OurFernie.com is maintained by a group of volunteers. Anyone can contribute content to OurFernie but Site Maintainers have additional responsibilities such as managing content on the front page, removing duplicated content, re-formatting pages and cleaning up spam. If you would like to help maintain OurFernie.com, please contact us.
This page lists some guidelines for Site Maintainers on OurFernie.com.
Promote / Demote Content on front page
Featured story. The featured story is the top story in the "Community News" section that includes an image.
Before setting a new featured story, edit the current one and set it to something else ("Main story" or "In the News"). On the new featured story, make sure that there is an image associated with the story. The image will be resized but it works best if the image is close to being square or is more flat than tall. Set the new story to be the "Featured story".
Main story. There are up to two main stories at any one time. If there are already two main stories, set one to "In the News" to make room for the new one.
Also in the News
We keep the latest 25 stories that have "In the News" selected in this section.
Unpublishing vs deleting of content
When possible, unpublish content instead of deleting it. Some content, such as comments and forum posts, can only be deleted.
Since deleting a comment or forum post will also delete all replies, sometimes it may be more appropriate to remove the content and leave a blank or partial post. In this case leave an "Editor's note" explanation in it's place.
Valid reasons for unpublishing or deleting content include:
- Spam
- Personal attack
- Inappropriate content (pornography, racial slurs, etc.)
NOTE: If you edit, unpublish or delete a post other than spam, say you did so and why. Keep a copy of the original.
Blocking vs deleting of users
Deleting users is a very destructive action, as it makes all their content inaccessible in most places, even to administrators. It should not be done. If a user is a troublemaker, just block their account (click username -> edit -> status: blocked). Of course, you should not block people just because they express an unpopular opinion. Here are good reasons to block someone:
- Spamming
- Repetitive flaming and personal attacks
- Posting of inappropriate content (pornography, racial slurs, etc.)
NOTE: The decision to block a regular contributor should be made by consensus.
Badly formatted posts
If you see a post with bad formatting which messes up the page's layout, please edit it. A common mistake for new users is to use two opening tags rather than an opening/closing pair. Tags like bold and italic can 'bleed through' beyond the post, while unclosed block-level tags can mess up the positioning of the sidebar.
If someone made a serious mistake while posting a forum topic and posted a correction in a comment below, try to update the original post and delete the correction.
Duplicate posts
If you see duplicate posts in multiple forums. Choose the best forum and remove the remaining duplicates unless they have already been responded to. If they already have comments, make a polite note about duplicate posts referencing the other.
