# Stories

> Share a photo or short video as a story with text, a link and a poll, see who viewed and liked it, and decide whether people can reply.

Source: https://support.estage.com/community-stories
Part of the ESTAGE Support help center (https://support.estage.com). Full knowledge base: https://support.estage.com/llms-full.txt

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A **story** is a photo or video that sits above the feed for 24 hours and then disappears. Members
use stories for quick, informal updates that don't need to stay in the feed.

The stories bar is at the top of the feed. **Your story** is always first, followed by everyone
else's — unseen stories first, with a colored ring.

## Creating a story

1. In the stories bar, select the **+** on **Your story**. **New story** opens.
2. Choose where the picture comes from:
   - **Upload** — a photo (up to 20 MB) or a video (up to 500 MB) from your device.
   - **Camera** — take a photo or record a video with your camera. Pick the camera, microphone and
     shape (9:16, 16:9 or 4:3) first. A recording stops by itself after 60 seconds.
3. Add what you need on top of it (below), and a caption in **Write a caption… use @ to mention**.
4. Under **Who can reply**, choose **Everyone** or **Off**.
5. Select **Share**. You see *"Story posted"*.

To start again with a different photo or video, use the back or retake button in the corner.

### Adding text, a link or a poll

The buttons beside the story add items you can drag anywhere on it:

| Item | What you can set |
| --- | --- |
| Text | Type your text, change its color, turn the background (**BG**) on, make it bold, italic or underlined, and resize it with **A+** / **A−** or the corner handle. |
| Link | A button — *Learn more* by default — that opens your URL when a viewer taps it. Enter the address in the link field (`https://…`). |
| **Poll** | A question (**Ask a question…**, up to 80 characters) with 2 to 4 options of up to 40 characters each. **Add option** adds one. A story can have one poll. |

Select an item to edit it again, or use its delete button to remove it.

### Mentioning someone

Type `@` in the caption and pick a member from the list. They get a notification that you mentioned
them in a story.

## Viewing stories

1. Select someone's picture in the stories bar. Their stories play one after another.
2. Tap or use the arrows to move between stories, and close the viewer when you're done.

A photo stays on screen for 20 seconds; a video plays to the end.

While watching someone else's story you can:

- **Like it** with the heart.
- **Reply**, if the author allowed it: type in **Comment…** and send. Your reply arrives in the
  author's [Messages](https://support.estage.com/community-messages) as a reply to their story.
- **Vote** in its poll. You see the results once you've voted, and you can't change your vote.

## Seeing who viewed your story

1. Open your own story from **Your story**.
2. Select **Activity**. You see the number of **Viewers**, the number of likes, and the list of
   people who viewed it — those who liked it are marked with a heart.

Only you see this list. On a story with a poll, you also see the results and the number of votes.

## Deleting a story

1. Open your story from **Your story**.
2. Select the delete icon at the bottom. The story is removed straight away, together with its
   views and likes.

> **Caution**
>
> There's no confirmation and no undo.

## Who gets notified

- **Followers** get a push notification when someone they follow posts a story.
- **An admin's story in the main feed notifies every member.** In a channel, it goes to the author's
  followers like anyone else's.
- **Mentioned members** are notified.

## Hiding the stories bar

You can switch stories off where you don't want them: **Hide stories** in
[General Settings](https://support.estage.com/community-general-settings#behavior) removes the bar from the main feed, and
each channel has its own **Hide Stories** switch — see [Channels](https://support.estage.com/community-channels).

## Things worth knowing

- **Stories last 24 hours.** After that they're gone from the bar; there's no archive.
- **Only the author can delete a story.** Admins can't remove someone else's story, and stories
  can't be reported. If stories are being misused, hide the stories bar where it happens.
- **Channel stories stay in the channel.** A story posted in a channel shows only in that channel's
  stories bar, to its members.
- **The stories bar shows to signed-in members only.** Visitors don't see it.