rivertrish
08-30-2008, 08:50 PM
In using the Vivvo product, I have come across the following areas where I think improvements could be made. Please don't take these as criticisms - Vivvo is head and shoulders above any other publishing tool I've used. But you seem committed to improvements, and as an end-user, these items would be helpful to me. Some should possibly be listed in troubleshooting but, as I'm not sure, I am listing them here.
1. User-submitted articles. I have installed the plugin for user-submitted articles. Unfortunately, Vivvo does not allow for email notification of admin when articles have been submitted. As I cannot be online every single day, this causes a delay for when articles are approved and available online. An email notification would be enormously helpful here.
2. Other email notifications - would be helpful when people submit comments (to both admin and to author) and when new users are added to the site.
3. Proper display of author name - I have entered author's names correctly (i.e. Trish Gannon) and made the username all one word (trishgannon) as that function does not allow for spaces. When I post an article and select a username (i.e. trishgannon) the 'author name' shows up as all one word, instead of two words as the appropriate author name should be. The only way around this is to delete what automatically appears in the add article tool for Author - then it shows correctly on the website. This has to be redone every time the story is edited, as well.
4. Guest users. Because I sometimes publish press releases, where no author is to be credited, I have added 'guest' as a user. It would be nice if guest articles did not show an author bio box, as there is no author there. I'm sure I'm not the only one who publishes info online they prefer not to attribute to an author.
5. Article Templates- It would be nice to have the ability to choose between several templates for individual articles. Advertisers prefer to purchase advertising on pages where they believe there will be more traffic - for instance, on a specific author's articles as opposed to all articles. At present, I can only use one template for all 'story pages.' This flexibility in template choice (to be able to override the default with another template for each individual article) would be helpful.
6. Dates- When I enter an article with a specific date as the 'publishing date', it always shows up as the day prior. Currently, if I want an article to appear as being published on September 1, for example, I have to set the publishing date as September 2 - and then it appears as September 1. This is rather annoying.
7. Pending Articles. When I enter an article with a different date than the current one, then set the article as pending and save, it shows in my article list as active, even though it doesn't show on the website until the proper date. Because my website is only a backup to my print publication, I want my articles to appear with the date they were published in print, but not to appear on my website until after the print publication is out on the stands. Therefore I want to be able to choose the publishing date that shows on all article dates, and also to choose when those articles are 'live' on my site.
8. Related Articles- I am not sure that I understand fully how Vivvo 'relates' articles. I have kept up my end (as per the documentation) to cache articles frequently. However, when I look at an article, the articles chosen as 'related' seldom have anything in common with the articles published.
9. Default Styles- I use a particular style for almost all my articles - paragraph, Arial font, font size 12. That is not the default for the article template, therefore I have to set those parameters for every article I enter. It would be nice if I could set my own default for the article template.
10. Archive Date- I believe I've asked for this before, but it would be nice when entering an article to be able to select a date when that article moves to the archive, instead of having to remember to go back and archive articles.
11. Authors page- it would be great if Vivvo, or a plug-in for Vivvo, would automatically generate a 'page of authors' whereby people could go directly to an author, click on their picture or name, and get an archive of their stories. Many of my authors have a 'fan base,' so I have created this on my own, but it's very clumsy... a template would be nice. ;0)
12. Web links - I am a rank amateur when it comes to html, so this request might be 'pie in the sky,' but... as I said before, my web page is a support to my print publication. Therefore, when I enter an article, it's a cut and paste from my print product. That print product sometimes contains website addresses that I convert to links online. It would be great if the article manager would automatically recognize those addresses (by the www., http or whatever) and ask me to make a link, instead of me having to either remember there's a prospective link in a story, or scan each story visually for one... maybe even just a thing at the end of an article that says "related links"
Trish
1. User-submitted articles. I have installed the plugin for user-submitted articles. Unfortunately, Vivvo does not allow for email notification of admin when articles have been submitted. As I cannot be online every single day, this causes a delay for when articles are approved and available online. An email notification would be enormously helpful here.
2. Other email notifications - would be helpful when people submit comments (to both admin and to author) and when new users are added to the site.
3. Proper display of author name - I have entered author's names correctly (i.e. Trish Gannon) and made the username all one word (trishgannon) as that function does not allow for spaces. When I post an article and select a username (i.e. trishgannon) the 'author name' shows up as all one word, instead of two words as the appropriate author name should be. The only way around this is to delete what automatically appears in the add article tool for Author - then it shows correctly on the website. This has to be redone every time the story is edited, as well.
4. Guest users. Because I sometimes publish press releases, where no author is to be credited, I have added 'guest' as a user. It would be nice if guest articles did not show an author bio box, as there is no author there. I'm sure I'm not the only one who publishes info online they prefer not to attribute to an author.
5. Article Templates- It would be nice to have the ability to choose between several templates for individual articles. Advertisers prefer to purchase advertising on pages where they believe there will be more traffic - for instance, on a specific author's articles as opposed to all articles. At present, I can only use one template for all 'story pages.' This flexibility in template choice (to be able to override the default with another template for each individual article) would be helpful.
6. Dates- When I enter an article with a specific date as the 'publishing date', it always shows up as the day prior. Currently, if I want an article to appear as being published on September 1, for example, I have to set the publishing date as September 2 - and then it appears as September 1. This is rather annoying.
7. Pending Articles. When I enter an article with a different date than the current one, then set the article as pending and save, it shows in my article list as active, even though it doesn't show on the website until the proper date. Because my website is only a backup to my print publication, I want my articles to appear with the date they were published in print, but not to appear on my website until after the print publication is out on the stands. Therefore I want to be able to choose the publishing date that shows on all article dates, and also to choose when those articles are 'live' on my site.
8. Related Articles- I am not sure that I understand fully how Vivvo 'relates' articles. I have kept up my end (as per the documentation) to cache articles frequently. However, when I look at an article, the articles chosen as 'related' seldom have anything in common with the articles published.
9. Default Styles- I use a particular style for almost all my articles - paragraph, Arial font, font size 12. That is not the default for the article template, therefore I have to set those parameters for every article I enter. It would be nice if I could set my own default for the article template.
10. Archive Date- I believe I've asked for this before, but it would be nice when entering an article to be able to select a date when that article moves to the archive, instead of having to remember to go back and archive articles.
11. Authors page- it would be great if Vivvo, or a plug-in for Vivvo, would automatically generate a 'page of authors' whereby people could go directly to an author, click on their picture or name, and get an archive of their stories. Many of my authors have a 'fan base,' so I have created this on my own, but it's very clumsy... a template would be nice. ;0)
12. Web links - I am a rank amateur when it comes to html, so this request might be 'pie in the sky,' but... as I said before, my web page is a support to my print publication. Therefore, when I enter an article, it's a cut and paste from my print product. That print product sometimes contains website addresses that I convert to links online. It would be great if the article manager would automatically recognize those addresses (by the www., http or whatever) and ask me to make a link, instead of me having to either remember there's a prospective link in a story, or scan each story visually for one... maybe even just a thing at the end of an article that says "related links"
Trish