Running Weblogs with Slash

The Submissions List

Logged-in Authors will see a link in the Admin menu labeled n Submissions, in which n is the current number of user submissions in the queue. Clicking the link leads to the Submissions list (relative URL /submit.pl?op=list). Similar in format to the Stories List, it summarizes the queued submissions, listing the oldest Stories first. This is the Slash version of a slush pile.

Slashdot, the mothership of Slash sites, receives several hundred user submissions per day. When a news story particularly dear to the hearts of its readers breaks, the queue may receive dozens of near-identical submissions. The Submissions list has several features intended to help Authors cope with this situation. It shows lots of information, so a wide browser window is necessary.

The table at the top of the page summarizes the distribution of current submissions across site Sections (see Figure 5-2). Only those Sections with queued submissions will appear. Clicking on either a name or a number will lead to a trimmed-down version of the list, showing only the submissions for that Section. This can quickly break a large list into manageable chunks. The Submissions link found on every Section’s homepage also leads to the single-Section view of the Submissions list.

Figure 5-2. The Submissions list

The Submissions list displays the date, time, and subject of each submission, along with ...