2019

Nicole F.
  • Updated

December 2019

New

Fixed

  • Some audience members reported seeing 500 errors after using our contact forms.
  • On mobile, list items were smaller than body text.
  • If you search for an image in the story editor and sort by Date published, the results will sort correctly in reverse chronological order.
  • When you hide a story, it is automatically blocked from Apple News and RSS feeds. Now the toggles do the right thing.

November 2019

New

  • Based on your feedback, you can now sort the editorial dashboard by First published to see stories in reverse chronological order from the original publish date.

Fixed

  • Site navigation was not collapsible on wider touchscreens.
  • Story timestamps were causing Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader to crash or loop indefinitely.

October 2019

New

Fixed

  • Internal groups should not have public RSS feeds. Sorry about that—cupcakes on us!
  • Static pages were using the homepage and feed image as lead art instead of the lead image.
  • AMP links to privacy notices and legal terms now redirect appropriately on customer sites.
  • Special characters like quotation marks and ampersands were displaying incorrectly in site search results.
  • Internet Explorer 11 users were unable to add third-party authentication to their accounts.
  • We removed the option to add OpenID as third-party authentication, since that service was deprecated.
  • When you publish a link post with a Chorus URL from a different community, we show the original source on home and hubpages (e.g., “From Eater LA”). We were showing that label on stories from the same community, but we’re not anymore.
  • Some folks reported seeing autosave errors when creating galleries with images from Merlin.
  • SoundCloud embeds don’t display for audiences on Apple News, but they won’t actually block a story from publishing there. We updated the messages in the story editor to clarify that.
  • If you upload a video or thumbnail with _YT or _FB at the end of the file name, Chorus Video will autoselect the file on the appropriate platform card.
  • We removed the ability to star a group in legacy Chorus, since it doesn’t change anything.

September 2019

New

  • You can now sort the editorial dashboard by last published date. We’ve had a lot of requests for original publish date and this is a step in that direction. (You can still search for status:published, too.)
  • We added a character count to the alt text field based on your feedback. We’re planning to raise the limit from 255 characters in the future, but wanted to set better expectations in the story editor in the meantime.
  • If you schedule a stream and one of its stories at the same time, the stream will publish one minute later. This resolves an issue where streams and their stories were not showing up as related to each other.

Fixed

  • Several people reported issues signing up for Chorus. After further investigation, we uncovered a bug with third-party authentication that affected Google accounts without profile images. No faces required here, and the bug’s all fixed.
  • We updated the editorial dashboard and version history screens to improve the color contrast.
  • Searching status:draft now includes scheduled stories so you can see everything that’s in progress in one place.
  • Radio fans, rejoice! iHeartRadio embeds look better on mobile.
  • Some stories were not displaying on the compose screen after being added to a stream.
  • If a new link set is set to update automatically, you’ll no longer see a message that a story URL is required.
  • A few managers were unable to update site navigation.
  • In Chorus Video, part of the syndication menu was missing on projects where the video failed to upload.

August 2019 

New

Fixed

  • A bug was causing new contributors to see an error message after updating their profiles.
  • Some folks were having trouble adding stories to streams and vice versa. You can now add any story to any stream—no matter the status of each.
  • We fixed a handful of bugs and updated our documentation so it’s easier for managers to onboard new contributors and update permissions.
  • Video files with special characters in the name were not uploading successfully.
  • When Facebook’s feed was unavailable, Chorus Video displayed a confusing message about duplicate videos.

July 2019

New

  • You can set a canonical URL for a story or restrict search engines from indexing it. Learn more about these powerful new SEO features.
  • We’ve developed new in-depth guides to making stories accessible for all audiences. We expect Vox Media networks to follow these guidelines and encourage our customers to do the same.
  • We’re continuing to improve the platform for people who use assistive technology. Two-up heroes (on home and hubpages) and social sharing links (on stories) are now more accessible.
  • If a social image has alt text, people who use screen readers will be able to hear it on Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about writing great alt text.
  • After making some accessibility updates to newsletter signup modules, we decided to adjust the size of Subscribe buttons so they don’t span the width of the module.
  • The legacy Entry admin menu was difficult to read on some networks. We updated the text color to ensure there’s sufficient contrast for everyone.
  • The legacy screen where you can add videos to link sets now refers to Chorus Video instead of Volume.

Fixed

  • A few folks were unable to update permalinks. We rolled back some changes, and everything’s working as expected.
  • If you select “Don’t place” when adding a story to a hubpage, it won’t actually show up on the page. Honestly, dropdown, you had one job.
  • When you copy a feature story, the layout options will also copy over. When you copy a story that’s in a stream though, we won’t add it to the same stream.
  • The sidebar for managing closed captions in Chorus Video was out to lunch.
  • Headlines on video breakers weren’t lining up correctly.
  • Audiences will only see next and previous buttons on galleries if there are enough images to warrant taking a scroll.
  • A longstanding bug was causing people with periods in their usernames to get a 404 error when resetting their password. This is finally fixed, full stop.
  • Pinned stories weren’t showing up in the proper position in the story layout tool.

June 2019

New

  • Group tags, group descriptions, group subnavigation, video pop-ups, newsletter modules, and reviews are now more accessible for people who use assistive technology.
  • Audiences can now skip to the body of a story when navigating with a keyboard or screen reader.
  • Editors can delete files and other assets from Chorus. With this update, we removed the option to delete assets from legacy Chorus.
  • We added instructions for cover and title images in legacy Chorus to help editors optimize those images.
  • Home and hubpage images are now marked as decorative so that people using assistive technology can skip to headlines without interruption.
  • Newsletter signup forms are more accessible, too.

Fixed

  • When you add alt text to a lead image, it will render for people using screen readers.
  • We’ve made a number of improvements to drop caps. Along the way, some feature stories stopped displaying drop caps entirely. Sorry about that—they’re all fixed up now.
  • If a video has multiple player options, you can select a player in the story editor. A longstanding bug was causing the preview to show the default player no matter what audiences were seeing.
  • The assets screen wasn’t loading for a few folks. Sorry about that—it’s back in action now!
  • Tags were not sending to YouTube from Chorus Video.
  • The option to detach a video from a project wasn’t showing up in Chorus Video.

May 2019

New

  • We upgraded the story scheduler and everything’s publishing right on time.
  • On author profiles and group pages, stories from years past now show the year—not just the month and day.
  • Deks on articles were too long for legibility. Captions on wide block images had the same issue. Now they’re easier on the eyes.
  • You can now search for Chorus images by the person who is credited, for example, credit:“Annie Leibovitz”
  • We’re making continuous improvements to our platform for accessibility. Contact forms, rating cards, and deks are now more accessible for people who use assistive technology. Learn more on the Vox Product blog and check out our best practices guide for making your stories available to all audiences.
  • We spiffed up some of the screens for resetting your password.
  • Chorus Video now saves the project number after you create a project to avoid duplication. You can still view and update it on the Details screen.

Fixed

  • You can cut and paste objects within the body of a story, including images, embeds, and sidebars. That is, when there’s not a bug.
  • The Link other video button is back in Chorus Video.
  • Searching for stories by contributor (e.g., by:“Marie Connelly”) wasn’t working properly.
  • On the Preview screen, the desktop option was showing the tablet preview before loading the full size.

April 2019

New

  • Chorus Video now includes a project history sidebar. To see who created a project or when it was last updated, hit the Info button next to the Upload button on any project screen.

Fixed

  • The Manage blog button in legacy Chorus was out to lunch. Sorry about that, site managers. Tacos on us!
  • We updated the split left and split right feature layouts to improve the spacing, color contrast, and logo alignment across all networks.
  • Images were not appearing in sidebars on Apple News.
  • Link posts were displaying an error message about streams failing to load. Say what?
  • If you change the first or last name on your account, you’ll see the changes immediately (or within 24 hours, if caching gets in the way).
  • If you add a drop cap to a paragraph that starts with a quote, the quotation marks and first letter of the sentence will be included.
  • Advertiser logos on sponsored mapstacks are more legible on mobile devices.

March 2019

New

  • We’re planning to make extensive improvements to our audience design system in the coming months. These changes can affect feature stories with custom styles. We added some warnings to the story editor to that effect.
  • The legacy dashboard has been retired. You can find any and all stories by searching the dashboard.
  • Drop caps are now more visually consistent across browsers.
  • In Chorus Video, we simplified the language around geo-restrictions for the Chorus player.

Fixed

  • A bug was causing delays in publishing to Apple News. We fixed that up and added more capacity to this part of the platform.
  • A few folks were having trouble adding stories to streams.
  • If you tried to open a published story from the story editor, a bug was temporarily redirecting you to the homepage for your community.
  • The button for modifying drop caps on feature stories was displaying as a drop cap. So meta.
  • Drop caps weren’t rendering on shorter paragraphs. Sorry about that—donuts on us!
  • The version history icons in the headline, dek, and permalink fields kept getting smaller and smaller.
  • The edit button for lead art wasn’t responding.
  • The tweets section wasn’t displaying on a few published (and tweeted) stories.
  • Some error messages and tooltips were displaying twice in the story editor.
  • Gallery captions were displaying as code on Google AMP.
  • The site navigation screen in legacy Chorus wasn’t loading properly.

February 2019

New

  • We rolled out the first major release of Chorus Video. If you’re working on video projects, please update your bookmarks to volume.voxmedia.com so you don’t get stuck in the past.
  • You can now sort videos by the publish date in the story editor.
  • Recent studies have shown that Google uses author profiles and bios to evaluate content authority. We’ve updated our documentation to include more detailed recommendations from the search team.

Fixed

  • When you’re sending a video to YouTube or Facebook, you’ll see the default status for your network instead of unlisted (unless that happens to be the default).
  • Version history was not displaying correctly on a few stories.

January 2019

New

  • With the SEO team’s help, we learned that search images are more of a recommendation to Google than a guarantee of what will appear in search results. We’ve updated the search image tooltip to reflect this harsher algorithmic reality.
  • YouTube deprecated the ability to hide details from a video embed, so alas, we removed that option from the story editor.
  • When you’re adding a poll, a super long title or poll answer can block the story from publishing. We took a vote and you’ll now see a warning on the Finalize screen if you’re over the character limit.
  • Text fields in the story editor (e.g., headlines, tags, link sets) were spruced up to better suit our design system.

Fixed

  • The video dashboard was throwing an “unauthorized” error for some users.
  • Historically, we’ve had a few reports of stories being stuck in a scheduled status even after being published. This was a status bug, not a scheduling bug, but it won’t happen anymore.
  • When an editor publishes a page like this one or that one, it will no longer appear on the homepage.
  • The Story layout screen in legacy Chorus was garbled for some users.
  • A bug was duplicating groups on a handful of stories and blocking them from publishing.