FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the NewsWire? (tab on top of page) -- It's where Agonist members post the news we don't want each other to miss! See Sean-Paul's post: About Our NewsWire.

How do I log in? Enter your user name and password. (If you have never registered, there is a "Create new account" link in the Login section on the left hand side of the front page.)

What does logging in do for me? Logging in lets you:
- post news articles, diary entries, and comments
- see since your last visit what article posts and comments are new (unread)
- see and send private messages to and from other users
- bookmark articles and comments
- set your own custom display options, for comments, etc.
- use buddy lists (and flag unread posts by "buddies")

How do I post a news article to the NewsWire?
- Click on the post! news article link in your left hand user menu, and enter the information asked for in the form. (Watch Jay's video tutorial!)
- Our Geography help tells you which countries go with which geography topics, in the post news pull-down menu.
- Paste your news article excerpt in the "Body" text box. (For copyright reasons, please don't re-post full articles). If you want to control where the break goes between intro copy (teaser) and extended copy, type < !--break-- > (without the spaces). Otherwise, after 600 characters the break will automatically be placed.
- Your news article will appear in the NewsWire section (tab on top of page). An editor may also promote it to the Front Page. Only use the "post! news article" form for actual news articles. For opinion, commentary, or analysis articles, please post them in your diary (using the "post diary or opinion" link). Opinion pieces will be removed from the NewsWire.
- HTML: You do not have to use HTML codes to post a news article. The Agonist post news form does it all for you. (If you also want to use HTML, you can. Here is a thread with some HTML tips.)
How do I post a diary entry or opinion piece? Just use the post! diary or opinion form (the link is in your left hand menu). Use your diary for personal writings, and also to post excerpts from published articles that are opinion, commentary, analysis, or editorial pieces. (For copyright reasons, please don't re-post full articles).

If you want to control where the break goes between intro copy (teaser) and extended copy, type < !--break-- > (without the spaces). Otherwise, after 600 characters the break will automatically be placed.

Your diary entry will appear in the Diaries section (tab on top of page). An editor may also promote it to the Front Page.

HTML: You do not have to use HTML codes to post a diary entry. If you want to use HTML, here is a thread with some HTML tips.

Where is the discussion? Here is the link to the latest comments. The link is also in the "latest" menu at the top of the left hand bar of the page.

How can I see whether there are new replies to my posts or comments? On the posts (all types) page, click the tab at the top called "my recent posts". ( Another way to see them is in the "my account" link in your user menu. Then click the "Track" tab at the top of the screen.)

Where is a list of registered users? Here is the User List. It shows the users who have been on most recently, at the top of the list.

How can I follow all posts by a specific user? Find their user name in a post (or go to the User List. Click on their user name, and then on the tab at the top of the screen that says "track"

How do I add users to my buddy list? Find their user name in a post (or go to the User List.) Click on their user name, and then at the bottom of the page click on the "add (user) to my buddy list" link.

My question isn't answsered here, what should I do? Post it as a comment to this thread, or in the Agonist Site Issues Forum.

Still have questions? Post them as comments to this thread, and we will answer them.

quiet Bill February 15, 2007 - 10:10am

printer friendly version |

Posting Comments: Replying to original post, versus to a comment

If you want to reply to the original post, use the "Post New Comment" form at the bottom of the page.

If you want to reply to a comment, click "reply" under that comment. Your reply will nest nicely under the comment you are replying to.

quiet Bill March 4, 2006 - 4:20pm

Comments, Private Messaging, and other features

See Sean-Paul's post:

Posting Comments, Private Messaging, and Exploring the new Agonist Site

quiet Bill March 4, 2006 - 5:58pm

Posting News Articles: More tips

* If selecting multiple topics (with control-click), remember to also unselect "Miscellany" or it will also stay selected by default.

* You can edit your own story. The edit tab is on the top of the screen

* To create extra skipped lines (for those who use HTML) use < br > (without the spaces). (NOTE: you do NOT have to use any HTML to skip a regular line, it will happen automatically.)

quiet Bill March 5, 2006 - 4:51am

Posting links and HTML etc made easy: BBCodeXtra FireFox Add-on

For those who want to add extra links, etc, ...

There is an add-on for FireFox that is great:

BBCodeXtra

neophyte February 14, 2007 - 12:10am

What Bill did not mention is that your pic

won't load if it's on your computer. You must first upload it to a hosting site and then build the link to its address there.

Some pic sites that allow hot linking:

PhotoBucket

Image Shack

_{"Damn right it's loaded, it makes a lousy club."}

Rick February 24, 2007 - 1:46pm

question...

I have a pic (jpeg) for catslagging :) How do I upload it?

Leaftree February 24, 2007 - 11:03am

How to Post an Image

Regular way to post an image: an example --

To specify size: an example --

quiet Bill February 24, 2007 - 11:40am

You might also wish to place the image on the right

which would be done by adding style="float:right" to either of the image statements above.

Raja February 24, 2007 - 12:14pm

How about a couple of paragraphs

of "back story" on the history of the Agonist in the FAQs?

Escher Sketch February 24, 2007 - 4:48pm

Thx

Thanks for the help everyone. Thx Man in the Middle.

Leaftree February 24, 2007 - 7:47pm

Re: "Signature"

How can I both reduce font size and italicise an appended "signature"
to my Comment box? I tried mucking about with conventional HTML designators, and after submitting new "signature", it appears in the Comment box as an HTML-tagged phrase, "....."[size=8][/size]...is this correct, or...?

barrisj redux April 17, 2007 - 4:24pm

barrisj,

where "[ ]" = "< >":

Try [font size=-1] or -2 or -3 and then the [i] for italics. I use [sub][i] to get mine real small and ital.

You can test your coding in a comment here by fooling around with the tags and previewing, then copy the code that works, back out of the comment and paste it into your sig.

_{Regime Change begins at home.}

Rick April 17, 2007 - 6:01pm

Thank you for the helpful

Thank you for the helpful suggestions...here is first go -

[font size=-3][i]“les Etats-unis, c’est le seul pays à être passé de la préhistoire à la décadence sans jamais connaitre la civilisation…” - Georges Clemenceau[/i][/font size]

barrisj redux April 17, 2007 - 7:10pm

Well, that was a bust!

Well, that was a bust! Hmmm...

[font size=-3][i]“les Etats-unis, c’est le seul pays à être passé de la préhistoire à la décadence sans jamais connaitre la civilisation…” - Georges Clemenceau[/i][/font size]

barrisj redux April 17, 2007 - 7:11pm

Testing -

_{“les Etats-unis, c’est le seul pays à être passé de la préhistoire à la décadence sans jamais connaitre la civilisation…” - Georges Clemenceau}

Escher Sketch April 17, 2007 - 7:34pm

Awr, crikey...how did you manage that?

It's precisely the effect I'm looking for!

barrisj redux April 18, 2007 - 4:14pm

I took exactly what you wrote

replacing all square brackets with the corresponding angle brackets. But on my browser (Safari) the text doesn't change size.

Oops, no I didn't, I just looked at the source. I used [sub] but with angle brackets.

Escher Sketch April 18, 2007 - 5:16pm

Right, another test...

_{“les Etats-unis, c’est le seul pays à être passé de la préhistoire à la décadence sans jamais connaitre la civilisation…”...Georges Clemenceau}

barrisj redux April 18, 2007 - 5:59pm

Use "<" and ">" in place of "[" and "]"

I had to put the brackets in or else my comment would have been rendered invisible. Also, the close to [font size] is just [/font]. Again, brackets equal LT / GT signs.

_{Regime Change begins at home.}

Rick April 17, 2007 - 8:16pm

Test

[sub] [i]”I despise ideologues masquerading as objective journalists.”

- Bill O’Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 17, 2007 - 10:34pm

replace brackets by less than/greater than signs....

_{"I despise html exceptions masquerading as essential features:-)"}

_{"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," retired Gen. John Sheehan, rejecting war czar post}

nymole April 17, 2007 - 10:47pm

[sub] [i]”I despise

[sub] [i]”I despise ideologues masquerading as objective journalists.”[sub][i] - Bill O’Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 17, 2007 - 10:35pm

I always figured O'Reilly for a subbie.

- EOM

Escher Sketch April 17, 2007 - 11:10pm

Test

. “I despise idealogues masquerading as objective journalists.” - Bill O'Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 18, 2007 - 7:37pm

Another test

. “I despise idealogues masquerading as objective journalists.” - Bill O'Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 18, 2007 - 7:40pm

Another test

. “I despise idealogues masquerading as objective journalists.” - Bill O'Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 18, 2007 - 7:40pm

Thanks ES and moley

for helping me without the obligatory hair flip and rolled eyes I have to endure from my daughter as if html was intuitive.

“I despise idealogues masquerading as objective journalists.” - Bill O'Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 18, 2007 - 7:45pm

Brilliant!

Thanks to all for HTML insights and how-to!

_{“les Etats-unis, c’est le seul pays à être passé de la préhistoire à la décadence sans jamais connaitre la civilisation…”...Georges Clemenceau}

barrisj redux April 18, 2007 - 6:00pm

another signature tip

if you use < hr > with no spaces at the beginning of the sig you will get this line(below) to separate your sig from your comment.

Tina April 18, 2007 - 7:40pm

and if you just want more space between text and sig

use < br > with no spaces at the beginning of the sig after the sub

_{"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," retired Gen. John Sheehan, rejecting war czar post}

nymole April 18, 2007 - 7:49pm

Since I apparently missed the memo,

how do I get a selected portion of a post in one of those neat green (guessing the color, your poster is color blind) boxes like all the cool kids do?

“I despise idealogues masquerading as objective journalists.” - Bill O'Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 19, 2007 - 8:00pm

Using angle brackets -

[blockquote] text in here [/blockquote]. The resulting boxes are actually grey.

Escher Sketch April 19, 2007 - 8:22pm

Thanks, it's all grey in my world.

“I despise idealogues masquerading as objective journalists.” - Bill O'Reilly, March 30, 2007

Mark April 19, 2007 - 9:27pm

A little tip -

I have a text clipping utility called iSnip on the Mac (I'm sure there are tons of equivalents for PC).

I write frequently used HTML snippets only once and then I copy them to an iSnip clipping.

After that, every time I need a blockquote or to link text or to create boilerplate at the end of an article like this -

( ... Link ... )

- I go grab it from iSnip up in my menu bar. If it's say the blockquote tags, they both get inserted together wherever my cursor was - say at the beginning of my target text. Then I just select and drag the second part of it to the end of the text I want blockquoted.

Escher Sketch April 19, 2007 - 8:30pm

for firefox you can use

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/491

Tina April 19, 2007 - 8:34pm

Searching Agonist, or is this an oxymoron?

I remember having only moderate success on the "pre-Scoop" Agonist site when using the extant "search engine" whilst looking for previous entries: posts, comments, etc. Is there in fact a way today to search the Agonist site, say from March 2003 - December 2004 for selected material?
Since I changed PCs in 2006, a Google hard-drive search wouldn't do me any good, and I'm wondering if any gearheads in the community have any suggestions on how to approach true archival Agonist-site searches.

_{“les Etats-unis, c’est le seul pays à être passé de la préhistoire à la décadence sans jamais connaitre la civilisation…”...Georges Clemenceau}

barrisj redux April 30, 2007 - 7:53pm

The small advanced link under the search box works pretty well.

eom

Gordon April 30, 2007 - 9:32pm

google search examples:

barrisj site:old.agonist.org

barris site:scoop.agonist.org

If you find a old link to the bulletin board you need to use cache to see it. The bulletin board is toast. :(

A neat hint for searching the current site is:

http://agonist.org/?q=trip_search&keys=barris

Just C&P to your navigation bar

Tina April 30, 2007 - 10:20pm

Creating a Jump

How do I create a jump in my piece so I don't take up too much front page real estate when I post something longer? Thanks.

David Lublin May 17, 2007 - 5:00pm

Insert the following code:

Insert the following code: "< !--break-- >" (without the spaces, of course).

_{"Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity."}

Raja May 17, 2007 - 5:29pm

About pasted links being active

For a pasted link to automatically be made active, it has to have a blank linke after it:

Automatic link after a line
http://agonist.org/FAQ

http://agonist.org/FAQ
Automatic link before a line

In the second example, the link didn't become active because there is not a blank line following it.

quiet Bill October 27, 2007 - 8:42pm

Deleting Accounts.

How do I delete my account?

apsyhn December 24, 2007 - 4:58pm

Don't bother.

It's not as if S-P charges an annual fee or anything. Disappear, if you wish; else, lurk.

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

Rick December 24, 2007 - 11:58pm

I'm pasting the link

to the photo from Photo Bucket but the link isn't activating when I switch to Preview. Would I not see the photo in Preview before it's submitted?

ericbzx3 March 4, 2008 - 12:10pm

Your code

might be messed up, could you post what you tried to use.

Tina March 4, 2008 - 12:12pm

Another possibility -

If you are posting from a workplace or library, the institution may have photobucket blocked, in which case you can link it but won't see it until you're on an unfiltered network.

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

Rick March 4, 2008 - 12:21pm

I was going to save this for

Friday's cat slagging, we'll see what happens..

ericbzx3 March 4, 2008 - 1:04pm

How do I change my password?

Probably a stupid question, but I can't find any place to do it now.

varney October 10, 2008 - 1:54pm

go into "my account"

I think you have to enter your current password to change your password.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

nymole October 10, 2008 - 1:55pm

Never mind re password.

I just now remembered it's in the confirm email.

varney October 10, 2008 - 1:56pm

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