How to define stories. How to define news.

[Eric Soroos]

> 1. What exactly are the features of stories versus the
>    features of news?...
 
A News Item is: a structured discussion group entry that has the 
following fields: Url, Title, Department, and Body. The news item may 
be in one of several states: editing, pending, or released. The news 
item format maps to the RSS 0.91 syndication format. Macros are not 
rendered in the body of news items. News items may be listed by 
department.

A story is an unstructured discussion group item that has Title and 
Body fields. Stories differ from non story discussion group items in 
their display (no reply form, no list of replies, includes the skull link) 
and the permissions required to view them.  (stories are always 
publicly availiable, unless the entire site is restricted to editors only. 
Non-story DG items may be restricted.) Non news dg items have 
macros in the body evaluated. A non-news, non-story dg item may be 
promoted to a story. 


> 2. What are some of the things to consider in choosing
>    one or the other?...

If you want multiple discrete items on your home page each day that 
can be syndicated well in RSS 0.91 form, then use news. (Weblog 
style) If you write essays or other free form material, use stories. (Web 
Journal)  Or use both. 
 
> 3. How would they be combined?...

Stories do not have to appear on the home page to be useful. Unless 
you do custom programming, news items generally need to be on the 
home page to be useful.

hth

eric

-- 
I create, therefore I am.