From this time, we’re all looking at a
different picture … ~Portishead

While some of the bloggers went fishing during the summer, some of us were left behind on purpose sigh!. The monkeys have been training us, the new admins, in the ND bunker all summer! After barely getting a passing grade, we set to work and now have something we promised you.

You thought it wasn’t possible anymore to impede your work-day productivity reading Sepia Mutiny. I’ve got News for you. The News tab has been re-designed with new features so that the content can be customized by YOU! Yes, shiny new toys for those fond of the F5 key. Here are the highlights of the changes / new features …Scope: The changes / new features only apply to the News and Events tabs. The blog itself remains unaffected. We know you love it just the way it is, so we dare not change too many things without warning. Some of us may even be too old to cope with change … ummm … 😉

Sign In: Most of the updated / new features now require you to sign in. During sign in, you will be taken to a third party website – TypeKey, an authentication service from the makers of MovableType. After you (freely register if necessary and) sign in, you will be automatically redirected back to our site for us to uniquely recognize you as a sepia user. Hold it, before you say it, we are not trying to track you down, we just want to be able to tell you all apart. And it’s not just us, sometimes you need to tell each other apart. Specifically, we will not publish your email address associated with your TypeKey account. We respect your privacy.

Post Story / Event: You must now be signed in to post a story or event to take credit as tipster. This affects the Enlighten The Mutiny! bookmarklet you use to post stories. You must be signed in, prior to using the bookmarklet, to post a story.

Mutinous?: Sometimes it’s not enough to send us tips, spam our email, call our cell phones and bang on our doors in the middle of the night to tell us you’ve got a new story! Each news story posted can now be voted using the mutinous? link next to the story. This will tell us and fellow brown folk what’s interesting, hot and sizzling andhra pickle hot!

Popular Menu: The popular menu on top will sort the news stories based on what you like.
– New is the default option that shows the latest tips we receive.
– Popular sorts news tips that have been generating a lively discussion in their comments section.
– Top in 24 Hr, 7 Days, 30 Days, 365 Days all sort news tips based on the number of people macacas think it’s mutinous.
– The above sort options can be further filtered by Category, such as Humor, Politics etc.

Profile: You can tell the world who you are, what you do and confuse us with your strange handles, or just tell us like it is and keep it real (simple)! Tell us a little bit (or a lot) about yourself on your profile. Your profile will be automatically linked to your tip or comment handle.
– Stats: The profile page also features a stats section in order to distinguish the regulars from the visitors.
– Stories: The stories sections will show the stories you posted, you liked, and your popular and top submissions.

Comments: We know you have a lot to say about a lot of things, so here is even more room to say it. Each news tip can now be discussed in its own comments section. And plus, heavily discussed news topics make it into the popular section of the news tab, so we and fellow site visitors know where all the ruckus is.

Semi-auto moderation: From time to time (or perhaps most of the time these days) we have the he said, she said debate in comment threads turning into flame wars. Here’s a way to curb that a little bit .
– In the News tab, tell us if a story is a duplicate (or commercial spam) by using the Duplicate (or Spam) link and we will take care of such old or duplicate stories, and ensure the earliest tipster gets credit. Use the buttons, and help keep the News tab clean and interesting with only the latest stories.
– In the News Comments page, tell us if a comment is violating our comment policy i.e., abusive (or irrelevant / spam), by using the Abusive (or Spam) button and we can delete it for you. Use these buttons, and help keep the Comments section stay on-topic.
– Please use these moderation features judiciously. Improper use of these features will be tracked and may result in banning. So play nice. 🙂

In The Works: We are working on more toys for you to play with. Got suggestions? Feel free to share with me or via our Contact Us page. Pats on the back are welcome too. 🙂

Credits: Ok, stop rolling your eyes. This took a lot of time and effort in creating.

Abhi has been the driving force behind this. All the time he spent discussing ideas and patiently answering questions about every little detail. Thanks! This project would have never happened without him.

Thanks to Neha for her support. And thanks to Kunjan especially. So many times I’ve come close to breaking things, and thought I had no other choice but to call the governor of ND state and have a state of emergency declared. But he was there to rescue me from myself. Phew! (uh-oh … I hope Abhi doesn’t read that part.)

Thanks to the bloggers for making this place an inspiration. Thanks to the regular readers, commenters for their suggestions, to Payal, Amit and many others who I may not have interacted with directly, but nevertheless deserve credit for pouring in ideas. THANKS!