You may have noticed that we have a brand new Signs page. What you may not have noticed are many of the features now available to readers who create a Signs account. So, I'm going to give a brief explanation of how the site has changed so that everyone can get the mostest out of the new site.
There is now a "Login" link at the far right of the blue navigation bar at the top of the Signs page. **REGISTERING IS COMPLETELY FREE!!!** This link takes you to the login page. There is also a link on the Login page to create a new account. Please note that you will need to sign up for a Signs Page account even if you already have an account on the forum. You can use the same login/password as the forum if you want, but you will still have to register for a separate Signs account.
When you sign up for an account, you can enter a list of interests. Interests should be entered like this:
surfing, knitting, kung fu, building factories that produce miniature models of factories, stinky cheese
If you don't want to enter any interests, you don't have to. But if you do, clicking on one of your interests will automagically take you to a page that shows you what other Signs Readers share your interests. This feature is found on the "Profile" page. But first, you have to create an account. After you submit your request for an account, we will verify the account, and you will receive an e-mail with further instructions. Note that as always, none of your personal information will EVER be shared with or sold to anyone. It is strictly for our own records. You will not even be asked to enter a mailing address, telephone number, etc.
Once you're all set up, click Login, enter your login and password, and you're off!
Now that you're logged in, you will notice that the blue navigation bar at the top of the page has changed. The far right of the bar now contains these three links: "Profile", "Settings", and "Logout".
"Logout" is pretty self-explanatory.
"Profile" takes you to your user profile. Your Profile shows your avatar and allows you to upload a new avatar that will be displayed for your profile and on any comments you make on articles. It also shows the basic information about you, including your interests, if you entered any. Don't worry - nothing useful like your date of birth is displayed for all the world to see. Besides, only users with an account can view other peoples' info. The Profile page also shows your friends. If you don't have any friends, don't worry. When you see a user's comments on an article, you can click on their username or on their avatar thumbnail in the comment box, which will take you to their profile page. Then just click "Friendicate", et voila! Now you have a friend. Other people can Friendicate you, and your avatar will show up on their Profile page. Finally, the Profile page also shows you your Message Center. You can send any user a short message. Your e-mail address and their e-mail address will remain confidential.
So, maybe you think the "social networking" aspects of the new Signs page are cool, but what else does an account give me?
Registering for an account also allows you to comment on any article, Best of the Web article, or SOTT Focus article. The length of messages is limited, unlike the SOTT Forum here where you can gab on and on for the whole day. The idea behind Comments on the Signs page articles themselves is that quite often, our readers have some useful bit of information to add to an article. Sure, you can post it here on the Forum, but not everyone has a Forum account or reads the Forum every day. Sometimes you were there and saw what happened. Sometimes you read something relevant, or you have a hyperlink to a related article. On the old page, there was no quick and easy way to share this information with other Signs readers in a way that put the information right there, on the page with the article, for everyone to see instantly. Well, with Comments, all our readers who sign up for a Signs account can help contribute to the page by sharing with the rest of the Signs network.
Signing up for a Signs account also allows you to vote on articles. When you view an article, there is a vote count in the header of the article. Beneath the vote count is our voting system. The way it works is pretty simple: If you like an article and think that other readers would benefit from reading it, click "Vote Up". You can only vote once for any article, and you cannot "unvote". The articles with the most votes are listed in the right-hand column in the "Top Ten" section.
That brings us to the next topic: the "Settings" link in the blue navbar.
The new Signs page is rather similar in format to the old page, but there are a few important differences.
The new page is also more customizable. The main page shows the three latest "SOTT Focus" articles, formerly entitled "Editorials". SOTT Focus material is Signs of the Times original content. Next is the Best of the Web category. Best of the Web articles are those which are really good, but they aren't SOTT original material. Before the news categories, there's a "Recently Added" list that shows the 6 latest articles - of any kind - that have been entered. Last is the Latest World News section. This section shows the latest news broken down into categories, much like on the old Signs page. The difference is that as a registered Signs user, you can customize the number of articles per category that are displayed on the main page. Just click Settings, and enter the number of articles in the "Number of articles per Category on Main Page" field. When you click on the title of a category (or on the SOTT Focus or Best of the Web section headers), you get the same old article summary view. You can also customize the number of article summaries per page by modifying the "Number of article summaries per page on Category Pages" field under Settings.
Note that the Latest World News, SOTT Focus, and Best of the Web categories work a bit differently than before. On the old page, everything was created and posted onto the site once per day. On the new Signs page, we now have more editors working to enter news. Especially on the Latest World News categories, content may be updated frequently. As new articles are entered, older articles are pushed off the bottom of the list (therefore you may wish to show more articles per category as described above). To see which articles you may have missed, just click "More Recent News" in the Latest World News categories, or click on any section or Category title. So, every section on the Signs Page is more like a miniature blog - except that you still get the same SOTT Focus features and commentary! As we grow, we'll have more news being updated more regularly.
Finally, the Settings page also allows you to customize your style sheet for the signs page. Don't like the colors? Change 'em! In the future, we are going to offer approved themes that will be selectable with a single click. So if you don't know much about CSS, don't worry! More themes will be available soon.
** If you come up with your own theme, send us the modified CSS in an e-mail to sott(at)signs-of-the-times.org. **
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, let us know!
There is now a "Login" link at the far right of the blue navigation bar at the top of the Signs page. **REGISTERING IS COMPLETELY FREE!!!** This link takes you to the login page. There is also a link on the Login page to create a new account. Please note that you will need to sign up for a Signs Page account even if you already have an account on the forum. You can use the same login/password as the forum if you want, but you will still have to register for a separate Signs account.
When you sign up for an account, you can enter a list of interests. Interests should be entered like this:
surfing, knitting, kung fu, building factories that produce miniature models of factories, stinky cheese
If you don't want to enter any interests, you don't have to. But if you do, clicking on one of your interests will automagically take you to a page that shows you what other Signs Readers share your interests. This feature is found on the "Profile" page. But first, you have to create an account. After you submit your request for an account, we will verify the account, and you will receive an e-mail with further instructions. Note that as always, none of your personal information will EVER be shared with or sold to anyone. It is strictly for our own records. You will not even be asked to enter a mailing address, telephone number, etc.
Once you're all set up, click Login, enter your login and password, and you're off!
Now that you're logged in, you will notice that the blue navigation bar at the top of the page has changed. The far right of the bar now contains these three links: "Profile", "Settings", and "Logout".
"Logout" is pretty self-explanatory.
"Profile" takes you to your user profile. Your Profile shows your avatar and allows you to upload a new avatar that will be displayed for your profile and on any comments you make on articles. It also shows the basic information about you, including your interests, if you entered any. Don't worry - nothing useful like your date of birth is displayed for all the world to see. Besides, only users with an account can view other peoples' info. The Profile page also shows your friends. If you don't have any friends, don't worry. When you see a user's comments on an article, you can click on their username or on their avatar thumbnail in the comment box, which will take you to their profile page. Then just click "Friendicate", et voila! Now you have a friend. Other people can Friendicate you, and your avatar will show up on their Profile page. Finally, the Profile page also shows you your Message Center. You can send any user a short message. Your e-mail address and their e-mail address will remain confidential.
So, maybe you think the "social networking" aspects of the new Signs page are cool, but what else does an account give me?
Registering for an account also allows you to comment on any article, Best of the Web article, or SOTT Focus article. The length of messages is limited, unlike the SOTT Forum here where you can gab on and on for the whole day. The idea behind Comments on the Signs page articles themselves is that quite often, our readers have some useful bit of information to add to an article. Sure, you can post it here on the Forum, but not everyone has a Forum account or reads the Forum every day. Sometimes you were there and saw what happened. Sometimes you read something relevant, or you have a hyperlink to a related article. On the old page, there was no quick and easy way to share this information with other Signs readers in a way that put the information right there, on the page with the article, for everyone to see instantly. Well, with Comments, all our readers who sign up for a Signs account can help contribute to the page by sharing with the rest of the Signs network.
Signing up for a Signs account also allows you to vote on articles. When you view an article, there is a vote count in the header of the article. Beneath the vote count is our voting system. The way it works is pretty simple: If you like an article and think that other readers would benefit from reading it, click "Vote Up". You can only vote once for any article, and you cannot "unvote". The articles with the most votes are listed in the right-hand column in the "Top Ten" section.
That brings us to the next topic: the "Settings" link in the blue navbar.
The new Signs page is rather similar in format to the old page, but there are a few important differences.
The new page is also more customizable. The main page shows the three latest "SOTT Focus" articles, formerly entitled "Editorials". SOTT Focus material is Signs of the Times original content. Next is the Best of the Web category. Best of the Web articles are those which are really good, but they aren't SOTT original material. Before the news categories, there's a "Recently Added" list that shows the 6 latest articles - of any kind - that have been entered. Last is the Latest World News section. This section shows the latest news broken down into categories, much like on the old Signs page. The difference is that as a registered Signs user, you can customize the number of articles per category that are displayed on the main page. Just click Settings, and enter the number of articles in the "Number of articles per Category on Main Page" field. When you click on the title of a category (or on the SOTT Focus or Best of the Web section headers), you get the same old article summary view. You can also customize the number of article summaries per page by modifying the "Number of article summaries per page on Category Pages" field under Settings.
Note that the Latest World News, SOTT Focus, and Best of the Web categories work a bit differently than before. On the old page, everything was created and posted onto the site once per day. On the new Signs page, we now have more editors working to enter news. Especially on the Latest World News categories, content may be updated frequently. As new articles are entered, older articles are pushed off the bottom of the list (therefore you may wish to show more articles per category as described above). To see which articles you may have missed, just click "More Recent News" in the Latest World News categories, or click on any section or Category title. So, every section on the Signs Page is more like a miniature blog - except that you still get the same SOTT Focus features and commentary! As we grow, we'll have more news being updated more regularly.
Finally, the Settings page also allows you to customize your style sheet for the signs page. Don't like the colors? Change 'em! In the future, we are going to offer approved themes that will be selectable with a single click. So if you don't know much about CSS, don't worry! More themes will be available soon.
** If you come up with your own theme, send us the modified CSS in an e-mail to sott(at)signs-of-the-times.org. **
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, let us know!
