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uniNews Tutorial
So, you're either confused or curious about how this site works and how to use it. No worries. For those with a short attention span you can launch the screencast tutorial below which will guide you through everything. Or simply scroll down a little more to read the more static tutorial.
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What is uniNews?...
uniNews is a social news and bookmarking website where students decide what makes the front page.
Think of it like a newspaper, but with NO editors. Students submit links to stories. If other students like it, they vote for it. Enough votes and the story moves to the front page.
There are 2 distinct sections to uniNews: Popular Stories and Upcoming Stories
When a story/link is first submitted, it goes into the "Upcoming" section. Once it receives enough votes it is moved into the "Popular" section (i.e. the front page). You can view and vote for stories in both sections. It's a good idea to go into the Upcoming section as often as possible, find the hidden gems, and vote for them... otherwise everyone will miss out, because the stories won't move to the front page.
Aside from browsing in the Popular and Upcoming sections you can also browse by category: University, TAFE, Technology, Science, World & Business, Sports, Entertainment and Random.
Finding stories and voting...
Scroll down the page and look for those stories which you might find interesting. Click the title to visit the page (or right-click, Open in new tab, if your browser supports it). If you like it, go back and click the vote box once. The vote count will increase by 1.
Currently you can vote without registering, however this will only be temporary. Plus an added advantage of registering is that you can submit stories, your voted stories are saved in your profile... and thus when you add friends you can see what stories each of you liked.
To view and post comments on a story, click the link beneath which will say either "Discuss" or "X comments".
Simply type your comment and click submit.
You can also rate comments by other people. To give a positive rating, click the '+'. For a negative rating, click the '-'.
There are 2 methods to submitting a story...
1) Click the "Submit Story" button in the top-right. Open the webpage/link you want to submit. Copy the URL (page address) by right-clicking and selecting copy. Go back to the "Submit Story" page and paste the link into the URL textbox.
Now enter a title, relevant tags (separated by commas), a short description, select a category and click Submit. Preview the story and click Submit. Done.
2) Login, go into your Profile. Scroll to the bottom. You will see a "Bookmarklet" section. Simply click and drag the "Submit to uniNews" link to your bookmarks bar (or right-click, add to favourites). Then open the webpage/link you wish to submit, click the "Submit to uniNews" bookmark you just added. A new page will be opened with the URL filled in. Complete the other details etc.
To add friends, either follow a direct link to their profile and click "Add *username* to my friends". Or on any page, click on the person's username, then click "Add to my friends" and finally "Add *username* to my friends". You can then click "View my friends".
The advantage of adding friends is that you can easily see what stories your friends have voted for, what they have submitted, what they have commented on etc. So you can see what stories they liked (and chances are you will like them too).
To edit your profile details, firstly login and go into your Profile. Select the "Modify" button under the "Personal info" tab. You can then edit a range of details about yourself.
To change your avatar, select the "I want to upload my own avatar" option and click Save. Browse for your image and click "Upload Image". Done.
In some browsers the "New password" field at the bottom of the screen may be pre-filled. If so, you will need to manually delete this before saving.
You can also view stories you have submitted, voted on and commented on in your Profile. Simply select the tabs at the top of your Profile.
There are a couple of extra goodies which are fun to play with.
You can share and submit stories you like to sites like Facebook, MySpace, Del.icio.us and more by clicking on the "Add this link to..." link under a story and clicking the corresponding icon.
There is a section called "Live" which displays a real-time view of activity on uniNews. So you can see what people are voting for, newly submitted stories and new comments.
The "Tag Cloud" is another great feature which displays a list of all the tags used for stories. The most used/popular tags are larger in size. You can view the stories with corresponding tags by clicking on a tag in the cloud.
Want to see how you rank against other uniNews students? Checkout the "Top users" page which lists the top most active users on uniNews.
Be sure to checkout the "Quick Links" section in the right-hand column. It links to various pages such as Invite Friends, Tools & Goodies, Report a Bug, Send Us Feedback etc.
The uniNews blog will have regular updates on development, uptime and general news about uniNews... so please subscribe to the RSS feed to stay updated.
Also please send us your feedback. We carefully read every single response. So let us know what you think of the site.
And finally, if you have any problems, suggestions etc etc please feel free to contact us.
/end tutorial.... Have fun with it all!