Curia in the CMS

[GrnEyedDvl]

Per some of the discussion here I created a section in the new CMS for the Curia. What I would like to see here is the Curator and assistant write regular articles about what is going on with the Curia. The Curia section has its own layout that has the latest polls from the Curia Vote forum and shows the latest posts in the Curia. Right now that's pulling from the entire Curia but if we wanted to only pull from the Proth or whatever we can do that. I am also open to adding other blocks.

If you look at the Curia menu section it looks like this:

The Curia
-----About the Curia
-----Citizenship


The Curia
This is the main section where are Curial articles will appear. Articles in this section can only be written by the Curator or his assistant and by admins. Generally admins will not write articles here. The current Curator can write what he thinks needs to be written, but I really would like to see something posted once a month at the minimum.


About the Curia
The Curia is a unique part of TWC and we need a good description of what the Curia is, what it does, and why it exists. This is a static page that can only be changed by me for now. Static pages are kind of a pain so I don't want too many people poking around with them just yet. If someone gets some good stuff written I will get it posted.



Citizenship
Same as above, but going into more detail about Citizen and Artifex and Civitate and anything else the Curators feel is relevant. This is also a static page that can only be changed by me.


Categories
I created two categories for the Curia, and we can rename these and have more. Just let me know how you guys think things should be broken up. The two current categories are:

New Citizens
Recent Legislation





Shank & Finch
As of right now you have permission to create articles. Its pretty easy to figure out. There are a few things you should know that I posted about the Gamer's Gazette inside Content, I will put that here for you as well. Just replace GG with Curia and you are good to go.

When you create a new Article, most of the settings you can just leave alone. Here are the ones you need to worry about.

Published - Yes or No
If you publish it, then anyone can see it. If you do not publish it then only people with permission to create articles can see it. This way you can start writing an article and save it but it will just be a Draft. If you select Yes but set it to a date and time in the future then it should show up as a Draft until that time hits and then automatically publish itself. I have not tested that but if someone wants to then go ahead.


Display Pageviews
Tick this one for now. I want to see how much traffic we generate without having to look at Analytics. If we decide we want to have that on all the time then I will set that as default.

Show Ratings
Tick this one too.

Section
Make sure Gamer's Gazette is highlighted.

Categories
You can select multiple categories, though for the GG and most publications you wont want to. You will see some options there, click This Section and you will get the categories that apply to the section you are in. If you need a category added just let me know.

Metadata Information
These are not required but you can enter a short description of the article and some keywords if you want. We should probably get in the habit of that since it makes things a bit more search engine friendly.

Leave everything else alone and it will show up on the Home page like it is supposed to, and also inside the proper Section.



There are two ways to create an Article. One is to push the Go button next to Create Article on every CMS page. It will automatically select the Section you are in but you can change that by just highlighting another section. The other way is to click Promote to Article on any forum post. There will be some formatting issues when you do that so be prepared to do a bit of editing.

The default length of the preview text is 200 characters. We can change that globally if we need to, or you can manually change it for each article by inserting a Preview Break in the article. That's one of the formatting buttons on the bottom row. There are some other new features there that you are not used to, such as the Page Break that takes an article and breaks it into Pages. Go ahead and play with those too. All other bbcode on the site should work but if you run across something that doesn't let me know.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Cheers GED.

Aik sent a PM to current/past Curator's which is floating round for a description of the Curia. I'll get a write up of Citizenship done at some point and post it here. As for categories I would either change Recent Legislation to Recent Awards, or add a Recent Awards category as well.

[PikeStance]

Cheers GED.

Aik sent a PM to current/past Curator's which is floating round for a description of the Curia. I'll get a write up of Citizenship done at some point and post it here. As for categories I would either change Recent Legislation to Recent Awards, or add a Recent Awards category as well.

I would like to see in addition to ....that is
Citizenship | Awards | Recent Legislation

My .02

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Citizenship Static Page

Citizenship and Citizens are perhaps the most unique feature of TWC. Other forums may have 'Premium Members', people who pay to be apart of the site, or 'Senior Members', people who have been a member of the site for a certain period of time, usually months or even years - in almost all cases members who have additional benefits over normal members. On TWC we call these members 'Citizens', and you certainly don't have to pay to be one! A Citizen is simply someone who has been recognised for contributing to TWC in some way, whether that be through modding or writing, being friendly or helpful, or anything in between.

Any member who has made fifty posts and been registered for at least 2 months can apply to become a Citizen - which is done by finding a 'Patron', a member who is already a Citizen, to post an application on your behalf and a small paragraph on why they think you would be a good Citizen. It isn't difficult to find a Patron, and asking around, for example by speaking to Citizens you may have seen or spoken with around the site, will often result in you finding a Patron in no time! When your application is posted the other Citizens will discuss it and will judge whether or not you should join their ranks. That sounds far more daunting than it actually is, Citizens are an inclusive bunch who want new people to be awarded - and often only a small number of contributions are needed. If that doesn't comfort you, bear in mind that the success rate for Citizenship these days are extraordinary high, and you are very likely to pass if you can show you've been a good member on TWC.

So why do we have Citizenship? There is a long history behind it, steeped in tradition I imagine most people reading this aren't interested in. Essentially it is a way of recognising and awarding members of TWC who go that bit further to contribute to the forums in some way, and to also encourage new members to perhaps get involved more than they were maybe planning as there is the prospect of the awards and benefits that come with Citizenship. These benefits include:

• A red Username to mark you out as a Citizen to other members
• The ability to customize your Usertitle (the text underneath your Avatar)
• Posting rights in the Curia, where you can propose and discuss ideas to change and improve the site
• Posting rights in the Symposivm, a Citizens-only forum where the rules are more relaxed
• The ability to stand for election in a variety of roles, for example Magistrates who help decide if the rules were correctly applied by Moderators or not
• And of course three distinctive badges to chose from that are displayed by your posts:
  
• Plus access to new site features before other members, for example the new Blog feature!

If you have any questions about Citizenship please feel free to post in this thread or PM the Curator.

Thoughts etc.?

[Navajo Joe]

GED,

Firstly a great idea, I like that very much

Shank,

A nice piece of work, what I really like is that it shows that anyone can be a citizen and that it not dependent on this and that, bravo well done

[Aikanár]

Great piece of work, Shank. Sorry for not replying to your and Genius' pm already. Will do so tonight

[GrnEyedDvl]

I added a Curial Awards category. I didn't want to just call it Awards as there are several types of awards we give on the site and I want to be able to distinguish between them in the categories.

I added the Citizenship text, its a great start. I think we need to expand on the Artifex/Civitate stuff and then something about various awards and how the Curia functions. Not hugely detailed but a brief overview.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

I imagine how the Curia functions will be tackled in the description of the Curia PM we have flying around. As for awards could that be handled under Curial Awards category, or do you want it part of the description?

I'll get something on Civs and Artifexs penned up when I get the chance.

[PikeStance]

The Curia is like California; a bowl of cereal of fruits, nuts and flakes, but its family. [/sarcasm off]

The Curia is madd up of the citizens of TWC. Its primary role is to recognized the contribution of the members of the Total War Center Forum. The secondary function of the Curia is to help promote a high standard of conduct on the forum for the enjoyment of all. The Curia elects citizens to important position to fulfill its primary purpose and more. In addition, the Curia also elects a magistrate to help ensure both fairness and transparency of enforcing the Terms of service.

Ok, its a start....

[GrnEyedDvl]

I imagine how the Curia functions will be tackled in the description of the Curia PM we have flying around.

Cool.

As for awards could that be handled under Curial Awards category, or do you want it part of the description?

When that category was asked for I assumed it would be for articles written on what awards were given out this month. The About page should just say "The Curia gives out these awards.." etc etc.

I'll get something on Civs and Artifexs penned up when I get the chance.

No rush.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

When that category was asked for I assumed it would be for articles written on what awards were given out this month. The About page should just say "The Curia gives out these awards.." etc etc.

Yeah that's fine. I wasn't sure if each category would have like a static about page as well or not, but we can get it included on the one for the Curia.

What you assumed is what I had planned for an awards category.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Posted an Article, let me know how it looks: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/conte...Report-Q1-2015

@GED; I just copied the settings you posted in the OP. I hope it has turned out okay.

[Veteraan]

Posted an Article, let me know how it looks: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/conte...Report-Q1-2015

@GED; I just copied the settings you posted in the OP. I hope it has turned out okay.

I just read it and I liked it. But I noticed that the links are not very recognizable. Only if you hover over them with the cursor, it becomes clear they are in fact links. I'm not exactly young so perhaps I just can't see the difference between plain texts and link, but I do have a pretty good monitor.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

That's a good point; I wasn't sure if GED wanted a consistent formatting style for all the Articles that appear on the page for cohesion so I kept formatting to a bare minimum. I'll see what he says before making the changes though.

[PikeStance]

I just read it and I liked it. But I noticed that the links are not very recognizable. Only if you hover over them with the cursor, it becomes clear they are in fact links. I'm not exactly young so perhaps I just can't see the difference between plain texts and link, but I do have a pretty good monitor.

You are doing better than me, I didn't even noticed the links

[Veteraan]

You are doing better than me, I didn't even noticed the links

Well, I assumed the Turtle in Purple would not have lost his marbles and decided on the context that there should be a link at certain places in the text.

[PikeStance]

Well, I assumed the Turtle in Purple would not have lost his marbles and decided on the context that there should be a link at certain places in the text.

I blame it on the cigar, I shall!

[GrnEyedDvl]

I just read it and I liked it. But I noticed that the links are not very recognizable. Only if you hover over them with the cursor, it becomes clear they are in fact links. I'm not exactly young so perhaps I just can't see the difference between plain texts and link, but I do have a pretty good monitor.

Probably a theme issue, which one are you using?

[GrnEyedDvl]

Posted an Article, let me know how it looks: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/conte...Report-Q1-2015

@GED; I just copied the settings you posted in the OP. I hope it has turned out okay.

I created a Curial Information category for general stuff like this, and added your article to that category. Its formatted just fine. I know there are still some theme issues out there though.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Thanks.