Frequently Asked Questions

You're on your way to becoming a savvy Intercom user. Scroll through the questions below to feed your curiosity!

Posting Stories to Intercom

Please visit our Knowledge Base for the most up-to-date information:

https://ithaca.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/36/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=1127

Student posting is restricted to the "Student Organizations" topic. To post to the "Student Organizations" topic, the student must be an officer of a registered student organization. The Office of Student Engagement and Multicultural Affairs maintains this list. Intercom uses it to allow student postings to the "Student Organizations" topic. Students can begin the recognition process by visiting the Student Organization Recognition Process page or viewing the Ithaca College OrgSync page.

A student who is not an officer of a registered student organization may ask 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.

Web URLs and email addresses may be hyperlinked using the handy edit tools, which are similar to what you might see in Microsoft Word. To insert a link, click on the "Insert/Edit Link" icon. In the pop-up box under "Link Type," choose "URL" to paste in a web address, or "Email" for an email address.

At the bottom of your story, choose “Publish." It will be forwarded to the moderator if necessary, or it will go live immediately if no moderator approval is needed.

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.

Sorry, no. You can, however, include a line at the top of your message such as "Posted on behalf of Jane Smith," or something similar.

10 MB limit.
Allowed types: png gif jpg jpeg.
Images must be larger than 640x1 pixels.

Images must be below 15 MB in size, and preferably much smaller. If you try to attach an image larger than 15 MB to your story, the system will reject the photo and the story text -- meaning you will lose all photos and text and have to start over again. If you aren’t sure, publish the story without the photo and then go back and add it later.

Intercom is a community-based system, meaning that submitters are the ones ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the information they post. Intercom moderators ensure that the content of Intercom stories adheres to college policies, but they do not copyedit or fact-check your submissions.

All Ithaca College publications and websites, including Intercom, follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. You can find guidance on the college's editorial standards and writing guidelines here https://brand-standards.ithaca.edu/d/6HhNeZWvyqdC/ithaca-college-identi…

You have the option of viewing a list of either live stories currently on the Intercom site or a list of your story drafts that have not yet been published. The page defaults to drafts.

Intercom does not send out email confirmations; however, to see whether your story is currently online, click on "Contribute and Manage Stories," then on "My Stories." The "Live Stories" list displays all stories that you've submitted in the past. If you need to make changes to a story, just click on "Edit" next to the story's title. Your story will also be displayed on the Intercom home page.

If you don't see your story in "Live Stories," check the "Drafts" list -- you may have saved your story as a draft rather than publishing your story.

The email Roundup automatically includes all stories posted since the last Roundup. It is generated and sent out each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning around 1:00 a.m. If you would like your story to be part of a specific Roundup you must submit it before midnight on that day.
 

Use the "Publish" and "Archive" fields (see question #1) to control when your story posts and is archived. By default, all stories are archived six months after publication. If you're submitting a story to a moderated topic -- HR News or Technology -- 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 (see question #11).
 

Users may request that their story be featured by contacting the Intercom moderators at intercom@ithaca.edu. Intercom Top Stories appear in the myHome portal at the top of the home page, as well as at the top of the Intercom website. Please note that moderators can receive many requests, and may not be able to accommodate them all.

First submit the alert story as you would a normal Intercom story.

You'll need approval from your vice president, the president, or the provost before the alert can be sent.

This approval must be sent to the Intercom moderator (intercom@ithaca.edu) before the story can be sent as an alert. The approval message 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 only; to faculty and staff only; or to students, faculty, and staff.

After we receive the notice of approval, the story will be sent via email as an alert to the Ithaca College community. It will include the name of the person authorizing the alert as well as the person who submitted the story.

Click on "My Stories" to see a list of your live stories. Click "edit" next to the title of the story you'd like to repeat. Under "Publish Date," set the date and time to the current time or to a date in the future that you'd like to run the story.

Due to the volume of stories that appear in each Roundup, we ask that you run your story a maximum of two times. Instances of stories repeated more than once, or repeated in multiple topics, are subject to deletion or archiving by the moderator.

Intercom Etiquette and General Netiquette

Solicitation and advertising of for-profit activities are not appropriate for Intercom. Please do not post stories about items you have for sale or real estate for rent. These stories will be deleted. Craigslist is a more appropriate forum for these kinds of posts. Additionally, any stories that use vulgar language, are nonsensical, or are attacking in any way, will be removed.

Please submit a new story as a courtesy to notify readers of the change. Use a headline that includes words such as "Location Change." In many cases scores of people will have already viewed the original notice. In addition, change the event location or time in the original notice to avoid any confusion (see see question #9 for editing information).

Subscribing/Unsubscribing

All faculty, staff, and students at Ithaca College are required to receive the Intercom Roundup, as it is a primary channel for timely and official communications of the college.

For this reason, they cannot unsubscribe. If you are graduating or otherwise leaving the college, you will be automatically removed from the list when your email account expires, which can sometimes take several months.

To subscribe, send an email to majordomo@lists.ithaca.edu with the following message in the body:
subscribe intercom-Roundup [your email address]
To unsubscribe send an email to majordomo@lists.ithaca.edu with the following message in the body:
unsubscribe intercom-Roundup [ your email address]
You can also subscribe or unsubscribe at the following pages:

Yes. To learn more, visit our RSS page:

Intercom: RSS Feeds

Troubleshooting

Make sure you are using your Netpass username (just the first part before the @), and not your whole email address. If you need to, you can reset your password by visiting the Passwords website.

Password Manager

Intercom will automatically log you out after a while if you have not changed your log-in setting. If you are the only user of your computer, you can go to the menu called "User Functions," select "Log-in settings," and tell Intercom to remember you for longer.
 

A story may take up to two business days to be published if submitted to a moderated topic (Technology or HR News). All other stories should be visible under "My Stories" immediately (see question #9). If a story you have submitted has not appeared after that, please email us at intercom@ithaca.edu.