8 replies to this topic

[surferboy]

First, yes, I am still lurking in 3.14 so I don't know if the 3.3.1 has the News Forum but I assume it does because todays announcement of the release of IP.Board 3.3.1, IP.Blog 2.5.2, and IP.SEO 1.5.2 is in Welcome to IPS -> News and Information.

I'm not sure why IPS has suddenly decided to switch from the IPS Company Blog to the News and Information for news updates, or perhaps the announcements in the two areas are different. One is for announcements (news?) and the other is for updates (blog?).

I'm posting this topic to hear what others think about the value of using the News Forum compared to using a specific Blog for reporting news and official community information.

To me, I found the IPS Company Blog a wonderful venue for news updates and it seemed to me, also a wonderful source for news announcements. Perhaps the news forum prevents comments but I like comments!

In our community, we have two blogs, one for Maintenance advisories, and one for OpEds about the sports community. We also use one of our IP.Content pages as a news channel.

Why would anyone use the News Forum if they could use the Blogs or IP.Content? What do you think?

[Charles]

We use the news forum for "announcements" and our blog for general updates and such.

[Traaginen]

I understand the premise, but it's redundant and slightly annoying to click an "IPS Latest News" link in my ACP, get redirected to some one sentence topic in the News and Announcements forum, and then have to click a "View Full Article" link to get directed to the blog to read about it.

[surferboy]

I understand the premise, but it's redundant and slightly annoying to click an "IPS Latest News" link in my ACP, get redirected to some one sentence topic in the News and Announcements forum, and then have to click a "View Full Article" link to get directed to the blog to read about it.

so what would be less annoying, for your community members ... as for you, and me, as super admins, well we will always have to walk through sand with 80# packs in boots ...

[Traaginen]

so what would be less annoying, for your community members ... as for you, and me, as super admins, well we will always have to walk through sand with 80# packs in boots ...

I'm not sure what you're saying. I understand prioritizing usability for community members, but that wasn't what my comment was about. I was just mentioning why it would be easier to, for example, use one or the other instead of having the ACP system incorporate one while using both (concerning the official IPS news via the ACP dashboard).

I personally just use an "Announcements" forum, though posts are allowed in it. I do post smaller updates on a blog, though, so I don't have any room to complain about the process here. I originally mixed it up so that people would familiarize themselves with the blog system, as my members were originally hesistant to create their own.

[surferboy]

The purpose of this topic is to generate some feedback from the IPS community on what they feel is the most useful method for using news. It is my belief that blogs are replacing email newsletters as a source of news. Each blog entry can be "shared" quickly with social media and RSS, you can generate more comments, and it is more current instead of waiting for once a week or once a month.

So that's one issue. The next is which medium is better, blogs, IP.Content articles, or news forums. They can all have the same factors.

So @Traaginen: I was just asking what your thoughts were from the perspective of your members, and not from your own view, since we both are super admins ... and work on the front/back ends of the office.

[rbiss]

I gave up completely on IP Content articles. Too much time wasted trying to set things up.

[Alfa1]

I try to keep a close eye on new developments with IPS, but there is something strange with either news or blog. Sometimes it takes a day before a blog comes up on the forum main page, and when it does turns up it turns out that it was posted a day ago. It seems like a bug.

The one line thread seems patchwork for the desired feature: you would like to show new blogs in your news & information forum. When the reader clicks on the thread title, the reader should directly be taken to the blog. The thread with a link to the correct location only serves as a redirect. It has no real purpose.

There really should be a function to show other content types in forums. Or more exactly: there should be a function to show redirect thread titles for other content types.

[The Guy]

Its pretty simple to me.

Blogs and announcements are different. Correct me if I am wrong. This is how I see IPS.

Annoucments -- used to release large news, or affective changes as of its date.

Blogs -- a follow up or a optional digest to the readers about a upcoming event or release.

Announcements with Blogs -- something major but wont effect many others.