1. Who can submit announcements?
Anyone with a valid Realm ID (the login ID that is used to access most campus resources) can submit announcements. However, an announcement is only displayed in a particular area is the announcement is approved by the person who manages that area.
2. How can I get my own area?
If you have an NC State Unity ID and would like a TownCrier area, you can request one at any time by using the "request area" link. If your request is approved, you will then be able to post news, seminars, and calendar events directly into your area.
3. How do I show the announcements or seminars in an area on my webpage?
Area administrators have the ability to display the contents of their TownCrier areas on their website. For more information, please visit the guide for showing announcement or seminar listings on a website.
4. Who can submit announcements to my areas?
Anyone who has submitted an announcement can submit an announcement to areas you manage; however, as an area manager, you have the choice of either approving, editing, or declining the announcement. You have complete control over your TownCrier area.
5. How do I submit my announcement to other areas?
When you first submit an article to TownCrier, you will be given a list of all the active TownCrier areas. You can choose any of these areas and have your article submitted to that area. If you are an administrator of an area that you submitted your announcement to, your announcement will be automatically approved. Otherwise, your announcement will have to be approved by one of that section's administrators.
6. How do I administer my section?
As an area administrator, you are responsible for the content both displayed and not displayed in your area. In order to manage your area(s), you will need to use the "manage my areas" link on the sidebar. This page will display a list of all the sections that you have administrative access in. If you would like to edit the name of your section, turn on/off your area's RSS feed, mailing list or other complete other sectional administrative duties, click the name of your section on the "manage my areas" page. If you would like to view the news, seminars, and calendar events that you have already approved, click the number in the column labeled "events". If your area has announcements that have not yet been approved and you would like to approve or decline them, click the number in the "unapproved" column. If your area has one or more unapproved announcements, this number will become both bold and red to allow you to find it easier.
When viewing either your area's unapproved or approved announcements, you will see five columns of information regarding each post. In the first column is the type of each announcement: news, a seminar, or a calendar event. The second column holds the title of the announcement, while the third and fourth columns hold the Unity ID of the event's poster and the date when the event was posted. In the fifth column, there is a checkbox. Using this checkbox and the dropdown menu at the bottom of the articles list, you will be able to approve, decline, or set an article's status back to pending. If you want to view the contents of an announcement, simply click anywhere on the row that contains any of this information. The article will appear directly below the row, for easy reading access. This dropdown will also allow you to edit the article if necessary.
For a more visual explanation, please visit the "managing events" page.
7. What is a subscription and what areas can I subscribe to?
A subscription is a quick way of finding out what events have been approved in areas you're interested in. When you subscribe to a section, you'll receive an e-mail nightly about any news, seminar, or calendar events that have been approved in your subscribed sections. You will only receive one e-mail, so you can subscribe to as many areas as you want, without worrying about your mailbox filling up. You can subscribe to any active area that hasn't been marked as "private" by an administrator.
8. What is an RSS feed and how can I get one of my area?
RSS is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication". It is an alternative way for you to easily distribute your area's news. For more information about RSS, please read the following article from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55027-2004Mar13.html.
Setting up an RSS feed for your area is simple. Using the two files linked below along with your area's "RSS Name" found on the "Manage Areas" page, you will be able to set up your area in mere minutes.
First, save the two files rss.php and rssStyle.xsl to your department's root web folder (you may need to contact your department's webmaster for this step). When this step is completed, you can bring up your RSS feed in your browser window or RSS aggregator by going to: http://www.department.ncsu.edu/rss/RSS Name/
For example, the Department of Nuclear Engineering would have it's news feed located at http://www.ne.ncsu.edu/rss/ne/
If rss.php and rssStyle.xsl already exist in your department's root, then you can skip those first two steps are just point your browser/aggregator to the proper area.
8. How can I disable my area's RSS feed?
If you are the manager of an area whose news you want to keep private, you can disable your area's RSS feed by first going to the "Manage My Areas" section and then clicking the name of the area you'd like to modify. On this page you will see a dropdown box next to the text "Enable RSS". Changing this option will change whether or not TownCrier generates an RSS feed for your area.