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 Announcements pertaining to Writing.Com! |
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| Greets, We'll soon be completing a long (very long) awaited update to the rating/reviewing system to allow for the individual rating/reviewing of Book Item chapters/entries. When we make that change, however, we have to deal with the major way that this change affects Gift Point auto-rewards on existing book items. Books with chapters (non-blogs) will then instantly be awarding reviewers for each chapter that they review, not just the first one. ... So, rather than come up with an elaborate and complicated toggle, when we make the update, we'll first clear out existing auto-rewards for Book Items (-- again, book items only). Authors can then re-evaluate how much they want to spend per chapter and reset their auto-reward on their book items. If you have feedback on this, we're interested; but at this time, overcoming this auto-reward "snafu" is our last major hurtle to making this important chapter-by-chapter change for reviewing. ? ~~SM |
| ** Beta testing and use of video embedding is available to Premium+ Members. ** Greets, The new WritingML embed tag can be used within Book Items (blogs, etc) to directly embed YouTube videos into blog entries and book chapters. Videos make for great commentary and, along with photos, make great multimedia aids and provide wonderful fodder for bloggers. Some Notes and Instructions:  The new WritingML embed tag can only be used within Book Items (blogs, etc). It will not work anywhere else within Writing.Com. The tag takes 2 arguments, a "source type" and a URL. * The only "source type" presently available is youtube. * The URL is just a copy and paste of the URL that you provides under the video's info. It should look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M Only one embed tag may be used per entry.An Example: {center}{embed:youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M}{/center}  Given that "youtube" is the only source type, the tag will basically look like this: {embed:youtube:URL} Now, for your creative entertainment, the above tag yields the following:  Please let us know any issues, suggestions, etc that may come up during the test of this tag. Enjoy, ~~SM |
| Following the release of "Photos for Blogs", it's clear more is needed to complete the photo blogging picture. As a step in that direction, we've added a new writingML extension for the photo tag: {fsPhoto:} This tag includes the photo in it's full size. Please note this tag is only available for use within Book Items (blogs, journals, novels, etc). Along with adding photos to blog, this new fsPhoto tag makes creating a "photo book" in your portfolio much easier, while taking up far less portfolio space. In addition, we've added a new "xlPhoto" tag that works universally, in any item type. This goes along with the existing "sPhoto" (small), "mPhoto", (medium), and "lPhoto" (large) tags. Best wishes, ~~SM  |
Based on further member "feedback" on blogging and commenting, we've added a new "Email Private Comment" option to the blog comment area. This allows you to send a quick note back to the blogger without having it posted publicly and without having anyone notified that the comment was sent... except, of course, for the blogger.  This seems to be a great compromise that allows both members like myself who want notifications and those members who just want to easily send private comments back to those writing the blog. Personally, I do not have time to follow up on blogs I'm interested in, but I do sincerely want to hear what other writers have to say about certain topics. After all, I read all the comments before I post a comment, so I sure do want to know the comments that come after I comment. We understand others are looking to keep their blogging a little more private. Blogs also differ from forums in that blog comments do not change the update time of a blog, (as they should not). So following a blog in your favorites does not alert you to follow up commenting. Also, from the blog comment area, we've added a direct link to the "Edit Preferences" area, allowing anyone to quickly and easily set their preference for Blog Comment notifications. Best wishes, ~~SM |
We've added a new selector to the Mail Group tool that allows the member sending the email to the group to select a "minimum group level" in order to determine which members will receive the email ... In other words, one select from options of "All members", "Level 2+", "Level 3+", etc. up to "Level 14+". For each option, the system shows how many group members would be emailed if that option was used. **Tip: Along with this option, we've had requests to be able to exclude members from a mailing -- say in the case of a group trying to organize a surprise for one of their group members. For most groups, this tool allows you to do this by taking the following steps: 1) Set the member you're trying to surprise down to Level 1 -- no notification is sent to members when they're level is changed within a group. 2) Mail the group with the "Level 2+" option. 3) Reset the group member to their original level. This fails for groups actively using level 1; in which case we'd recommend that group consider using level 2 as the minimum "normal" level for the group. Enjoy, ~~SM |
| Greetings Members, Now available for Premium Members+: Photos for Book Entries! After adding an entry or chapter to a book, you can click the Add Photos link to quickly and easily add photos directly to that entry/chapter. While this can be used for any type of Book Item, it is particularly handy for "Photo Blogging"; the act of blogging through photos. Once you've added photos, they'll be tagged to the end of the entry. If you wish to embed them somewhere within the entry, just use the {sphoto:}, {mphoto:} or {lphoto:} WritingML to add them. When the system sees that you've embedded a photo in that entry, it will not tag that photo to the end of the entry. Photos added to book items count toward your total photo storage space. (For Premium that is 500 photos -- just increased from 250! And remember, photos do NOT count as items; photo space is "on top of" your portfolio item space.) Todo: Better management of the photos added to entries, like the management system in Photo Album items themselves As always, I welcome your feedback, suggestions, etc for this new feature. Please note this is a beta release for additional testing by members that use it. I've been playing with this feature for a few months with my personal blog, so I'm fairly confident there are no terrible bugs, there are probably things that have been overlooked to date. On a personal note, as I've found myself with less and less (and less) time, I've turned to posting photos in my blog to preserve those memories I might otherwise not have time to write about. So, when time is a factor, a picture is worth a lot more words than no words at all. When you just don't have the time to write, blog a photo! Best wishes, ~~SM |
| Greets, We've added an Account Preference for the new comment notifications... To set the preference, visit your "My Account" -> "Edit Preferences" area... Or follow this link: http://www.writing.com/main/my_account.php On that page, look for Blog Comment Notifications... For those who want no "also commented" notifications at all:... choose Blog Notifications Off For those who want notifications with the checkbox checked by default:... choose Blog Notifications On - Default Checked For those who want notifications with the checkbox NOT checked by default:... choose Blog Notifications On - Default NOT Checked Coming next, the ability to stop receiving notifications from a comment where you previously had checked the box. Given the sincere problem this feature caused for people, I felt it was most important to get them the above preference as quickly as possible and we'll get to the "one-off" issue next.Best wishes, ~~SM |
 New for blogs and book commenting: Notify Me When Someone Else Comments Now when you're submitting a comment to a blog, a pre-checked box sets you up to receive an on-site email notifier with new comments to that same blog entry. If you don't want to be notified, just uncheck the box. The box is checked by default because it will be the most popular choice. Enjoy! ~~SM |
| We had a wide variety of entries this month. Thanks to everyone who entered and to the judges for the time they spent reading and selecting the winners! The following winners for the June 2009 running of "Quotation Inspiration: Official Contest"  were chosen from the 49 entries submitted. Each entry was judged based on the criteria provided in "Quotation Inspiration: Official Contest" . Congratulations to the following three winners: First Place - "The Call of a Whale" by NickiD89  Second Place - "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor Third Place - "Apocrypha" by 🌖 HuntersMoon  ~Diane |
| As an add-on to the Group Review Affiliation system, we've added a link to the most actively reviewing groups on the "Reviewing" pages... Or you can visit it directly at: http://www.writing.com/main/my_feedback/action/top_actively_reviewing_groups Review On, ~~SM |
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Oh my gosh!!! Thank you so much! Also, congratulations to 