News
The SourceForge.net project news system is provided to help projects keep their users and developers informed. Common uses of the news system include:
- Increasing public exposure to software development activity, project needs, and events related to the project.
- Providing the project a historical record of when major events and milestones occurred.
- Providing notification to users of security vulnerabilities or major bugs in the software.
Features
- Project news is managed through a simple web interface on the SourceForge.net site.
- News postings are displayed on the Project Develop page and are also available by RSS feed. Many applications which can be used in project web support including data from RSS feeds.
- So data can be shown in many ways (web page, RSS feed, etc.): News items are text-based. HTML is not supported. URLs may be included bare (e.g. include the URL as text). Paragraphs may be formed by leaving a blank line between blocks of text.
Management
Project news is provided to all projects on an opt-in basis. To enable news:
- Login as a project administrator and go to the Project Summary page.
- Click on the "Features" menu option under the "Project Admin" menu heading.
- Click on the "Available Features" tab and check the "Enable" check box for "Project News"
Once the News feature is enabled, news items may be posted as follows:
- Login as a project administrator and go to the Project Summary page.
- Click on the "Features" menu option under the "Project Admin" menu heading.
- Click on the "Submit" link to the right of "Project News" and complete the form.
Existing news items may be edited or removed as follows:
- Login as a project administrator and go to the Project Summary page.
- Click on the "Features" menu option under the "Project Admin" menu heading.
- Click on the "Manage" link to the right of "Project News" and edit/delete as desired.
Best Practices
- Just as the Open Source community likes, "Release early, release often" for file releases; the same is true of news. Try to post a news item when a file release occurs, when a major milestone is reached in development, for security vulnerabilities, and when major project events occur (like a big donation).
- The news facility has been present on the site since the early days of SourceForge.net. Since its management interface is limited, we like to use a text editor for editing the news article, allowing spellcheck, then post the result. Proofreading before you post can't hurt.
- Include enough information in the subject line of the news item to spark some interest. When announcing a new file release, we like to say something like: XYZ Development Environment version 1.0.7 (stable) released
- We recommend putting some time in to writing a good announcement; the better the content, the more likely people will want to try your software or read future news items about your project. If you get a good formula for writing your project's news, you can recycle formatting and save time; just be sure to include new content in each news item so your regular readers will stay interested.
- This format has worked for many projects:
- Provide a general description of the project and what is being announced. What does the project do? What are you announcing?
- Provide a second paragraph of text which provides more in-depth information about the features of the software or what has changed with this new release.
- Include links to the file release, release notes, project home page, and other relevant information you think the user needs. Our URL shortening service can be used to keep this text succinct and avoid line wrapping problems.
