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How to not display "updated" status above article
Hi guys,
Quick question. Say there was an article you didn't want to show the "updated" status for next to the date. Is there a way to selectively hide that for a particular article? And if so, how? For instance, in Blox, there's a function for the paywall bypass, where we type in under 'custom properties' "subscription bypass" and "true" - can someone please let me know if there's something like this for not showing if an article was updated?
Thanks for your time.
John
Hi John!
Can you describe a little more about your use case? For example, if you're just making a small text change, and don't want to declare it as a real update, you can use this feature: https://help.bloxcms.com/article_1918d444-1034-11e8-bec3-4b39d1d4d4c7.html
Is there a way to show the number of votes cast in a poll?
Unless we are missing something, there does not appear to be a way to display how many votes have been cast in a poll. The results only show the percentages. Is there a setting to show the actual votes?
The counts are there, they are just hidden by default. You can use CSS to display them or move them around:
.tnt-chart-bar text.tnt-chart-count {
display: block;
}
.tnt-chart-bar text.tnt-chart-percent {
display: none;
}
If you display both, they will essentially be on top of each other, so you'll have to use CSS to move one of them around.
Webinar | The top 10+ new BLOX CMS features and additions of 2020 (so far)
Webinar recording now available
From new integrations and functionality, to design layouts and blocks, we’re constantly working to improve our products. At our August customer webinar, Christine Masters, product director for BLOX CMS, showed off the recent BLOX CMS features and updates you need to know about.
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Reporter Analytics
Does anyone have a good way to pull the number of stories as well as length from BLOX? I'm trying to create a report to track how many stories per week each reporter is putting into BLOX and how long they are. I'm finding how many but not how long.
Nic, we have a new deep analytics platform called Data Insights that provides this data as well as a great deal more. You can get some information about it here https://townnews.com/news_room/townnews-to-launch-data-insights-a-powerful-new-way-for-media-companies-to-analyze-and/article_b0e65482-1db5-11ea-9b8b-3b88e060517c.html or contact your sales representative to get a demo of the product.
Feature request: Summary options
There is currently a 40-word limit built into the templates for summaries in RSS. I'd suggest having a URL setting where you can define desired number of words and/or use full summary when one exists.
NowApp custom alert tone
I would strongly suggest that you add the ability for us to have a custom alert tone for the NowApp. Having a distinct alert tone sets our push notifications apart from all other news apps (or for that matter, any other sounds your device might make).
Several other news apps have this capability, and I'd like to see the NowApp have this as well.
Story edit button for logged in admins on public site (like Wordpress)
I wanted to make the suggestion for Wordpress-style behavior that would display an Edit button on every article when the system detects that the logged in user is an admin. Clicking the button would then take the user to the asset in the BLOX admin for editing the story.
This would be very handy when an editor notices a typo and needs to quickly make a fix.
Now for papers like us that have TotalCMS obviously it would be much more complicated to implement; but wow, it would be awesome if it could be pulled off and open the TotalCMS admin panel with that asset selected in a search.
Either way it would be a cool feature for publications that only use Town News for their website.
Buttons for Posting to Social Media
We want to suggest a button in the backend for banner ads to be able to send our ads to our social media pages. We have customers that are currently requesting that their website ads be pushed out on social media for an upcharge. Creating these buttons would make this easy and efficient for us to do quickly instead of having to log into each individual account and post it. I know this is possible, because our classifieds at https://classifieds.douglas-budget.com/ allow us to share this when you click on one of the ads.
Feature request/bug fix: Scroll wheel functionality on e-edition pages
A reader came into our office today with a couple of e-edition questions (one was about how to print portions of the e-edition - I started a feature request for this a few months back https://community.townnews.com/communities/1/topics/1241-feature-request-e-edition-clip-and-print-tool)
He said that he often uses the auto-scroll feature that is built into most mouse devices that have a scroll wheel, where if you click the wheel, a cursor pops up allowing the user to scroll up or down at an adjustable speed. That functionality is disabled in the e-edition due to the click-and-drag hand cursor that works with the left mouse button. I'm wondering if it's possible to re-enable the scroll wheel/third button functionality without disabling the hand cursor. If you need further clarification as to what I am talking about, let me know
Feature Request: Auto-moderation, hide comments instead of removing them
We had a reader make a suggestion that I like and want to submit as a feature request.
Currently, when the abuse report auto-moderation is tripped the comment is completely removed from the website and replaced with text that reads "comment deleted."
How about giving sites the configuration option to have these auto-moderated comments hidden by default instead of automatically removed. The system could display something along the lines of "This comment has been reported as inappropriate and hidden from view. To read it click here:"
It could then unfurl and display after the user has acknowledged they want to read it anyways.
If an admin later approves the comment that warning would disappear and it would become un-hidden by default again.
1. What problem(s) does this idea solve? Why do you need this idea implemented? Provide as many problems or use cases as possible.
Allows the automating hiding of potentially inappropriate comments while preventing brigading that allows users to completely remove a comment they disagree with until an admin has time to review it.
2. How often would you use this feature?
Weekly?
3. How many people in your organization would use this feature?
All readers.
Abusing the Report button
Feature request: Auto-approval for events from trusted users
We recently were forced to disable auto-approval of calendar events on billingsgazette.com due to an influx of event submissions from spammers. The submissions, which numbered in the hundreds and were mostly links to illegal livestreams of sporting events and current movie releases, were not caught by the spam filter.
We recently were released from an agreement with a calendar feed provider, and are looking at ways of better utilizing the calendar features built into Blox. Unfortunately, we just don't have the resources to curate and approve every calendar event that comes through. Having some extra features in place to make the process easier would certainly be welcome.
I'm proposing that Blox allow us to create a whitelist of trusted users who frequently submit events. This would allow us to disable auto-approval for spammers and new users, but would allow frequent users to have their events show up without our intervention.
Another option would be to disallow auto-approval for accounts created within a recent time span (ex. require manual approval of events submitted by an account that was created within the last 48 hours, but auto-allow events from older accounts).
Feature Request: Specify a block’s date range in “sorting rules”
As a broadcast TV station, we will often create pages with “archived” shows and content. Some of this content can span several years. It would be helpful for us to have the ability to surface assets in a block based on a date range. Ideally this feature would be available in the block’s “sorting rules”.
A date range feature would also come in handy if we were to create a special “news” section that would feature a timeline or back-stories that contribute to our overall coverage.
Our current workaround involves either pinning selected stories to a block and then arranging them in chronological order, or tagging each asset with a common hidden keyword (i.e. #myshow-video-2019)
Feature Request: Two-factor authentication for admin accounts
An unauthorized or malicious user gaining access to the backend of either hosted BLOX or TotalCMS could very easily do great harm not only to a newspaper's credibility and reputation but also to the community it serves.
As such, I would like to see the addition of TOTP two-factor authentication for admin accounts in both BLOX and TotalCMS. This would allow newspapers to secure these systems to a higher level than the current password-only authentication allows.
I would be perfectly fine with a simple on/off option that requires all admin accounts to use 2FA, however if we had the ability to get even more granular that would be great as well. In that I mean allowing us to set the 2FA requirement at the Group level when configuring the access rules for a group.
For example, we could require 2FA for anyone with the ability to edit news articles or send push notifications, but not require it for those who only have permission to moderate comments.
1. What problem(s) does this idea solve? Why do you need this idea implemented? Provide as many problems or use cases as possible.
Helps prevent unauthorized access to the backend of publishing systems and greatly reduces the likelihood that a malicious actor could post fake information or subtly edit news articles.
2. How often would you use this feature?
Every day.
3. How many people in your organization would use this feature?
All staff members.
Those of you with paywalls, instant way to get more subscriptons!
On the page customizations for COMMENTING there are currently two options:
1) All users can view comments and post comments,
or
2) Require subscription to view and post
I would like to figure out a way to have an option that allows everyone to view, but ONLY subscribers to post.
This will increase subscriptions for those of us who charge for access or for commenting.
Non-subscribers will see comments, and some may be inspired to comment back, which would require a paid subscription.
Currently, our options are limited to all or nothing. Having the middle ground option
3) All users can view comments, and subscribers can view and post comments
would generate more subscriptions from those folks who feel the need to respond to comments.
Customer support service by UserEcho
