Welcome to the New PlanetPOV!!!

Here it is, the brand new website for PlanetPOV! Go ahead, kick the tires and drive it around the block…hell, feel free to Tokyo Drift it against other websites if you want. This is your site, your world of opinion, new and improved for your posting enjoyment.

PlanetPOV may have had a remodel (try out the rooftop pool with swim-up bar!) but behind the fresh, new look is the same heart and soul of The Planet but with some cool new features!

The welcome carpet and complimentary bunny slippers are happily offered to existing members who are rejoining us, members who are coming over from the wonderful site, Yabberz and new members coming from anywhere else out there (regular members get Koala Bear or  Sleepy Persian Cat slippers, your choice).

Er…I was just told that our slipper budget went to pay for the new site so…um…foot massages anyone?

NEW MEMBERS:

To use most of the features at PlanetPOV, you do need to set up an account and be logged into it. It’s free and I’m told, will add at least three years to your lifespan but that’s just between you and me, don’t let anyone else know. When you join, you will receive an email with a link that you need to click on to activate your account. Sometimes that email may end up in your Spam or Junk folder so if you don’t see it pretty quickly in your Inbox, check those folders. If you have any problems with signing up or activating your account, please feel free to click on Contact Us here or in the menu bar and let us know. We’re always happy to help!

Basics for New Members:

• Always be logged in to be able to add comments, create posts, message or be able to participate in our live chats.
• Every function you need that’s member-related can be easily accessed under the Member menu item. Whether you want to join, login, view or edit your profile, Subscribe or Unsubscribe to email notifications of new posts, it’s all there.
• The 4 buttons at the top of the right column which are titled Post, Comment, Message and Join are your Quick Access buttons to use the major functions at PlanetPOV and appear on every page.
• The Comment button is for adding a comment on any issue or sharing a news item at our “community hangout”, Time Out For Off Topic. See details on it below.
• The Post button is for opinion articles of more length than a brief comment or sharing a news item. Typically, a post should be at least several paragraphs, share a member’s opinion and have an image included under Featured Image. There are a few more items to easily include on posts, you can use The How-To Guide For Authors, located under the FAQ menu item to learn how to create and complete a post.
• The slider at the top of the Home page and the Featured Posts section are for the most substantial posts on the site as chosen by the editors but all posts from all members are promoted on our Twitter and Facebook accounts and also appear on our front page in the All Posts section. We promote all of our members posts and happily spotlight posts that members invest time and energy in.
• For our live chats, Vox Populi and Live Events, be sure you’re logged in then click the blue bar in the bottom right corner that says “Vox Populi” or “Live Events” to open the chat window (the bar only appears when a live chat is available).
• Under the FAQ menu item is our Terms of Use page that describes how the site is run and the way we keep conversations here civil, constructive and respectful. We greatly value free expression but personal attacks infringe on the abilities of members to express themselves freely so trolling and discussions that stray into personal conflicts are not allowed.

REGULAR FEATURES AT PLANETPOV:

Of course, all of our regular features will continue here at PlanetPOV. They include:

Time Out For Off Topic

This is our virtual neighborhood bar where everyone is welcome to come on in and start a conversation on whatever is on their mind, any topic is on topic at Off Topic. Figure that one out! This is where members hang out often, whether to share a news item that just grabbed their interest, post a video that they’d like to share or comment about anything at all. By the way, videos posted on TO/OT that are well-liked may be added to our Video Faves display on our Home Page.

Vox Populi

Every Friday night at 7:00pm PST/PDT, we host a live chat about the week’s events (or whatever folks would like to chat about). It’s a fun, lively and friendly conversation between members that really allows folks to come together as a community and get to visit with members they enjoy and meet new members. It’s very welcoming and open to all members (non members are welcome to read along but they can’t participate in the chat until they become members).

Weekend Music Thread

An oasis at the end of every stressful news weeks, our Weekend music Thread offers a melodic spa for members to hang out and share their favorite songs that follow that weekend’s theme. One weekend may be for songs about traveling, the next weekend may be for songs with a color in the title, another weekend’s theme may be for songs about women (as we just had for Mother’s Day), As is referenced below, putting a video in a comment is as simple as just pasting a YouTube URL in a comment then just click on the Post Comment button and it automatically appears. ATTENTION REGULAR MEMBERS: You no longer insert a “v” after the “http”, just paste the YouTube URL as it is and the video appears!

Live Events

There’s nothing more satisfying when you’re watching political debates (as the Democrats will soon be having), State of the Union addresses, live Congressional hearings, Election night results, etc….than when you can comment in real time with others who are watching that live event right along with you. Using the same Vox Populi chat system, PlanetPOV hosts live chats for all members to participate in when important events are happening.

NEW FEATURES AT PLANETPOV:

Messaging

PlanetPOV now has a new private messaging system that can be accessed by either clicking the Message button at the top of the right column or under the Members menu item. You’ll receive a notification email when you’ve received a new message, a notification bar appears at the top of the website page. You can also find a directory here of members as well as block members from whom you don’t wish to receive PMs.

Comments System

Our new Comments system offers a bit more than our previous one and posts your comment very swiftly without reloading the page (you may need to reload the page to see graphics you’ve just posted, we’re working to resolve this issue).

• As before, you can paste any graphic by just posting its URL (a proper image URL ends with a three letter extension like .jpg or .png. When you copy a URL that is very long and doesn’t end that way, it won’t work.
• You can post a video from YouTube just by posting its URL.
• It’s easy to format text in your comment using the buttons on the bar above the Comment box, just highlight the text you want to format then click the desired button.
• You can “follow” your favorite members and always be notified when they comment by clicking the three arc icon next to their name.
• You can subscribe to be notified of new comments to a thread by clicking the Subscribe button.
• You can view all of your comments, your subscriptions to comment threads and the members you follow by clicking the person/gear button just below “Leave a Comment”.  You can also modify your subscriptions to comments and member follows here.
• You can choose to order comments as you would like by clicking “newest”, “oldest” or “most voted” which appears above the right corner of the first comment listed.

There are a few more features represented by icons, just hover your cursor over them to see what they are. Ain’t surprises da bomb?

There is no doubt more that can be explained about the new site so if you have questions about anything, find bugs or bad links, have suggestions or ideas for new features (we invite members to come to us with ideas, especially for new features or sections that they may be interested in hosting here), please comment below, we want to hear from you.

Lastly, as it is our 10th anniversary (Established June 2009) and since we don’t clutter our site with any advertising and are 100% member financed, we welcome our members, longtime and new, to support PlanetPOV and our mission to promote thoughtful and constructive conversation as well as community (not to mention our new snazzy website) by donating once or subscribing which is buying The Planet a cup of coffee a month ($5/mo). Any amount donated to support The Planet’s orbit would be very appreciated.