Chapter 4 Website

A WordPress blogging site was chosen to allow for ease of access for multiple authors and contributors.

Our site uses the Bridge theme - to see a copy of the demo theme with content populated and all of the bells and whistles turned on, go to http://bridge226.qodeinteractive.com

The shortcodes on the site are powered by WP Bakery Builder, which is super powerful but also a pain in the ass at times. Posts have a button on the Formatting Toolbar labeled Qode Shortcodes that will allow you to drop in formatted blocks in some nice ways. Pages are more complicated - you edit in the WP Bakery Page Builder, which is a complex WYSIWYG that handles layouts and objects on a grid. Drag and drop objects on the grid, and the page builder will generate the appropriate shortcodes. You can use the classic editor if you prefer by clicking on the Classic Mode button.

Note that this theme is granular about spacing, down to the p tags not carrying any sort of negative space at all. You can add empty space in either the Backend Editor as an object or in the Classic Mode as a shortcode. You don’t have to write separate custom CSS to clean it up.

4.2 Writing and Publishing Content

Authors can generate content on the site using the standard functions within WordPress:

4.3 Site Syndication

The site uses a plugin called FeedWordPress to bring in content from external websites and serve it out as posts housed on the #SquadGoalsNetwork website, and as linked content that remains housed on the external site. The feed populates content into the established categories set on the site, and brings in featured images as well.

Authors tasked with maintaining the site for periods of time (i.e. a monthly social media takeover) will be responsible for reviewing and publishing content that comes in through the feed. All posts come in as Pending and can be viewed by clicking on the Posts link on the left navbar and then choosing Pending posts. Review all posts that have come in through syndication, add a featured image if one is missing, and then publish the post.

If individuals request the ability to share their content on the #SquadGoalsNetwork site (either by contacting an author or submitting a request on the site contact form) the author who received the request should present it at the next Zoom meeting.

4.4 Stories

Stories about the squad are populated using a plugin called Formidable. Contributors fill out a form on the Share a Story page and then an entry is created in the database in WP. A post is created and set to draft mode that dynamically pulls in the info from the entry, pre-formatted according to specs set in Formidable. If you need to approve a story to show, you can do that in the Posts area of WP. If you need to edit the entry, you MUST do it in Formidable - if you edit the actual post itself, Formidable will overwrite the content in the entry.

4.5 Categories

Our site has a series of categories that you can use to move your posts to the appropriate sections of the site. You can use these categories for blog posts that you create on the site, or for posts that are aggregated from other sites. Hex tag for each category is listed next to it in case you want/need it. You can select multiple categories, but try not to do too many as it can crowd up the thumbnails on the home.

  • Podcast (Light Teal) - posted or syndicated podcast episodes
  • Loves (Salmon) - Book reviews, sites, gratitude and odes
  • Events (Peach) - conferences and opportunities coming up
  • Process (Flamingo) - Diagrams, workflows and effective practices
  • Stories (Light Chili) - Narratives and use cases
  • Technology (Yellow) - tools we use
  • News (Orange) - general blog posts
  • Contributors (Orange) - posts brought in from other sites
  • Authors (Concrete) - Author bios

4.6 Colors

Consistency in color schemes is key. A few colors were chosen and named for use as needed on elements of posts and pages.

Name Hex
Dark Teal #074255
Teal #19A6A5
Light Teal #31CCC2
Maroon #76031E
Brick #C30930
Chili #F23720
Light Chili #FC5F3D
Dark Coral #FC4548
Salmon #FC585B
Flamingo #FD9D9E
Orange #FD9527
Yellow #FABF2D
Peach #FBC687
Concrete #E9E6E1