New Front Page Submission Guidelines! Read This! Yes, you!

[pepperlandgirl]

All About the Domebo Front Page! Improve Your Mind, Improve Your Life, Improve Your World!

Goal: My goal is to turn the front page into a place that reflects that varied interests and hobbies that are already present on the message board. A few months ago, Jill suggested Improve Your Mind, Improve Your Life, Improve Your world as a theme for the front page, and I really like it. You can interpret that theme as widely or as narrowly as you like. I want to create a front page that is vibrant, that can kick off more discussion on the message board, and that encourages people to share their passions. At first, I will be updating the front page once every two weeks, until we have created a backlog of content, at which point, I hope to begin updating it once a week. So without further ado, allow me to get to the submission guidelines.

Who Can Submit: Anybody! People who are regular members of the board, people who only lurk, people who have never registered--all are welcome to submit an article, essay, story, or review to the front page. Submission, however, is not a guarantee of publication. I reserve the right to reject anybody's work for any reason. I honestly do not think I will be rejecting work, but I just want to be clear on that front.

What Can You Submit: Anything! Within reason! I do want to encourage a variety of work and interests, and so I will not be putting a limit on the topics or the genres. So if you want to submit a blog-style post about your favorite basketball team, that's great. If you want to submit a formal article about alternative medicine, that's also great. If you have an essay that you want to revise and submit that you wrote for your literature class, then I am happy to see it! However, I want to state some rules up front. Rule the First: Everything must be G to PG-13. Rule the Second: No work that can be interpreted as libelous, offensive to any race, religion, sexual orientation, or creed, or just generally obnoxious. Still with me? Good. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

Non-Fiction Submissions should 800-1000 words in length. Exceptions can and will be made in certain cases. But I would like to keep things uniform across the board. If you feel that your submission will be longer, please email me. Ficton submissions can be up to 1500 words in length. ALL work must be your own original work, and you must hold the copyright. The copyright will remain yours after publication. I would like to encourage people to rework and submit posts they have already posted to the Domebo, including OPs. All work must be edited before you submit it to me, but I reserve the right to edit any work for any reason, including length, grammar, spelling, and coherency.

Particular Items I Am Looking For: There are a few things I would like to have as regular items on the front page. This is in addition to any other submissions that are sent to me. So if you would like to write a review of an album, but you do not want to write the monthly column, that's fine! Send me your review! Dread Pirate Jimbo will be posting a monthly sports column, and Myrnalene has graciously agreed to write up a summary of the movie discussion threads to be posted after each discussion is completed. I'm hoping to strong-arm a few more people into being regular contributors, but there are still some things I'm looking for! Whoever volunteers for these articles needs to be trustworthy and willing to make a committment up front to submit the articles in a timely and regular manner. If you are interested in being a regular contributor, please send me a sample article/review.

Movies: I know there are plenty of people around here who love movies. I would like one or two people to write regular articles about movies--that can be anything from reviews of movies currently in theaters, reviews of DVDs, or discussion of the actual movie industry itself.

Television: Same as the movies. Recaps are fine, but I would also like news (for example, when a show gets cancelled), reviews, and opinion articles.

Music: I would be very happy if several people could take a stab at this, since I know music is a personal thing, and we have several passionate musicians on this board. Whether you play music or just invest a good deal of your time and money in the appreciation of music, I want to hear from you!

Current Events: Think less Keith Olbermann and more Andersoon Cooper. I would like one or two people who are interested in following politics, who might even be political wonks, who are willing to write brief updates about what's happen in America, as well as the rest of the world. I am not interested in giving anybody a soapbox.


How to Submit: Send the completed work to me at domebo.frontpage(at)gmail.com as an RTF attachment please. If you have any questions or concerns, you can PM me here, but all submissions must go to domebo.frontpage(at)gmail.com. Your article should include at least three links to related topics. For example, if you're discussing films, include a link to the IMDB, the wiki page, and maybe another review for it. Please do not submit anything without at least three related, outside links.

Compensation: My eternal love and gratitude, as well as the gratitude of the entire board.

[Truth and Beauty]

Rule the First: Everything must be G to PG-13.

That sounds reasonable.

Rule the Second: No work that can be interpreted as slanderous, offensive to any race, religion, sexual orientation, or creed, or just generally obnoxious.

This sounds very vague, and not too reasonable. Can you give any examples of permitted vs. non-permitted content?

[pepperlandgirl]

I know it's vague, but it's pretty standard stuff for submission guidelines. I won't post anything that could be seen as defamation--so the purposeful writing of lies in order to cast a person/business/etc in a negative light (actually, I meant libelous, not slanderous. I'll fix that in the OP). No racist diatribes, nothing that can be regarded as hate speech. The purpose of the front page is two-fold--to attract traffic and to give people something to discuss on the board. As the editor, this is basically up to my discretion. If there is a borderline case, I will discuss it with Caerie (who is helping me on this project) and CRSP (since whatever ends up on the front page reflects on him).

[Truth and Beauty]

Yabbut - offensive to any religion or creed? Just generally obnoxious?

[Fenris]

Yabbut - offensive to any religion or creed? Just generally obnoxious?

This post has been decolored by the decolorist

Justice Potter Stewart: "I'll know it when I see it."

[pepperlandgirl]

I don't want people to attempt to troll the front page. If anybody wants to write something that could be seen as borderline, or if anybody has any questions about their specific topics, they are more than welcome to contact me via PM or email to discuss it.

[Truth and Beauty]

All right then. And you're the final arbiter?

[Zuul]

All right then. And you're the final arbiter?

As the editor for the front page, she is, second only to CRSP who has given her some guidelines.

Furthermore, this is standard language for submission guidelines. No editor would actually go through the trouble of explaining what those things mean. The onus is on the writer to have enough common sense to understand them.

[Truth and Beauty]

Standard language? Whose standard? I would suggest we should adapt the standard to Domebo's standards. The part of not making fun of any religion or creed in particular seems odd for a Straight Dope offshoot board. Does this mean a thread mocking Mormon underwear would be out?

[pepperlandgirl]

You can start threads about whatever you like. If a current or former Mormon would like to write an article about Temple garments, or their personal experiences with the church (positive or negative), I would gladly accept it. However, I will not accept any articles "mocking" any religion.

[Truth and Beauty]

Is Scientology a religion? I ask because I have this funny parody of Xenu from one of my posts and I thought it could be expanded into a story.

[pepperlandgirl]

As with Mormonism, if anybody would like to write a factual article on certain elements of the organization, or would like to write a more personal essay about their experiences, then I will be thrilled for it.

[featherlou]

Moved to a better place.

[dread pirate jimbo]

As a person who has accepted a role as regular front page contributor, I'd just like to say I find the rules perfectly clear and that I understand that non-compliance with those rules will result in my writing not being posted. That seems pretty simple to me. I would put it to anyone likewise interested in contributing to the front page, that rather than nitpicking about what can or can't be written, try actually writing something, submitting it to pepperlandgirl for consideration, and see what happens. If it gets sent back with a request for a re-write, you may be on the right track. If it gets published, congratulations! You've got it! And if you get a response that says your piece blows bike-riding goats, well, you may have to review the rules.

Looking forward to getting my inane blather out there!

[WhyNot]

As a person who has accepted a role as regular front page contributor, I'd just like to say I find the rules perfectly clear and that I understand that non-compliance with those rules will result in my writing not being posted. That seems pretty simple to me. I would put it to anyone likewise interested in contributing to the front page, that rather than nitpicking about what can or can't be written, try actually writing something, submitting it to pepperlandgirl for consideration, and see what happens. If it gets sent back with a request for a re-write, you may be on the right track. If it gets published, congratulations! You've got it! And if you get a response that says your piece blows bike-riding goats, well, you may have to review the rules.

Looking forward to getting my inane blather out there!

+1

[Obligatory few words about how the poster understands and shares the general distaste for "+1", "This", "What he said" and similar responses, but feels that it is nonetheless the most appropriate response at this point in time.]

[WhyNot]

Hey pep, any guidelines for pictures/graphics/illustrations to go with articles? Can we use them? I'm assuming same copyright issues would apply as for print - they'd need to be our own pictures or free clip art kinds of things, yes?

(Yes, I could have asked this via PM, but I figured if I had the question, someone else might, too. :wink: )

[pepperlandgirl]

WhyNot, good question. Yes, I think graphics would be great additions to articles. As with all the written work, you need to either hold the copyright or choose one from the public domain. I am serious as a heart attack about this. I know of too many e-zines that used a copyrighted image out of ignorance and were shut down as a result.

If you would like to include graphics with your submissions, please send them as attachments, not as links. Also, at this time, I would like to limit graphics to those that are used in articles.

[dread pirate jimbo]

As a person who has accepted a role as regular front page contributor, I'd just like to say I find the rules perfectly clear and that I understand that non-compliance with those rules will result in my writing not being posted. That seems pretty simple to me. I would put it to anyone likewise interested in contributing to the front page, that rather than nitpicking about what can or can't be written, try actually writing something, submitting it to pepperlandgirl for consideration, and see what happens. If it gets sent back with a request for a re-write, you may be on the right track. If it gets published, congratulations! You've got it! And if you get a response that says your piece blows bike-riding goats, well, you may have to review the rules.

Looking forward to getting my inane blather out there!

+1

[Obligatory few words about how the poster understands and shares the general distaste for "+1", "This", "What he said" and similar responses, but feels that it is nonetheless the most appropriate response at this point in time.]

Thank you.

[featherlou]

<snip>And if you get a response that says your piece blows bike-riding goats, <snip>

Hey!

[dread pirate jimbo]

<snip>And if you get a response that says your piece blows bike-riding goats, <snip>

Hey!

You're welcome.

[SBSO2]

In he unlikely event I get bored enough to do this, can I just send you some shit to put there rather than making commitments etc?

[pepperlandgirl]

Yes, SBSO, anybody can submit anything they like at any time. The only people who have to make any sort of commitment are the ones who would like to have a monthly feature.

[dread pirate jimbo]

Yes, SBSO, anybody can submit anything they like at any time. The only people who have to make any sort of commitment are the ones who would like to have a monthly feature.

Did you just call me an attention whore?

[pepperlandgirl]

No. But I could, if that's the sort of thing you're into.

[WhyNot]

Hey now! I didn't think this was THAT kind of a submission thread!

[SBSO2]

also, who gets copyright?

[pepperlandgirl]

Copyright will remain the original author's.

[SBSO2]

so if I write something and it's causing, or potentially may cause me problems I can get it removed?

[pepperlandgirl]

so if I write something and it's causing, or potentially may cause me problems I can get it removed?

Technically, yes. But I would rather not set the precedent of posting and removing content from the front page. I would prefer that everybody submit work that will not cause, or potentially cause, anybody any problems.

[Exy]

Technically, yes. But I would rather not set the precedent of posting and removing content from the front page. I would prefer that everybody submit work that will not cause, or potentially cause, anybody any problems.

I was a member of a web community devoted to writing for a long time and one thing that came up occasionally was that people would take things they wrote there, possibly rework them, and get them published -- but that typically required taking them down from our community. If the front page does take off, I think you should probably be prepared for the possibility of people having a very happy reason to want to take something down. Since you're focusing on pretty short pieces maybe that won't come up but I think it's worth keeping in mind.

[What Exit?]

So how is this project going? Are you getting enough submissions?

[pepperlandgirl]

Well, I have enough submissions to get something posted this month. So far, I have 3 articles in my inbox, and I have promises from 4 other people for submissions. If those 4 others come through (and I have no reason to doubt them) I will have enough to update twice this month, like I had hoped.

Unfortunately, so far all of the submissions have come from people that I have directly asked to contribute. I'm hoping that that's just because this has only been posted for a short time.

[What Exit?]

Good to hear that you have some coming in. As you update the front page, post a link here to it. That will be both a convenience and a good way to let people know the front page is changing. It won't hurt that it will also bump the thread.