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If you’ve checked out the Music channel on Current.com lately, you might have noticed things are looking a little different. Here are some things to take note of on the new page layout:

So what’s up with all these changes?

Current is always evolving and changing, and we’re testing out a new layout for some of our top channel pages. Music is first, but we’ll be tweaking this layout, and will eventually roll it out for all six of Current’s top channels.

Where’s the most popular stories list?

The top five stories from Music are listed on the left — just click the “popular stories” link to see the full list, beginning with number five.

Where do I find all of the new music stories?

Want to see all the music stories submitted to Current Music? No problem! You can find them by clicking on the “new stories” link underneath the top 5 popular stories list.

Are there still featured stories?

Yep! The playlist at the top of the page will still be updated with a combination of community submitted stories and videos from our Current Music special, Embedded.

What’s up with the center column?

Any time we have something special going one, Shana (our online producer for Current Music) will use this space to highlight it. Our Current Music special Embedded has all sorts of great stuff, so you may find full episodes, like Embedded with Mos Def in Japan, or web-only extra content like a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the music team’s time with the Silversun Pickups. We’ll also feature music-related groups, or point to special events like our callout to Make Common’s Day.

Cool. So…um…what’s all this other stuff?

Each channel will get a chance to customize their page with all sorts of delicious content. The Current Music team is highlighting their (somewhat eclectic) taste in music, so why not check out today’s look at the top three songs Jen (Current’s music licensing coordinator) can’t stop listening to.

As always, we want to know what you think! So drop by our Get Satisfaction page and let us know. The new layout will be rolling out on all six of our top channels soon, so stay tuned!
Steph

Fresh and popular

Here’s a list of four recently added stories that are popular right now based on the likes/dislikes of the Current.com community.

We’re reading them, so should you:

1. Spanking detrimental to children, study says – the study says toddlers spanked at age 1 were more aggressive at age 2. discuss.
2. The iTunes LP gets pirated – was it only a matter of time? How will the new DRM sensitive Apple react to this?
3. Staggering $636.3 billion approved for the Department of Defense FY 2010 – community member Incredulous raises a whole lot of questions. Do you have the answer?
4. Marijuana Grew on High Street – marijuana stories popular on Current.com? No! This time around, the irony of marijuana growing publicly on a street with this name is pretty amusing, although likely intentional.

The discussion is stayin’ alive

Here are a few not-so-recent threads that are still hanging onto the popularity rank:

1. Obama drops missile shields for Czech Republic and Poland
2. Blackwater offers training to ‘Faith Based Organizations’
3. Socialist say Obama not a socialist
4. Is war on drugs worth it? Maybe not, new FBI data suggest

We encourage our community to participate in the process of keeping things clean here on Current.com. To help to that end, we provide a set of community guidelines (which are frequently updated) as reference, and every item, group, and profile on Current.com is accompanied with a flag link – allowing you to alert us to anything that appears to be a potential violation.

However, there’s been a few things we’ve been seeing a lot more of recently regarding flags, and it’s time we cleared up a few misunderstandings regarding how this system is intended to work.

Flags are not an automatic action

Flagging something on Current.com does not automatically result in a removal of content. Flagging an item brings it to the attention of the online community team for review – it’s the equivalent of sharing a story with the online community team with the question, “Is this in violation?” If someone says they have flagged a comment of yours, don’t panic. All that means is that we’ll be notified that someone thinks the comment is out of line, and we’ll take a look at it. If there’s an issue, we’ll deal with it and let you know via email.

There is no automatic penalty for simply being flagged

Being flagged is no different than sharing something with a friend. The only difference is the context of the share – flags are directed at the online community team with the implied question, “Is this in violation?” The true penalty comes if the content flagged is in violation, and the penalty (for now) is removal. If the behavior continues, it could result in suspension or even banning from Current.com.

Flagging does not equal instantaneous action

We’re only human. This means, sometimes it takes us a little time to read flag, the comment, and take action. If you’ve flagged something we’ll check it out, so there is no need to flag the item repeatedly. It doesn’t matter if there’s one flag or twenty; each item or comment is evaluated based on it Current’s community guidelines. Occasionally, we may find that there is a continued pattern of abuse in a single thread, and this may require some additional time to assess the situation. In those cases we might lock the thread temporarily while we comb through the details – locking the thread will always be accompanied by a comment indicating that the thread is locked, and no lock is ever intended to be permanent.

Flags are not a retaliatory action

“He flagged me so I’m flagging him” rhetoric is not what this system is for.  If someone leaves a comment that’s out of line, of course you should send us a flag. However, sending flags just because you don’t like someone’s opinion, or because you think they have flagged a comment of yours isn’t cool. In fact, it is inappropriate and could be construed as misuse if excessive.

Current’s community guidelines and flag system are not about revenge or attempting to get others in the community into trouble. It’s about creating an environment where people of all opinions and viewpoints are free to express their opinions and debate in a respectful manner. Let’s all agree to leave the retaliatory instincts on the playground.

He did it, so why did I get in trouble?

I think all of our mothers probably put this one best, so allow me to quote mine: “If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?”

If you see a comment or item that is a violation of our community guidelines, it doesn’t mean that the person who made it has carte blanche to say what they like. It doesn’t mean that we’re supporting one position over another. All it means is that we haven’t seen that comment…yet.

That’s what the option to flag is there for. If you see something that’s out of line, please flag it and let us know. Wading in and responding in kind will only result in your comments being removed as well. Deciding NOT to flag something does not excuse the behavior. These violations will surface through our own internal tools, and if we happen to find an additional comment that violates our standards in response, we’ll remove that as well.

You are the only one responsible for the activity on your account.  Leaving comments that violate Current’s community guidelines or terms of use will result in those comments or items being removed, and could result in the suspension or removal of your account.

It can be difficult to keep a cool head when debates get heated. But if you’re feeling like you can’t respond without crossing a line, consider taking a step back. Have a cup of tea. Throw darts at a wall.  Have a cookie. Pet a puppy. Whatever works for you.  Then respond.

(And lest you think I’m not speaking from experience—the amount of tea I go through in a day would boggle the mind, for exactly this reason. Ask my coworkers.)

Steph

It’s time for another feature release here at Current, and we’ve been cooking up some new features for your enjoyment. There’s a lot of exciting new things to explore, so let’s dig right in.

Facebook Connect

If you’re like me, trying to keep track of all your different social networks and logins can become a hassle, and we hope this will make it just a little bit easier. You can now use your Facebook ID to log into Current, with your new or existing account. It’s totally optional, so don’t worry. If you want to keep your Facebook and Current identities separate, you’ll still be able to log in as usual.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a member of current, but some people may hesitate to join Current.com because they don’t need another account to manage. Being able to register and sign in using a Facebook account means that it’s just that much simpler to become a part of the Current community.

If you’ve decided to link your Facebook and Current accounts, you’ll also be able to share your Current activity on Facebook. It’s super simple; whenever you leave a comment or add an item, you’ll see a ticky box that says “Publish to Facebook.” If you don’t want to share that comment or item, just uncheck the box!

You can edit your Facebook setttings on your My Account page, to automatically share everything you do on Facebook, or to share nothing at all. And you’ll always be able to change the setting on individual items or comments, no matter which option you choose.

Current Toolbar

We’ve also added a new Current toolbar. Now, when you click on a link that’s been added to Current, you’ll see a toolbar on the top of the page. You can vote, respond or share the story, all from the original article.

Shrink your URL

So, you’re browsing around the internet, and you come across something you just can’t wait to share. Like these caramel apple sticky buns you’re hoping someone will make if you send the link out on Twitter. But first you need a shorter URL.

Just add http://current.com/ to the front of the URL

And get your brand new, shortened address! If the link isn’t on Current, you’ll also be able to clip it right using the handy Add to Current option.

As always, if you have feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hi, drop us an email at feedback@current.com, or head over to our Get Satisfaction page and let us know what you think!

Steph

Featured_groups

Hello everybody, It’s time for featured groups!

Hackers

The Hackers group was recently created by hunzedog and covers A LOT of ground when it comes to ‘hacking.’  Hackers deals with cyber-security, cyber-pranks and hacking the gibson – content ranges from totally hilarious and cute to downright ultra-scary.

The Future

Cue technology beeps and droning sounds.  The Future group is awesome – newfangled techno-whatsits and far-out space doo-hickeys are littered all over the place.  The Future group also covers problems of today and how they may effect us tomorrow.

Tuff E Nuff

Pretty straightforward – this is all about being tough, kicking ass and taking names.  Tuff E Nuff honors those among us who have overcome challenges and beaten the odds. Thanks for the awesome group eldamon!

That about wraps it up for this weeks featured groups – as always – if you have a group that you’d like to see featured please drop me a line at bdorries@current.com !

Thanks,

-Ben

Words can’t fully express the sense of relief echoing through the hallways here at Current today. Since the news broke, the only thing that seems to matter is the one relieving fact — Laura Ling and Euna Lee are returning home.

We really want to send a huge thank you to all of you in our community. You’ve been understanding, and have kept Laura, Euna, and their families in your thoughts throughout the past 140 days. The support you’ve continued to show has been greatly appreciated by all of us here at Current. The efforts put together by the folks behind Free Laura Ling & Euna Lee and Liberate Laura & Euna Now deserve a big round of applause as well. Thank you for helping keep the light on.

Before all of this, I was fortunate to work with Laura on a series of online chats the Vanguard team hosted on Current.com during their recent season of episodes. I know firsthand how much she values the support of our community and viewers. Everyone here is anxious to welcome Laura and Euna home, and I’m certain that many of you would like to do the same.

So we’ve set up a group specifically for our community and fans of Laura and Euna’s work to record webcams and videos welcoming our two Vanguard journalists back home. Please take a minute to visit the Welcome Home, Laura and Euna group on Current.com, read co-founders Joel Hyatt and Al Gore’s official statement, and leave Laura and Euna a webcam with some encouraging words. I know they will appreciate it greatly.

Hey Currentators,

Beginning today, we’re going to start posting a list of the fastest growing community-created groups on Current.com. There are a few good reasons for doing this. First, it gives you an idea of where your group lands in the larger landscape of group-dom here on Current. Second, this list gives you an opportunity to discover new groups that you weren’t even aware existed. Third, getting to the top of this daily list on a regular basis will help get your group featured more prominently on Current.com.

How? We’ll take the group that is the “fastest growing group” of the day and feature it in the Current Stories section on the homepage of Current.com. I’m sure there will be some questions about this, so before anyone cries “conspiracy” or “censorship” let me lay out how this will work.

Fastest growing groups are determined based on daily growth in membership alone. In order to grow your membership base, you’ll need to promote your group, both on Current.com and in your other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. In order to get people to actually join your group, you’ll need to have some interesting (and recent) content in your group. So make sure you’ve got your curator hat on before you start spreading the word about your awesome new group.

Now, to keep us honest we’ll post a list of the fastest growing groups in the past 24 hours on the blog between the hours of 3-5 pacific on a daily basis. The group in the #1 seat gets featured on Current.com’s homepage, as well as in the playlist on the groups homepage as well.

So, without much further ado, here is today’s list of the top 10 fastest growing groups on Current.com in the past 24 hours:

1. DigiDose: Love Technology (10 new members) — curated by brownie4590 — FEATURED!

2. Jon Stewart (8 new members) — curated by hunzedog

3. The Science Club (4 new members) — curated by wirehedd

4. Exposing the Wrongs (4 new members) — curated by stopnoise

5. The Art Gallery (3 new members) — curated by DeliaTheArtist

6. Mathematics (3 new members) — curated by SamtheWizer

7. Universal Health Insurance (3 new members) — curated by lvp

8. Hip Hop Heads (3 new members) — curated by leo9jai

9. SOCA Music (3 new members) — curated by DJTonyTempo

10. DMT (3 new members) — curated by RojoGatto

So, kudos to brownie4590. His DigiDose group is now featured in Current Stories on the homepage, and it will be added to the groups playlist as well. Remember, this is an experiment. We want more and more people to know about our groups functionality, and we figure that we can do this best by calling attention to some of our fastest growing groups. The cool thing is, by growing your groups, you could in turn score the chance to get some added promotion on our homepage.

We’ll try this out for a bit, see how it goes, and if need be make some adjustments. I’ll update the blog again tomorrow with a new top 10 list and a new top group, so until then promote and curate your groups!

House on Fire by dvs on flickr.com

Here’s the situation. You come home from a nice night out only to find that your next door neighbor’s home, and everything in it, is on fire. This isn’t just a tiny fire, this is a full blown blaze. So, what do you do?

You could:

1. Rush inside in an attempt to put out the fire, or save anyone who might happen to be trapped inside.

2. Take the “who cares as long as it’s not me” approach, ignore the flames, and settle into bed for the evening.

3. Call 911 and report the fire to the fire department.

Let’s consider these options.

Choice #1: While altruistic and noble, puts you at great risk. You’re not equipped with fire retardant gear, and you could easily find yourself sucked into the blaze, injured, or even blamed for having something to do with the incident.

Choice #2: This is obviously the selfish route. No one would blame you for wanting to avoid risk, but option #3 is really not that difficult to do, so why not lend a helping hand?

Choice #3: Let’s face it, you share a community space with your neighbors. A burned up house will only drive down the value of your own home, so you’re somewhat invested in taking some action. The fire fighters are only human, so they can’t patrol every cul du sac looking for imminent fire hazards. Reporting a fire is a really easy way to help others out without putting yourself at risk.

Obviously this is a hypothetical situation, but it definitely relates to some of the issues that arise in online communities such as our own here at Current.com. Our site is designed to facilitate discussions. We welcome all points of view, and we encourage debate.

Wherever debate exists, differences of opinions are sure to crop up, and when those rear their heads, things can easily spiral from debate into attacks in a very timely fashion.

As a member of our community, we ask that you avoid taking option #1 wherever possible — no matter how heated an attack on you or your connections may be. If you step in and attempt to put out the fire yourself, there is a good chance that you might find yourself surrounded by flames, or resorting to actions that are in violation of our community guidelines.

We also ask that you refrain from taking choice #2 as well. We’re all in this together, so please contribute to making Current a better place for everyone to debate and discuss.

As a community member, please take a look at our newly refined community guidelines, and help out by reporting any potential fires you happen upon while participating on Current.com.

Sending a flag to the online community team is not a negative thing, it’s a good thing. It helps us keep abreast of some of the things going on within the community. We do our best to be everywhere at once, but even with our internal tools this isn’t always possible. So we enlist your help. If you’re not sure, flag it. You may find that what you report is not actually a violation of our community guidelines, but it is still helpful and we appreciate it.

Also, reporting a flag doesn’t give you the right to attack someone on the site. Just report it and let us take a look. We have a 24 hour response window, so you should get feedback on your flag in a relatively short amount of time.

Similarly, electing not to flag comments doesn’t give you license to respond in suit. You may not be responsible for the fire down the block, but that doesn’t mean you get to set fire to your next door neighbor’s house because the one down the block is on fire.

Thanks!

Welcome to another exciting edition of scavenger hunt.

In honor of the most awesome launch to launch this week (not including that massively delayed shuttle into space) I bring you a ‘groups’ centric scavenger hunt!

1. While I am the member of a few groups, I am the creator and owner of one in particular. What is the name of the group I created?

2. Our next group is described by it’s wonderful owner as ‘A veritable bento box of movies, comics, anime, TV shows, science, tech and culture all hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun. Pantsu!’

3. Last but not least this group is also featured prominently on our homepage and deserves its own word scramble: ENSW.  Also, this describes my personality type according to several personality and behavioral exams I was required to take before joining an elite group of crime fighting and ghost hunting slayers.

The last is a gimmie, and I hope you know that our nifty search feature should help you find the homepages for these new groups. When in doubt, just insert some text from above. COPY + PASTE

‘Till next time friends!

Lecti

Online Community Team

Hey Currentators,

We have a feature release scheduled this evening, which means Current.com will be having some scheduled downtime tonight 7/15 at 9:30pm PDT. We’re really excited to get this new release out to the community, and many of us will be online tonight when the site comes back up in anticipation of what our community will do with this new release. It’s going to be fun, so if you’re on West Coast (or are an East Coast insomniac) stay up with us for the big reveal. As always, I’ll be available on our @current twitter account if anyone has questions.

In the meantime, check out this cool landmark that appeared outside of our SF offices this morning. Al Gore picked Current SF as one of his favorite places on Google Maps, so Google dropped off a landmark statue in the shape of a place marker along with a placard to commemorate this.

Check it out: