The Bellingham Herald: Editor's note

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04/15/10--17:01: Welcome to Window On My World (chan 2293129)

Window On My World is an occasional essay that allows Whatcom County residents to share their passion for what they do, an idea or cause they support.


09/20/10--14:15: New features in new commenting system (chan 2293129)

The Bellingham Herald now uses Disqus, pronounced "discuss," technology for story comments. Its features are different that those in Pluck, the system used for the last two years. <br><br> Stronger spam and vulgarity filters are in place with Disqus and comments caught in those filters will not appear. Editors will moderate comments flagged by readers as objectionable and remove comments deemed to be hate speech or personal attacks made on the subjects of the story, along with flagged comments that are libelous, plagiarized or in violation of copyright. <br><br> Readers can flag a story for a moderator to look at without being registered or logged on. To flag a comment, put your mouse over the comment and "flag" will appear at the bottom left. Click on "flag" and a pop-up window will ask if you want to report this comment to a moderator. If you do, click "yes." <br><br> Users are now able to edit their own comments and log-in options have expanded, but can be confusing. <br><br> If you created a Pluck persona after you registered for BellinghamHerald.com, the photo you loaded to that persona was used as a comment avatar and also appeared in the masthead, indicating you were logged in. That avatar will no longer appear in the masthead. If your login name appears, you are logged in. When you make a comment, a generic Herald avatar will appear. If you are logged in to The Herald and are still unable to comment, changing the password for your Herald account will reset your account and allow you to comment. <br><br> If you wish to comment and have your own avatar appear, or if you wish to share your comments on other social media sites, you need to log out of The Bellingham Herald and log in to Disqus, Facebook or Twitter. The links to these services appear in the story comments so you can easily log in. (We're working on one issue with this installation. You can't currently be logged in to The Herald and to a social media site. If you click "logout" in a story comment to leave your Herald account, you will return to The Herald's log out page and will have to navigate back to the story. This should be repaired soon so that if you elect to log out of The Herald, you will quickly have the option to log in to Disqus, Facebook or Twitter on the same page.) Your avatar will be whatever you have loaded into those systems. <br><br> If you log in with your Herald account, your computer does not need to accept third-party cookies. If you log in to comment with Disqus, Twitter or Facebook, they require that you accept third-party cookies. <br><br> If you are logged into multiple social network sites, the avatar of the site you most recently logged in to will appear. <br><br> Whatever service you are logged into when you leave BellinghamHerald.com will be where you start when you next visit. <br><br> Because you cannot currently be logged in to The Herald and a social media site, if you've been logged in on your Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account, but wish to view multiple pages or add something to our calendar, you will need to log back in to The Bellingham Herald. <br><br> Please send your questions about the story commenting feature to <a href="mailto:comments@bellinghamherald.com">comments@bellinghamherald.com</a>. <br><br> Here is more information about some of the features of Disqus: <br><br> <b>SPAM</b> -- If you see a comment that appears multiple times or a link that attempts to sell something, flag the comment for a moderator. You do not need to be registered or logged in to flag a comment. To flag a comment, put your mouse over the comment and "flag" will appear at the bottom left. Click on "flag" and a pop-up window will ask if you want to report this comment to a moderator. If you do, click yes. Disqus searches comments across its network, "learning" key words and URLs in spam and blocks users who attempt to place spam in future story comments. If a user's comments have been seen by Disqus as spam in error, a Bellingham Herald moderator can remove the spam status and the comments will return. Send a note to <a href="mailto:comments@bellinghamherald.com">comments@bellinghamherald.com</a> if you are concerned your comments have been caught in the spam filter. <br><br> <b>VULGARITY</b> -- A comment with any word on the obscenity list will not be seen in Disqus. The Bellingham Herald now controls the list of words that, if used, will stop a comment from appearing. Pejoratives for members of the Tea Party will not appear. If you see a word you object to in comments and would like moderators to consider adding it to the obscenity filter, please send a note to <a href="mailto:comments@bellinghamherald.com">comments@bellinghamherald.com</a> detailing why you believe the word should be banned. Based on past Pluck reports of abuse for obscenity/vulgarity, the online tolerance for vulgarity is less strict than that of print. <br><br> <b>LIBEL</b> -- Please flag comments you believe to be libelous and send a note to <a href="mailto:julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com">julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com</a>. <br><br> <b>PHOTOS</b> -- Disqus on BellinghamHerald.com will not accept comments with photos. <br><br> <b>AVATARS</b> -- Avatars are set up in social media sites and are governed by the rules of those sites. If you object to an avatar, report it to the social media site. <br><br> Here are answers to some frequently asked questions: <br><br> <b>Will I need to register again?</b> <br><br> No. If you are already registered with bellinghamherald.com your existing login information will continue to work. If you have forgotten your username and password, you can have the information resent to you by visiting <a href="http://www.bellinghamherald.com/reg-bin/int.cgi?mode=request_password"> this link</a>. <br><br> <b>Will I need to log into the site again?</b> <br><br> If you were logged into bellinghamherald.com during your last visit, you will remain logged into the site following the launch of Disqus commenting. <br><br> <b>Will I be able to sign in using my Facebook or Twitter login?</b> <br><br> Yes. You will now be able to log in and comment using your existing bellinghamherald.com username and password, or use your login and password for Disqus, Facebook and Twitter. <br><br> <b>Can I keep my old avatar?</b> <br><br> Avatars will not be migrated to the new commenting system. We have created a default avatar for readers that log in using their bellinghamherald.com username and password. If you want to display a unique avatar, you will need to upload one to Disqus, Facebook or Twitter, and then post on bellinghamherald.com using that account instead. <br><br> <b>Will I be able to keep the screen name I post my article comments under?</b> <br><br> Yes. Your bellinghamherald.com screen name will remain unchanged. If you decide to log in and post comments using your Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account, your screen name will match that service instead. <br><br> <b>Will I still be able to indicate my approval of comments using the "recommend" button?</b> <br><br> Yes, but this button has been renamed to "like."</b> <br><br> <b>Will I be still able to "reply" to comments?</b> <br><br> Yes. The ability to reply to specific comment posts will remain a core of bellinghamherald.com. <br><br> <b>Will I be able report abuse on comments I deem inappropriate?</b> <br><br> Yes. To flag a comment, put your mouse over the comment and "flag" will appear at the bottom left. Click on "flag" and a pop-up window will ask if you want to report this comment to a moderator. If you do, click "yes." <br><br> <b>What are some of the new features we will get with Disqus?</b> <br><br> You will have the option of subscribing via e-mail to a comment thread by clicking the "subscribe by e-mail" button at the bottom of the comment box. New comments will be sent directly to your e-mail inbox, where you may read and respond by e-mail. <br><br> You will be able to subscribe via RSS to a comment thread by clicking the "subscribe by RSS" button at the bottom of the comment box. This link will include step-by-step instructions on how to set up the RSS subscription. <br><br> If you are logged in using your Facebook account, you will be able to share your comments on specific articles to your Facebook profile page, just by clicking the "share on Facebook" link directly beneath the comment box. This is a per-post selection, so each time you comment on an article or reply to another comment, you will need to indicate your interest in sharing the post to Facebook. <br><br> <b>What will happen to my old comment posts?</b> <br><br> We are taking this opportunity to start fresh. Past comments will remain visible on old articles for a week or two as we migrate fully to the new commenting service. <br><br> <b>What about my profile and personal blog page?</b> <br><br> After much consideration, bellinghamherald.com has decided to discontinue these services. Several factors contributed to this decision. Fewer than one percent of users have set up a profile or personal blog, and there wasn't an easy way to find friends' profiles. Most users rely on Facebook as their primary profile site. Our hope is that the additional Facebook login option will provide our readers with the best of both worlds: the ability to comment on bellinghamherald.com with their Facebook account information and the ability to share selected posts to their Facebook profile page. <br><br> <b>If I run into problems or want to share feedback, who should I contact?</b> <br><br> For problems or feedback with the new article commenting, please e-mail <a href="mailto:comments@bellinghamherald.com">comments@bellinghamherald.com</a>. <br><br>


10/05/10--16:30: Clearing browser cookies aids Disqus registration conflicts (chan 2293129)

When attempting to comment on TheBellinghamHerald.com for the first time after our new commenting system, Disqus, was launched in September, 2010, you may encounter log-in problems.&#xA0;Clearing your Disqus-related cookies from your browser may solve these problems. Here's how to do so on several browsers:


12/14/10--01:00: Newspaper delivery delayed (chan 2293129)

Delivery of the Tuesday, Dec. 14, Bellingham Herald newspaper may be delayed up to 90 minutes due to a weather-related power outage at our production facility.


12/29/10--16:24: Homemade sweater wins (chan 2293129)

A photo of Dan Courtney wearing his holiday sweater, made by his wife Sherri, that features a tree with ornaments and little packages won The Bellingham Herald's "Ugly Holiday Sweater" contest. Stacie Campion of Bellingham entered the photo and wins a Bellingham Herald snuggie, which we hope she shares with Dan.


06/24/11--12:10: Win tickets to Friday's Wynton Marsalis concert at Mount Baker Theatre (chan 2293129)

Kent Miller was the lucky winner of tickets to Wynton Marsalis tonight at the Mt. Baker Theatre. Thanks to all who entered.


08/23/11--18:15: What did you learn from your favorite teacher? (chan 2293129)

With some Whatcom schools starting back in session Aug. 30, I'd like to know what you learned from your favorite teacher for use on our opinion pages in coming weeks.


12/09/11--16:21: Timeline of major events for Trillium Corp. and David Syre (chan 2293129)

- 1972 - David Syre graduates from Gonzaga University's School of Law, begins practicing real estate law in Lynden and Bellingham.