Using This Site

Welcome to a walk through of the form, features and functionality of the new ASC website. Don’t feel you have to read this guide but if you don’t and you come a cropper at some point you’ll only have yourself to blame.

This is the front page with key areas highlighted. Read the corresponding numbered links below to learn more.

ASCfrontpage1. Logo/Home Button: Click to return to the home page from anywhere on the site
2. Easy Access Menu: Information you may need quickly including:

  • About: Who we are, what is science commuincation and the institutions which provide science communication courses
  • Calendar: Simple calendar interface for the next six months of ASC events. By clicking the [radiating lines] button at the top of the page you can subscribe to the calendar and display it in the calendaring aplication of your choice [get copy written for WCSJ calendar]
  • Join: Join or renew online (plus some fine reasons why you you should join in case you need further convincing)
  • Jobs: not yet live on the site but COMING SOON will be an ASC jobs board.
  • Mailing Lists: We have two: a general member announcements/discussion list and the media list for press releases and the like
  • Members: A listing of all member who have registered and have entered their details. Currently a simple list, we will add features overtime.
  • Using This Site: The very page you’re on now. A how to guide for the ASC site.

3. Search: Type your query, hit enter, get quality search results. Simple

4. Register, Login, Contribute and Edit: Currently information displayed on the site is visible to the general public (though this may not remain the case for every part of the site) but to:

  • leave comments,
  • be listed in the member directory
  • edit your listing in the member directory or
  • contribute announcements or articles

you must first register and login. To do this click “register” and follow the prompts. The only thing you’ll need besides your own name and details is the registration code provided to you by us via email. This code is valid for the calendar month you receive the email and the month after. Try it any later than that and  the code will not work. You’ll need to ask us for a new one.

For your username we suggest you use the format: firstnamesurname (which is to say your first name and your surname one after the other, all one word, no caps). The password is up to you (though the registration system should advise you as to whether or not it is a strong password).

Once registered you will be returned to the front page where you can log in if you wish.

Once logged in you will be able to comment, edit and contribute. Commenting is dealt with here.  And as edit and contribute opens up loads of functionality we’ve given also given it its own how to page.

5. Lead Article: These are the two articles at the top of the front page accompanied by pictures. They are not the newest stories instead they are the stories the editoral team considers most appropriate or important at any one time. Clicking on the picture, article title or read more link will take you to the article. For more on the anatomy of an article see the article page in the Using This Site section.

6. Recent Articles: The  15 most recent articles are displayed here in five columns.  Headlines, lead sentence, publish date and read more links are displayed. Clicking the headline or read more link will take you to the full text of the story.

7. Categories: Each article sits within a number of categories. These are displayed as white text in black blocks above each article on the front page. This should help you to decide if you want to read the article based on your interests and/or your location. Clicking on these category blocks will take you to the category archive, where summaries of all articles in the category are displayed and allows access to the full text of the articles.

8. Order of Articles: The most recent article is at the top of column one. The oldest article on the front page is at the bottom of column five. As new articles are added old articles will be moved down the order (following the arrows) till they eventually disappear from the front page (they can then be access via categories or date archives, and search).

9. Follow Us (Web2.0 and Social Media): Links to tools and technologies which foster information dissemination, sharing, conversation and networking. And the best way to understand them is to USE them. But for those who aren’t familiar with these offerings, here  are some very succinct summaries with links to further reading.

  • RSS: Simple method for keeping on top of updates from your favourite web sites.
  • LinkedIn: Professional networking. Discuss, share and promote yourself to industry peers.
  • Facebook: Social networking. More fun and frivolous than LinkedIn.
  • Delicious: A site for collecting and sharing web bookmarks.
  • Twitter: Conversations (or more often micro broadcasts) in 140 character chunks.
  • Flickr: Photo sharing.
  • You Tube: Video sharing.

10. Most Popular: A list of the most viewed and commented stories so you don’t miss out on what your fellow ASCers consider the worth reading or talking about.

11. Archive Bar: Where you access older content by date, category, or topic. Use the pull down menu to access the relevant archive page.

12. Footer: Our address, ABN and copyright details.