General Info

What is so unique about this blog?
PlanetPOV was founded by bloggers for bloggers, it’s in essence a 2nd Generation blog site. Having the benefit of blogging for years on the initial wave of blogging sites, we’ve built this site to be more in tune with what bloggers prefer and more responsive to the issues bloggers have had with other sites.

There are already numerous sites dedicated to delivering the news. There are also a number of sites that enlist politicians, celebrities, corporate CEOs, etc. to write most of their opinion pieces.

Instead, PlanetPOV is a Citizens’ Think Tank. An Op-Ed site, offering real world perspectives and analysis of the news, politics and other issues of substance from thoughtful, informed and real people who live in the real world.

What you won’t see here are articles that are  exploitation or provocative just to stir up controversy and site traffic.  Our goal is to provide genuine, constructive and enthusiastic conversations and debates on issues that really matter.

Can anyone join?
Yes, membership is open to the public and free.

Why should I sign up to become a member?
Only members can write comments on any post and write their own posts (in Speakers’ Corner).

What is Speakers’ Corner?
This category is named after an area (most famously in Hyde Park in London though there are others around the world) where people are allowed to stand and publicly speak out on any issue.

it is the one category in which ANY member at PlanetPOV can post their own article on any topic (as long as it doesn’t violate the Terms of Use). Well written articles posted here may be promoted to be featured on the front page and prolific members who write well may be invited to become a regular columnist.

Can I change my username and my password?
You can’t change your username but you can change your password in your Dashboard at any time by clicking on ‘Site Admin” (under the “Meta” section in the sidebar of any page) then “My Profile”.

Expressing Yourself

How do I create a new post?
1. To begin a new post, you can either click on the “Click Here To Write a Post Now” link in the sidebar of any page or in your Dashboard, click on “Add New” under “Posts”.

2.  Begin by entering a title for your post at the top of the screen then write your post in the area below. You can include images, videos and links by clicking on the desired button above the text area.

3. ADDING AN IMAGE IN YOUR POST – You must always add an image to your article and since this is a commercial site, the images must be royalty free/public domain (you can also modify an image you find or create your own graphic if desired).

a. FINDING AN IMAGE -  Here are some sites where you can search for public domain images. When you select an image, copy its URL from your browser:

http://search.creativecommons.org/

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.everystockphoto.com/

http://www.picfindr.com/

You can find more sites at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources)

b. INSERTING AN IMAGE IN YOUR POST – Click at the beginning of your article so the cursor is in front of the first word then click the square icon beside “Upload/Insert”.

1. To use an image on the web, click the “From URL” tab, paste the URL for the image  in “Image URL” , enter a name for the image in “Image Title”, for “Alignment” select “Center”, for “Size” select “Medium” then click “Insert in Post”.

2. To use an image on your computer, click “Select Files” and select the file on your computer to upload.  When it has uploaded,  copy the “Link URL” (you’ll need it in a moment), for “Alignment” select “Center”, for “Size” select “Medium then click on “Insert Into Post”.

c. RESIZING AN IMAGE IN YOUR POST – To change the size of the image you’ve inserted into your post, click on the image to select it. You have two options to resize it, first, you can click on any corner of the image and click and drag it to the desired size or, when you click on the image you’ll see two icons appear on it, click the first icon that looks like a picture of a mountain and a window will open that allows you to scale the picture by percentage.

4.  ADDING A PREVIEW IMAGE – You also need to  include a preview of your image with each post, this is the image that appears next to your post on the Home page. The Preview Image function only works with images that you have uploaded to our site so if you used a URL to another site for the image in your post, save that image onto your computer then upload it to our site as described in 3.b.2.

Next, scroll down to the “Custom Fields” section and below the section titled,  “Add New Custom Field”, use the pull down box to select “Preview” then in the “Value” box, paste the Link URL which you copied in Step 3.b.2.  Click the “Add Custom Field” button just below it to complete this task.

5. Enter at least 3 -5 descriptive words in the” Post Tags” box, this is the only way a Search will find your post so please use as many descriptive words about your post as possible.

6. When you’ve completed your article, click on “Publish” and your article will be published in Speakers’ Corner unless other category options are available and selected by you.

How do I insert Links and Quotes in my posts and comments?

1. ADDING LINKS IN ARTICLES – You have to manually add a link to to a URL or any word or phrase you want to use as a link.

a. Make sure the “Visual” tab is selected when you are in your Dashboard writing a new article.

b. Highlight the URL, word or phrase you want to be a link. Click on the button above it that has an icon that looks like a chain link.

c. A small window will pop up. In the top box, paste the full URL you want the link to go to. In the second pulldown box select “Open in New Window” then click the “Insert” button at the bottom and you’re done.

2. ADDING LINKS IN COMMENTS – Our site automatically turns any URL you type or paste in a comment into a link so there’s nothing you have to do. If you would like to use a word or phrase in your comment as a link instead of showing the URL, here is an example:

<a href=”http//planetpov.com”> This is a link </a > that you can click.

Appears in a comment like this:

This is a link that you can click.

The URL that this link will send people to is “http”//planetpov.com”. Whatever is typed after the URL ( in this case, “This is a link”) will be the words that are the link and the “/a” ends the link so whatever words appear after it will appear as normal text.

3. ADDING A QUOTE IN A POST OR COMMENT- When using the “blockquote” feature, you can display a quote from an article or person in a highlighted box so it will be clearly seen as a quote.  Here is an example of how to use this feature, by adding the specific “blockquote” tags around what I want to appear as a quote like this:

<blockquote>BREAKING NEWS: Palin declares snow “cold”.</blockquote>

Causes the quote to appear like this:

BREAKING NEWS: Palin declares snow “cold”.

Try it!

Is it possible for me to become a Columnist here?
Yes. Members who consistently write articles of substance in Speakers’ Corner could be invited to become Columnists.

Can I write anything I want to write in posts or comments?
As long as you’re debating or discussing a meaningful issue, you can freely express yourself. As explained in The Terms of Use, off topic comments, personal attacks, cut and paste propaganda and any other type of disruptive posts or comments will either be moved or removed. Our goal here is to promote and protect thoughtful and constructive discussions.

How do I set up an image (an Avatar) to appear with my username?
This site uses Gravatars, which are avatarsimages you assign through Gravatar’s website to your email address. All websites that support Gravatars will display the same image for you.

To select an image for yourself, go to http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup and register the same email address you used here when you signed up. After responding to a confirmation email from Gravatar, you can select an image from your computer or the internet to assign to your email address and that image will appear here with your user name (and on any other Gravatar-friendly sites you visit).