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Posting on the Burg -- reminders & changes
In the spirit of, um, the heat and humidity of August, we mods have a few requests and reminders on posting. These aren't the usual formatting requests, though we renew those as well. These requests have to do with what we post. We and The Wizard of Oz Fred have been discussing this behind the curtain, and Fred plans a few changes under the hood in the near future.
There are certain issues out there with copyright and 'fair use', and other blogs are finding out -- the hard way -- what the limits are. Rantburg doesn't want those troubles. So if you wish to post, please pay attention to the following:
For posts from American press sources, you MUST trim, trim, and trim some more. Try to limit what you post to no more than 1/3 of the original. Cut the fluff and the repetition. Remember that it's an opportunity to teach writing to journalists.
You do NOT need to say "Rest @ link" or something similar, we all KNOW that the rest is at the link.
Add your own in-line comments to what you post. That especially helps us with 'fair use', as commentary is value added. Besides, we like your commentary. Remember, no leading space paragraph above or below your in-lines.
Feel free to re-write a post. See what Badanov routinely does for the Messico news. That's in your own words and perfectly fine. Put a single in-line at the top of a rewrite: 'Rewritten by [your name].'
Likewise, translations of foreign language news is great; put a single in-line at the top: 'Translated from the original Pashto-Yiddish by [your name].'
For op-ed pieces from the American press, summarize in your own words and add your own commentary, with only brief quotations (no more than THREE paragraphs total). An alternative is to post the title and source URL (in their correct locations) with only a one-liner from you in the text.
We mods will DELETE posts of op-ed pieces that are posted in full without commentary.
Foreign major news services (e.g., AFP, Reuters, Guardian, Der Spiegel) should be treated as American -- trim extensively and in-line.
Foreign smaller services (e.g., Pak Daily Times, Bangladesh News) should be treated as we use them now, but make sure you add in-line commentary.
More to come.
We thank you as always for making the Burg special.
Posted by: Steve White 2010-08-15 |
