DW for tumblrites part 4.5: Stickies, Sidebar, Anon Askbox, Mentions

[potofsoup]

[DW for tumblrites masterpost]

I think one thing that we're not particularly used to, coming from tumblr, is the Profile page. It is easily accessible on a hover-over, and it has a lot of information!! But the information that we're used to seeing (quick blurb, relevant links) is buried half-way down the page, and not on the top or sidebar of your blog, which is where people expect to find it.

So, here are the solutions:

1) Stickies
A Sticky is basically a post that is pinned to the top of your blog. You make the post like usual, and then you make it sticky. There are 2 ways to make it stick. The "quick-and-dirty" way is to pick a post-date far in the future, like 2030 or something. The actual way to do it, is to go into Organize -> Manage Account

Go to "Display":


Then scroll to the bottom, where there's a Stickies section:


2) Custom Sidebar Text
This takes a little bit of finangling, but here's what it looks like:


The quick version is: Turn on "Custom Text" in your style modules, and then write whatever you want.

Here's step by step instructions:
1) Go to Organize->Customize Style

2) Click on Modules
Modules are all those various boxes that are on your sidebar -- the tags, the calendar, the list of entries, etc etc. Each available module has:
- a checkbox: check if you want it to show up, uncheck to remove
- an order number: change this number to make it show up higher up or lower down
- a "section" dropdown: change this if you want it to show up in a different sidebar or footer.

You can use this to turn off the calendar, or to move the tags higher up, etc.

If you scroll down halfway, there's a "Custom Text" module. Check the box, and change the order from 13 to whatever you want. (I have it at 2):


3) Click on Text in the customization sidebar
This is where you can customize the words in different parts of your theme. Anyway, scroll down halfway to the "Custom Text" boxes. Whatever you put in the "Custom Text" just shows up in the custom text box. It functions like a post, in that DW will handle the line breaks for you. Here's what mine looks like:


ASKBOX
Similarly, DW doesn't exactly have an Askbox. But since people can comment on entries, it's actually... not a big deal?

Anyway, solution 1 is to just send messages. If you hover over the username's icon, a hover menu pops up, and one of the options is "Send Message". Click that and you can send someone a message, which they can respond to you privately. (You can control who sends you messages by going to Account Settings --> Privacy)

But what if you want people to send in anon asks? The answer is: Screened Comments. At the bottom of your posting page, there's a place where you can fine-tune your comments:

Basically, whatever comments you choose to screen becomes private, visible only to you. You can also reply to screened comments, and those are *also* private! You can also choose to unscreen (make public) any comments later on.


(Click on the lightbulb to unscreen)

This is actually a *lot* of flexibility and control, and you can use it for *every post*! You can decide on a case-by-case basis whether you allow anon comments, whether you default to having the comments private. You can also go through later and freeze a comment thread, or hide certain comments. So instead of a single askbox where lots of different messages might be coming in, you can have, say, an meme askbox, or a drawing prompts askbox, etc etc.

You can also use this comment system for @mentions. It's some extra effort, but if someone writes a post that @mentions you and they want you to know, you can ask them to post a comment with a link to the post. It's clunky as fuck, but it's *something*.

Lastly: how do you make an anonymous comment when you're logged in?
Answer: Middle-click* on the "Reply" link to open it in a new tab. OR click normally and then click "More Options".**
Either method activates this comment box:

Select anon, then you're done!

-------
* If you're on a mac, you might have to control-click, then click "Open in New Tab"
** Thanks, mific! <3
*** On mobile, the Custom Text disappears to the bottom of the page. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

[leveragehunters]

Oooohhhhhhhhh <3 *goes to play with blog*

[stovenbucket]

Ohh I set up a screened comments post but I didn’t really think about setting it up as an askbox?

Thank you for all your wonderful DW tips and tricks ❤️

[potofsoup]

<3 honestly I saw kaasknot do it and I was like "ooooh."

[mific]

Another way to anon comment is just to hit reply then hit "more options". :)

[potofsoup]

aaaah, that's how to do it without the middle-click. Thanks, love. Putting it in the post now. <3

[pseudonym_loving_magpie]

<3