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Member pages are changing in a big way. No longer static, these elements of the NowPublic community are now yours to control.The big additions are the Channel and the Dashboard. In a nutshell, the Channel is the "you" that other members see, and the Dashboard is your custom view of NowPublic.
Are you ready? Let's begin.
The first thing you'll notice when you navigate to your own member page is the Channel page: like all good channels, this one can provide a depth of programming for your viewers.
You can customize this page to show the world what you want them to see: your stories, your newsworthy photos and video, and also your stream, which is a real-time tracker of your contributions to NowPublic, along with any other RSS feeds you want us to see... Flickr, Twitter, your blog, whatever you want. 
You can share as much or as little as you like from your non-NowPublic web presence. Just click on "Edit" and you can customize any of these widgets.
Along the left of the Channel page are your vital statistics: user photo, total number of page views racked up by your stories, and how those stories have fared. Also visible are your external links, the topics you write about most often, and your recent comments.
Now that your Channel is lined up, you can go over to the next tab: the Dashboard. Think you can make a better front page? Now's your chance.
As the name suggests, the Dashboard puts you in the driver's seat of NowPublic. While the Front Page is controlled by a combination of page views, flagging, and editor curation, the Dashboard is all you: customize these widgets to keep your finger on the pulse of NowPublic. Each module can be configured to show anything from recent comments to a constant stream of incoming images, to everything in between. It's your call.
Simply click "Add new item", and a new widget will be generated. Want to change an existing widget? Click on the little arrow in the upper right and edit away. These can be minimized or deleted as well, also via the buttons on the upper right of each widget.
That's not all: you can drag and drop your dashboard elements until you reach a state of Dashboard feng shui.
Okay, put the Dashboard away and head over to the Edit Profile tab... this should look familiar, but with a new item: your toolbox. You can let the rest of the NowPublic community know which tools you use for your reporting: do you have the latest and greatest all-in-one superphone, or, like me, do you go lo-fi? Whatever you add here will become visible on your Channel page.
The Edit Settings page is largely unchanged, but the new format means less scrolling. Nice.
The Messages section has filters for which types of private messages you see, how you like them ordered, and, for multi-message actions, which ones you want to select or un-select.
Go forth and customize!
Play, experiment, and let us know what works for you (and what doesn't) in the comments section below. These new pages are in beta, so your feedback is important to us.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (70)
at 13:56 on April 3rd, 2008
Wow. Oh wow!
Jordan, they're gorgeous! Just gorgeous!
A big thank you and round of applause to the team!
Playing with these will be fun.
Oh, wow. That's a technical term, you know. ;}
at 14:10 on April 3rd, 2008
Great Job NP. Bravo Bravo are the stats all time stats?
at 14:22 on April 3rd, 2008
The front page stats are only from one month back, when we started counting front-pagedness. No doubt your real numbers are much higher, guys/gals.
at 15:06 on April 3rd, 2008
Wow! you gave us back all our stories! I like the "your stream" where you can track where you commented, etc. Is this all with Drupal?
What exactly do the stats represent? FrontPage stats? this is all just from one month?
What are "Members that recommended you"?
at 15:21 on April 3rd, 2008
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback. For "Front Page Stories" we actually only have one month of data... for the rest we've been counting data since the site started. Members that recommend you are the ones that have marked you as a favorite. (Now you can see who follows your stuff).
Cheers
Marc
at 15:34 on April 3rd, 2008
I have a couple of "ooooops" for you.
When I tried to set up my own Dashboard news feeds and choose specific members, I found that a member with two names couldn't be chosen. Let's use Edmund Jenks or Barry Artiste as an example. Plus, there's a bug with the drop-down menu.
Start typing in the name of the member you want to add to your Dashboard. Matching names start showing up in the drop-down menu, which is cool.
However, when you fully type in the member's name, or just click on it in the drop-down menu, the drop-down menu won't go away! Luckily, the button sticks out a bit beyond the drop-down.
When you choose someone with two names, the system will recognize the name and cheerfully provide it to you in the drop-down menu. However, it will not allow you to use it. A message comes back that says that the user Barry%(coding stuff)Artiste doesn't exist. If you remove the space, which apparently is triggering the problem, then the system doesn't recognize the name.
Sometimes, when I've moved a module, it's taken a few tries. And sometimes the moved module duplicates itself and stacks up--you can see the edges on the bottom like a deck of cards. Then when I went away and came back, sometimes the little stack was just one, and sometimes the module then duplicated below the first one.
Whew!
In general, I'm still having problems with posting replies--the box just locks up. My work-around has been to solve the math problem, hit "post comment" then the system sternly reprimads me that I need to have text in a reply. Then it allows me to type in a comment. ;}
at 15:39 on April 3rd, 2008
Thanks PEP, we'll get on that...
at 07:57 on April 4th, 2008
PEP will find the bugs. Shouldn't you be working for Orkin (sp)
at 09:49 on April 5th, 2008
Find bugs? Sure thing? Do anything about 'em? My approach to that is the same as discovering housework that needs to be done. ;}
My tip jar won't show up! It never has!
at 10:58 on April 5th, 2008
Hey PEP,
I checked your Tip Jar, and I can see it but the link to paypal seems to have been corrupted somehow. I'll follow up on that.
at 11:22 on April 5th, 2008
Thanks! Am I supposed to be able to see it? Because I never have.
Am I supposed to enter my user name @ PayPal or my email address @ PayPal? I've tried both.
Appreciate your looking at this.
at 08:27 on April 7th, 2008
Now that I have your attention, I'm here with my begging bowl. :)
Things that are driving me nuts: when the system won't allow me to input a comment until I reload the page a few times. Ditto on editing a story already in place.
And oh, puh-leeze, with ads, don't allow the cruddy ones with bright flashing colors and flashing lights. They cause headaches and all kinds of things. Please?
Can I bribe you with home-made muffins? Er, excuse me, may I gift you with baked goods in an exchange of sharing?
at 06:36 on April 11th, 2008
The frozen text box is actually unrelated to the member pages, though it's definitely driving us nuts. We can indeed fix this, but it will take a bit of time and testing.
at 07:42 on April 9th, 2008
How's it going? A reader tried to use my tip jar, and the only thing that happened was that the page went into a "refresh" cycle. :(
at 13:25 on April 5th, 2008
I'd like to be able to click on name choices, too. As it is, I just mouse over the selection and hit Enter, Return or Tab, and that does the job.
When moving Dashboard widgets, Safari and Firefox seem more tolerant of placement than Internet Explorer, which seems to make the widget target location behave like a shoe that isn't broken in yet...
- reply
Vinnyat 17:28 on April 3rd, 2008
Looks good!
at 21:36 on April 3rd, 2008
Cool!
at 22:25 on April 4th, 2008
NP 2.0!
at 19:58 on April 5th, 2008
Is there a leaderboard for number of views, good stories, and all those other statistics? It would be cool to see who gets the most traffic.
at 01:03 on April 6th, 2008
Hey BigT, good call, we're working on it.
at 10:19 on April 6th, 2008
May I contribute another point of view? With the new home pages, I can visit anyone's column and see this information, any time.
I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a "Leaderboard" because it seems so very very competitive. I see NP--for me at least--as collaborative, collegial, and one of teamwork vs. "who can be on top."
Sure, there are only so many front page slots, and it's nice to get there. But there's a depth and breadth to NP that I think might be obscured if there was a public Leaderboard announcing "who's who."
I understand this may be a contrarian view. ;} So forgive me in advance!
at 14:40 on April 7th, 2008
When I try to input the math question answer first, the edit boxes "B" and "I" buttons 'light up', and I am unable to put anything in the box. Have to reload the page several times, like Pep said, before the problems is resolved. Best to add your comment first then add the math question answer.
haven't tried Safari lately to see if NowPublic still crashes my older version. Can't get version 3.0 cuz i only have Mac OSX 10.3.9.
at 14:58 on April 7th, 2008
This took ten nimutes to get posted!
at 16:34 on April 7th, 2008
Yep. :)
at 14:57 on April 7th, 2008
When I try to input the math question answer first, the edit boxes "B" and "I" buttons 'light up', and I am unable to put anything in the box. Have to reload the page several times, like Pep said, before the problems is resolved. Best to add your comment first then add the math question answer.
haven't tried Safari lately to see if NowPublic still crashes my older version. Can't get version 3.0 cuz i only have Mac OSX 10.3.9.
Is not posting!
at 15:25 on April 7th, 2008
Hey, I miss the total members, and cities, and countries, in the Header! and it takes about ten minutes for my posts to post with the "wheel of death' continuing to circle impotently.
at 20:13 on April 7th, 2008
Looks good, I just got back from the Yukon this weekend, and went to Now Public, and wondered what the hell???
Course after farting around I figured it out, looks good and so much better than previous versions, though the Now Public Computer still needs Math Lessons, and that darn Good Stuff Flag has to stop disappearing. One more thing, and it may just be Mozilla, but when I go to make a comment, it will not allow me as it seems to freeze, but when I hit refresh, it seems to allow me to enter comments. Anyone have the same problem?
at 07:40 on April 9th, 2008
Barry, as Rene noted, yes, others are having problems. I've just been diagnosed with carpal tunnel in both wrists, and also am facing surgery for another orthopedic/nerve problem in one arm. Frankly, having to repeatedly do the extra work to load say, the "reply" box, click to position the cursor, it doesn't work, move the mouse up top to the reload button, hit, move mouse, position cursor, repeat, repeat, repeat--and doing the same thing when trying to edit is a real pain, literally.
Another problem: sometimes I try to leave a comment, and wind up with the big red box up top telling me I have to wait to submit another comment, and then a frozen workspace.
at 13:00 on April 8th, 2008
My Safari browser on my Mac PowerbookG4 OSX 10.3.9, is now finally working, but has a hard time loading comments, and when I went to do a Good Stuff flag, it didn't allow me to edit it, and took forever loading the edit.
I can't seem to access the Dashboard either, on Safari or Firefox.
And, yes, Barry, others are having similar experiences.
at 14:18 on April 8th, 2008
There's no button to just add a story! Finally found a way using Safari from the obscure 'What's your Story?" link in the header, had to follow a couple links to find the editor form(plain, I had to handcode the url.). When I added my story, text, headline, and photos, there's no "Preview", clicked on 'Publish' and browser now ten minutes later is still 'loading' with the 'wheel of death', in another tab pulled up FrontPage, and there's the story. Finally got Safari to access dashboard.
Will be checking Firefox later.