Byliner

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Frequently asked questions

First off: This site is run in limited amounts of free time, and I can't hope to meet the levels of reliability and comprehensiveness you'd find on a professional site. Maybe someone will take the idea and do it properly one day. Until then, on with the questions...

What is Byliner?
Byliner regularly grabs all the headlines from a selection of news and magazine websites. It then indexes all these stories by their authors' names. If you join Byliner you can choose from this list of writers and make a list of your favourites. Once you've made the list, every time you return to Byliner you'll be shown the stories your writers have published since your last visit. You can also receive a list of the stories published by your favourite writers via email, each day or each week. This site is run by Phil Gyford. (top)
Why do I need Byliner?
Maybe you continually return to certain websites only to read articles by the same writers each time. Maybe you like a writer who only publishes new stories occasionally and you don't want to miss them. Either way, Byliner will save you time and hassle by bringing all the stories by your favourite writers together in one place. (top)
How do I set up my list of writers?
If you've already joined, then simply go to the complete list of writers or the charts. Every writer has an "add to your list" link -- click this to add the writer to your list. (top)
How do I choose from so many writers?
Life's full of difficult decisions isn't it? One way to narrow down the field would be to see which writers everyone else likes -- look at the charts of the most popular writers and stories. Otherwise, look through the sites Byliner indexes, find a writer you like on one of them, and come back to Byliner and add them to your list. (top)
Why do no stories show up for my writers on the front page?
Every time you return to Byliner you'll see the stories from your writers since your last visit. If you rarely see any new stories it could be that the writers on your list don't publish new stories very frequently. (top)
Why can't I find a certain writer here?
Byliner only indexes stories from certain pages on certain websites. If you can't find a particular writer on Byliner, then chances are there hasn't been a story by them on those pages. If you know this is wrong, and a writer has published a story on one of these sites recently, then send an email and we'll try to fix the problem. If your favourite writer writes for a site Byliner doesn't yet index, and you think it should, then find a page on the site suitable for Byliner to index and then send an email (but there are no guarantees we'll have the time to add them, sorry). The page should have a list of recent stories with URLs, story titles and the names of the writers. (top)
Why don't you include stories and writers from my favourite website?
While we'd like to index every website in existence Byliner doesn't have the resources to do so. However, if there is a site you'd like indexed send an email and we'll do our best. (top)
One of the writers on Byliner has some stories on a web site but these aren't listed here. Can you add them?
Byliner only lists stories that appear on certain pages on certain websites. I can certainly begin indexing other sites if they have a suitable page (it should change when new stories are published and include the writers' names). Unfortunately I don't have time to add older stories from other sites to writers' Byliner listings. Sorry. (top)
There is a story on a site indexed by Byliner but it hasn't appeared on Byliner. Why?
Byliner does its best to pick up every story on certain pages on each website indexed. However, there are a number of things that can go wrong. First, some sites occasionally change the format of their layout for special stories and there's a chance Byliner's scripts may not pick these up. Second, some sites include such a large number of pages that it's impossbile to tell which ones contain the new stories. Byliner does its best but may miss something here; send an email if this is the case! Finally, if a website redesigns its layout this may hinder the automated scripts. This will be fixed this as soon as the problem is noticed, but feel free to send an email about this. (top)
Why are the dates on some of the links to stories incorrect?
The dates attributed to stories are the dates on which they are added to Byliner. Ideally this is the same as the date on which they are published (although time zone differences could result in them being a day out in some situations). While most stories are added automatically stories by authors not yet in Byliner's database must be approved manually. Because the site is run in my free time there can be a delay between the publishing of such a story and its being added to Byliner. This delay is usually a few days, but could be over a month. In short, dates are a guide only. (top)