InJersey

You may have noticed that the sitewide pages on InJersey.com -- i.e. the member profiles, injersey.com landing page, and some other sections -- were displaying poorly in Firefox 3.5. We've now updated the stylesheets, so that the blog should look good in all browsers.

If you happen to notice any other browser glitchiness, please let us know.

One of the best things about using the WordPress blog software as the backbone for InJersey is that there are lots of different ways to publish a post -- even without a computer!

You can, of course, log into the site and use the "Add New Post" screen. But say you're in the middle of downtown Freehold and see a major accident or a fire or a new store. You want to share the news with your neighbors right away, but it'll be hours before you can get to a computer. All you have is your trusty cell phone.

And, as luck would have it, that's all you need to be able to log in and post news and photos to InJersey.

No matter whether you've got the latest iPhone or an older, more basic phone, as long as you can access the web, you can log into the site and post. Here are three of the best ways that we reccomend:

1. If you have a Blackberry, download the WordPress Blackberry app at http://blackberry.wordpress.org/install

It takes a few minutes to install the app, and you'll need to already have an InJersey login and password to get set up. Make sure that you specify which InJersey town you want to add. For example, you might want to put in cherryhill.injersey.com as the site domain.

Rather than walking you through all the set up steps, check out this quick video:

2. The WordPress iPhone app works much the same way as the Blackberry app. Again, make sure you have a username and password before attempting to add a blog. Here's a quick video demonstrating how the iPhone app works.

3. Finally, even if you don't have a smartphone like an iPhone or Blackberry, you can still access InJersey to make a post by using our mobile-optimized backend. To get to this, type in the URL of the town you're interested in contributing to, plus add "wp-admin" to the end of the URL. For example: http://flemington.injersey.com/wp-admin

From there you'll see an option to enter the "mobile admin interface." Make sure to check this off.

Next you should see a stripped-down and mobile friendly version of the backend of the blog, where you can easily write and publish posts.

If you have any trouble at all getting any of these to work, please email ted [at] injersey.com.

Now you can access all the InJersey towns on your cell phone or iPhone.

We have a mobile-optimized version of the site, that should load up automatically no matter what kind of phone you're using. Just type in the domain of the town site you're interested in (e.g. http://cherryhill.injersey.com) and it should load right up.

For InJersey contributors, there's also a mobile-optimized admin screen, which you can get to by clicking on the "log in" link on any of the mobile sites, or just by going directly to the backend of our blogging software, WordPress, by adding wp-admin to the end of the url (e.g. http://cherryhill.injersey.com/wp-admin)

(from left to right: the mobile version of an InJersey town site; the login screen to the InJersey blog software; the mobile-optimized screen to write and edit posts)

These should render well on ALL cell phones. They look best on iPhones and Palm Pres, but you should be able to load the streamlined version on any other celll phone capable of accessing the web.

Happy mobile browsing!

A hearty thank you to all the early adapters who have signed up to InJersey and begun posting. We sort of figured that it would take several weeks for people to catch on to the sites, and until then it would mostly be us newspaper reporters doing the lion's share of the posting. Of course, as with just about everything on the Internet these days, the site has taken on a life of its own -- in very exciting and welcome ways.

As you've probably noticed, we made it easy for anyone to register and post to InJersey and its town sites. Unlike many other hyperlocal news sites that have sprung up in recent years, we don't exercise any kind of filter between you and the "publish" button.

That said, we want our sites to be the best user experience possible, and thus it's important for you to be conscientious about how your posts look before you send them straight to our homepages. A few simple ground rules we'd like you to follow:

• If your post is more than 200 words, break it. You can see the word count on what you're writing at the bottom of the editing window. Use this little icon to insert a "Read More" button in your post. That way, a lengthy post won't end up completely taking over the front page of the site you're posting to.
• Add "tags" to all your posts. The more tags you include, the more it helps goose your post's visibility to Google and other search engines. Which in turn translates into more people reading your content.
• If you're pasting from Microsoft Word, please be sure to use the "Paste from Word" button. This is important because Word often applies HTML formatting to text written in the application, which then gets carried over to the blog -- often making your text look yucky. You'll need to click on the rightmost "Kitchen Sink" button to see this option.

  

  To read more on how to use the "Past from Word" button, read this tutorial

• Include a Google map if your post refers to a specific location in town. All you need is the same amount of info you might use to look up the address on Google Maps, like this:
  

  Simply plug in a street address, town, and state, and you should be good. By default, the blog will you your post's title for the map info; if you want a custom map maker, you can use an alternate title and description. Note: You must save your post once before adding a map location. Make sure to click "Save Draft" before putting in your map info.
  

• Use your real name. Any posts published under suspicious or clearly anonymous user names will be unpublished until you attach a real name to them.

Those are just some basics. If you happen to create an extra-long post missing a break, or accidentally embed a video that's bleeding over into the site's sidebar, we may go ahead and help you fix it. And we'll continue to give advice and feedback about how to make your posts look as good as possible.

Thanks again for joining our site. And please, don't be a stranger. Email me if you have any specific questions, suggestions or feedback about the site at all.

—Ted Mann