Orchid Article System on RVO

[Brutal_Dreamer]

As many of you know, I have been busy working on some software updates for the past two or three weeks. I am at the BETA stage with an article system that I feel is going to really help organize the knowledge found here on OrchidTalk so that members and visitors to the site can find the information they need quickly and with some guarantee that the information is accurate.

What does this mean to all of us? Well, it means that we will be the authors of articles on orchid growing and cultivation. The articles are arranged in three main sections and have sub-categories within each section. When you have something you would like to share as an article, you will simply add that information under the correct heading by selecting where the article will be published.

As articles are added, I am asking our senior members here to help me validate the information being posted. At the present time, I have given all members access to publish an article. I will most likely update the permissions allowing only members with 200+ posts to publish articles since the spammers out there are not likely to participate in the forum with that many posts and the members who do post that often will probably have lots of experience to share in articles. The same terms and conditions of the site apply to articles.

The hard part of the article system is that of formating. I have posted an article about formating and adding an image to your article, but it is not easy. There is a WYSIWYG window to make text formating EASY! The only difficult part comes in the addition of images, charts, graphs, etc...

That being said, until I am able to program a way for photos to be uploaded like in the regular forum, I am more than happy to help you format your article. Please PM me for my email address and you can send me a word attachment or text file along with your images. I will format the HTML source code for you and send you a text file that you can copy and past into the article system and publish that will have your desired format.

Most people should be able to use this without issue, but for those that do struggle, I am glad to help. I suspect many of our computer savvy members will also agree to help. That is just the kind of place OrchidTalk is - full of members who help each other in all kinds of ways!

Here is the link to the article system here at OrchidTalk. You can also find the link on the lobby page in the navigation section, directly under the Horoscope link.

Feel free to post an article. If you have any troubles, please PM me and I will do my best to help!

Cheers,
BD

[Piper]

That should be a nice feature! I'm sure there was a ton of behind-the-scenes work involved to get it up and running. Thanks for your work on our behalf, Bruce!

McAppreciative

[Brutal_Dreamer]

That should be a nice feature! I'm sure there was a ton of behind-the-scenes work involved to get it up and running. Thanks for your work on our behalf, Bruce!

McAppreciative

Thank you, Julie. I still have some tweaking to do to it, but for the most part it is ready to go. I hope some of you (when you have time) will help populate the article library. I have several ideas, but haven't put anything together yet.

Cheers,
BD

[Mehera]

Hey, that's pretty fancy Bruce! Gonna take a lot of exploring, and I'll have to admit the formatting/code stuff is a bit intimidating to me. But if I ever develop something to SAY in an article, I'll give it a go!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hey, that's pretty fancy Bruce! Gonna take a lot of exploring, and I'll have to admit the formatting/code stuff is a bit intimidating to me. But if I ever develop something to SAY in an article, I'll give it a go!

Thanks Lynda! Please remember that regular text formating is exactly like it is here in the forum. Easy; just like replying to a post or posting a thread. And any photos, charts, graphs, whatever you need put into the article can be accomplished with a little effort. I am happy to help anyone with that formating, so please don't let it stop you from trying!

Our senior members here have lots of information to share and this is a way to organize it so that it will benefit all.

I really hope, with a bit more programming, I will be able to make the image stuff a non issue. (Actually right now it is easy to upload an image, but placing it within your text is a bit difficult. It will post the images at the top of the article with a simple click on the upload file link. So, really, unless someone wants to have inline images, it is actually just as easy to use as a regular forum post.)

Good luck!

Cheers,
BD

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Well, now it is EASY to post a photo within your article. I have finally finished the inline image function. I just published a short article on how to use the function. It is just as easy as uploading an image to the forum and placing it in your post! I hope many of you with lots of growing knowledge will find some time to put your thoughts together and publish an article or five. heheheheh... Good luck and let me know if you need more directions or clarification on how to use the system.

Cheers,
BD