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.
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Wishlist: More customizale forms
Currently all our forms look the same. Text block at the top, one to 4 pages of fill in the blanks, then submit. IT would be nice to be able to add HTML, Text, images, etc to the form, as well as having thte ability to have some custom CSS set up to allow for different styles for the forms. Rounded corners, differing borders (fieldsets), background images, example images, etc all come to mind right away.
As basic as the forms are, they look HORRID in this modern day and age of the internet. They look like HTML3 level forms, even though you offer HTML5 input items.
We want to be able to customize as much as possible with CSS, as well as have VARIABLES in the Submission and Custom Variable areas. Something like $DATE, $REFERRER, $LOGINID, etc. These would be server-side supplied, not something passed to the server to be processed, and would be only available on the last page of any form, at time of final submission.
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If we could drag and drop images from "Child Assets" to the "Teaser" section just like you can with the "Body Copy" section, it would help with workflow.
In fact, if you could do that with all relevant tabs, that would be nice. For my workflow, I need to add teaser photos and 9 time out of 10 that's the first child asset attached to the article. I know Social media and the website may automatically add the child asset on the website without needing a teaser, but it's best practice to do it anyway to avoid those awkward automatic crops the system sometimes does. As of now, I need to go into the child asset, copy the slug and then go to the teaser section where I have to "Copy from another asset," paste the slug and select it that way. This would really cut down on clicks if I could just simply drag and drop/
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Facebook comment plugin
In the event that anybody else runs into this problem, we identified an issue a few weeks ago where the Facebook comment plugin on our website, GazetteXtra, developed a bug that prevents users of iOS mobile devices from posting comments.
I filed a ticket with Facebook development and was told they have no plans to fix this bug. There is at least one other Town News site, stltoday.com, who identified the same issue as us.
We're going to look at other options for commenting on articles.
Dave
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Webinar | Creating personalized, ultra-engaging mobile experiences with the all-new BLOX Mobile NX
Watch it now: From a new name and look to an entirely new mobile app experience, big changes are happening at BLOX Digital (formerly TownNews)! Join Erik Tasaka, applications product director, as he dives into why you should upgrade to BLOX Mobile NX—our fully redesigned mobile news app—today. He’ll highlight what’s new, show how you can deploy these features to grow revenue and boost user engagement, and tell you how to get started.
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Improving site speed
Hey folks! Does anyone have tips on improving your BLOX site's load speed? We just get crushed in our Google Search Console report for core web vitals. I did look for previous threads on this topic but the last one was 7 years ago. Safe to say things have probably changed since then.
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Webinar recording: Explore the power of YieldUp
Watch it now: Learn how the latest enhancements to our industry-leading programmatic solution deliver real results for our partners
YieldUp by TownNews is the fully managed programmatic solution for local media that delivers guaranteed CPMs, optimal sell-through, and ultra-fast payment. At this customer webinar, Anthony Humes, yield manager for TownNews, and Ryan Tornquist, director of new revenue programs, answered our most common questions and shared how YieldUp is already working for our partners.
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Faster way to get a teaser image
We use teaser images now SO often now - esp. with the new template - that it might be nice to have a shortcut button to apply an image you are using as a Child asset as the teaser, without having to do double the work. How possible would that be?
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I want to focus a different image in a web story versus the print version, but I find that your system takes the top image used in the print version for the web. How do I change that?
I want to focus a different image in a web story versus the print version, but I find that your system takes the top image used in the print version for the web. How do I change that?
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Feature Request: Responsive Image Block
TownNews:
We often use the "Utility: Image file (flex)" block to display landing page headers and other images on our site. The image in the block will conform to the width of the containing region, however, if the image is wide (750px to 1140px) it will often be hard to read when the site is viewed on a mobile device.
I'm wondering if you might consider a block that could include multiple images for responsive design. One image for a desktop view and one for a mobile view.
Desktop Website View:
Mobile Website View:
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Is it only me, or is it nearly impossible to find out how to pay your invoice online???
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Feature Request: Forms Search and Organization
I wanted to make a feature request for Blox which I believe would help our staff, and may be helpful to other users as well. This request is for the back end form menu.
When reviewing our multitude of forms, many of which were created for one specific purpose, I was thinking that it would be helpful if forms could be searched the way articles can be. This way, a user could search "subscription" and bring up all forms with subscription in the title to narrow down the list. Or if they could be filtered by date created or whether they are enabled/disabled.
Additionally, I would like it if there was a way to organize them other than alphabetically by the name of the form, as sometimes our form titles are fairly long. If we could assign them to specific folders (contests, lifecycles, subscriptions, magazines) that would also cut down on the clutter and make identifying the correct form easier.
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ARTICLES DISAPPEAR CONSTANTLY ???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tell me why why why if i put an article in another article, it disappears from the home page???? seriously. Where is my story.
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I can't get my video to imbed
I placed this code in several different ways
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgNmS2Pdooc " title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
How can I get this to work
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Webinar: How to give your email newsletters a fresh new look for 2023
Increase your open and click-thru rates by changing up your newsletters for the new year. At this customer webinar, our panel of TownNews experts—Stacy Johnson, product manager, Doug Green, senior trainer, and Sarah Falkowski, design team lead—help you get the most out of your BLOX Email Reach templates.
We’ll cover how you can:
- Build a test page to see how an email will look before you hit send.
- Make smart design choices and customize blocks to create more impact.
- Switch up the feel of the email by changing page customization settings.
- Best practices for breaking news, daily digest, and other automated emails.
- And much more!
Customer support service by UserEcho