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The330 Mobile Application:
Print Edition
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Below is a screenshot from Firefox 3.5 showing the Ohio.com cookie that is set when a reader registers for commenting on Ohio.com, but has yet to activate their account. The reader must first click a link in an email sent by the registration system to verify a valid email address. This is done so people cannot use fake email addresses. Clicking the link in the email deletes the cookie from your browser.
If you cannot find the email first check your spam mailbox in case it was sent there in error. If you still cannot find it contact Ohio.com. We can set your account to "active," but once we do this you will need to delete the registration cookie that was set on your browser. Deleting the cookie will vary depending on what browser you are using. You can find information on how to delete a cookie here.
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Ohio.com has added the option for a user to add an avatar to their account. An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego.
How to add your avatar:
Current Account Holders
If you want to add an avatar to an existing account, use this link: Edit My Account. Once you are on the page look for the photo upload button.
New Accounts
Log into the site or create an account via this link: Sign in or create an account.
If you are creating an account you will have the option to upload an image at this time as part of creating the account. Choose the option to upload a photo,
Please note that we are now using the "Username" field for story comments. Currently the first name of the account is used for the name in story commenting. If you need or want to create a username, please use the Edit My Account link. Usernames are unique and cannot be changed once they are saved. Claim your identity now while you can.
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Here is a link to the PDF of that historic front page.
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All Da King's Men is the new political community blogger on Ohio.com. As the writer describes himself, he's a "libertarian/conservative, though not 100% of the time. There are exceptions to everything. The blog topics will reflect that."
This new blog is the compliment to our progressive community blogger, authored under the title Blog of Mass Destruction.
Both of our community political bloggers are lifelong area residents.
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This post will walk you through submitting your news, photos, videos and audio to Ohio.com to be published on our community section.
We've updated UPublish to make it a much easier user process. You don't even need an account to share news with the community. Just click on the "Submit your news to UPublish" headline and follow the guidelines provided. A note on videos: Please don't make them wider than 450 pixels. If they're wider than that, they'll be removed from your post.
Also know that whatever you fill out for your name is what will show up as the author of the post. Although we ask for your email address and phone number, they don't get published.
Here are the areas where you can publish your news. Click any link below to get started once you are registered:
- General News Items — target your news to more than 40 communities in Summit, Stark, Medina, Portage and Wayne counties.
- School and Education News
- Sports News — target your news to high school, junior high, youth and adult sports.
- The Scene – Social Events — Post stories, photos or videos about parties, fund raisers, balls or other social events. To list an upcoming event, please use our events calendar.
- On the Move – Business News
- Military News
Once we receive a story it will be reviewed by someone on our staff before it's posted on the site.
Events Calendar
Our events calendar at http://events.ohio.com is also another form of community publishing. It lives on a different platform and requires a separate account.
If you have an event to publish we encourage you to post it first on the entertainment calendar. Once we've approved that listing you can create a story on Ohio.com. That way your Ohio.com story will also point to your event calendar listing to help you cross-promote the event.
You can go directly to the events calendar registration and login page.
Getting Started
Once you are logged into Ohio.com go to the "Community" link on any Ohio.com page:
When you mouse over the link the navigation window will appear below:
Click the above image to view a larger version.
Click on the link for the type of news you want to publish. If you are logged into Ohio.com you will then be taken to the form to fill out. If you are not logged into the site and one of these links is clicked, you will be taken to a login page.
Best practices for submitting your news
The forms all share a few common fields and all the forms allow you to submit photos, a video and even a sound clip. We will go into submitting multimedia a little later in this post.
A headline is the first field that is common to every form. Take the time to think about a good headline. You want a headline that is specific but not too long. The headline is the hook that will entice people to read your story. Include the key names or details about your story.
A field for the text of the news story or announcement is another item on all the forms. There is not a limit to the amount of text you can enter, but you want to make sure it appears in a readable form. After making certain that your story has no misspellings, the next thing to look for is making certain you use paragraphs. Nothing is harder to read than a huge block of text.
To make a paragraph in your story include a blank line where you want a paragraph. The software on the back end looks for those blank lines and inserts the coding. Click here to see how this looks.
URLs related to your story
Most of the forms also include areas to enter a URL related to the story, and a URL that references a listing on our events calendar if one exists. We recommend that you first get your event listed first on our entertainment calendar so you can use your story to further promote your event.
Multimedia
Our community publishing forms also allow you to upload photos, video or audio, or link to a video that is already hosted on video services like YouTube. We will look at this in detail below.
Photos
If you don't have a "story" to post there is no reason you cannot upload a few of your photos for others to enjoy. In the "body" of the news story give a brief background about your photos so readers can better appreciate what they are viewing.
The forms allow you to upload five photos. Each photo also has a caption box.
If possible you should resize your photos before uploading them. Please do not upload digital photos straight out of your camera. Those images can be several megabytes in size and will be slow to upload.
Size your horizontal photos so they are 500 pixels wide and 72 dpi. Size your vertical photos so they are 300 pixels wide. Save them in the JPEG format. Do not send BMP images. Most digital cameras include software to allow you to edit your images.
If you cannot resize your photos before uploading them you can still upload them. We do not restrict the upload size. We will resize them as time warrants. The software will automatically shrink the photo until then, but your photos may not look as good and your page will load slower.
Audio
Upload any type of audio file. It will be available to the reader as a download. It will rely on the software on the end user's browser to have the software to be able to play your file.
Video
Ohio.com accepts videos (no wider than 450 pixels) on uPublish posts. Make sure you have the embed code from the video source of a video already posted to a video service, such as YouTube.
The same rule applies for an audio file. The ability to play your uploaded video file relies on the end user having the software needed on their computer to play your video.
Below is a list of sites (our favorites listed first) that allow you to upload video:
The last item on the form is a check box that links to the community publishing disclaimer.
Final thoughts
Take a few minutes and look over a few of the stories that have already been posted. They will give you a good idea of what to do and what not to do.
If you have questions or problem email us at feedback@thebeaconjournal.com.
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This page will show you how to utilize the Ohio.com RSS feeds.
Here is a good one-page primer on RSS that distills what RSS can do for you:
RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. Visit whatisrss.com.
To dig a little deeper we'll crib from Wikipedia:
RSS (which, in its most recent format, stands for "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel", contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.
RSS content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.
Ohio.com makes many of our content collections available as RSS feeds. You can find all the Beacon Journal content available via RSS on this page. The RSS feeds for our blogs can be found at the bottom of the blog pages. Look for the link called "Entries (RSS)" or check the blogs home page.
How to access RSS feeds
There are a number of ways to access RSS feeds. You can install a news reader that displays RSS feeds from the Web sites you select, enabling you to view hundreds of headlines at once. After installing the news reader, you can add each feed manually from the Web site by clicking on the "Subscribe" or the "XML" orange button next to the feed.
Download an RSS news reader program
Web or browser based news readers
Many web browsers, such as Firefox will also handle RSS feeds natively or accept plugins that read RSS feeds.
Feedbucket or Bloglines are two web-based solutions to track RSS feeds so you don't have to download or install a program on your computer.
Summary
Once you start using the power of RSS feeds you will be able to view more content of interest to you faster and with less hassle than you are now.
If you want to know more still about RSS, MediaShift at PBS.org has a comprehensive "Your Guide to RSS" that is worth reading.
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That is very simple. After logging into the site go to this page:
http://www.ohio.com/s?action=editPassword&rurl=/
If you do not know what your password is, please read this post:
Please note that the login and password for our events calendar is independent from the login and password used on the main Ohio.com site. Our events calendar is provided by another company, thus the need for a separate account.
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