What Do I Do When Someone Suggests a News Story to me 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.)

If someone suggests a story to you or your group, the next time log into LiveWhale, you will see a message at the top of the News: “[So-and-So] thought you might like [this shared story].” Depending on your settings, you may also receive an email alert about the new suggestion.

You have four options to handle suggestions:

• Preview the story: see the content in a pop-up window to decide whether it is relevant (this is a non-committal option)
• Link to it: drop a link to it right into the news area of your webpage
• Copy it: duplicate the story content into your news. This will allow you to edit the story, images, or tags to fit your own needs
• Say, “No Thanks”: refuse the story as not relevant

How you handle suggestions is up to you and your group. The person who sent the suggestion is not notified about your decision one way or another.

One final note: if you make a copy of a story, it will enter your news manager as a “hidden” story with the date it was originally published. Thus, you may need to scroll through your news to find the story in order to edit and publish it.