In which we add a new little trick
March 31, 2010 - It has been awhile since we added anything new, other than content, to this website. That's actually a pretty good sign; it means that the website is running fairly smoothly. With limited funds and a very small staff, there are just some things we cannot do easily. New techniques have to fit into our usual work flow and not add a lot of time.
However, I have always wanted to be able to syndicate our news stories that get posted on the blog each week. Remember, these are stories right out of the paper--not all, just a sample. They usually pick up about ten or fifteen hits a week. We do have a couple of regular readers who are other news organizations, scanning for stories themselves. Without syndication, they have to come and scan the homepage and/or the stories page to see what's new. And, like me, they forget. Syndication allows us to post new entries in such a way that they can check on a regular news feed and get links to the stories.
Up until now, the programs and aggregators that I had looked at were either a) way too complicated, or b) way too pricey. In the last two weeks, though, I have found an aggregator (someone who scoops up our information and distributes it) who has a program that is easy and free! RSSPECT is our collaborator in this venture. All I have to do when I'm posting a story is add about four tags--not to the story but to its summary! Their website reads the tags, sucks up the important information, and puts it in a form that will run a news feed on the web. You can check it out here. (Sorry about the weird letters and the strange order--I'm still learning how to use this.)
Internet Explorer users have, I know, a built in RSS subscription program. Firefox may. I know that Google Chrome does not yet--but I've also included a Google button to add the feed to a Google newsreader account. Or you can find a good newsfeed program. Each time we add a story, your feed will be updated. I hope this will be another help to our readers of the free website.
This website is free? Then why do I have to sign in?
Here's the odd secret: You don't!
When we set up this website in September of 2007, we had a few simple goals:
- Tease people into the paid subscription.
- Offer a few links with local information.
- Have fun learning how to work a real website.
All of which we intended to be free to anyone who happened across our page. But things just grew. The first piece of local data we offered was the Weather Underground live link with the current temp and forecast--and we have never changed that link in 2 1/2 years. We put up links to the school and the city. And then we added two stories each week, complete with pictures. That got your attention.
And it also got a question: why weren't we archiving these stories? The reason was simple--at the time there was no way to do so without making a completely new file, including a menu that changed over time (!), each and every week. This was a problem. We would need a content manager program.
Fortunately we found DotNetNuke--you'll see their little copyright at the bottom of each page. Now we could do all the editing and archiving we wanted and never have to worry about making a new page.
Unfortunately, the people who would have to edit the page would be required to log in. I had to do so just to type this to you. No big problem. But try as I might, I could not hide the login link. Whenever I tried to hide it, I found that I couldn't log in anymore. That obviously won't work!
So...we have just simply left the link right where it is. Occasionally someone will stumble on our site, figure they have to log in with a password and everything, and they'll create an account. I get the notification of each new account.
But here's the thing: every item on this site is absolutely free. The stories, the pictures, the calendar--you don't have to pay anything to receive this. You don't even have to tell us who you are; you can do this anonymously. There is simply no benefit to having an account.
Someday we might change this arrangement. We may put some content behind a pay arrangement. (Although our paid subscription is pretty inexpensive.) Or we might require you to have an account in order to comment or leave feedback. We just haven't done this yet.
So my advice right now? Don't start an account. You don't gain anything and you have to give away your email address. But don't worry: we'll let you know if you need to sign in in the future. Right now, just take advantage of this arrangement--calendars, stories, and pictures all for free.