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Posting reminders and style guide
A few simple reminders about posting on the Burg, for those who asked:
Provide a source for your post. If you don't your post will be deleted. None of the moderators have enough time to look for the source of your post.
Shorter, not longer, titles. Remember, the http:// source does NOT go into the title. Snarky and catchy titles are fine.
File it in the right place. If it's about the current intifada in Frankistan, don't file it under 'Great White North'.
We focus on the WoT and matters related to the WoT. That includes general thuggery around the world, such as Zim-bob-we, and the politics surrounding the WoT. The farther away it is from that, the less likely people here want to read it here on Rantburg. We assume y'all read other weblogs for the other news. Weird animal stories, of course, are always welcome: they go into the SAST as a 'non-WoT' item. The more lurid the crime, the more likely it goes into 'Lurid Crimes Tales' (but we don't overdo it). But domestic issues in Australia, surface crawlers on Mars, and the general firmness of J Lo's butt shouldn't be posted here.
Opinion pieces go into the 'Opinion' category. Tricky, eh? This includes blog pieces. Some exceptions exist: VDH, Lileks, and Marc Steyn can go into any appropriate category. All the rest go into Opinion. And that's not an invitation for other blog-owners to post stuff in Opinion just to advertise their own blog.
Please format the post. That means, help us make the post readable. Think of it as a chance to teach English composition to the MSM. Delete the fluff and the stuff we already know. If there are no line breaks, put them in. If there are too many line breaks, take some out. Some sources (e.g., BBC) think that each and every sentence should be a new paragraph. Other sources (e.g., myway.ap.news) think that an entire story is a single paragraph, three pages long. Some gentle editing to make a post readable really helps all of us, especially the moderators who then don't have to go back and re-edit stuff.
Your comments are in hilite (yellow) text. Start your comments on a separate line. Don't put a leading line space before or after.
Strikout text can be placed in-line in the text. Some here complain when we use too much of it. Unless you've got a sure-fire 'mad-libs' winner, use strikeout text sparingly.
Check for duplicates before you post. I miss that one myself sometimes (thanks to Emily and Steve for the gentle 'gotchas').
And as always, thanks for all your support. You make Rantburg a special place.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-07-26 |
