In this bellows post, we will be discussing the new engagement features that will be available to all readers of the Forge. Even though the revamped Forge is still some time away, we are very excited to present to you some of the new features that will be available. As noted in a previous post, commenting on articles is coming, but that will require a login. The features presented here will be available to everyone.

Please note that we are still designing the interface and the new site may differ visually from these preliminary screen shots.

Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down Buttons

For people that choose not to sign into the Forge and are therefore unable to comment, or even if you are signed in you don’t have anything further to say, you will have access to a Thumbs up button and a Thumbs Down button.

This will record and display a count of the number of readers who appreciated the article and those who did not.

Simple and spam resistant this feature will allow you ‘have your say’ in a limited but anonymous fashion.

Cite The Article

Here at the Forge we have noticed that some of the articles we have published have been cited as a reference. So we wanted to make it easier for students who wanted to do that. Rather than hunting around for all the information you need to build a proper citation reference, we will be providing you with a ‘Cite Article’ button.

This button will provide the correct citation information in the format you selected, ready to copy and paste into your document or your preferred citation collection engine.

The JPME Continuum 2.0 Triangle

Every article will have a JPME Continuum 2.0 triangle badge. The badge will show you where that article fits within the continuum. In addition, the triangle will be interactive. When you click on a portion of the triangle it will show you a list of articles that share the same ‘location’ on the triangle. If you are reading an article on Character, then you click the filled section of the triangle that is related to Character you will be shown more articles that are also tagged as being about Character.  

Sharing Made Easier

Sharing via social media will be enhanced. Instead of just populating the URL, when you post to social media the Forge will make available a ‘card’ that includes the article title, summary and artwork. Any social media that uses scraping technology (as do most of them) will be able to harvest and show that card when you post the URL. We will also be reviewing the supported social media buttons that we have available making it easier to post to your favoured network. 

So that’s what we have planned. What do you think? Is there anything you would like to see in addition to what we have planned? You can put your answer in the feedback form or send us an email at the.forge@defence.gov.au