Howto Write a Post

Getting started

To create a new post, open the navigation sidebar and click New Post. You will land on a form with two language tabs at the top (EN and DE) and several fields below.

Choosing one or both languages

Each post can be written in English, German, or both. The two tabs at the top of the form each have a checkbox:

• Tick the box next to a language to include that language in the post.
• Untick it to exclude the language. (At least one language must remain ticked.)
• Click the language label itself to switch the editor to that language without touching the checkboxes.

If you publish a post with both languages, readers see the version that matches their selected content language.

Subject and body

The Subject is the headline of your post. The Body is the article itself and is written in Markdown. You can use:

• # Headings, ## Sub-headings, etc.
• **bold**, *italics*, `inline code`
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Links: [label](https://example.com)
• Fenced code blocks with three backticks
• Block quotes with >

The body textarea grows automatically as you type.

Attaching files and images

Below the body you will find the Attachments uploader. You can drop up to five files of up to 50 MB each into that area, or click to pick them from your computer.

For every attachment you can fill in:

• Title — used as the link label when the file is not an image.
• Description — optional caption.

To embed an image inline in your text, insert a placeholder anywhere in the body using curly braces around the file name:

Here is the diagram:

{architecture.png}

And here is a downloadable PDF: {whitepaper.pdf}

When the post is rendered:

• Files whose content type starts with image/ are inlined as <img> tags.
• All other files become Markdown links to the uploaded file.

Tip: click the file name of any attachment in the form to copy its {placeholder} to your clipboard. A short flash confirms the copy.

Tags

The Tags field accepts space-separated words, for example:

howto elixir phoenix

When you focus the field, a dropdown opens with all tags that already exist in the system. Click a suggestion to add it, or just type a new tag — new tags are created on save.

Visibility

The Who can see this? select controls the audience:

• Public — anyone on the internet can read the post.
• Registered Users — only signed-in users.
• Friends Only — only your mutual followers.
• Direct Message — only the specific recipients you pick.

When you choose Direct Message a recipient picker appears. Type a name to search and click a result to add it.

Comments

The Who can comment? select is independent from visibility:

• Nobody (Turned Off) — comments are disabled.
• Friends / Followers / Registered Users / Public — progressively wider audiences.

Saving as a draft

Clicking Save Post does not publish the post — it is stored as a draft. Drafts are only visible to you (and to admins), so no follower will see anything yet. This gives you a chance to preview the rendered article and fix anything before the audience sees it.

Finding your drafts

Drafts are hidden from the default /posts view. To see them:

1. Open My Postings (/posts).
2. In the toolbar at the top, find the three-button switch (the three document icons sitting next to each other):
   • No Drafts (single document) — hides drafts, the default.
   • With Drafts (document with overlay) — shows published posts and drafts together. Drafts are marked with a small “Draft” indicator in the listing.
   • Drafts Only (empty document) — shows only your drafts.
3. Pick With Drafts or Drafts Only and your unpublished post appears in the list.

Click the draft to open the preview. This is exactly how the article will look once published — images, attachments, formatting and all.

Publishing the draft

When you are happy with the preview, publish it in one of two ways:

• From the listing: in the row of action icons next to your draft, click the green eye icon (Publish).
• From the post itself: the toolbar above an unpublished post shows a Publish button.

Either path opens a small dialog asking whether you want to notify followers:

• Yes, send e-mail — the post is published and a notification email is sent to your followers (and friends, deduplicated). The email is bilingual when the post is bilingual, includes inline images, and attaches all non-image files.
• No, just publish — the post is published without sending any email. Use this for minor posts or when you don’t want to bother subscribers.

After publishing, the eye icon turns into an eye-with-slash icon (Unpublish) so you can move the post back to draft state any time.

About the “e-Mail followers” checkbox on the form

The checkbox e-Mail followers that sits next to the Save button is not used to publish a fresh draft — at that point the post has no published_at date yet, so no email is sent regardless of the checkbox.

This checkbox only matters when you edit an already-published post: tick it before saving to send a fresh notification email about the update; leave it unticked to save the edit silently. New drafts always use the publish dialog described above to decide on email.