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Soapbox April 05 - 06
By sciencebase, Section News
Posted on Tue Apr 12, 2005 at 12:48:22 AM PST

Announcements Welcome to "The Soapbox".  This posting is a permanent "letter to the editor" page where you can make your thoughts about SciScoop known to the editors and your fellow users.  If you're already a member, I'd recommend clicking "+Hotlist" (visible top right), which will create a new right-column box that will let you know when new comments are posted here. If you're not a member, then consider joining, there are many more features available to SciScoop members.  This is the place to be to get the latest SciScoop news and gossip. You can also sing our praises here, or give us a piece of your mind by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link below.

Please be patient while we tweak and fine tune the site, I've redone the logo, for instance, to alert visitors to what I hope the site is about - a science news forum! So, why not join in with the posting and discussions?

Previous Soapbox comments:   The Soapbox: May 2003

The Soapbox: June - Dec 2003

The Soapbox: Jan - Apr 2004

The Soapbox: Apr - Jul 2004

The Soapbox: Jul - Oct 2004

The Soapbox: Oct 2004 - Apr 2005

Soapbox April 05 - 06 | 124 comments (124 topical, 0 hidden)

Prius Questions for apsmith, & Car Talk (none / 0) (#1)
by Sweetwind on Tue Apr 12, 2005 at 09:30:52 AM PST
Hi apsmith, congratulations on your new vehicle! I have a question I've been dying to find out. When I was at the LA Auto Fair and I climbed into one, I wondered what the "B" function on the gear stick does! No one else in the crowd gathered around knew, and there wasn't a Toyota person handy. I couldn't find anything about it on the website.

How are you liking it so far?

Here's another question, not just for apsmith this time! -- as he says, "It may be as important for the way it adjusts behavior as for the actual fuel economy of the car itself." So why doesn't some manufacturer produce a little car (I'm thinking Ford Fiesta and that size) that has those cheap bells and whistles like the instantaneous mileage readout and whatnot, and market it as the frugal green car? Why should I feel that I have to buy a car with two engines, essentially, to be green? Does the gas savings really, truly, recoup the cost (greenhouse gasses in manufacture as well as consumer $) of the electric portion of the engine?

Here's another question, probably an idiot question which I could find in The Idiot's Guide to Global Warming (hee hee, they'll write an idiot's guide to anything, won't they?!) -- why is a hydrogen car better than an electric car? Electric cars seem to work fine, and I could "refuel" it at home, right? What is the advantage to a car that needs a whole new infrastructure for refueling?

(Not sure if this is off topic for the Soapbox, sorry if so! I didn't want to reply to the comment in the story because it is pretty old and he might have missed it.)





  • Thanks! by apsmith, 04/12/2005 05:33:29 PM PST (5.00 / 1)
    • Thank you! by Sweetwind, 04/13/2005 05:52:08 AM PST (none / 0)
    • One more Prius question by Sweetwind, 04/27/2005 02:19:44 PM PST (none / 0)
      • maybe by apsmith, 04/27/2005 03:52:44 PM PST (none / 0)
RSS Feed (none / 0) (#3)
by kryptothesuperdog on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 12:32:49 AM PST
Just something I thought of last night...The SciScoop RSS feed currently has the article title followed by the first 75 characters or so. Personally I'd up that to the first paragraph. That's enough to get people's interest, but not enough to stop them coming to the site, I'd think. Even with the title, 75 characters often isn't enough to get a sense of what the article's about. Just a thought :-)



That's not right... (none / 0) (#6)
by Drog on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 07:56:28 AM PST
I suspect you are being diplomatic in having no conclusion or final statement to make here. But editing someone else's story to change the intent of what they were saying is plain wrong. Like most Scoop-based sites, this is a community-driven forum. If someone doesn't like something in your story, they can voice that concern as a comment in the submission queue and vote the story down. Or they can simply state their concern in a comment afterwards if the story posts, which would probably spark an interesting debate.

If the new ethics policy here is that this type of editing is going to be the norm, then it should be explicity stated as such. But if so, I fear this forum will lose its appeal to many users, myself included. Hopefully this was just an honest mistake made without considering the larger implications.

Looking for political forums? Check out "The World Forum".



RSS length (none / 0) (#13)
by sciencebase on Mon Apr 25, 2005 at 02:14:44 AM PST
Hi I upped the number of words in the RSS intro's, but as janra explained it's impossible to choose the number of words to display with the scoop system and I'd certainly not want to give away the whole article intro to sites that scrape our rss feed. Hopefully, there are enough words now to attract visitors. db



The greasy poll - advertising (none / 0) (#14)
by sciencebase on Mon Apr 25, 2005 at 09:10:36 PM PST
I've posted a poll to gauge visitor opinion regarding the advertising on SciScoop. Obviously, there's got to be something here to help me cover costs, and to "monetize" the site, as those in marketing might say. Personally, I'd rather not have any, except maybe the odd amazon link for a favorite book. Anyway, let me know what you think through the poll. The amazon ads don't pay very well, but other schemes might be worth keeping. What do you think about the Google banner right at the top (easy to access, even easier to hide)? What about having a pertinent amazon ad with each story? A no go, or great news? I'm hoping to add a new shopping channel soon, which might preclude the need for amazon and Google or Yahoo ads, but then again if you like 'em, I'll keep 'em! Your views, as always, greatly appreciated!



  • Amazon ads by apsmith, 04/26/2005 01:16:55 AM PST (none / 0)
amazonians (none / 0) (#16)
by sciencebase on Tue Apr 26, 2005 at 03:21:28 AM PST
Yes, I've eased off posting amazon ads with each story. They're just not attracting buyers, and that's possibly because some of them have not been too closely aligned with the story in question, as you say. Thanks for the comment sciencebase PS Don't forget to vote in our Ad Poll



Countdown to 2000 (none / 0) (#17)
by sciencebase on Tue Apr 26, 2005 at 03:30:47 AM PST
We're fast approaching article 2000 on SciScoop. So now's a good time to start writing your story if you want to stand a chance of being the 2000th item featured. Let's make it a biggy! Submit now!

Check out the Eurekalert Newsfeeds (and any other press release sources of course such as Newswise) to get an idea of the kinds of stories we're after and don't forget to create your own enticing headline, put a bit of personal spin on it and add in some interesting links.

If you have access to the embargoed materials on press sites, please make sure you post after the embargo release.

Thanks

db



is there any way to get rid of these obnoxious (none / 0) (#22)
by janietta on Mon May 02, 2005 at 02:42:42 AM PST
I want to link to you posts? Sheesh...I went in to look at the first 250 new comments, and they were all from jie, and useless. I can only hope that way down there where the new posts ended yesterday (somewhere under 300)there is not some REAL new comment that I would have liked. I don't go back and reread articles, I just click on new comments to find what someone else has added to what I've already read. Bah! I'm ranting because I'm disgusted, sorry. Jane



Comment Spamming (none / 0) (#23)
by sciencebase on Tue May 03, 2005 at 02:42:35 AM PST
Hi I've been away and so only discovered that this guy is spamming us thanks to a note from Wayne Goode (thanks, Wayne). I'll talk to the admin team about sorting this problem.



Slicing the spam (none / 0) (#25)
by sciencebase on Wed May 04, 2005 at 12:01:11 AM PST
Hi

Still working on the spam issue. I've barred the perpetrator so he cannot post with the same username ever again.

I've also blocked the html anchor tag in comments. Sorry about that, but we have several hundred spam posts to clear out and if the spammers see that they cannot post text links they won't bother us again. I am afraid commentators will have to simply display the URL of any pages they want to refer to and visitors will have to cut and paste into their browser address bar. If I can find another way around this I will reinstate href in comments again.

Thanks

db



  • Thanks by apsmith, 05/05/2005 04:35:16 AM PST (none / 0)
    • loophole? by Sweetwind, 05/05/2005 05:09:23 AM PST (none / 0)
  • Thank you! by janietta, 05/05/2005 07:40:37 AM PST (none / 0)
Spam Slicer (none / 0) (#29)
by sciencebase on Thu May 05, 2005 at 10:20:51 AM PST
I'm expecting to receive "the spiking box" code from janra soon, which will allow me to kill this b*st*rd's comments. I re-enabled href in comments as it seemed to block href in stories at the same time, that's either a bug or my ignorance of scoop, I cannot tell. So, if someone can tell me how to disable the anchor html in comments and not stories I'd be very grateful.



Sliced up Spam (none / 0) (#30)
by sciencebase on Sun May 08, 2005 at 12:10:11 AM PST
I hope we've finally got the spam licked (urrgghhh!). The perpetrator was barred and deleted and we've blocked href from comments (sorry about that! A necessary evil). If he finds a new exploit we will close that loophole too until he is thoroughly bored and the SciScoop Science News Forum can get back to work proper. Thanks for your patience.

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



  • Allowing <a> by sciencebase, 05/11/2005 01:56:15 AM PST (none / 0)
Tweaked header menu (none / 0) (#32)
by sciencebase on Mon May 09, 2005 at 05:42:49 AM PST
Along with the anti-spam measures, I've tweaked a few things in the header menu, as you may have noticed. I think it's worth advertising the site's newsfeed more promimently. I also made the invitation to submit and join more prominent as you can see, although I may have to do an IF/THEN for that so that the link is inactive for anyone already signed in.

There is a great tranche of spam messages with the subject line "here is good website" posted anonymously, I've asked janra for a method to delete en masse, so if they're annoying you please be patient, or delete them if you have privs to do so

Thanks



PhD jobs... (none / 0) (#34)
by sciencebase on Tue May 10, 2005 at 05:17:15 AM PST
What initially appeared to be an announcement for a course turns out to be spam. I searched the phrase "The pogram has to be finished in a max of 6 years" and found dozens of other forums where the exact same text has appeared. To what end I do not know. Presumably my blocking href blocked whatever text links the spammer was hoping to place. Anyway, I will be posting a poll soon asking whether SciScoop readers would like to see a job/course ad section...watch this space (well actually watch the homepage, that's where it will appear!) Thanks db



Visitor counts broken again? (none / 0) (#37)
by apsmith on Fri May 13, 2005 at 05:23:00 AM PST
It always seems to say "1 Anonymous(es)" are on - in the past we've usually had 20-30 at a time, at least. Bug in a software upgrade? If this will stay broken, we should remove the entry in the box.


Join us at the National Space Society and help open space to everyone!


  • Anonymous Lives by sciencebase, 05/16/2005 02:46:12 AM PST (none / 0)
    • more and more by sciencebase, 05/16/2005 02:58:08 AM PST (none / 0)
      • Yup by apsmith, 05/17/2005 12:41:57 PM PST (none / 0)
Ch...ch...ch...changes (none / 0) (#42)
by sciencebase on Thu May 19, 2005 at 07:15:34 AM PST
Just FYI: I've made a few tweaks to homepage and login box. Submit Story is now Post Story. I've removed the enticement line, it's obviously not working to get people to submit. And, I've added an enticement in the login box. Any comments from the regulars would be appreciated. Just so you know (while Stats are down), we're getting well over 4000 visitors a day now and some days well over 5000!

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



New Star Wars Movie (none / 0) (#45)
by sciencebase on Thu Jun 16, 2005 at 02:08:47 AM PST
In case anyone missed it, there's another new Star Wars movie out - "Revelations - Begin the Rebellion". Sciencebase is acting as one of the mirror sites http://www.sciencebase.com/download_star_wars_movie.html

It's 47 minutes long and amounts to about 250 Mb in WMV format. Other formats are available from that page too.

I'd be happy to publish a review should any SciScoopers which to check it out and offer an opinion or two...



Menu Tweaks (none / 0) (#46)
by sciencebase on Fri Jun 17, 2005 at 02:22:00 AM PST
Hi Just tidied up the menu a little, "Stats" has been offline for a while now, so pointless it being there. Other cosmetic changes made. db

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



Online Discount Shopping (none / 0) (#47)
by sciencebase on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 12:02:11 AM PST
Ricky et al used amazon and online shopping to try and monetize SciScoop to cover costs. Well I've taken a different tack, as many of you will realise. This has now been extended to an online discounts section on SciScoop that has been running for a few weeks now. You can access here: Online Discount Shopping. I hope you will find it useful. By working in this way it reduces to almost zero the need to have lots of ads on the main site itself, but still provides a revenue trickle, or dare I say stream, to help support the ongoing maintenance of SciScoop. db



More Ch..ch..ch..changes (none / 0) (#48)
by sciencebase on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 09:18:53 AM PST
Hi Good and Bad News We had another spam attack, and it's taking up far too much of my time deleting each spam post, so I've barred anonymous users from posting comments altogether. Sorry. You'll just have to register if you want to chip in (it's easy enough to anonymize yourself when you register, so legit users shouldn't find that a problem). It means I can delete all users who abuse rather than use.

The flip side of this is that logged in users can once again use href! Anyone abusing this will be Vap-o-Rized(TM), which means slices of spam can be blasted into oblivion at the push of a button. I hope everyone's happy with this, I certainly wasn't happy with spending my time frying spam slice by slice. I know this approach has limitations, but what I've taken away on one side, I've given back to those who register, which should improve things considerably. Dave



  • Thanks by apsmith, 06/24/2005 05:45:02 AM PST (none / 0)
    • No problem by sciencebase, 06/24/2005 07:18:35 AM PST (none / 0)
More Ch..ch..ch..changes (none / 0) (#49)
by sciencebase on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 09:19:19 AM PST
Hi

Good and Bad News

We had another spam attack, and it's taking up far too much of my time deleting each spam post, so I've barred anonymous users from posting comments altogether. Sorry. You'll just have to register if you want to chip in (it's easy enough to anonymize yourself when you register, so legit users shouldn't find that a problem). It means I can delete all users who abuse rather than use.

The flip side of this is that logged in users can once again use href! Anyone abusing this will be Vap-o-Rized(TM), which means slices of spam can be blasted into oblivion at the push of a button.

I hope everyone's happy with this, I certainly wasn't happy with spending my time frying spam slice by slice. I know this approach has limitations, but what I've taken away on one side, I've given back to those who register, which should improve things considerably.

Dave



Deleted (none / 0) (#50)
by sciencebase on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 09:20:51 AM PST
In case you suddenly miss it, I've also deleted rickyjames' note about my editing one of his items some months ago, I think we resolved the issue at the time and the posting was simply cluttering up this page!

Dave



Where have they gone?? (none / 0) (#53)
by Drifter855 on Sun Jun 26, 2005 at 07:03:09 AM PST
I'm sure somebody's already mentioned this, but what happened to the big long list of sites that used to run down the left side of the homepage? I Never bothered to bookmark any of my favs cause 'they were always there'. I looked at the links section but only a few sites listed. Where are the rest?



Feature Request: Ability to Modify a Moderation (none / 0) (#54)
by chad on Sun Jun 26, 2005 at 11:13:58 AM PST

I've been having a bit of a problem where I down-moderate an article and then the submission is edited such that it becomes acceptable. But I can't change my moderation from negative to positive (or at least I don't know how). I would like the ability to undo or change a moderation. Is this something that'll hard to implement?


-----------------------
Check out Chad's News
-----------------------




Mouldy Old Dough (none / 0) (#57)
by sciencebase on Mon Jun 27, 2005 at 02:27:19 AM PST
The sciscoop help desk just received a press release about the wonders of a new mould-removing product. So irritating was the press release that I've taken a pop at it in my personal science blog over at sciencebase.com if anyone wants to take a look.

Dave



Me Me Me !! (none / 0) (#60)
by Drifter855 on Tue Jun 28, 2005 at 06:44:24 PM PST
I would be! I want the list, but I don't know how I would save it on my computer unless I went to every site and then bookmarked it. That'll take forever. I would like to have them reinstated and making them toggle-able (??) sounds like a great idea. But I'll yield to a vote among the members. You know my vote!



Shuffling Boxes (none / 0) (#63)
by sciencebase on Thu Jul 14, 2005 at 12:36:24 AM PST
I've been tinkering with toggles on some of the boxes, janra having explained to me (thanks) how to make a box appear only to logged in users.

So now logged in users get the complete sciscoop news sources listing of old (it displaces my abbreviated list when you log in). Lots of you voted for the return of this feature and it's right there in the left-hand column. Because of that, I've shoved some of the stuff that was on the left over to the right, to try and balance the homepage a little better. So, you might have to hunt around a bit to find your old favourites.

You'll also notice that when you log in the Google Ads and the Serenity box disappear. There was a general feeling that losing the ads on login was a good idea, please correct me if I'm wrong as I'd hate to deprive you of those juicy Goooooooogles. db



Pagerank Increase (none / 0) (#64)
by sciencebase on Sun Jul 17, 2005 at 11:20:31 PM PST
For anyone who is interested in this sort of thing the SciScoop homepage has got a new Google Pagerank, jumping from a PR6 to a PR7. This should mean we'll show up nearer the top more often for various searches, which will hopefully mean more readers/members/posters/commenters. It is also likely to mean more spam directed at the email help desk, but hopefully we can cope... db



Sunglasses (none / 0) (#65)
by sciencebase on Thu Jul 21, 2005 at 12:43:52 AM PST
I hope no one is suffering from retinal bleaching, but I got fed up with the grey! db



Potpourri (none / 0) (#66)
by Sweetwind on Fri Jul 22, 2005 at 06:56:36 AM PST
When one clicks "Science Topics" at the top of the page, the Potpourri topic is not shown. Can somebody fix this? Thx!



  • Into the Pot by sciencebase, 07/22/2005 08:56:38 AM PST (none / 0)
  • Done by Drog, 07/26/2005 08:40:11 AM PST (none / 0)
RSS Feed # of Comments (none / 0) (#69)
by chad on Tue Aug 02, 2005 at 08:46:22 AM PST

Is there any way to modify the RSS feed (which, aside from the moderation queue, is my main method of accessing SciScoop) such that it would show the total number of comments for each topic? They do it at bureau42.com (RSS), and I find it quite helpful. Currently I'm pretty much ignorant of new comments posted on topics that move out of the moderation queue, unless I pay special attention to them.

It could be something simple like a number in parenthesis after the title. For example:

    When Planets Collide? (3)

I'm hoping the existing SciScoop code allows for this and it's only a matter of configuration.


-----------------------
Check out Chad's News
-----------------------




100max (none / 0) (#71)
by sciencebase on Tue Aug 09, 2005 at 06:06:59 AM PST
If anyone has strong feelings against a 100 word max on story intros let me know. I'm happy to change it to more, just checking out the effect...

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



Styles (none / 0) (#76)
by chad on Mon Aug 15, 2005 at 03:59:29 AM PST

When submitting a new article, the 'style' attribute is flagged as an error when used with the 'P' HTML tag (and maybe other tags as well). Yet when editing existing articles, the 'style' attribute is okay.

Why not allow the 'style' attribute for all of the permitted HTML tags. It comes in quite handy.


-----------------------
Check out Chad's News
-----------------------




Downtime Online (none / 0) (#81)
by sciencebase on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 06:51:53 AM PST
Hi

Apologies for the various outages and problems users have been facing this last week or so. I have been on vacation and am only just catching up, but the Scoophost team have endeavoring to do the necessary fixes (something to do with database compatibility issues). They've carried out a quick fix for now and will do the full fix later today, which will mean a short period (about 20 mins) of additional downtime. Hopefully after that everything will be fine and the various editing problems and missing page problems will be resolved.

Thanks for your patience, your dedication to SciScoop is, as always, much appreciated.

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



Fixed fixation (none / 0) (#82)
by sciencebase on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:31:06 AM PST
Hopefully we're fixed!



Moderation Thresholds (none / 0) (#84)
by chad on Mon Oct 10, 2005 at 05:02:38 PM PST
I noticed the thresholds for the moderation queue have been changed recently, making it harder to be accepted or rejected. Any particular reason for that?

-----------------------
Check out Chad's News
-----------------------




Editorial Comment Default (none / 0) (#85)
by sciencebase on Tue Oct 11, 2005 at 06:07:20 AM PST
I switched this off. Let me know if it causes problems for anyone...



The Bird Flu (none / 0) (#87)
by chad on Fri Oct 14, 2005 at 04:43:13 AM PST
I've just updated my bird flu article. My intention is to keep the article up-to-date, and I recommend that anyone interested in the topic should add it to his/her hotlist—there will be a "new" comment whenever I make an update.

-----------------------
Check out Chad's News
-----------------------




Posts and Discussion (none / 0) (#88)
by sciencebase on Fri Oct 14, 2005 at 06:55:14 AM PST
In some areas SciScoop is growing - visitor numbers are up and membership is up.

In other areas it's shrunk - postings are down and comments have fallen.

There is a dedicated core of people regularly posting and discussing, which is great. But, the perennial issue is how to persuade casual visitors and lurkers to join in.

The posting process is quite unwieldy and is no longer deterring spammers as we've seen in recent days. I'm going to simplify the intro to the posting page (again) to make it more obvious what's happening and to remove the "preview" mode, which catches people out and may be losing us submissions when the poster doesn't follow through to full submission, I also think that it's time we expanded the remit so that we're not just asking people for news but offer them (more obviously) the chance to express opinions... If anyone has any comments or ideas on this please let me know.



  • My Thoughts by chad, 10/14/2005 07:43:24 AM PST (none / 0)
    • Agree by sciencebase, 10/15/2005 12:03:22 AM PST (none / 0)
Imagining Images (none / 0) (#91)
by sciencebase on Mon Oct 17, 2005 at 07:07:13 AM PST
Hi

User "chronosphere" suggested that despite SciScoop being an "awesome" site, one thing he feels it lacks are images to accompany news stories. If anyone wishes to included a picture with their postings it should be possible and they can email me if they have problems uploading them or making them format properly.



  • How? by chad, 10/18/2005 04:36:00 AM PST (none / 0)
  • Free Images by chad, 10/23/2005 01:08:06 AM PST (none / 0)
SciScoop News Sources (none / 0) (#95)
by barakn on Sun Nov 06, 2005 at 11:20:04 AM PST
That oft ignored column on the lower left-hand side of the first page would be a good source of news except all the links are not to the sources themselves but to archives of the sources as they appeared in November of last year. Why?



Time Limit on Moderation (none / 0) (#98)
by chad on Sun Nov 20, 2005 at 07:20:59 AM PST
Could we implement a time limit on how long a submission stays in the moderation queue? It's getting sort of silly, with one submission now being 4 months old. How about one month, then make an editorial decision on whether to delete or post it?

-----------------------
Check out Chad's News
-----------------------




Dump or Pump (none / 0) (#101)
by sciencebase on Sun Nov 20, 2005 at 09:25:11 AM PST
Good idea.

I reckon if an item has been in the mod queue for more than a month and has fewer voters who actually voted for it than against or didn't care then we should dump it. If it's t'other way round then we can post it.

I'm applying this principle to those in the queue that have been there since the summer. Apologies to any authors if they feel hard done by, but most people who are going to vote will have done so by now.

I also reckon if an author has posted anonymously, been asked to revised, and totally ignored us they ought to be spiked.

Thanks

Dave



Abuse (none / 0) (#106)
by jdoe on Fri Dec 30, 2005 at 10:08:19 PM PST
The current policy of still posing articles that were voted against (to "Section Stories. The stories that didn't quite make it to the Front Page...") is being abused:
http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2005/12/28/64738/143
http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2005/12/28/3383/6860
It's wrong to make these articles public because it encourages more abuse. All these spamers want is to link-spam.
The loss is not in just letting site visitors see this spam, but also in damaging sciscoop's page rank with google. Sciscoop turns into spamer's link farm.



Problem with current thresholds (none / 0) (#111)
by jdoe on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 10:21:58 AM PST
The current thresholds seem to be too high:
  • Post threshold: 9
  • Hide threshold: -5
The story can get the +9 only if it gets a unanimous vote. Essentially it gives every voter a veto power which does not seem right. Same goes for -5. The number of voting users does not seem to justify such high thresholds.



Earthquake Appeal (none / 0) (#114)
by sciencebase on Wed Jan 18, 2006 at 08:19:43 AM PST
I've been rather a fan of Peter Gabriel for longer than I care to remember (first year high school at least and that's long while back). Anyway, I just received a mailing from his mailing list offering subscribers a couple of great music downloads in exchange for a quid (that's less than $2) all of which will be given to the Asia Earthquake Appeal. As such, I've displaced the Dell newsletter ad for the time being and encourage SciScoop visitors to follow the appeal banner, make their donation, and get some fantastic music into the bargain! Just my little bit for chariddeee



can't submit story? (none / 0) (#116)
by Sweetwind on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 12:18:52 PM PST
I was just trying to post a story (fascinating news about mountain building!) and from the preview page, whether I hit preview again or submit, it takes me back to the SciScoop main page.



Updates (none / 0) (#120)
by sciencebase on Tue Feb 21, 2006 at 05:58:12 AM PST
Hi I've commented out the long, boring list of science news sources that no one seems to use for SciScoop stories anyway. If anyone has any strong objections I may create a new special page to carry it and allow logged in users to see that page in the menu. I've also hacked out the SciScoop Scoop box so that you only see it if you're logged in and reinstated Google Adsense on the homepage in the hope of covering costs! Thanks for your continued support, please feel free to post science news stories any time!!! db

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



  • Again? by pythor, 02/22/2006 08:55:31 AM PST (none / 0)
Links Page? (none / 0) (#123)
by Drifter855 on Wed Feb 22, 2006 at 04:22:24 PM PST
Why not put the links on the links page? Then people can get to them but they won't be an eyesore. I like having the links because there's some sites I forget about that I can fall back on for research.



New Links Page (none / 0) (#127)
by sciencebase on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 01:07:32 AM PST
Okay. I've created a new page http://www.sciscoop.com/special/science-news-sources. which contains the links to more than 300 science news sources. If anyone fancies checking they all still work, feel free, just let me know if there are any cobWebs and I'll remove them. The list is now available to everyone whether they're logged in or not. I've added a link to it on the links page, which is accessible from the upper menu bar, by clicking the word Links (obviously, hah!).

Thanks

Dave

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



Queue Digest (none / 0) (#128)
by sciencebase on Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 11:09:31 AM PST
With janra's (much appreciated) assistance, we've now got a new user option that allows you to choose to receive a summary of the voting queue by email.

To enable the queue digest login in and visit the user interface page

http://www.sciscoop.com/my/prefs/Interface

and check the box  "Queue Digest"

If enough people suggest this should be enabled by default then I'll toggle it so that you have to opt out not to receive the voting queue by email.

Let me know how it works out

Thanks

db

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



End of an Edition (none / 0) (#134)
by sciencebase on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 10:14:11 AM PST
This Edition Of Soapbox Is Hereby Closed I've kind of let this one overrun a little, but AP prompted me a week or so ago and I finally dug out Ricky's instructions on how to do this, so here we go. Fingers crossed and all that. You will want to do a few things to keep up with us: Go to the top of this very page and click the -Hotlist link (visible to you if you are a SciScoop member) Click on Site News on the main menu bar to get to the new Soapbox Click on the +Hotlist link on the new Soapbox page (visible to you if you are a SciScoop member) and we'll see you there!

For more of David's work check out his personal Science News site.



Soapbox April 05 - 06 | 124 comments (124 topical, 0 hidden)

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