Best Practices
Each article should have only one category. Categories function like folders and thus we do not need multiple categories. Where there is an issue with choosing between categories, it is probably more a case of the categories needing modified. Categories function to give clear and navigable segments to the site. Applying multiple to individual articles breaks this. Tags are to be used for this purpose.
Tags should be fairly broad and each article can have as many tags as apply. All tags should be lowercase, except where abbreviations and acronyms make all lowercase unreadable. The overall tagset should evolve but should follow a relatively controlled set. Too many tags can make the site unwieldy and uncomfortable. An attempt should be made to use already existing tags instead of creating new tags.
Roles, Permissions, Registering
Anyone can go to the site and register. There is a link in the footer at the bottom of the page. From there they input a user name and their email address. Wordpress sends them a password and then they can sign in. By registering they are automatically set with the role contributor (this is configurable). This means that they can write and edit their own articles. Admins can modify the role of any user. This can be done by going into the admin backend and either change their entire role (suggested) or item by item give or take away priviledges. It goes without saying that if Contributor, we will have to go in and approve/publish their post in order for it to show up on the blog. If you are assisting anyone with this process, please encourage them to setup their profile after they get their account setup. Their profile information will feature on their author page which will show their image, information, and contributions to the blog.
Admin: everything
Editor: write, edit own and other's posts, publish own and other's posts, create/edit polls, view users
Author: write, edit, publish own posts
Contributor: write, edit own posts, submit for approval
Subscribor: an account on our website
Roles are configurable/editable via the Role Manager plugin
Plugins
see Plugins page
This plugin allows us to create multiple custom forms. Forms can put put anywhere on the site. There are currently four forms integrated into the website, "Feedback" - homepage, "Contact Us" - contact us page, "Submit Articles" - submit page, and "Article Feedback" - at the bottom of every article. This plugin is highly customizeable and includes multiple ways of creating/embedding/managing forms. Currently the homepage form sends an email to kevin.champion@gmail.com. All submissions from all forms are also available via RSS.
These notification settings can be changed on a form by form basis. With this plugin we can even embed forms within posts with ease. In order to do this all you need to do is click on the "cfII" icon in Write and select a form from the dropdown. However, you may first want to create a custom form for that article. In order to do this you can go to cforms II and click "Add New Form". The setup is a bit confusing when first looking at it (a product of tons of options), so you may just want to get a hold of the admin to set one up for you.
Much like the cformsII plugin, the Polls plugin allows us to create multiple polls, each with their own custom settings and placement. Just like the cformsII plugin, polls can even be embedded in individual posts. In order to do this click on the icon that looks like a bar graph in Write. You will have to enter the poll id which you will get when you create a poll by going to Polls. Click on the sub-menu item Add Poll. Create your poll question, options, expiration (if any), and other options. Once created you can find the id# on the Polls main page.
To create polls for the website homepage, use the same process and then go into Design > Widgets and then click "edit" on the polls widget. From the dropdown you can select individual polls or edit the settings for it to display polls via certain rules.
The dashboard is now customizeable. This plugin allows the widgets in the dashboard to be added/removed and moved to different positions just like the sidebar on the site. It also allows each account holder to customize their own dashboard. The dashboard is a good place to place the lineup and possibly other important organizing information.
Structure
The homepage is now being generated by php written into a "page". It displays all articles published in the previous week. It displays all articles published from Wednesday 12:00am to the previous week until Wednesday 12:00am of the current week. However, it does not display them on the homepage until Tuesday. So, Tuesday at 12:00am, the homepage will automatically begin showing articles written during the previous week. If no articles have been published by Tuesday at 12:00am, the homepage will show the previous week's issue until articles are published. The moment a new article is published it will switch to show that and any other article subsequently published (until Wednesday 12:00am). This makes it possible for us to publish whenever desired and still preserve the Tuesday release. It also removes the need to change the number of articles shown on the homepage.
The new homepage paves the way for a whole new structure, issue based, to the website. Next steps are to add more functionality by making it possible to browse by issues, view archives by issue, and view archive pages by issue. In addition, this development opens the possibility for modifying the backend publishing process.
In order to modify this structure in the future, all it takes is changing the "Front Page Displays" setting in Settings > Reading
In the absence of the ability to allow readers to leave public comments on articles, we can still provide a private feedback channel for individual articles. In this vein, it is now possible to have a form at the bottom of each article offering the reader the option to leave feedback. The feedback will go to the admin email address (along with other email addresses where desired). For instance, we could have this automatically send feedback to the author of the article.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.