Orange Countywatch Newsvine group, archive and blog pa= ge:

Introduction:

Orange CountyWatch now has a blog service hosted by the online news site “newsvine.”&n= bsp; The primary purpose of this website is to archive news articles rele= vant to the countywatch mission from multiple Central Florida news outlets into a central location on the internet.

On this site, countywatch members can also publish the= ir own articles that they write and “clip” the article if it is releva= nt to the countywatch mission to the countywatch news group. Attached to all articles published= on the newsvine site is a comment and voting section where countywatch members= can discussion and comment on the article and vote on the article’s relev= ance and importance.

Newsvine verses Facebook, Myspace, blogspot, topix, and other blog site= s.

I chose newsvine for this primary reason, newsvine is exclusively devoted to citizen journalism.= Newsvine has the ability to “seed” articles from multiple sources. Newsvine is moderate= d (a live paid staff who monitors the site to ensure the users are not being harassed, bothered by inappropriate material (ads for adult websites, sex chatrooms, online scams and other distracting or disturbing activity and annoyances). The newsvine article publishing too= ls and features, I know some of the countywatch member do like to write and report their own news stories and newsvine has very easy to use tools for this task.

Other features of newsvine.

Newvine has a customizable homepage designed to show y= ou all the articles from all the publications you may be interested in. You may also use the RSS feed for = the countywatch group to you email or personal home page to keep up to date with all the articles that are clipped to the newsvine countywatch page. You can also connect your newsvine account to your “Facebook” so that comments and articles you publish in newsvine appear on your facebook page. Another feature or benefi= t is newsvine pays you to blog and write and post articles. That is right, you receive cash pa= yments every time you write something on the vine. Granted, it is not very much but t= hose who are very active bloggers and citizen journalist, these payments do add = up over time. When you reach $25= in your newsvine account, you can either withdrawal the money to your paypal account or donate the money to your favorite charity.

Getting Started.

To see and read articles already posted on the countyw= atch newsvine site, simply go to www.countywatch.newsvine.com

countywatch.newsvine.com - Orange County Watch (FL)

http://countywatch.newsvine.com/<= /a><= o:p>

Screen clipping taken: 4/5/2009, 10:04 AM

You do n= ot have to be a registered user of newsvine to read the articles or the comments.

However, to post or make comment on the articles, you = will need to become a registered newsvine member. To post (clip) articles to the countywatch group, I will have to “invite” you to the countywat= ch group once you are a registered of newsvine.

My newsvine n= ame (handle) is “uncleandy.”

Registering on newsvine

In the upper right hand corner of the newsvine page, y= ou will see the “login/register” button.

Click on the button and follow the instructions for registration.

Newsvine Code of Honor:

Once you are registered, you should read the COH (code= of honor) which is the basic rules of posting and commenting on the vine.

For some people, the code of honor is basically common= sense of blogging. Basically it is essential to stay on topic with your comments and be responsible about news articles when you post them. = For others, this can be a huge challenge as these people seem to get very offen= ded when their comments are “collapsed” or “deleted.”

Here is a recent example in one of my seeds:

Since I was the “Seeder” of this article, = I can see “crash44” comment. However, this comment was “collapsed” by newsvine custom= er service moderator for being a violation of the COH. Notice the “!” at the = bottom left of each comment. If you = feel a comment is inappropriate, you click on the “!” which notifies n= ewsvine CS to read and monitor the blog.

Other activities you should be aware of:

YELLING

In the blogging world, it is considered “YELLING” IF YOU = TYPE ALL YOUR COMMENTS IN CAPITAL LETTERS.” Doing this repeatedly will get you banned from the site.

Death wishing and revenge rants:

Posting articles and comments that contain explicit statements of bodily harm or violent revenge upon other viners, or people in general will get you banned from the site and is extreme cases, a visit from you local law enforcement agency.

Lesser offenses that will not get you band, but will g= et your comments collapsed:

“Trimming, Pruning, fertilizing and redirecting&= #8221;

In the comment section of an article you can either po= st a “new” comment or “reply” to a comment already posted. If you are NOT replyi= ng to a comment already made, you should make a NEW comment. Often, newbies to the vine will “reply” to the first comment on the article and interject a completely new comment in the discussion.&= nbsp; This is done to essentially cut in line of other people who are commenting and interjecting their own comment ahead of others. This is consider very rude and can= get your comment collapsed.

It is appropriate in some cases to “cite” = your facts in your comments when arguing a matter. These cites generally involve the inclusion of links to other articles, websites, or source material on the internet. What is not appropr= iate is using your cite in the comment to redirect people away from the article = of discussion into another discussion you may benefit from. Generally this happens with a vine= r who posts an article of major interest and discussion then another viner posts a comment for the simple reason of capitalizing on the mass interests for the= ir own benefit or self promotion. This is called “pruning”= ; an article.

Another inappropriate activity is “fertilizing.” Th= is happens when a viner, or group of viners essentially takes the same comment= and continually reposts it over and over again. This tactic is very annoying and typically happens frequently as we approach election season. It is generally considered “spamming” and rarely has anything to do with the article or the discussion. It can also happe= n when people are trying to promote themselves by spamming a discussion in order to sell a product like life insurance, cheap mortgages or vitamins etc... If you see this activi= ty, you should report the comment by clicking on the “!” in the bot= tom right of the comment box.

Last but not least, is Headline Masking:

As a rule, it is most appropriate to “cut and paste” the Headline into your newsvine seed as it appeared in the original article. In some cas= es, it may be necessary for you to edit the headline to make it more concise to the topic of the article. What is= not acceptable is altering a headline to imply something other than the thesis = of the article.

Example, if the article is about the police investigat= ing some thefts and break ins at city hall, it is not appropriate to edit the headline to say “Police open investigation into City Hall.”

It is also considered inappropriate to include popular= words such as “Casey Anthony” and “Obama” in the article “tags” when the article has nothing to do with Casey Anthony or Obama.

The Orange Countywatch group on newsvine.

The advantage of having our news group on newsvine is = the convenience of consolidating all the articles in the news into one place for the members to read, consider and discuss.= It is very important for the county watch members to maintain the discipline of the countywatch mission when choosing articles to “clip” to our news group. Specifically, it is not necessary or desired to clip every article t= hat appears in the Orlando Sentinel Local, editorial page or columnist like Sco= tt Maxwell and Mike Thomas Section into the countywatch news group. You are certainly welcome to= post articles to Newsvine you find interesting and relevant but you don’t = have to necessarily clip the article to Countywatch unless you believe the artic= le has a direct coloration to the countywatch mission. As a rule, if you have a doubt, cl= ip the article to countywatch and ask the members if you should remove it or not. =

Your newsvine reputation:

Once you create your newsvine account, you will notice= a “leaf” next to your newsvine name. This leaf icon indicates your reputation on newsvine.

This icon reputation meter can be very useful when try= ing to judge someone’s comments or articles on the vine. It may also help you decide if your reading, commenting on something for an experienced, well respected blogger= , a newbie blogger, or a clone (one time blogger who just signed on to post som= ething and has no intention of ever returning. )

Generally speaking, it may help you decide if you shou= ld bother to respond to an article or comment or just ignore it.

If you would like to learn more about features and oth= er function and tools on newsvine, please go to the “welcome” page= .

If you have any comments or questions, please feel fre= e to email me at jabott@embarqmail.com<= /a>

Andrew Bott

Orange Countywatch Web coordinator.