CNN iReport

On the 30th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, turmoil once again rages from within the country. Protesters have taken to the streets to speak out against their government. We received several iReports showing images from Iran, including photos showing scenes of protests that took place in the capital city of Tehran.

The photographer said hundreds of people had gathered near a train station. The images show security forces and burning objects. Since a series of demonstrations began in June, citizen journalism has been perhaps the primary way information has been shared from inside Iran.

Join us in our blog today at 3 p.m. ET for our weekly roundtable discussion. We are looking forward to talking to you.

We'll open comments on this blog post at 3 p.m. so you can leave your questions and comments and then members of Team iReport will respond.

We'll talk to you at 3 p.m. ET.

You may have problems logging in to CNN iReport this morning. Our technical team is on the issue and hopes to have the problem fixed shortly.

In the meantime, if you spot breaking news, please send it to ireport@cnn.com . We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience!

UPDATE: Our developers have identified the problem and login should be restored. If you encounter any other technical problems, please us know at contact@ireport.com . Thanks!

The USS New York steamed into New York Harbor Monday and iReporters were there to document its arrival. The 25,000-ton ship is partially made of seven and a half tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center.

Watching the ship was especially meaningful for New York iReporters MSetoPhoto , sergeinyc and sjunat55 , who all had personal connections to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. MSetoPhoto and sjunat55 lost friends in the attack and sergeinyc was working in the towers at the time.

Their photos capture the bittersweet emotion of the momentous occasion. Did you watch the ship's arrival? Share your photos and video and see other great submissions.

Two iReporters, as well as CNN’s Campbell Brown, along 25,000 others,attended the Women’s Conference in Long Beach, California, earlier this week.

The conference’s mission was to “empower, inspire and educate” women, and the speakers there had lots of advice on how to accomplish that, as ChrisMorrow found.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “Women often sit in meetings or class and don’t say what they think, so my advice to women is to always interrupt.”

Dr. Jane Goodall offered her advice as well: “The most important thing is to be happy with who they are, and if you really want something just carry on until you get it.”

Check out ChrisMorrow’s video for more words of wisdom from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Sir Richard Branson, actress Sharon Lawrence, Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, and others.

For MelissaF, the Women’s Conference was a major step in her weight loss journey. A few weeks ago, she interviewed one of her idols, “The Biggest Loser’s” Jillian Michaels over the phone for CNN iReport, and this inspired her to look at exercise in a new way. At the conference, she got the chance to meet Michaels in person, and to thank her for getting her motivated to lose ten pounds so far. Check out MelissaF’s video of the big moment here.

We’re always on the lookout for other inspiring stories on CNN iReport, and if you have one, don’t hesitate to share it with the community.

Some people make spiced cider, others dress up as Santa Claus. My annual fall-to-winter ritual is watching the stream of snowy iReports come through. You know it's officially wintrytime (not "winter," but "wintry") when you start seeing photos of snow piling up on grills, lawns, chairs, lawn chairs and everything else upon which snow can collect. jacobrtaylor and his father shot excellent photos showing the impact of roughly 20 inches of snow in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. They not only photographed the lawn furniture, but also showed their footprints and placed a ruler in the snow for added value. Kudos to jacobrtaylor for showing us the signs of the season.

Another cool thing we start seeing is iReporters getting on camera to tell us about the weather. iReporter stickergiant set his camera on a tripod and headed out dutifully to show the flakes falling on his head. He even pulled his hood up over his head for effect. We don't want you to put yourself in danger, but we do think it's neat when an iReporter (within reason) shows us the weather near them. And finally, we love it when iReporters like Willsackmann make things like giant snow forts. Gotta love that. How's the weather where you are? Got western storms? Take pictures or put yourself on camera. Or, just comment here. Share your story with CNN.

Join us in our blog today at 3 p.m. ET for our weekly roundtable discussion. We're looking forward to hearing what you think of the new CNN iReport section now that you've had a few days to play with it.

A lot of people have joined the CNN iReport community this week, so we would like to say hello to newcomers and invite them to join us in the discussion.

We'll open comments on this blog post at 3 p.m. so you can leave your questions and comments and then members of Team iReport will respond.

We'll talk to you at 3 p.m. ET.

We've gotten a lot of new members to the CNN iReport community this week, so we wanted to take a moment to welcome you all and let you know what you're getting into.

Things work a little differently here than on the rest of CNN.com, because all of the stories in this section were either created or inspired by users like you. We can't wait for you to add your perspective to CNN's coverage.

Here's how you can get started:

• Register with CNN iReport: If you already have a CNN member services account, you'll still have to create a screen name. Be sure to give us your phone number so we can contact you about your iReports (Don't worry, it will only be visible to CNN editors).
• Upload an avatar photo and fill out your profile: This is your chance to share your personality with the rest of the CNN iReport community, so have fun with it. Tell us where you're from, what you like to do and any other details about your life that you want to share.
• Start telling your story: You can go to our assignment desk (http://www.ireport.com/community/assignment) to see what stories CNN is focusing on each day. Or you can go straight to our upload page to send your videos, photos or audio iReports.
• Check out other stories: We get amazing stories every day from iReporters all over the world. CNN iReport producers will be featuring the most newsworthy and compelling stories on the front page of our section.
• Meet other iReporters: You can get to another iReporter's profile page by clicking on their avatar image. Then you can read their bios and send private messages. Another good way to meet people here is to comment on interesting iReports.
• Meet Team iReport: We hold a weekly roundtable discussion in our blog where you can ask questions, discuss story ideas or talk about any concerns you may have. You also can email us at contact@ireport.com.
  

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest news from CNN iReport.

You've probably noticed that CNN iReport has a whole new look and feel -- including a brand new homepage inside CNN.com.

The new look is designed to showcase your stories and the many ways they enhance CNN’s global news reporting every day.

CNN iReport producers are eager to feature your work, and while there’s no guarantee your iReport will appear on the new homepage, the ones that do share some common traits.

iReports that make it to the homepage typically:

• Are tied to the news of the day
• Provide a perspective or angle on a story that isn’t available anywhere else
• Include the components of a good story -- the who, what, why, where and when

A few final, but important, tips: If you want your story to be featured, make sure that all the content in your iReport, including text and images, is your own. Also, please add a phone number to your private profile so CNN producers can call you with questions, and upload an avatar image to your profile so we can feature your work in our new “voices” section.

If you follow these tips, you’ll have a great chance of having your stories showcased on the new CNN iReport homepage, but not just there. You’ll notice your iReport submissions in stories, photo galleries, video interactives, and sections across CNN.com –- just more validation that CNN producers are committed to showcasing your content. After all, your contributions make CNN’s reporting and storytelling better every day.

We hope to see your stories on CNN soon!

You may be wondering why we didn't keep the "ON CNN" stamp when we redesigned the site. We were pretty fond of the stamp and hated to see it go, but it just didn't make sense now that every iReport is posted in a section of CNN.com.

Since CNN iReport is a part of the CNN Web site, it's more important than ever that we indicate which stories have been vetted by members of CNN's editorial newsgathering team. Those stories are now marked with a red, CNN iReport tag.

We get tons of amazing iReports every day, and unfortunately, we can't vet all of them. So stories that haven't been vetted are labeled "Not vetted by CNN" to avoid confusion. We're not making any judgments about the quality of the iReports with the “Not Vetted by CNN” label, we just want everyone to know that we haven't both vetted and cleared them for use in CNN's newsgathering.

The great thing is CNN.com readers will be able to see and discuss your stories, even if they are not vetted.

If you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments below or e-mail them to contact@iReport.com.

Our developers just told us that  they'll be rolling out a software patch on Tuesday for some of the bugs CNN iReport users have reported.

-- The deployment will fix several problems, including:

-- Users not being able to send private messages in Internet Explorer 8

-- Thumbnails showing up incorrectly in Facebook and Digg

-- Links not changing colors after you click on them

We've also simplified the language  on the “welcome” overlay screen and made the  "I get it" check box easier to see.

Thanks to everyone who reported  these issues. If you have any other suggestions, please let us know in the  comments.

Please join us here in the blog at 12:30 p.m. ET to talk about all the big changes we've made at CNN iReport and ask any questions you have about the section.

Our developers have been working tirelessly to stamp out some nagging bugs, and we'd like you to let us know if you're having any trouble.

If you're new to the roundtable, here's how it works – we'll open the comments on this post at 12:30 p.m. ET and you can jump in and ask your questions. Members of Team iReport will answer as many of your questions as we can.

Before we get started, I'd like to encourage you to watch this video from iReporter MelissaF. She checked out the CNN iReport section over the weekend and did a great job explaining all of the new features.

We're looking forward to talking to you at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Dear iReporters,

(All 395,759 of you, in 209 countries, who have contributed 376,586 personal, shocking, sweet, urgent, impassioned, hilarious, beautiful, riveting, bizarre, smart and critically important stories to CNN’s global news coverage in the last 3 years)

The next time you hear James Earl Jones’ impressive baritone say “THIS is CNN,” he'll be talking about you.

Because today iReport officially becomes part of CNN.com. We’re throwing off our blue banner and our separate URL and moving inside the world’s leading site for news and information. We’re doing it because we know that together, CNN and iReport paint a more complete picture of the news.

What does the move mean exactly? For starters, it means iReport.com now redirects to CNN.com/ireport. It also means the millions of people who visit CNN.com every day can get to iReport from the top of every single page. But most importantly, it means that iReport is truly a part of CNN.

Most of the nuts and bolts of iReport will remain the same. CNN will still put iReports through our editorial vetting process before we use them in CNN coverage (you’ll know the ones that have been cleared for CNN by the “CNN iReport” stamp in the corner), and the way you post stories works the same as always. One big change is that our new homepage is now managed by the iReport team, whose job will be to highlight the best of iReport every day.

Over the next few days, I and the rest of the iReport Team will be checking in here on the blog to introduce some of the features we’re most excited about and talk about what you think of the changes and how they’re working. (Join us today at 12:30 ET for a roundtable conversation here on the blog.)

In the meantime, I sure hope you’ll take a look around. And by all means, if you’ve got a story to share, please do. That’s why we’re here.

We've gotten a lot of questions about all of the changes here at CNN iReport, so we're hosting a special iReport roundtable discussion at 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday, October 26th. Please join us to talk about all of our new features and bring up any concerns you may have. iReporters have given us a lot of great feedback since we flipped the switch on Saturday and our developers are working hard on bug fixes.

Here are some of the known issues:

     -- “Report Violation” is link too close to “read more” on long comments

     -- Some iReporters are having trouble replying to private messages

     -- The "Superstar" bug overlaps the screen name for some users

     -- The "I get it" box is too faint on the welcome screen

     -- The "I get it" box isn't accessible in Safari on an iPhone.

If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, feel free to leave a comment below. We'll leave comments open here until 12 p.m. ET tomorrow.

You probably noticed that iReport looks a lot different this morning. We're pretty tickled. Lots more to come about what it means and how it works, but for now please take a look around and let us know what you think in the comments!