That’s why the team at Our-Hometown Web Publishing is thrilled to announce our latest, most-requested feature: Direct Video Uploads are now available on your WordPress website!

You can now bring your community’s stories to life and offer powerful new advertising solutions in a more dynamic and engaging way than ever before.

The Power of Video, Simplified

We believe that powerful tools should also be easy to use. We’ve integrated video uploads directly into the Media Library you already know. It’s as simple as uploading a photo.

Here are the key details:

• Generous File Size: Upload video files up to 256MB.
• Standard Formats: We support all the common formats you use, including .mp4, .mov, .webm, and more.
• Seamless Integration: Your uploaded videos can be placed into posts, pages, and even ad placements with ease.

NOTE: To ensure compatibility, always sanitize the filename of your videos: i.e. no special characters (/,?#) and also replace any spaces with either a dash or underscore.

From the Field to the Front Page: Go Mobile!

We know that news happens everywhere, not just at your desk. That’s why we’ve ensured our new video feature is completely mobile-ready.

Imagine this: you’re covering a last-minute press conference or a high school playoff game. You can capture a critical clip on your smartphone, open your website in your mobile browser, and upload the video directly into a new post. Your readers can see what’s happening, as it’s happening. No more waiting to get back to the office to transfer files.

Ideas to Get You Started

Not sure where to begin? Video is perfect for capturing the content that makes local news so special and opens up new revenue streams.

• High School Sports: Upload the game-winning touchdown, the three-point shot at the buzzer, or a post-game interview with the coach.
• Parades & Performances: Showcase the intricate float designs from the holiday parade, or a clip of the high school marching band’s new routine.
• Breaking News: Provide on-the-scene footage from a local event or incident, adding urgency and authenticity to your reporting.
• Nature & Wildlife: Share a serene video of a sunrise over a local landmark or capture footage of wildlife in a nearby park. These clips are highly shareable!
• Powerful Video Advertising: Offer premium advertising opportunities! A local realtor could run a video property walkthrough as part of their campaign, or a car dealership could showcase a new model in action. This is a fantastic new product to offer your advertisers.
• Community Voices: Record short “man-on-the-street” interviews about a local issue or a quick soundbite from a town council meeting.

Placing Your Videos: As Easy as 1-2-3

Once you’ve uploaded your video to the Media Library, how do you get it onto your site? We’ve made it simple by integrating it directly with the WordPress tools you already use.

• In an Article or Page: When writing a post, simply add a new block and search for the “Video” block. You can then select your clip directly from the Media Library.
• On Your Homepage or Sidebars: Want to feature a video more prominently? Use the Theme Customizer to add a video block to widget-ready areas, giving you full control over where your featured videos appear.

Ready to Roll?

This feature is now live for all Our-Hometown customers. We are committed to providing you with the tools you need to be the essential source for news and information in your community. We can’t wait to see the incredible stories you’ll tell and the new advertising opportunities you’ll create.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team at ops@our-hometown.com.

The post Bring Your Stories to Life: Video Uploads Are Now Live on Our-Hometown first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The widget features a header displaying current conditions and today’s forecast.

Below the header you can toggle a section to display periodic Special Weather Statements from the National Weather Service.

The main portion of the widget is dedicated to tabs that provide Hourly and 7-Day forecasts, as well as a live radar Map.

For the Hourly and 7-Day forecast entries, a button to the right of each will reveal further details for that particular timeframe.

The Map tab displays a live view with settings for the road/satellite view, plus layer toggles for various map overlays, such as precipitation, temperature, etc. and can even play through an animation of weather conditions.

A General Settings page provides options to toggle the default state (on or off) for many of these items as well as the default location and your API key for accessing the weather data.

The widget actually includes two separate widgets that can be used in the theme Customizer or simply in the Block Editor. One for a small heading display and one for the full widget.

Additionally, the widget can be accessed and placed via shortcode with options for the various display toggles and location settings.

If you are interested in adding the new OHT Weather Widget to your site, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at ops@our-hometown.com!

The post Introducing Our-Hometown’s Fully-Featured Weather Widget first appeared on Our-Hometown.

• Image Block
• Gallery Block
• Cover Block

Image Block

Once you add the Image block, you will be presented with three methods to select your image: Upload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.

Once the image has been added, you can change the size directly in the editor. Click the image to reveal the resize handles that look like dots around the image. Then, click on a resize handle and drag the image to your desired size

Otherwise the settings panel in the sidebar provides many sizing options via the Aspect Ratio dropdown.

Aspect Ratio Options

• Original – The same aspect ratio as when you uploaded the image.
• Square – 1:1
• Standard – 4:3
• Portrait – 3:4
• Classic – 3:2
• Classic Portrait – 2:3
• Wide – 16:9
• Tall – 9:16

When an aspect ratio other than the original is selected, the Scale option will be available. Scale refers to how your image fits within your selected aspect ratio with the following options:

• Cover: Your image will scale larger within the space to fill it completely. You will lose content from the image.
• Contain: Your image will scale to ensure the entire content of the image is displayed within the space. The image will resize smaller in order to fit.

The Resolution setting chooses which size of the original image you would like to display, although it can still be adjusted with the other options.

Gallery Block

The Gallery block contains individual Image blocks for each image and arranges them in an responsive way. Options for cropping, column layout and color options are available. Note unlike a Grid block, the Gallery block can only contain Image blocks.

Using the List View you can easily drag and drop image blocks to reorder them, as well as dragging images from into or out of the Gallery block itself as necessary. Clicking on an individual Image block reveals its settings as described above.

Cover Block

After adding the block, you will have the following options to set an image or video:

• Upload: Click to upload a new image from your computer.
• Media Library: Choose from an existing image from your sites Media.
• Use featured image: Pull in the featured image of your page or post, if one is set.
• Select a color: Click on the colored circles to use that color for your cover. A few common colors are first presented, which you can later change to any other color in the block style settings.

Add Text and Other Content

Now that you’ve selected your background image or color, you can write text and add other content over it. Click the + block inserter to add other blocks to show on top of the Cover block, such as Paragraph blocks, Heading blocks, or even other layout blocks such as the Grid or Columns block. You can also drag and drop blocks into the Cover block using the List View.

Cover Block Toolbar

When you click on the Cover block, a toolbar of options will appear above it.

These options are (from left to right):

• Change block type
• Align the cover 
• Apply duotone filter
• Change content position
• Toggle full height
• Replace the current image with a new image (if a color is used for the background this option will change to Add Media)
• Advanced options (Copy, Paste, Rename, Create Pattern)

Alignment

Like many other blocks, you can align the Cover block to the left, right, and center of the page. When using the left or right alignment, you can align other content next to the Cover block.

Content Position

Use the Content Position option to adjust where the text and other content appears on the image:

Media Settings

The Media section (also labeled Settings) for the Cover block appears next in the sidebar, under the Layout section. There are several options for customizing the appearance and behavior of content in the Cover block, which are detailed in the following sections.

Fixed Background (aka Parallax Effect)

When the Fixed background setting is toggled OFF, the parallax effect is disabled, and the image scrolls with the rest of the page.

When the Fixed background setting is toggled ON, the image will remain still in the background while the foreground scrolls vertically. This behavior is called a parallax effect or parallax scrolling.

Focal Point Picker

You will see the Focal point picker if the Fixed background option is turned off. Use the Focal point picker to specify the main point of interest in the photo and highlight it. This is especially helpful if the wrong part of an image is being shown on smaller screens.

Repeated Background

The Repeated background option lets you repeat the same image to form a pattern in the Cover block. For example, if you a company logo and you want it to repeat multiple times in the Cover block, note the image needs to be small enough to repeat in the area contained by the block. In the example below the logo is 64×64 pixels.

Cover Block Styles

In the block settings sidebar, click on the Styles icon to access the design settings for the block. The Styles icon is in the shape of a circle with half of the circle filled in.

Overlay Opacity

By default, the cover adds a gray transparent overlay to darken the background image, but you can choose any color you like, or even a gradient if you prefer.

You can also set the opacity of the overlay color. Move the slider to the left to make the overlay color more transparent, or to the right to make it darker and more opaque. Set the opacity to zero for no overlay.

Duotone Filter

The Duotone Filter applies a color conversion to the background image replacing light and dark colors with a duo, most often using black and gray to create B&W or Grayscale images. There are several preset color combinations available in the sidebar settings, however you can customize the individual colors using the Duotone settings in the floating toolbar above the Cover block.

Do note the Duotone effect will interact with the Overlay color creating an interesting ‘color mix’ between the two.

Minimum Height of Cover

You can set the minimum height of the cover image in pixels or other units. By setting a minimum height, the image will always be displayed at this height no matter what size screen your visitors may be using. 

The post Block Editor Updates — Images and Media first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Our engineering team has been hard at work on a new performance enhancement to the Our-Hometown publishing platform that will help your website load faster and run more efficiently. This update focuses on smart plugin management and improved front-end optimization.

What’s New?

We’ve implemented intelligent plugin loading that activates features only where they’re needed. This means your website will load faster because it’s not carrying unnecessary code on every page.

How Does It Work?

The optimization is automatic and works behind the scenes. You’ll notice that the admin toolbar at the top of your website now shows only the relevant tools for each page you’re viewing. For example:

• On your homepage, you’ll see a streamlined toolbar with only essential functions
• When viewing articles, you’ll see additional tools like MemberPress controls, since these are specifically needed for article management
• Other specialized features will appear only on the pages where they’re actually used

What This Means For You

The good news is that you don’t need to do anything! All your existing features and functionality remain fully accessible in the main WordPress admin area. The only difference is that they’re now being loaded more efficiently on your public-facing pages.

Key Benefits:

• Faster page load times
• Improved user experience for your readers
• Better resource management
• No loss of functionality

For Website Administrators

If you’re working in the WordPress admin area, you’ll continue to have access to all your usual tools and features. This optimization only affects how plugins load on the public-facing side of your website.

What’s Next?

This update is part of our ongoing commitment to improving website performance for our publishers. We’ll continue to roll out additional optimizations and keep you updated on new features as they become available.

The post Front-End Optimizations and Speed Improvements on the OHT Platform first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Layout Blocks

Group Block

The Group block brings together other blocks inside one container so that you can set a background color, adjust spacing, and organize different page sections.

In addition to being able to choose between the four different Group layouts when you initially add a Group block, you can also transform a group between those layouts at anytime after, depending on the needs of the Group content.

Row and Stack Blocks

The Row block and the Stack block are containers for other blocks. Use them to organize multiple blocks and adjust the color, text style, width, and position of all blocks inside the container. These blocks are variations of the Group block.

For both of these block types color and typography settings are available as in the other layout blocks, with additional controls for justification and orientation of the block contents.

Note that the size of the image content is not altered by the layout settings, but retains the sizing from the settings for each individual image. This is when the “Allow to wrap to multiple lines” option is useful.

Grid Block

In the Layout settings, you can choose the number of columns in the Grid block, based on whether the column widths are automatically or manually sized:

• Selecting Auto will automatically add columns of the specified minimum width to fit the block.
• Selecting Manual will automatically divide the block into the number of columns you specify.

Similar to the Columns block, the number of columns in the grid can be defined by setting a minimum column width or by manually setting the number of columns.

Columns Block

Add a Columns Block

To add an empty Columns block, click the + Block Inserter icon and search for “columns”. Click it to add the block to the post or page. You can then choose the number of columns divisions for the block.

Create Columns from existing Blocks

If you have inserted multiple blocks one after another and you want to turn them into columns, you can follow the steps below:

1. Select all the desired blocks you want to turn into columns.
2. The floating toolbar will appear. Click the first option on the left side of the block toolbar.
3. Under the list “Transform to”, select Columns.

Add content to the Columns Block

You can use the + icon to add any widget to an individual column within the Columns block.

Columns Block Settings

Overall Columns Settings

Here you can change the number of columns in the block, and toggle whether the columns will stack in a mobile view or not. Notice that you can select the Columns block, individual Columns and Column Content using the List View panel on the left.

Similar to other blocks the styles panel allows you to set overall color and typography settings for the Columns block.

Individual Column Settings

While the same typography and color settings are available for an individual column, you can also specify a specific width using percentage, pixels, em, rem or viewport width values.

Arranging Blocks in the List View

The list view provides a quick and easy way to not only select and target particular blocks to access their settings, but you can also drag and drop any block (including groups, columns, grids, etc.) to alter the order AND the nesting, i.e. you can drag an image from outside to inside a columns block.

This feature allows you to quickly change your layouts by dragging content blocks into and within layout blocks.

The post Block Editor Updates — New Layout Features first appeared on Our-Hometown.

We have completed testing a new optimization feature that will improve site responsiveness on the Admin Dashboard. While active, certain menus and features will be hidden to improve performance.

The feature targets several pages that show marked speed improvements when certain other options are hidden.

It is active by default on the following sections:

• Articles
• PDFs
• Adrotate Pro
• Geodirectory Post-types (Events, Classifieds, Places, etc.)

When optimization is active, you’ll see a black sidebar with a blue control box at the top:

The optimizer disables plugins that slow down the admin area for these specific pages. To access any missing menus, return to the “Dashboard” page via the link at the bottom of the menu. Alternatively, you may want to keep the full dashboard open in a second tab to ease navigation between sections.

If you temporarily need a feature for a certain task (such as editing the featured image of article directly from the list), you can temporarily disable the optimization feature by clicking on the “Disable Optimization” link at the top left:

When visiting a page with optimization enabled, the menu options for the certain other optimization pages are hidden. For example on the Article Page there are no links to AdRotate or Classifieds, but the PDF menu item is present. To reach any hidden menu items you must either toggle the optimization for the current page OR click the link at the bottom of the menu to return to the full dashboard.

Additionally certain options on the post listings are also hidden. For instance on the Article page, the Featured Image column is disabled, as this is an intensive operation. To reveal the column temporarily click the Disable link and when finished click the Activate link in the blue control box to re-enable optimization.

Below are before and after screenshots illustrating the difference on each section page when the optimization is enabled vs. disabled.

Article Page

When optimization is enabled on the Articles page, the menu items for AdRotate and any Geodirectory post type are hidden from the dashboard. Additionally the Featured Image column (allowing for direct selection or replacement of the image) is also hidden.

PDF Page

When optimization is enabled on the PDF page, the menu items for AdRotate and any Geodirectory post-types are hidden from the dashboard. Additionally the Featured Image column (allowing for direct selection or replacement of the image) and AIOSEO plugin details are also hidden.

AdRotate Pro Page

When optimization is enabled on the AdRotate Pro page, the menu items for AdRotate and any Geodirectory post-types are hidden from the dashboard. By default no items are hidden from the advertisement list.

Geodirectory Pages

When optimization is enabled on any Geodirectory page, the menu item for AdRotate Pro is hidden from the dashboard. Additionally the Access column and AIOSEO plugin details are also hidden.

Note that because Geodirectory manages several post types, when optimization is disabled on one page, such as Classifieds, it will remain disabled on other Geodirectory pages such as Events until the option is reactivated by clicking the link in the blue control box.

If a feature is missing that you need to use regularly, you can contact us to adjust what plugins are blocked.

The post Dashboard Optimization: What Publishers Need to Know first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Interface Updates

Default Dashboards

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting update to our newsletter plugin! This update brings a fresh, intuitive interface designed to streamline your workflow and unlock new possibilities for engaging your subscribers. In this blog post, we’ll take you on a tour of the updated interface, highlighting the key improvements and comparing it with the legacy version. Get ready to discover how these changes can elevate your newsletter game and help you build stronger connections with your audience!

You will immediately notice from the screenshots of the legacy and updated dashboards that the widget layout is quite different as are the navigation menus for the plugin. Most notable is a new Subscriber Funnel graph that provides you with quick links to the most used settings for onboarding, such as email templates, and security settings.

We will cover these new widgets and some other exciting new features in a subsequent post. For now let’s get oriented to the new interface.

Left Navigation Menus

Updated menu

Legacy menu

Menu items highlighted in BLUE reflect changes from the legacy plugin.

• Dashboard: Main plugin dashboard
• Subscription: Subscription configurations including opt-in settings, and activation email settings
• Forms: Lists all forms available for inclusion in the newsletter subscription process (registrations, event submissions, etc.)
• Newsletters: Lists sent newsletters not included in an Automated channel
• Lists: Manage subscriber lists for Automated channels (formerly found under the List Building menu)
• Settings: General settings such as sender address, delivery speed and company info
• Automated: View and manage your automated newsletter channels
• Reports: View and export analytics for a newsletter channel by date range

• Dashboard: Main plugin dashboard
• Welcome: Plugin setup wizard
• Settings: General settings such as sender address, delivery speed and advanced settings
• List Building: Subscription configurations including opt-in settings, and activation email settings
• Security: Anti-spam and blacklist settings
• Newsletters: Lists sent newsletters not included in an Automated channel
• Subscribers: Add to, update and filter your current subscribers
• Amazon SES: Admin settings
• Automated: View and manage your automated newsletter channels
• Reports: View and export analytics for a newsletter channel by date range
• WP Users Integration: Newsletter subscription settings for non-memberpress accounts (via shortcode)

Plugin Menus

Updated Menu

Legacy Menu

Subscribers

List Building

Newsletters

Settings

System

Search And Edit has been replaced by All Subscribers, but the link still leads to the Subscriber management page.

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Be on the lookout for future post new features such as 2-step Unsubscribe, Form Integrations, and a Leads feature for managing popups and other CTA. Please reach out to us at ops@our-hometown.com to learn more!

The post The Newsletter Plugin Gets a Facelift first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In a recent post, we explored the SEO benefits of author profiles, specifically implementing the E-E-A-T strategy suggested by Google search. Today, we’re excited to unveil Our-Hometown’s customizable author profile solution! This powerful new feature will soon roll out automatically to all our customers, with no action required on your end.

How it Works

Our new author profile pages will seamlessly leverage your website’s existing Author or Byline fields. Now, when readers view content, a clickable link in the byline will take them directly to a new landing page.

For instance in the first case below the byline is Roger Williams. His name is now a clickable link that will direct the reader to new landing page just for all the content by Roger Williams:

Another case will arise if the byline is something more generic, such as Journal Staff, or even syndicated content such as By Prescott National Forest:

Custom Author Pages

While no action is required to enjoy the new byline links, if you are using the article author field instead of bylines, you can elevate the experience even more, as these links direct to a customizable landing page.

Each author can add a short bio, social media links, and a profile picture:

This transforms the landing page into an engaging Author Profile page showcasing all their content:

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at ops@our-hometown.com.

The post Introducing Our-Hometown’s Author Profiles: Boost SEO & Trust first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this commentary video, the Our-Hometown team engage in casual forum-style discussions based on an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast featuring Mark Zuckerberg.

They highlight how Zuckerberg’s discussion about AI aligns with their vision of developing chat bots. The team mentions the availability of open-source AI models, such as GPT, and the potential use of Facebook’s AI in their own chat bot development. They delve into the importance of open sourcing AI and the benefits it offers to researchers and developers.

The conversation also touches on the significance of alignment in AI models and the potential risks associated with AGI. The team explores various possibilities of utilizing AI, including customized chat bots for businesses and content generation based on specific prompts.

The video concludes with discussions on training models, generating summaries, and potential applications for AI in journalism and local events coverage.

Chapters

00:00 – Start
00:53 – AI and Open Source
10:01 – Models and Datasets
11:57 – AI Chatbots and Personalization
14:26 – AI Engine for WordPress
19:22 – Model Alignment
21:13 – Open Source = More Secure
22:44 – Custom Chatbots
25:00 – AI Engine: Content Creation
Original Podcast Video:    • Mark Zuckerberg: …  
Transcript: https://steno.ai/lex-fridman-podcast-…

The post META and AI: Insights from the Lex Fridman interview with Mark Zuckerberg first appeared on Our-Hometown.

During Our-Hometown’s recent webinar, participants gained valuable insights and practical knowledge on effectively utilizing ChatGPT, an advanced language model, for content creation. The webinar aimed to showcase the capabilities of ChatGPT in generating high-quality content and provided attendees with tips, strategies, and best practices for leveraging this AI technology in their content generation process.

Throughout the webinar, participants deepened their understanding of how to harness the power of ChatGPT to enhance their content creation workflows. They learned about the various features and functionalities of ChatGPT, including its ability to generate engaging and coherent written content across different domains and topics.

• 00:00:00 – Welcome
• 00:01:53 – Introduction
• 00:03:15 – Poll 1: Have you used ChatGPT?
• 00:04:50 – How we have been using ChatGPT
• 00:07:24 – ChatGPT vs. Google Search
• 00:10:46 – Tokenization and Artificial Neural Nets
• 00:11:50 – Ask ChatGPT: What is ChatGPT?
• 00:13:03 – What is Prompt Engineering?
• 00:15:15 – Bing and Google Integrations
• 00:16:57 – Back to Prompt Engineering
• 00:19:51 – ChatGPT and SEO
• 00:20:56 – Importance of Prompt Adjustments
• 00:23:05 – Our-Hometown Chatbot
• 00:23:56 – B2B Sales Content
• 00:26:59 – More on the OHT Chatbot
• 00:28:37 – Possible Slack Group for Future Exploration
• 00:29:02 – GPT-4 Plugins
• 00:31:13 – Personality Prompts
• 00:32:49 – WordPress Platform Integrations
• 00:36:15 – ChatGPT for Documentation and Tutorials
• 00:39:15 – Interview transcriptions
• 00:41:05 – What are your ideas for AI in local journalism?
• 00:43:32 – About Our-Hometown
• 00:44:32 – Upcoming Events
• 00:46:04 – Free Prototype Offer
• 00:46:42 – Q&A with ChatGPT
• 01:06:05 – Conclusions and Thank You

If you’d like to show your appreciation and support for Our-Hometown webinars, please complete this short survey. Your responses help us tailor future webinars to the needs of our customers. Thank you!

The post ChatGPT for Content Generation | Webinar Replay first appeared on Our-Hometown.