New CKA News Links, frontpage

it seems for now anyway my dream of making the frontpage of this site a canadian news portal can't be. The news just isn't updated enough, i dont have the time and not getting enough member contributations.

also no one every comments on the new stories like on other sites, like slashdot or vivelecanada. forum topics on the large news topics pop up in hte forum though so thats good.

So i was thinking of a way to make the news better and make people want to check daily for news content. This is my idea, get rid of the current article system, and have just single line news topics that link to other news sites, like www.fark.com or www.jengajam.com does. With the catagory beside it and also an option for a link to related topic in the forum, if there is one.

This system would hopefully have many post per day, on a wide range of canadian news topics, including some wacky funny web stuff. But it will rely on members submitting links, but it will be easy and fast, no like submitting an article before. All you will need for the new system is a title, link and choose topic.

So what do people think? i need some feedback before I commit and start programming it.

That sounds like it might work a little better, Trev. It isn't that we don't discuss the news here, just that it happens more in the forums.

If you look at Vive le Canada (I'm not that familiar with slashdot), it is a site that carries primarily news stories that are related to Canadian sovereignty. They purposely seek writers to donate regular columns on specific aspects of that, as well as taking submissions and reprinting and linking to other pertinent stories. The forums are relatively new so most members are used to commenting on the stories where the stories appear.

This site, on the other hand, is much more broadly focused. It includes pretty much everything having anything to do with Canada. I think most of the regulars likely see it primarily as a poster board though, so we naturally comment on the boards here.

Sorry i have been gone for over a week, on a business trip to Poland. I will hopefully start this, this week

Well i just put up the first beta of the new news system. Its pretty basic right now, will be adding much more features.

But people can start posting now, and can comment on links by pressing the numbered link under the "C" Column.

come on people, the new News Links system has been i place for couple weeks now and I am the only one feeding it with links everyday, with the exception of RUEZ. He has submitted some good links, on his way to a contributor medal

This type of system only works if people contribute.

Just to let people know, people not realize that you can leave comments on news links, and discuss the linked news.

click the number link (indicates how many current comments there are)
to leave a comment.

finaly added the category pages.
on the frontpage in the far left column you can click the category to view links in that category, here is an example:

http://www.canadaka.net/modules.php?nam ... y&catid=14

fixed a couple bugs with the news links.

only members can post links and comment on links now.
increased the size of the comment box and added easy formatting (IE only)
link to posters profile fixed.

things i need to finish are page numbers at bottom, so one can flip back through more than 7 days or 100 links. ( the frontpage shows the last 7 days or max 100 links)

maybe a page with the top 10 commented links, top 10 visited links, ect.

I'm sorry, where is the link to review books? I saw Robair's link in the news section, but how else can you get to it?

its in th main menu under "Discussion" (expand the folder)

Also there is a link on the top horizontal navigational bar of the site, "Reviews"

Well the new CKA News Links has been up for more than a month, seems to be doing pretty good now, but it is still mostly me and RoyalHighlander submitting news.

only takes a couple seconds to submit a news link!

Also now that the system has been working for awhile what do you think of it? Do you check it for news? do you click the links?

Would be nice to see people using the commenting feature more.

i use the news links....i think others do too....i've submitted a few things that i thought were good topics....it has helped me to "seek" out the news....like a school project or something. (i am such a nerd

I am going to add more stuff to the news links, like a archive, to view past dates. and a top 10's list.

top 10 commented
top 10 hits
top 10 news link submitters
top 10 news link commenters

i guess i can add the total number of links submitted to a users profile page as well.
Already if you view a users profile page it will show the latest 10 news links they have submitted, if they have.

I also worked the sites point system into submitting links, so you get points for it now. I recently cleared all users points clean, but i havn't started using the points yet because there is a bug somewhere. some users are ranking up lots of points for not contributing anything, not sure how this is happening.