ToledoTalk.com Posting Procedures
To post topics and comments, create an account, then login.
After an account has been created, a new user can post comments immediately.
A new user cannot post a new topic to the front page until the user has been a member for two weeks and has also posted at least five comments.
The reason for this is to encourage new users to read and comment in other topics in order to get a "feel" for the site. I realize some new members have been long-time readers, but I would think the reason why someone would want to create an account is to comment on existing topics.
This requirement is also meant to discourage the hit-and-run posters. Some people will make only one posting to the site, and it's a new topic, and they never post again. I believe a new user's first posting to the site should be a comment in an existing topic.Once the above requirements are met, a new topic will appear immediately on the front page of the site. No moderating of new topics exists at this time.
- On the page for postig a new topic, the title is required, and should be used to briefly describe what the post is about.
- If the post is in reference to an article on another website, the URL for the website can be entered, but this is an optional field.
- Then a category that best fits the topic is required to be selected.
- The message text can be as long as your like, but keep the first paragraph short. Hit the "enter" key twice to produce a blank line, which is used as a paragraph break. If you type more than one paragraph, only the first paragraph will be displayed on the front page. The entire text of your message will be available when the user clicks the More link, which will be on the front page next to the first paragraph of your entry.
"Previewing" your topics and comments allows you to double check your post. If you enter any URLs, check to make sure they work.
The HTML text allowed in your posts includes: web links
<a href=...></a>, Italics<i></i>, and Bold<b></b>URLs will be automatically linked.Examples of HTML usage in postings.
If you enter a URL like http://www.toledotalk.com it will automatically be turned into a link and will appear as http://www.toledotalk.com
- To bold text, you would type:
<b>this is bold text</b>(which produces) this is bold text- To italicize text:
<i>this is italicized text</i>(which produces) this is italicized text- Embedding a web link:
<a href="http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/about.pl">About ToledoTalk</a>
(which produces)
About ToledoTalkExample: Making a new posting
A couple of images showing how to make a posting about a news story and how it will appear in the browser:
(New topic form)
(This shows how the posting will appear in the browser. The title is automatically made into a link, pointing to the web page listed in the "URL for Title:" text input field.)
