[Imc-web] Question regarding editing a post

[Mike Lehman]

Hi Jason,
Moving something to the Features sections requires you to have the
editing password. There is a feature that automatically creates Features
based on the article rating reaching a certain threshold, but we don't
have it enabled.

I think this would be a great feature, with a couple of caveats. Since
it's nearly two weeks away yet, it could migrate down the Local Newswire
for awhile and then we can move it over to the Feature section when the
event gets nearer.

In the past, we have used an informal policy of doing this with things
that were basically annoucements so that they get top-billing when it
does the most good, in the last few days before the event. We were
typically moving them to Features four days before the event.

However, there is another issue that is operative now that Clint has the
feature that takes our Features and automatically pulls them for posting
on the Global IMC Local Story Feature Newswire. I was going to bring
this up last noght, but I thought we already had plenty on our plate
then so I didn't, but I think that we may want to re-examine the policy
of regularly posting announcements as Features that I described above as
we have done in the past. First, we should at least continue the
informal policy I described for announcemnts because it makes little
sense to have something like that from here appear on Global until
shortly before the event happens. Otherwise, it will have scrolled off
there long before it can do any good reminding people about the event.

Second, I think we should re-evaluate and only post announcements that
have enough significant background info to turn them into full-fledged
articles, otherwise they look rather thin on Global. I think this is
really important so that readers from elsewhere just don't go "huh?"
because they don't have the context that a local person may already
know. Plus this would help attract more people reading it here since
this would provide plenty of reasons why the reader may want to get
involved. 

In the case of your article, it might be good to get some comments by
those who have attended past meetings with Johnson's people, which would
give the reader some background (including the fact that Johnson waffled
on the issue like he has a tendency to do when the elections are close
and then rolled over for the Bush plan, which will make this visit
different than those in the past), along with some background on local
efforts like AWARE, who will have some people just returning from
protests in DC on Jan. 18 when the meeting happens. And you can do all
this by editting the article yourself now, which, if it is made into a
Feature, you won't be able to do until we get you set-up with the
password (which is another thing we need to do at the next meeting.)

Mike Lehman
PS Since I began writing this, I see that someone else has gone ahead
and moved the sory to Features. I'm OK with leaving it there, but I
would prefer if we moved it back until four days before the meeting, as
we have done with many events last fall, just to be fair to all.