Adding moderators to Facebook comment plugin
We keep getting the runaround from FB/Town News but we have no idea how or where to add additional moderators to the Facebook comment plugin on our news website. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this? The person who set up the integration left and we haven't been able to figure out how to actually delete spam comments from news stories. When we asked Facebook, they gave us script that Town News said it doesn't have in the system.
I was trying to add a login...
Right now it keeps telling me 'BLOX CMS admin is currently unavailable' ... Of course, the person I am adding needs admin privileges ... IS this something related to the recent password update and is there an ETA for when this might be fixed?
Hi guys!
Yes we disabled the ability to promote a user account to an admin temporarily, but that should be working again now.
If you are still having any issues, please submit a support ticket for our Customer Service team, they will be able to help you out quickly. =)
More poll customizations: End dates, hide results, etc.
Hey all, I'm thinking we could really benefit from a few new options with polls. Some details:
1. It'd be really nice to be able to put an end date on a poll. It just seems like a basic functionality, and I know several people up-voted the idea before: https://help.bloxcms.com/knowledge-base/applications/settings/urls/custom_properties/article_5fd6d870-2bdc-11e5-93e5-034d9f275a7e.html
2. Can we have the option to NOT show results (and maybe show a field after someone votes — "Check back Aug. 8 to see the winner."). That'd allow for us to do some really cool stuff that's not currently allowed. You could have votes for an athlete of the week, person of the year, etc. and not risk people not voting because someone is out to a 2-to-1 lead early, etc.
Closings Application
Can we get weekly reports of form submissions/transactions emailed?
We've got a payment form set up on our site. The marketing team wants weekly spreadsheet emailed with info from that week's submissions. Is that possible?
We can set up forms to be sent in real-time (rather than in bulk). There is an email tab in the properties of the form that allows you to add an email address, and they will get emailed with each form.
If you need help with this, please contact our Customer Support team. =) Thanks!
Question about the Hammer.
When using the "Hammer" headline in an article, is there a way to turn off the title?
Hi Marshall!
There is not a way to turn off the headline now. However, note that the headline is still used in many places throughout the site, such as on some auxiliary block, search results, social media, og tags, etc. So, I would think of the hammer headline as an extra graphical highlight, but you still need a good main headline.
Infolinks programmatic: any experiences or opinions
Anyone have any experience integrating Infolinks as a programmatic provider. Or any opinions on Infolinks as to value, user experience. Am looking into using them to augment our AdSense for remnant ads
Customer support service by UserEcho
