Welcome to the BLOX Digital (formerly TownNews) customer community! Connect with other BLOX Digital customers—and with us—to suggest features, share best practices and ask questions.

Though BLOX Digital 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.

+6
Completed

Limit in-story ads based on length of the article

Nick 8 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 32

Can we somehow limit ads on short stories? It just looks REALLY bad to break a couple of sentences up like this.


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Answer
Christine Masters 7 years ago



The new automatic ad placement provides what we spoke about in this ticket... it has automatic ads but also has a better layout for short stories. Let me know what you think!


https://help.bloxcms.com/knowledge-base/releases/software_releases/article_cbd40150-fb0e-52bc-aa8b-0caf7cd183bf.html

0
Under review

Is it possible to sort calendar search results by priority?

Brad Bautista 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 7 years ago 2

Hi all,


Publisher would like a handful of large, tentpole events to appear at the top of relevant calendar search results, the thought being that more popular events should be displayed above less popular events.


My initial thought on implementing this was to assign those events a higher priority within the calendar, then sort search results by priority.


I tested this by changing the Calendar URL field in the Featured Search block to read "/calendar/?s=priority" (sans quotes) but, running the search, found my high-priority test item third out of four results.


Is the result we're after possible this way? If so, what am I doing wrong?


Thanks,


Brad Bautista

0

TownNews.com and Brainworks Software launch strategic partnership

Cherry Wolf (Marketing specialist) 7 years ago updated 7 years ago 0

TownNews.com and Brainworks Software today announced a strategic partnership aimed at providing new and innovative solutions that help print, broadcast, digital, and web-native media companies jumpstart revenue and audience engagement. Read more

+2
Under review

Feature request: Ability to set defaults for in-line asset styles

Kyle Whitfield 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 2

We love the in-line asset styling options. It'd be awesome if there would be a way to set a default style for those within BLOX. For example, every time we pull a sibling asset into body text it'd be great if the styling options were already set to "presentation: summary."

What problem does this solve? Eliminating an extra, sometimes monotonous step, for reporters and editors.


Why do you need this idea? Save some time.


How often would you use this feature? Daily


How many people would this affect in our news org? 100+

0
Completed

Webinar | What's BLOX OTT?

Cherry Wolf (Marketing specialist) 7 years ago updated 7 years ago 1

Webinar recording now available.

Grow your audience and drive revenue with streaming video


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BLOX OTT enables media organizations to grow their audiences with branded channels on all of the major streaming platforms, including Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. At our January customer webinar, Susan Bell, senior product manager of BLOX OTT, will discuss what over-the-top (OTT) video is, how you can start making money and expanding your reach with streaming video.


Topics will include:

  • An overview of the complete BLOX OTT app suite.
  • Populating your channel with high quality homegrown and community-sourced video.
  • Turning your OTT channel into a powerful driver of new revenue.
  • . . . and much more!


Ready to learn how you can benefit from BLOX OTT? 

+3
Answered

Facebook comment mirroring

Andrea 8 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 9

Facebook is again offering comment mirroring (where comments made on a story on our Facebook page are supposed to also show up in the FB social plugin at the bottom of the story -- and vice versa).


Turning comment mirroring "on" in the the Facebook plugin is easy. However, our Blox site is not showing the same comments as our Facebook page.


The Facebook app id has not changed, so I'm not sure where to start with this. I entered a ticket, but thought I would check here in case anyone else has had success with it.


Thanks!

+3
Answered

Facebook Comment Mirroring

Henry M. Lopez 8 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 8

TownNews support says it can't help me and referred me to Facebook, but as you all know, that's a black hole. Well, I have mirroring set up correctly as far as I can tell. The comments originating on my FB page and my site page show up in the moderation panel but the site comments from my site don't make it to FB nor vice versa. I think this has something to do with the way TN forms it urls. I notice in my moderation panel a url might be http://www.santafenewmexican.com/tncms/asset/editorial/6f4e907b-a7b2-5f94-acb5-00044cdd1e52/ but a front end user sees http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letters-to-the-editor-march/article_6f4e907b-a7b2-5f94-acb5-00044cdd1e52.html for the same asset.


I'm throwing out the Bat signal. Someone, be brilliant, help me out.


—Henry

0
Completed

Webinar | Why ad viewability matters to your bottom line, and what you need to do

Cherry Wolf (Marketing specialist) 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 7 years ago 1

Starting as early as January 1st, 2018, sites with programmatic advertising inventory that’s less than 70 percent viewable will see a dramatic drop in fill rate and eCPMs. At our December customer webinar, we’ll talk about why viewability matters to digital advertising and what you can do to increase your score and impact your bottom line.

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Topics will include:

  • How advertiser expectations, the IAB and the Better Ad Standards are affecting the industry.
  • How to find out your current viewability score to see where you stand.
  • Simple ways to improve and optimize your site’s viewability.
  • New BLOX CMS features and enhancements to help boost your viewability score.
  • . . . and much more!

Join us on December 14th at 10:30 AM CST to learn more.


Want to take in the webinar on your own time? Register now and we’ll send you a link to the webinar recording once it’s ready.

+2

Tie ad blocker detection (does it work?) to member / subscriber recruitment.

Jay Allred 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Kevin M. Cox 7 years ago 1

It makes sense to me is to closely tie adblocker detection with subscription / membership recruitment. 


So - for example - if an adblocker is detected, BLOX should notify the reader and encourage them to whitelist the site AND allow publishers to direct the reader to support our work through a membership / subscription.

 

Publishers should be able to easily modify the message the reader sees to make it fit within the corporate "voice" of the organization.

 

Publishers could also be given the option to allow an ad-free experience to readers who become subscribers / members. 


It could work something like this:

Reader: I hate ads and use an ad blocker.


Us: We get it, but if you want to view our content for free, we need you to tolerate the ads. They are the price of admission. But, if you become a member / subscriber, we can offer you and ad-free experience. Sound good?


Reader choice 1: Totally! I want to become a subscriber today!
Us response 1: Great! Here's a link to become a subscriber.


Reader choice 2: No thanks, but I'll white list you so the ads come through.
Us response 2: Thanks! If you ever want to become a subscriber, here's how.


Reader choice 3: No way, you suck. I'm keeping my ad blocker and not paying you a dime. 
Us response 3: We're sorry to hear that. But since we have to pay our bills and the news is not free to report, we'll have to say goodbye for now. 

+2
Completed

Customizing Metered Visits message in Flex.

Jeff Sebestyen 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 2

I would like for the ability to customize the Metering Messages within the Community > Subscription settings, the same location that I can customize the emails to customers that have bought a subscription.  


Otherwise, I am looking to see what file can be edited to changed the Metering Message when a user has 9 out of 10 free stories to view.  Is this CSS or UTL even customizable by the customer?

Answer
Christine Masters 7 years ago

Hi guys!


We're working on an easier module that will allow these to be customized in the admin UI. However, we did implement the code in a way that makes it easy to override these messages at a custom UTL level.


Here is a page with details on the specific macros you can override.


https://help.bloxcms.com/knowledge-base/applications/community/subscription/faq/article_1e7a2630-6ec0-11e5-9ab0-6f110dad59e2.html


If you don't have access to edit the UTL as described, please contact our Customer Support and they should be able to help.

0
Answered

Unwanted space created by empty section

tbhall 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 7

Hello,


Is there any way to prevent an empty section from creating unwanted space? 


As shown in the screenshots below: masthead-full-top is creating a space in the header that I can't seem to get rid of. Using the inspect element tool in Chrome I can't find CSS to remove the issue, and the section isn't editable itself.


Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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+1
Under review

How can I fix "Reader View" on FLEX?

Nick 8 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Robert Dundon 7 years ago 4

Safari and Apple's mobile devices have what's known as "Reader View." It's a nice, clean way to read articles online. We just launched our FLEX site and I see I can use Reader View but when I try it only shows the headline, in-story ads and tagline. I've checked other FLEX sites and they seem to work fine.


What could be preventing it from working on my site?

+1
Under review

Change to how 'buy now' logic interacts with AP photos

Kyle Whitfield 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 7 years ago 4

Idea: Revise how the 'buy now' button logic interacts with AP photos ... either add more commonly used AP byline phrases or find a way to better auto detect AP photos moving from Merlin to BLOX


1. What problem(s) does this idea solve? AP, from best we can tell, doesn't have a standardized way of formatting bylines. Some say "Name/AP Photo," some say, "Associated Press file photo," some say XXX "via AP." The "buy now" rule for BLOX stipulates the byline must be 'associated press' or 'ap photo' for the button to disable.


2. Why do you need this idea implemented? Provide as many problems or use cases as possible. We're having too many wire photos go on our site that are for sale that we're not licensed to sell.


3. How often would you use this feature? Daily


4.How many people in your organization would use this feature? The entire company, 200+ people

0

NCAA Men's basketball bracket

jami christopher 7 years ago 0

Will you be doing any online bracketology options for the NCAA Men's basketball tournament? Might be a good way to sale some advertising especially for your college accounts.

0
Under review

[Complaint] New E-Edition format, not the best for mobile. [Screen Shots]

Jeff Sebestyen 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Rich Griffin | Product Manager (Product Manager) 7 years ago 3

I am usually very optimistic when we get new updates in Blox.  But I have 3 issues with this format.  

  • First, as pictured, the navigation buttons cover up content.  Sure, I figured out how to remove the buttons, but my users won't be able to.   The deprecated white navigation buttons in the red bar were the way to go.  I'd like this to be a Per-Site choice to make.
  • Second, under the hamburger menu, there are no descriptions as to what each button does.  
  • Third, because of the update, I have a random gray bar at the top that I now have to fix.  
  • Forth, I do admire the fact that swiping pages left to right now takes a split second.  Finally, the swiping has been improved.  

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