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Reading: The most basic use of Newsvine

How do I make my way around the site... or what should I do first?

There are a ton of interesting things to do around Newsvine, but it's best to start simple. The quickest way to get to know the site is to start by simply using it as you would any other major news site. Start clicking around from story to story and get a feel for how things are laid out. The main news categories span across the top of the screen, the most important/popular stories are in prominent places, and most things are where you would expect them to be. Start by thinking of Newsvine as a faster, cleaner version of your favorite major news site. Then, explore from there when you're ready.

What is the difference between "The Wire" and "The Vine"?

"The Wire" is a continuously updated stream of articles from The Associated Press and ESPN. Articles coming in from these sources are tagged immediately and posted to Newsvine within seconds. There is no human editor involved so you will not find this content anywhere on the web before it's available on Newsvine. "The Vine" is a stream of content submitted by members of the Newsvine community. This includes both original articles written by Newsvine members and "seeded links" which are pointers to other interesting articles from around the web.

How do articles move to the tops of pages and when do they fall off?

Newsvine uses a sophisticated algorithm that takes into account the number of votes an article gets, how many people read the article, the freshness of the news, and several other factors to determine its relative ranking.

Where can I view the most popular contributions for the day, week, month, or year?

Head on over to Top of The Vine (top.newsvine.com) and check out the most voted on and most commented on articles for any given time period.

What are tags and how can I make use of them?

Tags are keywords or keyphrases used to describe articles such as: "new-york, news, alex-rodriguez, contract, baseball, mlb". In order to find stories about Alex Rodriguez, for instance, simply visit http://www.newsvine.com/alex-rodriguez and every story tagged "alex-rodriguez" will be there. Similarly, if you're writing or seeding a story, give it relevant tags so that people can easily find it.

Does Newsvine offer local or regionalized news as well?

Absolutely. Newsvine currently supports 450+ regional domains around the world, including countries and metro-regions, and the list is growing all the time. Check to see if you're covered by typing in the name of your city or country in the Region text field in the upper-right corner of the screen. Alternatively, you can click the dropdown arrow to manage your regions. Regions can also be navigated to directly. For example, "http://seattle.newsvine.com". You can also view tag-specific articles in a regional domain by using the same methodology described above for searching for topics (for example, "london.newsvine.com/business" yields all business news occurring in the London metro area).

What is my "Watchlist" and how do I use it?

Your Watchlist is a great way to keep track of the topics (tags) or authors you care most about. Rather than having to continually go to tag pages or columns to see if there's anything new, simply click the green "Watch" button next to the tag or author to add to your Watchlist. The number in parentheses denotes the number of new articles related to that particular tag or author. When you click an item with new articles in your Watchlist you'll notice the new items have a green indicator arrow. To remove an item from your Watchlist, simply click the small "-" button to the right of the item you would like to remove. More information is available on the Watchlist Help Page.

There are three ways to search on Newsvine:

  1. Search by Tag: Just type in the word or phrase (phrases are connected by dashes) you're searching for in the search box and hit "Go" or return. Separate terms or groups of terms with a comma to search for items involving several items. For instance, "tiger-woods, us-open, golf" will give you all articles having to do with all three of those tag phrases/words. Alternatively, you can always go directly to a tag page from anywhere on the web by typing in "www.newsvine.com/anything" (where 'anything' is replaced by what you're looking for).
  2. Search by Full Text: This works similarly to a search engine (e.g., Google); This search returns results matching your search parameters to text displayed within articles and seeds within Newsvine, excluding comment threads and the content of articles linked to by seeds.
  3. User Search: Type in a person's display name or domain name, in whole or in part, to find a Newsvine user.

Do you offer RSS feeds or javascript feeds?

Absolutely. On almost every page of the site, in the lower left corner, you'll see the "Feeds" module. Use the RSS feeds to watch Newsvine pages through your favorite newsreader. Use the JSS (javascript) feeds to add Newsvine content directly into your own blog via a JS include file. More information on inserting Newsvine content into your existing blog is available at our JSS Help Page.