Drupal Fixes

Drupal is great and all, but there is a problem that has been causing me lack of sleep and now that it's fixed I need to remember it.

Removing default titles from the pages:
1. Install the "Automatic Nodetitles" module.
2. Go to Administer>Content Management>Content Types>Edit "Page"
3. Under Automatic Title Generation click on "Automatically generate the title and hide the title feed"
4. Enter in the Pattern for the title box.
5. Save, go through all your pages that you want the title to be removed, click on edit and save again for the change to take place.

More Updates

The updates continue:

1. New, more stylized links to login, video, photo and idea websites.

2. Redesign of elements to remove redundancies.

Website Revision

An updated version of the site can be viewed at www.diywcid.com.

Some of the major changes include:

1. A simpler (and smaller) main page design, with three buttons to share videos, photos or ideas.

2. Now to share a video or photo all you have to do is see the posted challenges and email the video to one of three addresses to post to the site.
12seconds: 12seconds@diywcid.com
YouTube: youtube@diywcid.com
Fickr: flickr@diywcid.com
Add these to your address book or mobile phone to send whatever good (or bad) you see happening around you! All of the posts will be featured on the DIY live feed.

3. A fully functioning "Share with Facebook" option where you can link your Facebook account and use a sharing module to tell your friends about the site.

4. The DIY live feed is now featured on the main page so you can see who has been posting.

5. The pages should display well on many browsers and resolutions. It was pretty jumbled before and it looks better now...

6. Contests will be held in the future with non-profit organizations to be featured on their site as a promotional video, so keep posted! I will send out a mass email to registered users as I get more details.

Flickr/Twitter/DIY:WCID Integration

Users can now share photos to the DIY:WCID by emailing to the following address: school12good2blog@photos.flickr.com

This was accomplished by changing the "Extending Flickr" settings under "My Account", adding Twitter as a blog, then setting up an email address to upload "Directly to Blog".

Send photos from a mobile phone or from home of environmental issues as you see them happening!

User Content Contests

At the Ann Ferren Teaching Conference today, it was suggested during one of the sessions by Allison Holcomb to create contests where the winning video is featured on a non-profit's website as the prize. So over the semester I plan to foster relationships with non-profits and do one or more of the following:

1. Host PSA contests where the winners will be judged by the non-profit and featured on their website to encourage users to create content.

2. Host content contests between two or more student groups on campuses (Greenpeace, PETA, etc.) to promote their own groups and challenge them to friendly competitions to see who can publish the more engaging content.

3. Continue the contests on 12seconds as is.

I am also planning a major overhaul to simplify the site with three buttons on the main page (Post a Video, Post a Photo, Suggest an Idea) with a live feed of updates below, due to suggestions by the Facebook Focus Group.

Results of Focus Group

The Facebook focus group has been completed, and with the help of 32 users several outcomes were achieved:

1. The site has too many options and is too confusing to read, it has no hierarchy.

2. Users don't know what to do once they reach the site.

3. There should be a slogan, or an obvious about page that says what the page is about.

4. Users are not posting, there has to be an added incentive.

Thank you everyone for posting and for your valuable comments! Keep watching for updates.