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Before You Begin

Know your site's content, brand and audience before implementing Spot.IM widgets. These factors guide whether you need a live blog for covering developing stories in real time, anonymous commenting for increased user privacy, extra moderation for taboo topics and much more.

Before using Spot.IM you will need your Spot.IM Spot_ID. This is a personal identification for your site or sites. A Spot_ID may have a corresponding Staging Spot_ID for testing in a UAT environment. After receiving your Spot_ID, you will create a Post_ID for each article displaying Spot.IM's Conversation and/or Popular-in-the-Community Widgets. Post_ID is used to identify which post is being referenced, so conversations do not get mixed up.

Post_ID Notes

Do not use unique characters in any Post_ID. Do not use websites in any Post_ID. Remember, Post IDs are identifiers. If you change a Post ID, a different conversation will be pulled up.

Login Flow

Publishers can choose between three unique login systems. Each login system provides tokens authenticated by Spot network IDs. Users may be automatically logged in if they have previously logged in on the Spot network on their browser.

  • Email Connect - Users login using an email and password through the Spot.IM widget.
  • Social Connect - Users login through external networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and MSN.
  • Single Sign On (SSO) - Users login directly through the Publisher. User info passes from Publisher to widgets.

Silo and Non-Silo Spots

Publishers have a choice to create their own network or use the Spot.IM community network. Joining the Spotim Network allows users to stay logged in between a large, growing network of sites.

Best Practices (General)

  • Publishers are given a Staging and Production Spot ID in order to fix any potential bugs or UI-issues prior to going live. Test widgets using your Staging Spot ID, on staging websites, before integration into production sites.
  • Decide on community guidelines and work with Spot.IM to uphold them. Publishers decide if they want to enable anonymous postings, flag toxic words, turn on/off commenting for Live Blogs and much more.
  • Spot.IM tests widgets for publishers on all operating systems, browsers and screen sizes, before and after going live, and after changes are made. Spot.IM also conducts routine sanity tests to ensure widgets do not slow down site performance, and QA tests to ensure there are no bugs. Publishers can help Spot.IM development by reporting any bugs or UI issues, including a picture and explanation of the issue, and details on which operating system and browser it was found on.
  • Publishers should let Spot.IM know of any big changes to their websites.
  • Understand the benefits and issues with anonymous posts. Anonymized Posting increases security for some users, but causes more need for content moderation.