how-to

Over the past two days we've received a couple of comments, on different stories, by anonymous commenters. We regularly publish the comments of folks who wish to remain anonymous, but in these two cases I have held the comments in the moderation queue. I want to explain why, and then offer some guidelines so that people who wish to do so can resubmit their comments.

Are you more interested in some parts of this site than in others? Now you can be notified when there is new content you're particularly interested in.

You'll notice now that each post has a "subscribe post" link. If you subscribe to a post you'll get an email any time that post is updated or gets a new comment. If it's a blog post there will also be a "subscribe blog" option. That'll let you know whenever a new entry is posted on that blog.

More intersted in subscribing to a particular topic area? If you click on your "My subscriptions" link (under your name if you're logged in) you'll see that you can subscribe to categories (tags) or to content types. Want to know anytime something is posted with the tag "sex work"? Now you can subscribe to that catgory. What to know any time a new link is added? Subscribe to links.

We owe this new capability to Chris, who was apparently looking for something to do around 5am today.

Thanks Chris! 

Many thanks to Viviane of the Sex Carnival for explaining to me how she acquired for her sidebar the ever-updated list of news items on so many sex-related topics! I've adapted it for use here, and you can see a page devoted to "Sex in the News" if you click on the "New Feature: Sex in the News" item that has magically appeared in your navigation menu on the left. (That's the menu with your name attached or, if you're not logged in, that simply says "Navigation".)

It looks like this:

You can see the list of news topics there near the top under the heading "In the news". (They look like tags.) When you click on one, Google pulls together the most recent stories found using that search term and displays them for you on the page.

If you've visted your profile "edit" tab recently you'll have noticed that there is a place to enter your AIM or ICQ or Yahoo messenger user name. If you do this, your username will show up on your profile page and when you are logged in to your chat account that information will show up on your profile page, too.

There've certainly been times I've been online and seen that a member was online and wanted to ask a question about the site, for example, but we've had no way to do that except via email through the contact form on the profiles, which is not as immediate. I'm working on ways to help members of the site connect with each other, but it's important to me that you have complete control over how much information to share.

So, please only include information if you want others to see it. Your email address is always hidden from users and they can only contact you through the contact form if you've enabled that. But all your other profile information (passwords excepted of course!) is visible to all users.

Thanks to JanieBelle I was prompted to go drupalling to see if I could find a trackback module we could plug in here. I did indeed. You should now see a "Trackbacks" section when you create new content (blog entries, forum topics, etc.).

While I was a-drupalling, I also found a Technorati Tags module. So now, I think, the tags we create here will somehow mesh with tags on Technorati, and Technorati will be pinged when you create new stuff here.

Now, I'm no expert at this stuff. I'm learning as I go. So if you find something isn't working right, just let me know and I'll do my best to fix it. Or maybe I'll try to pass it off to JanieBelle ;)

If you used to have a photo attached to your profile you'll probably have noticed that it's been missing for a while. It seems the directory where profile photos are housed got eaten one night by the profile photo gremlins. In any case, the problem is fixed now and you can upload a photo to your profile. And if you've never had a profile photo, this would be a great time to upload one! (You do this by heading over to your "my account" area and then using the "edit" tab to change or add stuff. Profile photos can be no larger than 85x85 pixels and may not contain images that violate any laws.)

Profile photos don't show up with all your posts. Yet. But they do liven up your profile page, so have fun with them! 

If you create an account on our site you can make a profile so that other users can learn more about you. If you are logged in then you should see your name on the left-hand side bar. The first item under your name is probably "My account." If you click that link you'll see a page dedicated to your own information. Click the "edit" tab and you'll see options like "account settings," "biographical information," and "interests." Fill in any of the information you feel like sharing.

If you'd like us to add new profile questions, drop them in the "Suggestion Box" forum! (Then visit your profile page regularly so that you can add more information as we add new questions.)