Feature Release: Posting to Current.com made simple -- [Current.com Blog]

@pjacobs51 -- the character limit remains the same (4000 characters), but we removed the counter. when you near the limit, a counter will appear letting you know how many characters you have left to work with.

Thanks!

Good point. A 'select all' button

I concur. I never have need for a select all button, but a groups feature would be nice.

@J_Jammer -- Another great suggestion. We'll add this to the very long list of things to keep in mind for future enhancements.

I didn't say it before, but I like the new things. It'll take a while to get use to it. It's good to change and adapt to it. So y'all did a good job.

I'll keep on thinking if there's anything cool to add but thanks for what we have so far. Current is my favorite place on the interwebs. Home away from home. :D

And you're welcome.

That it does...that it does. Anything to cut down on time so that posting a story and getting it to people will be quicker. ha.

You could also just keep lists of user names in a text document and copy and paste them into the share field, create your own groups. That way you can copy and paste 50 names at once, perhaps more, I don't know the limits in the program as to how many names you can send stories to at once.

Oooooooooolllllllllllllllllllddddddddd.

hush child.........................

@JulianCommongold -- Ah, I think I know what happened here. Some of the ads we serve have splash overlays that are initiated when you click on the ad unit. Is there a chance that you accidentally clicked on the ad, expanded the overlay, and then click on the "Post to Comedy" button?

If that's the case, you would need to exit out of the ad for the time being. We're reaching out to our partner to see if we can adjust the settings for this going forward.

Thanks for the heads up!

mario

Is that what you've been working on? I had my suspicions.

Re: Choose media and putting the URL in the body - the neat thing here is that if you put multiple URLs in the body, you'll see media at the bottom from more than one source, up to the first 5 URLs. So you could paste, say, three different links (maybe an article and accompanying blog posts about it? or several takes on the same story?) and at the bottom you'll see media from all of them to choose from. Try it!

yea i still don't get the URL part. i tried to post a couple of things last nite, but simply didn't like how they came out.

love this idea

@plusaf -- This one has been on my wishlist for a while now. We have some big things in the hopper, but consider it noted. Thanks!

@plusaf -- I forgot to mention...you should consider tweaking your email notification settings to only receive emails when someone comments on one of the stories you submitted, or in direct response to a comment you've made. This way you don't receive emails for ALL comments made on a thread.

Here's how you do it:

+ Go to you're profile > Click the "Edit Profile" button

+ Click on the preferences tab > Uncheck "Discussions that I'm participating in"

+ Make sure you have the box checked for "Comments on my activity"

+ Be sure to click on the "Save Changes" button

How is this different? Checking the "Comments on my activity" box will only send you emails for comments in direct reply to posts you've made (stories and comments). The "Discussions that I'm participating in" selection will throw you emails for every comment on a thread that you've commented on, regardless if it involves you or not.

Let me know if this helps at all.

Mario

@plusaf, I have noticed the same thing. As the box expands and I keep typing the cursor moves to the top of the box and I have to reposition the cursor to continue typing. It only happens on my Dell laptop using Internet Explorer 8. It doesn't happen using Firefox on any of the computers I use, only IE8.

hey once you post your story, click the 'share' envelope and you're good to go

You are so awesome. I owe you a cookie.

haha...every time I read it I laugh. I almost feel like stealing it to say it---and say it a lot.

I thought some of you might enjoy that. :)

You thought so right.

@Nettle -- thanks for the feedback. Here are some responses for you:

"2) I don't like that there isn't a designated spot for the main URL. This means that you don't have to put a source for something and it also means that we're going to have the link in the body of the story which looks repetitive and silly."

This was a decision that took a significant amount of discussion, but considering where we want to take the site, it makes sense. The idea is not to make the submission tool focused on any one type of submission, but rather allow for an open door for any type of submission at all.

We want to encourage community members to post. Period. Putting a specialized box dedicated to links did a few things:

-- sent the message that in order to participate you needed to include a link

-- added extra perceived steps to the workflow (we wanted as few boxes in the submission tool as possible when you open it, then as you add to your post it expands to accommodate you).

Now, this isn't to say that it's perfect. Some of the behaviors around the description links need work, and so there is perhaps a better way of displaying this going forward (like pulling the link from the description field after you select media, and then allowing you to dump the link if you change your mind).

This is round 1, we'll keep on improving it.

"3) I don't use tags anymore, but I do wish getting to groups was easier. I'm a member of so many and some articles belong in 10+ groups. I'd like to see a list of groups I'm in with check boxes next to them so I can just flash through and categorize the story."

This is a common request, and we're always looking into ways to improve the workflow. We'll keep it in mind for future enhancements. Keep in mind, once you're on the item page, adding groups is easily done via the dropdown menu.

"I like change, but I'm not sure if this is going to make that much of a difference."

Think of this in context of searching the web for things to post on Current. You find an article, you can either go the boring ole' route of copying the URL, coming back to Current, clicking "Post a Story," and going through the routine...

OR, you could shorten the URL like this: http://current.com/1ol2i4c (just type "current.com" before the "http://" of any URL), then when the Current bar appears, click "Post to Current."

Try it out with that link above and tell me what you think.

Okey dokey, thanks for the info! I also realize that I must have been hallucinating or something when I posted number 1. It doesn't make sense and I don't know why I wrote it. XD

Hey Nettle! In response to #3, I just wanted to let you know that there is still a really good reason to use tags! I, for one, have set up the Feminism group to pull suggested content from a number of tags like women, abortion, misogyny, etc. (you can see them all in the right rail of the group page). In fact, basically all the content I add to that group is through this mechanism. It makes finding content for the group really easy. If you haven't done this for your groups yet, you should check it out - you can add related tags on the admin panel, then check the box that says "Suggest content that matches these tags on the group page." So if people continue to tag their content, it helps groups find that content.

Edit: I forgot to thank you for your valuable feedback! Keep letting us know how to make current.com better.

And I totally get that and think you're right, but I'm lazy and I don't like putting in the time to tag something with a million subjects for each of the ten or so things I post every day.

I think it sucks....the stupid advertisement on the right sits on top of what you are trying to post (floater), and that is just a new low for current. Maybe this only happens if you have a lengthy amount of text to post, but it still sucks.

ALSO--you cannot send things out to your contacts, so the Infomania post mysteriously ends up at the top of the postings, and you have no ability to get your postings out to contacts...GIANT SUCK RATING CURRENT! Guess this is the brain child of the new CEO?