52 posts tagged “vox tip”
There are a lot of things that you can do to participate in Vox as a community member, and some of the most engaging are the daily prompts and the spotlight area for [this is good]. It's quite fun to see what the Question of the Day and Vox Hunt will be every day - this is something that I personally enjoy checking out each morning. I also look forward to every time [this is good] is updated (about 3 times a week, usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday), so I can click through and see what great content around Vox is being featured.
Voxers always have something to say, and the goal of QotD and Vox Hunt are to get you thinking and writing even when you log in and aren't feeling inspired. If the day's QotD or Vox Hunt doesn't move you, you can click the arrows to read through and answer previous prompts. The posts and photo featured in [this is good] can inspire you or help you make a new friend.
Where does this content come from? We get suggestions from you, our members, and these are looked at by the community team to add their own suggestions and pull it all together. Vox has a great deal of spotlight-worthy content, and we really love that our community helps us as the "eyes and ears" to point out the great things they see!
So how can you give us your ideas? The Home page of Vox has "suggest" and "submit" links in each of the prompt and feature boxes. Click on that link, and it will create a new private message addressed to the community team. For the QotD and Vox Hunt prompts, put your idea in the form of a question or statement that people would answer. Keep in mind Vox has an international audience and the questions should be open-ended (not "yes" or "no"). For [this is good], include a link to the item you are suggesting, and the reason why. Tip: If you want to have a record of all of the ideas you submitted, make sure you click the "Send me a copy via email"!
How else can you be part of the community? There are a lot of ways, really, but here are a few ideas:
- Add relevant tags to your posts and items. This makes it easier for people to find them. See All About Tags
- Explore the answers for Vox Hunt and QotD from other members. You might find some great people to add to your neighborhood. See Exploring Vox Blogs
- Join groups and add your posts to them. This is a great way to share content related to specific topics. See Adding Content to Groups
And of course, check out the Question of the Day and Vox Hunt to answer them as often as you'd like!
Have you shared suggestions for our community content yet? Share some of your ideas in the comments, and you just might inspire your friends to participate too!
-- Kristine & the Vox help team
[Comments are good].
It's such a fun thing, having people react to your posts and rejoice with your good news. We all have felt the excitement of getting a comment because it’s a great way to know that someone has stopped by and had something to share with us. There are opportunities to give and receive comments throughout Vox, on posts and media items such as photos, videos, books and DVDs.
One option that makes commenting even easier to keep track of is our email notifications, which let you know when someone has left a comment for you. From the notification email, you can easily click through the links to read more, see more about the commenter, and reply back to that comment. Read All about Comments for more information on our commenting feature.
Not too long ago, we added in the option to get notification emails when someone replies to a comment you made. (This was highly requested by the Vox community, so we were really excited to add this option.) So how does it work? If you want to leave a comment for the person who wrote the post, just click on the "post a comment" link. If you want to comment on someone's comment, click the Reply link next to their comment. This will make a check box show up that says "In reply to..." Once you click "save", it will visually indicate that it's a reply, and send a notification to the person you replied to. For more details on how this works, visit our knowledge base to read all about Leaving Comments.
Be sure you are signed up to get all of your comment notifications by going to Account > Notifications. There are two options for comment notifications:
-
New comments (comments left on posts or assets you've uploaded)
- Replies to my comments (replies that someone makes to one of your comments)
We'd suggest leaving these settings turned on so that you always know when a comment comes in! Read more about the options in the Account area.
The cool thing about the ability to reply directly to someone's comment is that it lets conversations be more dynamic. It opens up new ways to talk about the topic at hand, and you may find new people who have common interests because of participating in a comment thread together.
Now that you know about how this works, why don't you go and leave some comments for your friends today... and don't forget to try out the Reply option!
The Vox community has grown in part because of the great feedback we've receive from Voxers — that includes you! Thanks to your feedback, Vox has made many improvements over the past year since our official launch.
We continue to welcome all kinds of feedback. Your contact to our team could include:
- ideas for features you want to see in the future
- suggestions about improving features you’re already using
- reports of problems you're having with certain parts of Vox
Another reason why you might need to contact us using the Feedback page is if you start experiencing a problem or error with a certain Vox feature. (How frustrating!) Again, details are especially helpful if you are having a problem, because it will help us identify more quickly what you are seeing. You might be able to solve the problem yourself with a little advice from the Vox team, or we could discover it's caused by a bug in the system. Check out our Reporting Errors or Bugs article for more information on how to send in a report to us.
We always encourage you to search the knowledge base for more help on any area of Vox. To get to the knowledge base, click the Help link on the top control strip from any page. Then type in some key words or phrases into the "search for info" box and see what results pop up. Then if you still have a comment or question, feel free to use Feedback to let us know.
The Feedback page is the best way to let us know what's on your mind, and we love to hear from you. The ideas, suggestions, and reports you send in can help make Vox an even more user-friendly place to be. We consider and value each message we receive, whether or not we send out a personalized reply - we get so many that we aren't able to reply to each! We take many thoughts and opinions into consideration to better the community as a whole for the future.
Whatever you have to tell us, just know that we're happy to hear from you. Help the Vox community come together even more, and send that feedback on over!
Have you ever been out and about and wanted to add a post to your blog? Have no fear, Vox moblogging is here!
When you aren't near your computer, the easiest way to post may already be at your fingertips - a cell phone or other handheld mobile device that can send email. The Moblogging a Post article has instructions on getting set up. Then it's as simple as sending an email to your special moblogging email address, including text and attaching photos or videos to be added to the post.
Imagine that you're at the library, doing research for work or for school, and you want to let Voxers know how much fun you're having (or how slow-going the search is!). You pull out your phone and take a picture while wandering through the stacks for the right book, and you think that picture with a description would make a fabulous blog post. Quickly compose an email right there, and send it. You just might come back to your computer later and see that there have been a pile of comments commiserating over your experience!
Of
course, if your mobile device has a browser, you can also take advantage of the
mobile version of Vox. This is a version of Vox that has been scaled down for
better loading on small screens, with many of the same features you have when
using your computer to access Vox. See Viewing Vox with your Mobile Device
for more info on this.
Moblogging
at Vox is easy to do and you have the freedom to communicate with your friends
wherever you are. We want you to feel at home, in the comfort of your Vox
community: whether you're at the library, shopping at the mall, or on a road
trip across the country. Tell your friends how you're doing from your mobile
phone and make sure to ask them: have you moblogged yet?
One of the nicest things about Vox is how easy it is to view and share photos. Have you been spendingtime browsing and checking out photographs yet? There are lots of places to explore here if you are looking for a glimpse of some beautiful/cute/funny photos to brighten up your day!
When you are looking for photos on Vox, you can look to your Neighborhood or check out Explore > Photos or even browse some photography groups (tip: check out groups tagged "photography" as a start). Anywhere you see a thumbnail (a small version of any photo), click on it to see the bigger version where you can leave a [this is good] or nice comment for the person who posted it. You can also "View Full Size" on all uploaded photos to see a larger view. Learn more about what you'll see on a photo page in Introduction to the Published blog.
If you really like a picture you saw on one blog, you might like to check out all the recent photos by that Vox member. The navigation bar on all blogs has a Photos link to make it easy to do just that. This will show you a display of thumbnails with the newest at the top, and you can click through to any of them to see more. This works on the My Neighborhood and Groups pages, too, making it easy to see all of the recent photos from different sets of people you know!
When you see a really cool photo that you think all Voxers would enjoy, why not nominate it to be featured in the [this is good] area? Just click on the Suggest [this is good] link and paste in the URL of the photo you'd like to nominate.
Doesn't this make you want to add some of your own pictures? You've been inspired by other Vox members, so now grab those photos on your desktop and upload them to share. To find out more about adding photos, see Managing Photos which includes instructions for adding photos from outside sites like Flickr as well as other tips for uploading.
What is your favorite tip for finding cool pictures on Vox? Share them in the comments to inspire everyone to explore.
-- Kristine and the Vox help team
Since everyone's freaking out about spoilers lately (apparently there's a new wizard movie or something?), I thought this would be a good time to give y'all some tips on how to post them in such a way that will prevent your neighbors from killing you.
The answer, my friends, is to use Vox's embed functionality. It's not just for widgets and quiz results! When used correctly, you can put pretty much anything in to an embed, including HTML that meets your specific needs. In this case, some black text on a black background that will only show up if someone highlights it.
Now, I know what you're saying... You can just set your text color in your post to match your background and call it good, right? Not so. The background of your theme may be white, so you'll set your text color to white, but if your friend's theme has a black background, then his text will all be white already, and when he sees your post in his neighborhood, BAM. Spoiled. De-friended. Ostracized.
Using an embed will guarantee that the background color and text color you want will remain consistent, regardless of where they're being viewed on Vox. Keep in mind, though, that pretty much all bets are off when the content gets out to RSS readers, because there's no telling how much of the formatting they'll respect.
Anyway, how to code your embed:
<div style="background:black; overflow:scroll; width:500px; height:500px">
<font style="color:black">
Spoilers, insults, other stuff you don't want to be readily visible without some kind of a warning
</font>
</div>
That div tag sets you up with a black background, scrollbars in case the content is too long, and the maximum size for a Vox embed. Bonus points if you title the embed with something indicating what it actually is.
If you did it right, here's what you end up with:
I um... haven't read the book.
Dressing up your Vox with what you love is part of what makes your blog come alive. The littlest details, like editing your assets, can make a difference in how you and your blog appear to the rest of the world. Assets (books, photos, videos, and audio) can be displayed several places in your Vox, so keep in mind that talking about your interests in your posts isn’t the only way to let your readers know how you feel.
The first step to editing an asset description is adding the item to your library. Learn more about that by reading Adding New Assets.
There are then two ways to edit an asset’s description. One way is by going to My Vox > Organize and picking your asset type in the left column. Once you’ve selected an item in your list, click the Edit button. From the new screen that pops up, you can add whatever details you want into the Description box. For instance, a new music album you picked up last weekend might be popular with your friends, but have you let others know how you feel about the album? Simply click the album in your list and put your cursor in the text box. Do you like the album? Hate it? Would you consider the artist to be one of your favorites? Just type in how you feel and your friends will know where you stand.
Another way to edit an asset is by going to your main
blog page. Here, you can access your Books, Videos, Photos and Audio sections
through your sidebars. (You’ll only be able to view the ones you have chosen to
see in your Design page. For more information on how to do that, check out
Designing your Blog
article.) Then, just click one of the items you’ve listed. Once the asset’s page
appears, click the italicized text below the picture. By clicking the text, you
can add your own views, opinions and thoughts. You can also add your rating by clicking on the stars and rating it anywhere from one to five.
Whether you like to use the first or second method, remember to press Save once you’ve finished writing. If you think that you need to edit what you wrote, you can always go back and change the description by clicking the text you’ve already entered.
The possibilities for what you can post in your
assets’ descriptions are endless, so try it out and let people know: what do you
like or dislike about your most recently added asset?
- Lauren & the Vox Help team
Last week, we pushed out Release 32 of Vox, the release notes for which can be found here. We turned out some cool features, but there's one new bit of functionality in there that we didn't tell you about yet. We're calling it Vox This and it's an API that allows you to easily bring content from other sites in to your Vox. For you Web 2.0 geeks out there, it's similar to the "Digg This" API, and we hope it's not long before we see other sites out there adding Vox This buttons to their pages.
In the meantime, though, we've come up with a way for you to be able to use Vox This as you roam the non-Vox web (it's still out there, right?). Simply drag the bookmarklet (at the right) to your bookmark toolbar in your browser (in Firefox) or right-click it and add it to your favorites (in Internet Explorer, you probably want to put it in the Links folder). Then, whenever you come across something on the web that you want to Vox about, you just hit your Vox This button.
So what happens when you use Vox This? I'm glad you asked that. Or... I'm glad I asked that for you.
When you Vox This, you'll be taken to a landing page where you'll confirm that you want to add the item to your library. If you Vox'd This on a supported Vox conduit partner's item, like a Flickr photo or YouTube video, then you'll be prompted to add it to your library and optionally compose a post. If you Vox This on a non-partner's site, like a CNN story perhaps, then you'll be prompted to add that to your links library (more about link libraries later) and write a post about it. The landing page will do its best to figure out the title of whatever you Vox'd, and it will let you pick an image from those found on the page to use as a thumbnail. If you had any text highlighted, then that will be brought in as the description. The link will be added in to your post with the thumbnail and description. As with any other enclosure, you can hover over it to get to the format tool which will let you left/right/center align it or resize it within your post.
Give it a try and let us know what you think. We hope this makes it easy for you to write about news or events, or other interesting stuff you find out on the web.
-- Steve
As you're exploring Vox and adding new people to your Neighborhood, you may begin to wonder if anyone is adding you to their neighborhoods. You can sign up to be notified via email whenever someone adds you by going to Account > Notifications. Check the box next to "Added to a member's neighborhood", and then click the Save button to save that setting. Take a look at Edit Profile and Account Settings for additional information about all the options on those pages.
So now you're set for knowing when someone adds you in the future, but what about all the people who have already added you to their Neighborhoods? Even if you've been receiving the neighboring notifications, it's handy to be able to take a look at all the people who have added you to their Neighborhoods in one location.
Take a virtual stroll through those blogs and meet some of the people who are interested in you. You might meet some new friends. At the very least, you know they have good taste in Neighbors!
- Brandy & the Vox Help team
Have you noticed the "Send to a friend" link on your blog or other Vox blogs? That link helps you easily share content on Vox with your friends and family via email. It's the same feature we previously highlighted when the link text was "Share". Along with that changing the link to read "Send to a friend", we're happy to be able to update you on a few improvements to the feature as well.
Many of you gave us feedback that you wanted to share more than just public posts. We've recently added the option to share your own posts and items that are saved at any privacy level (other than "you (hidden)"). Maybe a family member isn't on Vox yet, but you want to let them know you've posted your wedding photos to your Family group. Just use the "Send to a friend" link to let them know. You can share other people's public media items like their photos, audio, videos, and books as well. Email a cute photo of your friend's dog to your mother, or point your spouse to someone's vacation video that gives you an idea about where you'd like to go the next time you get away.
When you share your private posts and items with a Voxer who isn't currently marked to have permission for that content, they'll automatically be added to your Neighborhood (if they're not already) and also added to your Friends or Family, depending on the specific privacy level for that shared item. When you share private posts and items with people who aren't Vox members, they'll be prompted to join Vox in order to see the content you've shared, and when they register, they'll be added directly to your Neighborhood (and also marked Friend or Family if needed to view the shared item) in the same step. This might be a nice way to encourage a close friend or family member to join Vox by showing that you have private content you'd like to share with them.
You can now also add your own personal message when you're sending a share email via Vox. We know it's nice to add a personal touch, so there's a text box available when you click "Send to a friend" so you can explain why you're pointing them to something on Vox. Now you can add a quick note telling your mother why you sent her the picture of that cute dog, or tell your spouse some of your thoughts about that vacation spot you're sharing.
We hope these enhancements make it a little easier for you to send items from Vox to the people you know. Sharing is a big part of what Vox is all about after all! Have you been sharing any interesting Vox content lately through email?
- Brandy & the Vox Help team
