Post news to your site

News is where you tell your community what's going on: server updates, rule changes, new departments, event results. Posts appear on your site's News page and on your home page, and you can send each one to a Discord channel as it goes live.

You can write a post now and schedule it for later, so a patch note can go out at the same moment as the update.

Before you start#

• To write posts, you need to be the owner, or have a role with the Write news posts and run the announcement banner permission.
• To switch the News page on or off and change the home page settings, you also need Edit the community site: pages, navigation and branding.
• To post to Discord, your Discord server needs to be connected with the LonexOne bot in it. See Connect your Discord server.

Write a post#

1. Open your control panel.

2. In the sidebar, under Modules, click Community Site, then News.

   

3. Click New post.

4. Type a Title.

5. Add a Summary if you like. It's one or two lines shown in the news list, on Discord and in link previews. Without one, the start of the post is used.

6. Write the post in Post. The toolbar has headings, bold, lists, links, tables, note boxes and images. You can paste or drag images straight in.

7. Under Publishing, choose Publish now, Schedule or Save as draft.

8. Click Save.

You'll see Published., Draft saved. or Scheduled for followed by the date.

Post settings#

The panel on the right of the post has these settings:

Scheduled times are in your community's timezone, which is shown under the box. To change it, see Add events to the calendar.

If you choose Schedule with a time that's already passed, the post goes live straight away.

Send a post to Discord#

1. On the post, tick Post to Discord when it goes live.
2. Pick the Channel. The list shows the text channels in your connected Discord servers.
3. Save the post.

When the post goes live, now or at its scheduled time, the bot posts it to that channel with its title, summary, cover image and a link to read it on your site. The channel you pick is remembered for your next post.

Each post is only sent to Discord once. Afterwards, the post shows when it was posted to Discord, and editing the post doesn't send it again. In the posts list, a Discord icon next to a title means it's been posted.

Who gets told about a new post#

Members can follow news categories from their notification settings on your site. When a post in a category goes live, everyone following that category is notified, apart from the person who wrote it. Posts without a category don't send notifications. See Choose what members are notified about.

Edit or delete a post#

1. On the News page, click the post.
2. Make your changes and click Save post.

To delete it, click Delete post at the bottom and confirm. A deleted post can't be brought back.

On the News page you can filter the list by Any status, Published, Scheduled or Draft, and by category.

Categories#

New communities start with three categories: Announcements, Server updates and Community. You can change them on the right of the News page:

• Add one: type a name under New category, pick a colour and click Add.
• Rename or recolour one: click it, make your change and click Save.
• Delete one: click it, then Delete. Its posts stay, without a category.

News page settings#

People with the Edit the community site: pages, navigation and branding permission see a Settings box on the right of the News page:

• News page on the site turns the News page on or off.
• Latest posts on the home page shows your newest posts on your home page.
• How many sets how many posts the home page shows, from 1 to 12.

Click Save settings. To put News in your site's header, add it under Navigation. See Change your site's menu.

Something not working?#

A banner says "The News page is switched off, so visitors can't see these posts." Tick News page on the site in the Settings box and save. If you don't see the Settings box, ask someone who can edit the community site to turn it on.

It says "Pick the channel to post it in." You ticked Post to Discord when it goes live without choosing a channel. Pick one, or untick the box.

It says "That isn't a text channel in your Discord servers." The channel couldn't be found in your connected servers. Pick one from the list. If there's no list, check that the LonexOne bot is in your Discord server.

It says "Couldn't check the channel with Discord. Try again in a minute." We couldn't reach Discord to check the channel. Wait a minute and save again.

It says "Another post uses that address." Each post needs its own address. Change the Address, or leave it blank to make one from the title.

It says "Pick when it goes live." You chose Schedule without a time. Fill in Goes live.

My scheduled post went live at the wrong time. Check your community timezone under Events. Scheduled times use that timezone, not your computer's.

The post didn't appear in Discord. Check that the bot can post in that channel. If it was removed from the server, or the channel's permissions block it, the post can't be sent.