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News ​

News gives your instance a front page, season announcements, rule changes, tournament results, maintenance windows, written and published from inside 5Stack rather than lost in a Discord channel.

Enable it from Settings → Application → News.

Reading ​

The News page leads with the newest post: its cover, teaser, read time, and an In this post list of its sections, with Read the post and Copy link buttons. Earlier posts sit below it in a grid, and Show older posts loads more.

Posts published since your last visit are marked New, and the page says New since your last visit with a Mark as read link. It shares its read marker with the notification bell. Players are also notified when a post is published (News articles in their notification settings).

A post ​

Each post shows its publish date and read time, an Updated date when it was edited more than a day after publishing, and the author's name, avatar, and role.

  • Contents: every ### heading becomes a section. On a wide screen an On this page list follows you down the post and highlights where you are; on a phone it folds into a menu at the top. The # beside each heading copies a link to that section.
  • Sign-off: when a post ends with a --- rule followed by one or two short paragraphs ("Ready to …?"), that closing line is set apart from the body rather than read as another section.
  • Older and newer: links to the previous and next post, then the Latest posts.

Links to a post unfurl in Discord, Slack, X, and other apps as a card with the cover image and teaser.

Comments ​

Every post takes comments in a Comments section under it for 7 days after it's published, and says how long it stays open ("Open for {count} more days"). After that the comments stay up but are read-only: "Comments are closed. Posts take comments for 7 days after they're published."

  • Verified Users and above can comment, reply and +1. Everyone else can read; signed-out visitors see "Sign in to join the conversation."
  • Comments are plain text, up to 2,000 characters. The newest come first, 20 at a time (Show More Comments), and new ones appear without a refresh.
  • Replies go one level deep, oldest first: a reply to a reply joins the same thread, and still notifies the player it answers.
  • +1 a comment to back it. You can't +1 your own.
  • You can edit your own comment for 10 minutes after posting it, and delete it at any time. A deleted comment that has replies leaves "This comment was deleted." so the replies keep their place.
  • Copy Link in a comment's menu links straight to it.
  • Banned and gagged players can't comment. Each player can post 3 comments a minute and 30 a day.
  • You don't see comments from players you've blocked, or the replies under them.

When someone replies to your comment you're notified in the Inbox and by push (Replies to your comments, under Comment replies in notification settings). Deleting or hiding the reply takes its Inbox notification back.

Moderating comments ​

Moderators and above can Hide… any comment, with an optional reason. Readers see "Removed by staff." in its place and its replies stay where they are; staff still see it, marked Hidden with who hid it and why, and Restore brings it back. Moderators can also delete any comment, which then reads "Removed by staff." if it has replies.

Writing ​

Article authoring is built in:

  • Markdown editor with a live Write / Preview split, plus a full-post Preview Post.
  • Cover image upload (PNG / JPG / WEBP / GIF, up to 10 MB) with a crop tool and background removal, so logos sit cleanly on the page.
  • Inline image uploads in the body.
  • Video: Insert Video embeds a YouTube or Twitch link, or uploads an MP4 (up to 512 MB) with a poster frame captured automatically. Pasting a YouTube or Twitch link straight into the body embeds it too.
  • Title and teaser, the teaser is what shows under the newest post and in link cards.

Read time is worked out from the word count at 230 words a minute.

Drafts and publishing ​

Posts save as drafts first. Authors see their drafts at the top of the News page (Only authors see drafts), each with Edit and Publish. Published posts can be unpublished back to draft, edited, or deleted, and authors see a view count on every post.

Admin ​

Under Settings → Application → News:

  • The News switch turns the section on or off.
  • Display name renames the section in navigation and page titles.
  • Who can post news sets the minimum role allowed to create and publish posts (administrators by default).