News on comic pages

[sylviagrace]

I was wondering if someone could change the news variables into global ones so that I can put the news on my comic pages. I'm trying to switch the main page of my site to be the latest comic page, but I still want the news to be visible and the navigation and comment links to be there at the same time. If it's possible now to do that, can someone tell me how? Thanks.

[sylviagrace]

Sorry to bump this up again, but does anyone know that this simple task would make Smack Jeeves a more credible site? To have a successful comic, it's customary to have your latest comic on the main page. That's possible with Smack Jeeves, but you still can't navigate or leave comments until you get to the actual comic page, which might lead to a lot of confusion. Maybe people don't even realize they can leave comments. Therefore, my solution is to make the comics page the main page instead of the news page, which is also possible. That way the comic is right there - the first thing people see, and the nav buttons and comments are there, too. And ideally the news would be right below the comic, where people notice it, but it's impossible to put your news there because it's a local variable instead of a global one. This seems like something that would be easy to fix, yet this is the main reason why I consider switching hosts.

[Admin]

You have a valid point, this is something I really am planning on implementing. Winter break will be my next big development period.

[sylviagrace]

Yay! Thanks.

[Admin]

Just had an idea about this: on the news posting/editing page, you can choose to associate the news post with a particular comic.

[Admin]

People who want this, would you rather be able to associate specific news posts with specific comics, or would you rather just show all of the latest news below all comics?

[Krista]

Probably all the news under the page. I myself tend to use the news as a blog, but for most comics, I know they usually use the news more as a 'hey, this where I've been, this is what's happening, etc" kind of thing.

Though, specific news for specific comics would be nice as it would be similar to author's comment, but 'more official looking' and easier to comment on.

I'm unsure. I see advantages to both methods.

[sylviagrace]

I don't think I'd want to associate news posts with comics. If I did I'd just write whatever I had to say in the author comment of the comic itself.

[Guest]

I hope I can still post my opinion. ^^;

Just had an idea about this: on the news posting/editing page, you can choose to associate the news post with a particular comic.

Could you do this as an optional thing and be able to turn off the feature? I'd like it personally (and was actually wondering if someone addressed this since no one ever seems to see the news until weeks later on any comic I read -I'm guilty, too- and my own). I think it would help at the very least for hiatus notices and such.

[Asj]

Huh... I recently was thinking of making my own template, and thought about displaying news posts on the comic pages, and never paid enough attention to realize I couldn't.
With news posts shown on comic pages, there won't be a huge list of news posts, would there? I think I'd rather only have the one newest news post displayed, and maybe link back to the news page for the rest (which, the link can be added to the comic template in the div with the news thing). Either that or have a way to specify how many news posts to display on the comic pages. I wouldn't want to associate a post with a comic page, though. Author comments are good enough for that, and that way, people just discovering the comic will see the latest news on the first pages.

[Asj]

I was just thinking about this again. What's the plan with this possibility now? Will it happen? Has it been deemed not worth doing? It hasn't been mentioned for awhile.

I looked at the news variables just now, and I think, if "newest news post" variables were added as global variables (like the title and message body), that would make me happy at least. As is, the number of visible news posts are controlled by the comic settings page instead of the code, because it's hooked up with the news page. If some other variables are added, they could probably be added as normal variables. The point of me wanting it the way I do would be so that readers can easily see the most recent news without consciously going to the news page (which is more similar to an archieve, anyhow), or authors having to post news in author comments (which kind of eliminates the purpose of the news posts). So it would be kind of like a preview of the News page.
Oh, and it looks like it was mentioned that it might be easy enough to do something like that, here? Maybe? viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1343&p=12611&hilit=news+post+variable#p12611