September 03, 2009

How Do I Suggest News Stories via LiveWhale?

An overview to how and why we can share news stories in LiveWhale.

The News is one of the most powerful and versatile aspects of LiveWhale. With it we can not only publish our announcements on our websites to inform those who normally come to us, but also bridge gaps between our groups by sharing the stories with other parts of Lewis & Clark.  (For instance, if the law school has a speaker coming who explores the history of the American legal system, they might want this to be shared with the undergraduate departments of history, political science, and so forth. Such a task is simple in LiveWhale News.)

First, go to Manage Your Content and click on News. Add a new story or open an existing one to edit it.

Near the bottom of the page there is a section appropriately called “Suggest this story.”  If you think someone could use the story in their News as well, you merely select their group name.  For instance, to suggest something to the Source, you would select “Inst: Source.”

That’s it!  Just be sure to hit “Save this story” at the bottom.

The next time someone from the group to which you suggested your story logs into LiveWhale, he or she will see a message at the top of the News: “[So-and-So] thought you might like [this shared story].”  He or she will then decide whether to accept your suggestion, but you will not be notified about the decision.  There are four things he or she can do:

  • Preview your story: see the content in a pop-up window
  • Link to it: drop a link to it right into the news area of their webpage
  • Copy it: duplicate the story content into their news, so they can edit it to fit their own needs better
  • Say, “No Thanks”: refuse the story as not relevant