NEWSHOUND

[Stanley]

Couldn't find Heather's original plea. Can we have a rethink about 'helpful suggestions' from News-hound? I am fed up with the rapist headline popping up, waste of space as far as I am concerned. I'm quite capable of finding my own news thank you. Do we really need it?

[Callunna]

I don’t think we need it at all.
I have the BBC News page set up as one of the favourites on my default iGoogle page. I like to choose when and what to read, not have it foisted upon me.

Why waste valuable bandwidth?
The only thing in its favour is that it might help with SEO.

But what does anyone else think?

[Doc]

Originally I set-up the automated member "News Hound" which in effect is a RSS aggregation feature which drags in carefully targeted RSS feeds from other sites. My intention was to bring into the OGFB site a central point for all Local News, Job Vacancies, Events and other relevant local information for the other members both locally and afar.

Due to the initial outcry over it's postings it is currently switched off, so it does not post any topics in the various targeted categories within the forums. However I for one feel that once I fine tune it (Making it NOT show it's new posts in "Unread Post"s or "Active Posts") that it would be a good contribution to the overall site, giving the user the option whether to read the posts or not.

The way it works is to feed into the site the latest postings off other sites and post them in the various categories within the OGFB site where they will remain for 28 days after which they are automatically purged from the system. So in the long run it will contain a maximum of 28 days worth of news, vacancies and events etc.

For individual members there is a feature on the Board Index forum legend titles which depicts a "+" sign by the category name, When clicked on it will collapse that forum category and save your settings in the database, it will not reopen until you click on the "-" sign. Using this feature you can choose to close off a particular forum and it will not display its latest postings to you.

What I have to do is link the two features together i.e. if a user collapses a particular forum category then the posts within that category will not appear in the Active or Un-Read posts feature which many members use to see what's new on the site., conversely if the category remains open, it will show those postings.

Saying all that I will go with the general consensus of the members, and if they wish for it not to be deployed then it will remain switched off.

What say you all...

[PanBiker]

I take on board finding your own news etc. I for one don't buy a daily paper as I consider it all old news and someone else's opinion.

However, with the collapse listing feature and an auto purge I can't really see what the problem is. It's like complaining about rubbish on TV, you can always switch it off!

[Kingsley]

I have read some of the newshound stories and find that they are not really news.

[Callunna]

However, with the collapse listing feature and an auto purge I can't really see what the problem is. It's like complaining about rubbish on TV, you can always switch it off!

It’s not so much the News Hound feature per se - it’s the “Similar Topics” panel which appears below certain posts. In theory it should come up with a variety of related stories but, like photos in a certain category which shall remain nameless lest I’m cast as an evil wrongdoer but it involves chimneys , the News Hound articles tend to dominate and obscure any other stuff.

There may be a way to hide it in the Control Panel but if there is, it’s not obvious to bozos like me.

[Doc]

Like everyone else I'm still finding my way around the admin sections, with literally thousands of different settings to play with, but I'm getting there.

What I have managed to do regarding our old Mutt - NEWS Hound is;

Excluded the entire "Latest News Section" from Searches, so the posts will not show up in View unanswered posts • View unread posts • View new posts • View active topics or by using the site Search facility.

I have excluded the same posts from "Similar Topics" so they will not show up there.

So now (I Hope), the only way to access them is to go into the Latest News Forums themselves and read them from there.

I haven't touched the Latest Local Events in the What's Happening Locally Section. I have programmed News Hound to go and bring back relevent events for that section but haven't turned it on yet, Mainly due to the lack of websites offering that information in RSS format. But once we have some event feeds I feel it would be good for everyone to know what is scheduled on the events horizon from the various organisations.

[PanBiker]

I bet you are already on this Doc but the News Hound seems to still be doing what he pleases around the threads. Still appearing in Active Topics and View New Topics.

[Doc]

Thanks Ian, I'm on it

[Gloria]

I seem to be getting lots of jobs advertised by newshound on the active topics page.
Gloria

[Doc]

Is anyone seeing any new posts from News Hound this morning, A part from the actual latest news forum I changed some settings last night so that they shouldn't be displaying to anyone.

If you can't see them .... Great, if you can then please let me know.

[Nolic]

Doc, most of first page on New Posts is full of News Hound stuff. My view is dump the dog. Nolic

[PanBiker]

Active topics also has new posts.I quite like the job adverts which could be useful to lots of folk if they could be brought under control and restricted to the right area. News is News and available anywhere. I'll get mine from the BEEB.

[Doc]

Thanks Nolic & Ian

I've killed off the National & Global News elements we won't be having them back

The Local News I decided to keep, it covers BET, Craven Herals & LET only and I'll try and contain them to their own categories.

The Job Vacancies I like, but again I have to control who can/cannot see them in active/new topics.

I just instigated another feed in the "What's happening Locally" Area from WhereCanWeGo.com the info is relevant and current so I'm keeping this one, but allowing it to appear on the Active/New posts so folks can see what's happening, once the feed has dragged all the current events off their site it won't be updated that often so shouldn't be a problem.

Nolic, I haven't adjusted your permissions yet with regards to the feeds, you has a moderator come under a different section but I'll get it done today.

[PanBiker]

Seems like a better balance Doc

[Gloria]

I must admit to getting impatient at having to scroll down Newshound job advertisements. But keep at it Doc, I am sure you will sort it to everyones taste.

[Gloria]

They've gone-----thankyou Doc.

[Doc]

They've gone-----thankyou Doc.

Yipee... it took long enough for me to find out how to sort it

[Whyperion]

Couple of problems with Job feeds , they look useful , but they often cross post from each board ( not your problem its the way a lot of agencies copy/paste stuff into different jobsites , one which could be useful dont thing is their is Jobsgopublic , which is public sector and for real jobs ( again some of the agency jobs are somewhat vapourious in reality )