Players can run newspapers in Sociolotron. A newspaper is mainly a number of articles the player wrote and that are compiled into a html page which is stored on our web server. From a terminal a characters has access to a list of newspapers and can then select a newspaper to be shown on his computer. The newspaper is shown in Internet Explorer. If you use another browser, make sure that internet explorer is still accessible (Microsoft has made sure that that is the case even if you don't want to) and that the security settings in IE are such that malicious software like Active X controls does not run. Since a player is able to include html code in his article, it is for example possible for somebody to run an ActiveX control that resides on his server, or bring up a complete different website. The normal use for html code in articles is, that players can include links to pictures on their web server, since nothing but pure text is stored on our web server, so some people decide to use html to make their newspaper more interesting than one with just plain text. However with freedom comes the possibility to abuse it.
You are responsible to make your IE secure! Don't t assume that a newspaper website is safe just because it comes from us!
Set your IE security settings to high whenever you surf the internet, and looking at a player run newspaper is no different then browsing the internet. You should always assume that there is a potential danger from a newspaper because players can include html code. We have blocked out certain html code in newspapers but that is no guarantee that somebody won't find another way to harm you. When you set your IE security settings to high and turn off Active X controls, you should generally be safe.
In order to operate a newspaper, you need to buy a Printing Press from a player who manufactures them. Then lock it down somewhere in your house or in your vault and you are in business. A character can own as many newspapers as he wants, but only one per character is actually published by the server. Which one is arbitrary, so don't assume a certain one of your presses is published. It's best to have only one. When you double click your press the following dialog opens:
The first thing is to give your newspaper a name. Enter a name of 64 characters in the top list and click Change Name. This needs to be done only once or whenever you want to change the name.
Now you should write an article together with a headline for your article in the long input line above the article field and then click Send. This sends your article to our server and stores it there until server restart. An article can have up to 4096 characters. It is best to write an article first in notepad or another text editor and then copy it into the input field of the printing press. If something goes wrong while you write the article in the above dialog, you will loose your input.
At restart all articles are compiled into one website for your newspaper and then uploaded to our web server where it waits until a character selects your newspaper from the terminal. You can have a certain number of articles in your newspaper, depending on your oratory skill. The more skill you have, the more article your newspaper can hold. The articles remain in your printing press for 14 days. However there is an electronic device called a printing press enhancer, that, when placed next to your printing press, increases the lifespan of an article to 21 days. In case you run out of space in your newspaper and want to delete an article manually to make room for a new one, enter the article ID in the above dialog and click Delete. The article ID can be found when you read your newspaper.
The newspaper list in the terminal is sorted according to the read count of each newspaper meaning that those newspapers which are read the most are at the top. It also contains the numbers of days since the last article was printed so that you can avoid reading old newspapers. Also for every reading operation of a newspaper, the character owning the newspaper receives XP but less and less XP the more often his newspaper is read that day. Also each character reading a newspaper gives XP only once per day. When the server restarts, these counters are reset and the character starts receiving XP for read operations again.
A newspaper can be two edged sword in terms of your social rank. It is fun to run a a newspaper, but it also brings you into the public's eye. If you run a newspaper and it is not within the top 50% of all newspapers, you will be looked upon as a looser and you will loose some scores in your social rank. However if you are in the top 50% this alone is not enough. If you are a member of London's Society, people will expect from you to print an article at least every 7 days. If you haven't printed an article for 7 days, you will loose social score as well. If you are a member of the Underground, people will expect from you to print at least one rumor every 7 days. If your last rumor is longer than 7 days ago, you will loose social score.
When you get your hands on a "Rumor Evidence About X" you have something dirty about another character that you can print in your newspaper. This object represents hard work in evidence gathering about a rumor regarding a person. You can print this evidence in your newspaper and thus create an outstanding article that is easily recognizable as a certified rumor, means you can not fake such an article. When printing a such an evidence, the person about whom it is will loose on his social rank if he is a member of London's Society. Members of the underground can not be harmed by rumors since nobody there really cares about rumors.
In order to print such an evidence object, just stand next to your printing press and then double click the evidence object twice. The rumor will be printed in the next issue of your newspaper. Beware that you can have only one rumor at a time in your newspaper and you can not print a second one at the same day you already printed one. You need at least one day between the printing of two rumors and the second one will remove the old one from your newspaper. However, the negative social influence on the target character remains intact and will only be forgotten over time. So you are free to print one rumor every day.
Of course characters who run for office or who don't want to loose rank for other reason, might want to pay you for not printing the rumor or even to trade the rumor so that they can destroy the evidence. You can easily trade a rumor evidence in your trade window since it always contains the name of the character about whom it is. The other player can therefore be sure that the evidence object you offer is authentic. The trade window can also be used to show it to another character and to proof that you are indeed in the possession of this evidence.
(c) 2005, Sociolotronics LLC