You may have noticed the Help menu pull-down on the top of your administrative dashboard. Previously, this was filled with non-specific content that applied to all WordPress users and systems.
The Help pull-down now contains solutions and help files relevent to onMason along with some more general content.
Hopefully this will better serve onMason users.
Today onMason administrators have completed the following essential system repairs.
Today onMason has initiated support for 36 languages within the blogging system.
Users can select a language when they create their account. If you already have an account or would like to change your language at some future date, the option can be accessed in your dashboard under the Settings tab from the General link.
Users may have noticed the significant increase in spam comments on onMason blogs over the past few days. This issue has been brought to our attention and we have taken steps to solve the solution.
As of today, non-users and users alike will face a significant barrier to spam comments or trackbacks. onMason now has a four step solution to blocking spammers.
Our core system is TypePad Anti-Spam, a plug-in based on WordPress’s Akismet anti-spam system but with a greater compatibility with MU. This system allows a networked ability to catch spam. Posts on any blog with the plugin active and marked as spam will be marked as spam in the future for any blog deploying the plugin. This is a significant advantage over the default system.
We will be filtering Trackback spam using the Simple Trackback Validation Plugin. Follow the link to see just how the Trackback Validation works. Essentially this system will check to make sure trackbacks are linked from a legitimate site and are actually tracking back to you.
The Simple Spam Filter will be checking all comments for certain patterns and an excess of links and blocking any comment that falls into those patterns (as documented on the linked site).
The Anti-Spam Image plugin generates a CAPTCHA that all non-users are required to fill, in order to prevent bots from massively spamming the onMason network.
Thanks also to WPMUDev.org which distributes many of these plugins together in one package.
It should be noted that if you are using an advanced commenting system such as DISQUS or BackType (both of which are available from your plugin tab), some of these precautions may be bypassed and you will instead be reliant on the anti-spam systems that those services require.
Note: Though all these systems should work as expected, there may be errors. Please tell us if you encounter any problems.
We’ve activated universal content sharing functionality accross all current and future onMason blogs.
Using the ShareThis button users and their readers can share onMason content with their friends on a huge number of services, including Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Twitter, Delicious, FriendFeed, Live, Diigo and Current.
You can also sign up at ShareThis and use their ShareBox to connect with the people who are interested in it.
We’ve activated the ability to add users to your blog as subscribers, writers, administrators, etc…
Right now this feature is under testing as we consider it for use. Please report any bad or exceptionally good experiences you have using the feature.
You can access the add user function from the Add New link under the Users tab of your dashboard.
The onMason administrative team can now send out e-mails to users. Any user who has opted out of receiving email from onMason will not receive admin emails.
New sign-ups for onMason will now be able to assign their own password when they create their account.
All future blog sign-ups will be required to agree to the Terms of Service before activating their account.
Please note, that any current accounts are still covered by the Terms of Service, which is available through the onMason front page.
We’ve initiated a Friends social networking system for onMason. As of this week you will be able to friend other bloggers, be friended by other bloggers and assign an avatar to both your username and each of your blogs.
There are now two associated widgets that are available on all blogs. The friends widget allows you to display the other onMason bloggers that you are following. The blog avatar widget allows you to display the avatar you assign to your blog.
You can access the friends system through your dashboard. There you can find friends by email or username. You can also see your current friends and see notifications about who is has marked you as a friend. When you friend another onMason user you will receive an email notification unless you have marked to not allow onMason to send you emails.