Anna, this is how mugshots are displaying for us in Flex, very similar to on Zen:

http://www.galvnews.com/news/free/article_3cbd8fb0-a526-5001-b9c6-2d4cfcd91751.html

I assume you're seeing something different on your site?

Thank you Christine.

I like the idea of linking these to custom Related Content Boxes.

I agree, this is something that should have been implemented long ago.

We have to use stupid work-arounds like changing the Start Time if we want to force something back to the top which is not ideal for a host of reasons.

Erica, I've had this same feature request open for almost two years now...

http://community.townnews.com/topics/379-block-update-time-sorting-rule/

Looks cool, first time I've seen SoundCite.

But that would mean the ad only shows up on the very few pages with "remax" instead of all the pages without "century21."

Exclusionary definitely seems like it would have wider use cases to me. Will be curious to hear if it is possible in the future.

Michael, great post!

Our readers are comment crazy. We recently completed our move from Zen to Flex and the absolute biggest complaint we got was the loss of an old custom block that pulled comments onto a single page.

We ended up using our custom coding hours from the site transition to have Town News recreate it for us in Flex. You can see it in action here:

http://www.galvnews.com/comments/

Here are the suggestions I'd like to see the most:

• The ability to moderate comments from the article page, rather than having to go into the Blox back-end.

It would be great if the system would allow more admin features from the front end, similar to Wordpress. This would be a great one. Right now our editors have to click the report button to generate an email from the system so that they can then deny the comment that way. Being able to do it right from the front end, especially if they could assign the reason for removal, would be great.

• An upvote/downvote system for comments.

I've actually got a post along these lines already started. I might finish it up and post it as a reply here since they are along the same lines.

• Ability for users to edit their own posts.

This would make users so happy, we get a bunch of replies posted to clarify spelling and auto-correct errors. I'd take this a step further and say that there should be a window for the edit, five or ten minutes, and the post must be clearly marked that it was edited (similar to how it does already if an admin edits a post). Possibly also a place to leave a note about the edit. This is a common feature in some systems.

• Ability for newsrooms to specify a period after which comments on an article close automatically.

Good one.

• Ability to show comments already posted AFTER commenting has been disabled, rather than having them all disappear.

Without a doubt this should be the default behavior of the system.

• Pipe dream: Real time comments.

Readers would love this as well, but I see it as being the biggest technical hurdle in the list.

• Trusted comments, link options, photos...

I could see these being useful, but they'd be lower on my wish list. Photos in particular I bet I'd disable just to avoid a screen full of GIF's.

Great points Mike.

I handle all the licensing requests for our paper, my background as a photographer helps here.

We normally allow other newspapers to use our photos for free, who knows when we'll need something from them right? But magazines and especially television must pay for a license before any usage is granted.

• You're already on the right track terms wise by using license, remember you are never selling your photos.

• The size of your publication will have no bearing on how much you charge.

• Pricing is always based on the usage granted. One-time use on a billboard in northern Ohio won't cost as much as worldwide rights for an HBO documentary production. It is very hard to have a standard rate structure as there are just so many variations.

• Be very specific in the terms that you are granting. A few simple language variances can mean the difference between the photo being able to be used just once or over and over.

• You can almost always get more money then you initially think. Especially if the license is related to a television production.

• Require mandatory credit for both the photographer and the publication.

• Remember that by default you cannot grant licenses for freelancer's work, only photographs produced by staff members that you own the copyright to.

ASMP has a good primer on licensing and a ton of other topics. The NPPA also has a pricing photography guide, that while mostly geared toward freelancers, has some helpful information in it.

Now we have settled on a few "standard" minimums for requests we get all the time. For example a very frequent request I deal with is for television production companies who want to use a newspaper clipping, showing the headline of a story, the beginning of the text and maybe a photo. We won't go any lower than $250 for this, less than five seconds screen time in a single episode/documentary. In most cases I can get closer to $500, but will then offer discounts if they want a whole stack of articles.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful. Great topic for discussion, I'll be curious to hear what anyone else has to say.