Post by chalkey on Jun 2, 2011 10:59:51 GMT -5
So here's how the new process works.
1. Ideally, on Thursdays, I send out reminder Facebook PMs to everyone that they're writing for the next week. I also might do every two weeks if people are feeling ambitious.
2. Articles should be finished in a first draft form by Tuesday evening, posted on the "Story Help" board as "DRAFT [date]: [title]" (for example: "DRAFT 5/15: Marten, you're fired"). From there, the writer takes a breather. Seriously, guys. Emily stays up waiting for the Tuesday night articles because it's her job to read them Tuesday night. It is inconsiderate to make her wait just because you're lazy - so if you absolutely cannot post on time, message both her and me on Facebook to notify us. Post the article as a draft on the forums as an individual thread under "Story Help," with the subject line "DRAFT [date to be published]: [title of article]." When you are done, DO NOT FORGET TO POST A BLANK DRAFT DOCUMENT. This will keep your authorship on the article.*
3. Three people should proofread every article in the ideal world: Emily, our Chief Copy Editor, the Section Editor for that section, and yours truly. We try to do that as soon as possible. Emily and I will modify your draft directly on the original post, noting all that we change in reply posts. With this new system, others are free to workshop articles as well if they wish. EAs, you are obligated to do this at some point in your life just so I can say as Editor that you did this for me. But most weeks, don't worry about it.
4. When Emily makes her changes, you may start revising. When finished with your edits, post the NEW version on blogger under your registered author account - it is inconsiderate to expect us to do your edits for you, and it also compromises your voice as the author if we go into the article and change things ourselves, so nobody likes that. Unless a custom arrangement for that week is made with me, the draft done by around 10:00 p.m. or so on Wednesday night is the draft that will be posted. It is absolutely unacceptable to have a no-call/no-show until 3:00 a.m. on a week you are scheduled for either the Tuesday or Wednesday draft.
5. Photos must be original screencaps, and each post must have 3-5 photos before you can call it a night. To screencap on a Mac, use Apple+Shift+4. To screencap on a Windows, hit PrtSc on the keyboard, paste into a program like Paint, then crop as desired. Put simply, we do this for two reasons: the professionalism of having our own original content, and the buffer that is the fact that original photos of copyrighted material > copyrighted images of copyrighted material. I mean, everything's technically covered under our Fair Use laws, but in this instance the worst that can happen if we start to make money would be the source asking us to take it down. If we use copyrighted photos in this instance, we'd potentially have two people to worry about - the originators of the content, and the originators of the photo.
6. UPDATE 8/24/11: To avoid weird Font issues we've been having lately, copy the finished draft into textedit or notepad (something without as many font attributes) and then paste it into your blank draft. Textedit is kind of the best of both worlds because you keep italics and stuff but lose the font overwrites that keep the blogger draft from taking its default options.
7. If you have trouble uploading your photos in the right spot, try any of the following:
-Highlighting, then cutting and pasting the photo where desired.
-Creating a box of dummy text like "ldskjfslkdjfsldjfslkdjfs" and then highlighting that, and pasting the photo there. Alternately, highlighting the dummy text and then clicking "Insert Image."
*Don't use Draft.blogger ever again. Ever. The format has changed such that things are far less user friendly, and now everything that could've been done in draft.blogger can now be done in regular blogger. But more importantly, draft.blogger overwrites the authorship each time, so if Emily or I touch an article it will change irreversibly to our authorship (and because we have admin status and everyone else has author status, you can't change it back).
Other notes:
A. If we have even started to copy edit or workshop your article, be prepared for it to go live the next Thursday or the Thursday after. I can't guarantee this will always happen when things come up, but for professionalism's sake we'd all rather have content and not need it than need it and not have it.
B. If you are set in stone writing for a given week, it is a common courtesy to be available Wednesday evening for feedback and last minute changes. Anyone who has a second draft posted in blogger by 4:00 p.m. with pictures (taking into consideration both my and Emily's changes) is free to go out and have a good night.
C. Sometimes articles need to be workshopped. It doesn't mean you're a bad writer. It doesn't mean we hate you. It is what it is. Don't take it personally, and don't put up a fuss when you'd rather do something else. We all sacrifice things for the ACP, and you are not the only one wishing you could go out that night or go to bed early. That being said, if I message you saying to be free Wednesday night for IM-chat workshopping of the finishing touches, please take it with a smile, or at least remote tolerance. We'll both look better when the article has another draft.
If the article is not in its second draft, posted in blogger, and containing 3-5 original photos as described above, your work is not done. Do not leave a draft unfinished with no pictures just because you got bumped for an unknown week - get it done early, and save us both some headache later.