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Feature Request: Allow arrow keys to scroll through photos
It would be great if readers could use the left/right arrow keys on their keyboard to scroll through photo gallery collections, instead of having to use their mouse and click on the < > arrows. I'd even like to see this enabled on article assets that have multiple photos displayed at the top.
This is a feature that is enabled on so many websites that I personally get annoyed when I come across one, like our own, where it isn't.
What do y'all think?
EDIT: Here is a good example, the photos are about halfway down the page.
The arrow keys work to move through the photos both as they are embeded in the article and also if you use the gallery or thumbnail view option to make them larger.
BUG: "Disabled" subscriptions show up as "Service Exists"
I like to see how many subscribers we have at any given moment. This is especially good at the end of the month. However, I just realized that subscriptions marked as "Disabled" still show up as "Service exists." This doesn't make any sense. If it's disabled it can't exist.
So all this time I've been looking at the number and it's inflated. Now I realize all the disabled subscriptions aren't real and I'm looking at 100 fewer subscribers than what I thought.
And for whatever reason since most of these are CSV service subscriptions that are no longer on the CSV(thus being disabled) I can't give them fake expirations to get them to switch to "Expired."
Examples of nice Paywall screens
I’m looking for some examples of nicely done Paywall screens. You know, the one that comes up below the two preview paragraphs when a non-subscriber hits the wall.
We’ve realized that our standard one is pretty boring and we’d like to spice it up.
One example that we like is at the Lufkin Daily News, nice use of colors and logos.
The page you get taken to after clicking “View Offers” is nice as well.
So what about y’all, has anybody else spiced up their Paywall? I’d love to see some examples.
Thanks!
Add a notes / customer service field in BLOX subscription interface
It would be helpful if a tab could be added to the "View Subscription" window that opens when an individual subcriber's name is double-clicked.
Purpose would be to allow text entry of customer service notes when actions were taken that are connected to the subscriber that are not necessarily "recorded" in BLOX.
Could act as a very simple integrated CRM that ties right to subscriber account. Could literally begin with just a window where notes could be added.
Example: CSR takes a phone call with a question from customer, solves problem. Notes date, problem, time.
Example: New subscriber. CSR sends thank you card and gift to subscriber.
Example: Subscriber calls multiple times with one problem or another, Diff people answering phone. Allows for info on previous interactions to be universally avail. "I see you called last week..."
Facebook Instant: Including social embeds?
Submitted this as a ticket but wondering if this is just me being dense?
Are y'all have luck w/ social embeds showing in FB Instant articles? Facebook has some documentation on how to do it. But I **think** it's something TownNews would have to implement. But maybe I'm wrong?
Why is it a 'teaser' image on articles and a 'preview' image on HTML assets or galleries?
Like the addition of the "teaser" image on article files, but for purposes of training staff and passing meta data on, shouldn't they be consistently named "preview" instead of "teaser?" - or are they serving different functions?
Thanks Robert and Bob! Yes, Robert's description was accurate. I'll give you two use cases for the Teaser that will illustrate it's purpose:
1. Using a teaser image so that you don't "give away" the mystery of the story or the main story photo. For example, an article like, "The two Hermiones just met and I'm crying" would show and example of two Hermiones from the movie, which would work to draw the user in to find more information. The teaser image does not show on the article though.
On the article itself, the main photo (which is the revealing photo that users clicked through to see) can now be shown. This just a child asset which would show as usual. See this example:
2. The second case where this may be useful is where a media organization has a goal or mandate to have more photos on more articles. They may want to add "stock" images - such as some crime tape to go with a crime story -but because it isn't actually a picture of something important, they don't actually want it to show on the article page itself. That way, you can have a teaser thumbnail, but you don't have to have it on the article page.
Instructions for setting Defaults for users
Hi there - I would REALLY love to be able to set as "default" some boxes to be automatically checked under Flags and Sections. Being able to have these as defaults would save us SO much time and help with consistency. Would love some help!
Two quick things:
Lots of people currently do something by creating an example asset, set up the way you want, but with a start date in the future, and a "no publish" turned on. Then, when you want to create a new asset, you simply clone the example and all of the sections, flags, settings, etc. will come with it, and it will be "no publish" by default.
The annoying thing is that if you sort by start date, all of these dummy assets will show up at the top. You could create a saved search to get rid of them though (by filtering by date, or some other marker).
As a side note, we do have a roadmapped item in the queue for later this year to more officially "bless" this behavior. We would likely add a new flag to designate an asset as a "template" or "dummy" and then it would not be available with the standard search (either in the front end or the back end). A special property would allow you to search for these.
Then, when you wanted to create a new article, you'd click new -> template -> then choose from a popup of the existing starter templates.
Anyway, let me know what you think!
Folders (organization) for blocks in design
It would be great to see a "folder" structure for Blocks in the Design section where we can place our content/html blocks into so we can orginize better. Either through a drag/drop feature, or in the block itself ("Place in folder"). If no folder, then it would be on the root of the list, with preference of folders showing up first. Folders could be opened and closed.
Often there are lots of different blocks made, even if we try and keep standard and mulit-page blocks. We try and keep keywords and a standard naming conventions, but often miss or don't see blocks even when using the search function.
e.g.
News Folder
- Breaking News Block
- World Events Block
- Local News
- etc...
Advertising Folder
- Rates info block
- Ad sizing and location block
- Random HTML blocks
- etc...
Here's a quick mockup to show further what I mean. 
Flex HTML ads, clicked links opening inside the ad frame and not a new window
We just transitioned to Flex yesterday and one of the problems we've run into is with HTML ads.
When clicked, they are opening the resulting link right there inside the small 300x250 pixel ad box, instead of opening the link in a new tab/window (which is what happens with all other ad types and for HTML ads on Zen).
I'm being told this is intended behavior and nothing can be done on Town News' side of things.
How are y'all getting around this? We've got a major advertiser pretty upset with us right now. I suggested the workaround of them adding the target="_blank" on their side but of course they balked since they've got the same HTML ad tags running across numerous sites and this isn't a problem anywhere else.
Help!
Hi guys!
Yes, for HTML ads we had to more to iframes so they would load asynchronously... it helps with people who use networks through Ad Manager and when they were synchronous they would really slow down the page. This also allowed us to implement some new technologies such as refreshable ads, or ad blocks.
As you discovered, a target="_blank" would help.
Also, I would consider this a temporary emergency workaround if you had to, but we still do have the "legacy" mode on HTML ads (which is at the very bottom of the ad size list), which will not load the ad async, and will thus not be in an iframe. It is deprecated though, and some day it will likely not be supported. But, it can help with transitioning ads or with emergencies.
Single spacing instead of double spacing
Hope this helps
Join us | What's new in BLOX CMS!
Join us on February 2nd @ 10:30 AM CST
What's new in BLOX CMS!
At our February customer webinar, Christine Masters, director of product management at TownNews.com, will highlight the exciting new features in this latest major release of BLOX CMS.
We'll cover:
- An exciting new Twitter search panel which helps reporters and editors easily find and incorporate tweets into articles.
- Enabling HTTPs to enhance your site's security, search engine optimization and speed.
- A sneak peak into new Google Tag Manager tools and integrations.
- . . . and more!
Create a Digital Billing System! - Save me from the Grumpy Bookkeeper!
So, Blox CMS is awesome. Our site gets visited and content is easy to add. Our city loves the site. Our sales people have no problem selling the site. But THEN...
...its time for billing. When we do our billing for our OTHER products, we press a button and the invoices, affidavits and proof of performance pop out of the computer. Brilliant!
When we do billing for Blox CMS, it's a long and tired slog through the mud finding each individual ad, printing the report, looking for the next, printing a report... etc, then we capture a picture of each ad on screen and print it out individually as well. Then match them up.
Its tedious, its time consuming, it makes my bookkeeper grumpy!
I don't like having a grumpy bookkeeper.
If anyone has a suggestion, I'm listening. I'm willing to pay money for this.
If such a product does not exist, I would ask and implore for one to be invented. Again, I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount of money to solve the problem. Make it easy for us!
Thanks all!
Bruce McKirdy
Join us | Revenue resolutions for 2017
Revenue resolutions: Easy ways to make more money from your site in 2017
At our January 2017 customer webinar, Christine Masters, director of product management at TownNews.com, will share exciting tips and techniques to help you find ways to make money in the new year. We'll talk about:
- Boosting ad revenue with advanced targeting techniques.
- Tapping the Content Exchange to create sponsored "niche" sections.
- Using SearchBoost to improve the reach of your print-to-online ads.
- . . . and lots more!
Feature request: Auto filled keywords based on a list
Keywords can be a little daunting when you're starting out but have a huge archive. We've never been big on using keywords but it's something I'm trying to change in the new year. Something that would make the job a lot easier would be to set a list of keywords and have BLOX comb through our assets and assign those keywords whenever the exact match is found.
There will undoubtedly be errors in the form of keywords being assigned incorrectly but the benefit of them being auto filled would surely outweigh the errors. And to help maybe you could have certain sections not be affected by the auto filled keywords, for instance obituaries.
And the responsibility to make sure the keywords are specific enough would rest on the individual webmasters. If there's a city official named John Smith, it wouldn't be a good idea to have a keyword of "john smith" auto assigned.
TCMS is a system that prides itself on being automated when it comes to web publishing. And it is for the most part. But TCMS requires a lot of clicks to get an asset to have all the info it needs before publication. There could be an easier way for assigning keywords given the proper pre-planning. I think adding a pre-set list of keywords that would then be auto assigned to assets would be a really big help in this automation.
Anyone else think they would benefit from this?
Handling story metadata
Hi all,
We have a unique situation at the Columbia Missourian which is that we have students cycle in and out of our newsroom three times a year (gotta love a teaching newspaper). We're trying to get better with story metadata, specifically to help out our archives (in Merlin) to be more searchable.
I'm wondering if anyone has implemented any sort of metadata/tag list suggestion function in their systems (note, I'm talking about something different than the suggestions from Open Calais or the Content Exchange) -- along the lines of suggested metadata that would be internal to a newsroom. e.g. "Columbia police department" or, say, the mayor's or a public official's name. The idea would be to provide a list of frequently used local tags to help newbies know what to add to stories.
Customer support service by UserEcho
