Testing 2 new WSB features; need your feedback!

As of right now, we’re testing two new features – both in hopes of better fulfilling the WSB mission of serving you with West Seattle news, information, and discussion, 24/7/365.

MORE DISCUSSION: We have finally launched “forums” — another HUGE thanks to the fabulous STUART MAXWELL for making this happen (same guy who got WSB onto a better server earlier this morth) — but before we build them out with a slew of categories and other enhancements, we would like you to try them and then let us know how you would want to use them. You will find them by clicking the FORUM tab at the right side of the row of navigation tabs under the sunset header (or click here). We’ve started with two general areas — we’d like to see if forums are the best, well, forum for Reader Recommendation Requests — start a new topic when you have one, and see what happens — this means RRRs won’t have to wait for us to get to them amid all the other West Seattle news of the day. Also, there’s an OPEN DISCUSSION area where you can post a topic you’d like to talk about. Sometimes the main page is the right place for that — like the “walk all ways” opinion sent to us that resulted in this well-discussed post — but again, maybe there’s something you just want to say NOW – go to the forums and say it. One note, you will have to register to post in the forums (but anyone can read them). And right now, since we’re considering this a “beta” test before possibly tying it into more of the site, that registration does NOT link to the comment feature on WSB posts, so you will still have to enter your name and e-mail address separately if you want to comment on those. Try out the forums, let us know what you think, with comments on this post OR by e-mailing WSB. Thanks!

MORE NEWS/INFORMATION: With the help of the fine folks at the Southwest Precinct, we are now able to bring you lots more information about West Seattle crime reports, safety concerns, and crime-prevention advice. Starting right now – with police-report highlights from the past several days:

The following information is from reports filed by police based at the Southwest Precinct; the newest available when we checked this afternoon was dated 6:33 pm last night. We checked going back to last Sunday; notable incidents are below, in reverse chronological order:

HARBOR AVE., BURGLARY REPORTED TO POLICE LAST NIGHT: It happened sometime in the past few weeks at a storage unit in the 3200 block of Harbor Ave. SW — someone broke into the unit and stole items including speakers, a video-game console, and video games.

WESTWOOD, BURGLARY REPORTED TO POLICE LAST NIGHT: Someone broke into a home in the 9000 block of 36th Ave. SW sometime yesterday afternoon, apparently by using a rock to smash a window. Jewelry and a TV were reported missing.

EAST OF THE JUNCTION, THEFT REPORTED YESTERDAY MORNING: This happened in the 4100 block of 37th Ave. SW on Wednesday afternoon: A man knocked on the door asking to do yard work. The people at the residence tried to tell him no but he insisted on showing what he could do, then pushed his way into the house, where an envelope of money was discovered missing after he left. He was described as mid-30s, 5’6″, 140 pounds, shaved head, driving a black mid-’90s 4-door sedan.

BETWEEN ALASKA AND MORGAN JUNCTIONS, WOMAN BEATEN WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Just after 8 pm Wednesday night, calls to 911 reported a man and woman fighting, and something that sounded like gunshots. Police went to a building in the 5200 block of California, where they found an injured 21-year-old woman who said her boyfriend had barged into her apartment, dragged her out by the hair, and attacked her. Police arrested a 22-year-old man.

MORGAN JUNCTION BREAK-IN ATTEMPT, SUNDAY MORNING: People who live in the 7000 block of California told police that someone tried to break in through their basement window early Sunday morning; the would-be burglar(s) apparently got scared away before getting in.

BEACH DRIVE CAR BREAK-IN, REPORTED SUNDAY: A car owner in the 6700 block of Beach Drive told police that someone broke into the car Saturday night or Sunday morning, breaking the driver’s-side lock and making off with the car stereo.

As we always remind you – don’t hesitate to call police when you see or hear something suspicious, and of course when you believe a crime has been (or is being) committed. In addition to 911, there’s a non-emergency line at 206/625-5011. A big collection of Seattle Police crime-prevention resources is available online here.

21 Replies to "Testing 2 new WSB features; need your feedback!"

  • Sue December 21, 2007 (5:45 pm)

    I’m posting this as a test. I registered and logged in at the forum, and now when I came back to blog post comment box, it does not give me a place to type my name, but instead says “Logged in as .” (with no name there) so I’m not exactly sure if it will be attributed to me or not, so I’m posting to check. (Sue)

  • Linguistic Smartass December 21, 2007 (5:55 pm)

    Pardon me, but isn’t the plural of forum fora? :-P

  • JenV December 21, 2007 (6:02 pm)

    Forum topic: How hard DOES West Seattle Blog RAWK?
    :D

  • WSB December 21, 2007 (6:03 pm)

    Sue – I see you and somebody else who I know registered to try the forums have turned up in comments as “anonymous.” We’ll see what we can do about that one. Thanks for helping test this! Do you see anywhere to “log out” either at the forum page or else on the main page (bottom of the sidebar)?

  • BB December 21, 2007 (6:06 pm)

    just posted a repsponse under the garage forum. The only thing strange was the following text towards the bottom of the screen after I submitted:

    Allowed markup: a blockquote br code em strong ul ol li.
    Put code in between `backticks`.

  • BB December 21, 2007 (6:07 pm)

    p.s. HOW COOL!

  • BB December 21, 2007 (6:10 pm)

    as far as the crime reports… I almost wish I was blissfully un-aware of bad things happening, then I could go on thinking all was perfect here on the penninsula (sigh).

  • Sue December 21, 2007 (6:10 pm)

    WSB, Yes, I just logged out and now when I went to post a comment it looks like it always did (with name/email visible). I guess for now I’ll just log out after using the forum if I want to post here. There can often be a lot of bugs with new stuff like this – we’ll be patient while it all sorts out. :)

  • WSB December 21, 2007 (6:25 pm)

    OK, we’re definitely seeing the “anonymous” syndrome for people who post comments without logging out. (We can see your e-mail address so we know who you are, bwa ha ha ha.) For now, if you want to stay signed into forums, add your name at the end of a comment (like Sue did) or else log out before commenting elsewhere on the site. Sorry for the hassle and thanks for testing – it’s great to see how many people have signed up already!

  • BB December 21, 2007 (6:26 pm)

    Hi WSB… BB here. I see the same thing. I registered then made a couple responses, they show as anonymous. In this response I closed my browser then opened new and came back. I see right above this field that I am logged in as . However, there an option to logout.

  • WSB December 21, 2007 (6:33 pm)

    Bill – for now the logout link should be at the bottom of the right sidebar (under META) – if you click that on any page it should log you out of the forum sign-in. Ideally we’ll see if we can just link the whole site together but we tried that in pre-beta testing and it caused some breakage outside the forum so Stuart toiled relentlessly on behalf of WSB to find a workaround.

  • dapuffin December 21, 2007 (6:39 pm)

    Will there be an option to change our password?
    ~~~~da(not-so-anonymous)Puffin in Arbor Heights

  • BobLoblaw December 21, 2007 (8:12 pm)

    Testing to see if Bob Loblaw also suffers from anonymous-itis. Not that anyone really cares …

  • miws December 21, 2007 (8:19 pm)

    Oooooooh, the Forum sounds scary with the bugs in it! Do I dare go in there? :p

    Mike

  • miws December 21, 2007 (9:12 pm)

    Okay, registered and logged in to the Forum. Now, just as I’m typing this, I have the “Logged in as .” thingy as well.

    Looks like I’ll be another “Anonymous”!

    Mike/miws

  • miws December 21, 2007 (9:13 pm)

    Or maybe not!

    (I had opened new windows all along the way, FWIW)

    Mike

  • miws December 21, 2007 (10:16 pm)

    How weird! When I submitted my 9:12 post, it showed on the Comments page with my miws username. Then, when I submitted my 9:13 post, neither was visible on the Comments page.

    After exiting completely out of WSB (but not logging out of Blog or Forum), both comments show as Anonymous.

    Mike/miws

  • kathy December 22, 2007 (9:16 am)

    Works great! And I agree, being able to change our password would be helpful…

  • WSB December 22, 2007 (11:00 am)

    Thanks for the comments so far. May take till after the holiday rush to tweak so we appreciate every bit of feedback so we can collect one list of “ok, here’s what’s working and here’s what’s not optimal.”

  • stumax December 22, 2007 (1:25 pm)

    Sorry for all the trouble with the Anonymous comments, folks. I just uploaded a plugin that should help. In fact, if you see my handle, “stumax,” at the bottom of this comment, you’ll know that it’s working.

    Puffin – you can change your password. Once you’re logged in, go to the main page of the forum and click on the link to “View your profile.” Then click the link to “edit this information.” Voila!

  • dapuffin December 23, 2007 (5:07 am)

    Stumax, Somehow I didn’t see the password change option the other times I looked. Thanks for the information. Indeed it’s there and I changed my password to something I can remember.

Sorry, comment time is over.