| Before you can post comments or a new diary on AZNetRoots, you first must create an account and log on.
To create an new account:
1. Click "Make a New Account" in the Menu Blox 2. Enter a username and email) 3. Click "Ok"
You will then be notified that an E-mail has been sent to the address you entered. This E-mail will contain your default password.
Once you receive your password, you can log on.
Go back to the home page of AZNetRoots and enter the username and password provided to you in the welcome E-mail. Click "Log On".
Now you can post comments or diaries to AZNetRoots.
Changing Your Password: It's probably a good idea to change your password from the default one sent to you to one that's easy for you to remember. To change your password, follow these steps.
1. Click on "[your username's] page" link in the Menu Blox 2. Click on the "Profile" link 3. Click on "Email/Password"
You will now be at a screen where you can change your password. Enter your new password into the box provided, and re-type the same password again the box below. Then hit "Save". You should then see a message appear saying "Changes Saved. Password Changed!"
Creating a Diary: Now you are ready write your first diary.
After you log on, you will see a link that says "New Diary" in the Menu Blox, . Click on this link to get rolling.
Once you click on the “New Diary” link, you will be at the New Diary Page. You will see a bunch of spaces for you to fill in text. Here we will explain all the parts of Diary you see on the page.
Title – This is the Title of your Diary entry. It will the only thing that appears if your diary posts into the "Recent Diary" Blox on the page (more on this later). It will be displayed in big bold letters at the top of your diary for all to see. Note: You must fill in this value to save a diary. Also, diary titles cannot be longer than 255 characters
Main Text – This is the textbox directly underneath the title. Here is where you can start the meat and potatoes of your new diary. Different blogs have different rules and standards for how much information you can put in the "Main Text" area. There is no limitation on this. If you post your diary to the front page of the blog, what will show up is the Title of your Diary and the Main Text.
Extended Text – This is the next textbox. You can continue to your diary here. The extended text of your diary entry is only visible when a user clicks on your diary from the front page. Again, there is NO limit to how long this section can be.
Formatting – This controls what happens when you "Preview" and eventually "Save" your diary to the server. There are currently two (2) choices for this option:
Auto-Format – If you choose Auto-Format, SoapBlox automatically generate the HTML code to format your entry. It will turn URLs you write in the diary entry into links.
No Formatting – If you insist on doing things the hard way and writing your own HTML, you can do so with this option.
Diary Subject – This is a drop-down menu that will give you options of how you want to categorize your diary entry by subject. SoapBlox Admins are responsible for defining these subjects. By default, SoapBlox comes intalled with only one (1) subject included (named "diaries").
Other Options – There are a total of three (3) other options that you can have with a diary. However, some rules apply to when these options appear. We will go through them all here.
Put diary on front page – If you are a member of the Powerful, this checkbox will appear. By checking it, when you save your diary, it will be come the first diary to appear on the front page. If you do not check this box, your diary will be listed in the "Recent Diary" section of the SoapBlox
Delete Diary – This option is only present if you are editing a diary. If this box is checked when you hit save, SoapBlox with take you to a confirmation page asking "Are you sure you want to delete this diary?". If you click "Yes" on this page, SoapBlox will delete the diary entry, and all comments associated with it.
Poll Question – SoapBlox allows for you to attach polls to your diary. The value you fill into this field will be stored by SoapBlox as the question you are asking the readers of your diary to respond to.
Poll Answers – SoapBlox allows for up to 10 possible response to a poll question. The values you want to be possible choices in your poll should be entered here. Remember, enter only one poll response option per textbox.
Poll Type – This is the final drop-down menu you will see on the page. Currently there are two options for this:
Single vote Poll – This means respondents can only choose one option in your poll.
Multi-Vote Poll – This feature allows you to give your poll respondents the option of choosing as many of the poll answers as they want.
That’s all the options you will see on the diary page. When you first create a diary, there will be only one available button that says "preview". Once you are done typing up your diary, click the preview button. Once the page loads, SoapBlox will show you a preview of what your diary will look like when it's saved. This allows you to make sure your diary looks the way you want it to.
Now that you’ve hit Preview and see that your diary looks the way you want, a second button will have appeared on the Diary page. This buttons says "Save", and as you can imagine, by clicking on the "Save" button, SoapBlox will store your diary and publish it to the blog.
Posting a comment: Commenting on a diary or post is very simple. At the bottom of a diary or a comment, you’ll see the "Post A Comment" option. Click on this link and you’ll be sent to a form that allows you to enter a title and a body for your comment. All comments must have titles, and once a comment is posted, it cant be altered or deleted.
Formatting is the same for diaries, and for straight text, the system supports tags for bold script, italics, and underlining (< b >, < I >, and < u >). You can also insert links with the < a href > tag. When you preview your post before saving it, the system will inform you if you have made any mistakes with imbedded HTML (like forgetting to include a closing tag, such as < /a >)
Images can be embedded with the < img src= [image file path] > tag, but please beware of linking to large or copyrighted images. With comments and diaries, if you are quoting from another site or work, please cite your source and provide a link. It’s polite.
Quoted text can be blockwritten with the < blockquote > tag.
User Ratings: These rules will be familiar to lefty bloggers. Users can "rate" posts from 0-5, 0 being a "troll" rating, 1 being unproductive, up to 5, which is a "home run". The ratings are not there to indicate whether you agree with a post, but rather if you think they bring something to the discussion. Please do not abusive the ratings by "downrating" a fellow poster just because he or she annoyed you, or you disagree with their views.
Trolls: On the other hand, if someone is clearly just posting to cause trouble or start a flame war , it's appropriate to rate them low. "Troll" is a term for people who have no intent to engage in legitimate discussion and instead just want to piss off people and disrupt things. Such posts will be subject to removal, and with enough troll ratings, will be automatically removed from the thread.
|
