Newsagent/Tell Us

Newsagent
Author	Chris Page
Contact	Support
Repository	github
Issue tracker	github
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The Tell Us page allows students or staff - in fact, anyone with a University account - to submit messages to Newsagent. Unlike articles authored through the Compose page, these messages are not directly published in feeds or added to newsletters: they go into queues where authorised members of staff can read them and, if the message is deemed to be relevant and likely to be of wider interest, create a new Newsagent article based on the contents of the message.

The Tell Us Form

If you go to https://newsagent.cs.manchester.ac.uk/tellus/ you will be prompted to log in if you are not already logged into Newsagent. Once logged in, the form shown here will be displayed:

TellUs page

The 'Message' text box is where you enter the information you want to tell us about, whether it is information about an upcoming event, a piece of news, a seminar announcement, or anything else you would like to appear either in a Newsagent feed, or in a newsletter generated through Newsagent.

Below the message box you will see two dropdowns: the first lets you select a message type (Event, News, etc) while the second allows you to place the message into one of the message queues. The message type you set is really just a suggestion for the queue managers: it doesn't change the message in any way, but the queue managers will see the type you select. If you're not sure what to set them to, you can leave them on their default values.

Once you have entered your message and optionally set its type and initial queue, you can click the "Tell Us" button to submit your message. Your message will be added to the queue you selected, and staff members who manage that queue will be notified that a new message is available.

It's important to note that there is no guarantee that your message will be turned into a Newsagent article or appear in a newsletter. If your message doesn't contain enough information, you may be contacted by one of the queue managers to supply additional information, and you may receive a notification from the system if your message has been rejected for some reason.

Editing messages

The system does not provide any means for message authors to edit submitted messages: if you make a mistake when entering your message, please submit a follow-up message with any changes you feel are needed.

The omission of a message editing feature is a conscious design decision intended to make the Tell Us system as simple as possible for users. If you feel that this decision is incorrect, please use this page's discussion page to explain your reasoning.