1. I'm a faculty or staff member. How do I submit a story to Intercom?
2. I'm a student. How do I submit a story to Intercom?
3. How do I put web links in my story?
4. How do I publish a story I've written?
5. Why can't I just e-mail you my story and ask you to submit it for me?
6. Can I submit a story and have it show someone else's name as the author?
7. Can I e-mail you this photo image and have you attach it to my story?
8. When are the deadlines to make the next Intercom roundup?
9. How do I request that my story start or end on a specific date?
10. How do I submit an Intercom alert?
11. Please avoid using the CAPS LOCK.
12. If you need to change the location or time of an event
13. The Intercom roundup I receive displays in plain text. How can I view the fully formatted version?
14. How do I avoid having to log in to Intercom every time?
15. Do I need to log in?
16. Can I subscribe to RSS feeds for the various Intercom topics?
17. I'm a student, faculty, or staff member. How do I subscribe or unsubscribe from the Intercom roundup?
18. I'm a community member or recent retiree. How do I subscribe or unsubscribe from the Intercom roundup?
1. I'm a faculty or staff member. How do I submit a story to Intercom?
To get into Intercom, just go to the site (www.ithaca.edu/intercom), log in (with your e-mail username and password) and click on "contribute and manage stories." You can select a category such as "News and Notices" or "Learning Opportunities" or whatever fits your item. Then fill in the blanks with your headline, introduction, and story body. If you don't understand a menu choice, chances are you can leave it alone or blank.
2. I'm a student. How do I submit a story to Intercom?
Student posting is restricted to "Letters," "Student Organizations," and "Carpooling." The "Letters" topic is reserved for opinion pieces, in the vein of letters to the editor. To post to the "Student Organizations" topic, the student must be an officer of a registered student organization. The Center for Student Leadership and Involvement (csli@ithaca.edu, www.ithaca.edu/csli) maintains this list and Intercom uses it to allow student postings to that topic. A student who is not an officer of a registered student organization might consider asking a faculty or staff member to submit a notice on his or her behalf. To post to an approved topic, follow the instructions in question #1.
3. How do I put web links in my story?
To encode hyperlinks, you have a few options.
1) Write your story in Microsoft Word. Let it automatically activate the hyperlinks as you type URLs. Then paste your copy into the Intercom story body. Under "Posting Mode," select "Plain Text." The hyperlinks will be preserved.
2) Write your story directly in the Intercom story body. Select "Plain Text" mode. Type any URL containing the sequence "www." (e.g., www.google.com). The system will automatically activate your URL.
3) Write your story directly in the Intercom story body. Select "HTML Formatted" mode. Use the code <a href="http://www.google.com">www.google.com</a>, replacing www.google.com with your URL.
4. How do I publish a story I've written?
At the bottom of your story, uncheck the "draft" box and click "save." It will be forwarded to the moderator if necessary, or it will go live immediately if no moderator approval is needed.
5. Why can't I just e-mail you my story and ask you to submit it for me?
The Intercom moderator cannot submit your story for you because the software that runs Intercom would show the name of the moderator as the story contributor instead of you.
6. Can I submit a story and have it show someone else's name as the author?
Sorry, no. You can, however, include a line at the top of your message to the effect: "Posted on behalf of Jane Smith."
7. Can I e-mail you this photo image and have you attach it to my story?
Yes, you can e-mail a photo image to intercom@ithaca.edu with one caveat: when things get quite busy the moderator may not have time to do the image work or respond to requests to do so. The volume is simply too large for us to edit images for everyone. So it's always better to ask a colleague, or do it yourself, rather than take your chances that your story will be published without the photo.
8. When are the deadlines to make the next Intercom roundup?
The e-mail roundup of headlines automatically includes all stories posted since the last roundup. It goes out Monday and Thursday morning. The deadline is the previous weekday at 3:00 p.m.
9. How do I request that my story start or end on a specific date?
Simply put a note at the bottom of your story body: "Please start this story on XX/XX/XX" or "Please end this story on XX/XX/XX." Keep in mind you need to choose your dates carefully in order to make the automated roundup.
10. How do I submit an Intercom alert?
First submit the alert story as you would a normal Intercom story.
You'll need approval from your vice president, the president, the provost, or the director of human resources before the alert can be sent.
Ask your vice president to send approval for the story to be sent as an alert. The approval should include information about the story so that we can identify it among other submissions (for example, the title, who submitted it, what it's about). It should specify whether the alert is to be sent to students; to faculty and staff; or to students, faculty, and staff.
That approval should be sent to the Intercom moderator at intercom@ithaca.edu.
After we receive approval from your vice president, the story will be sent as an alert to the Ithaca College community.
11. Please avoid using the CAPS LOCK.
In electronic communication words in all-caps are universally considered YELLING! Please read Benjamin Costello's elegant post on the subject: http://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20061207150520630
12. If you need to change the location or time of an event
Please submit a new story as a courtesy to notify readers of the change. Use a headline with words such as "Location Change." In many cases scores of people will have already viewed the original notice. In addition, request the moderator to change the event location or time in the original notice.
13. The Intercom roundup I receive displays in plain text. How can I view the fully formatted version?
If you're using IC Webmail, go into Options, Display Preferences, and set the radio button "Show HTML Version by Default" to "Yes." If you're using another e-mail client such as Outlook, Eudora, or Thunderbird, look under Help for a topic about viewing HTML-formatted messages. The procedure will differ slightly among different e-mail clients.
14. How do I avoid having to log in to Intercom every time?
If your computer is in a secure location, you can simply log in to Intercom once per month.
Try this:
If you share your computer with others, however, this is not ideal and you will need to log in and out each time.
15. Do I need to log in?
Anyone with an Internet connection can view the Intercom site, so you don't need to log in to browse most of the stories. Log-in is required, however, for some sections and for the more interactive functions -- contributing stories, adding comments to stories, and customizing the presentation of some aspects of Intercom.
17. I'm a student, faculty, or staff member. How do I unsubscribe from the Intercom roundup?
All faculty, staff, and student members of Ithaca College are required to receive Intercom, as it is a primary channel for timely and official communications of the College.
For this reason, there is no need for students, faculty, or staff to unsubscribe. If you are graduating or leaving the college, you will be automatically removed from the list when your account expires.
18. I'm a community member or recent retiree. How do I subscribe or unsubscribe to the Intercom roundup?
Send an e-mail to majordomo@lists.ithaca.edu with the following message in the body:
Or to unsubscribe:subscribe intercom-roundup your_username@your_domain.com
unsubscribe intercom-roundup your_username@your_domain.com
Intercom
http://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/staticpages/index.php/faq