The Revised Editorial Process

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The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Marcuse » Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:31 pm

Hey everyone!

As you might have seen, we've been changing up a few things regarding content. The editorial process has changed a little since then, so I think it's a good idea to let everyone know how things work now.

1. Write an Article

Exactly the same as before really. Pick a topic, and go nuts. Pretty much any subject is fine, as before, try to avoid subjects that might start a war in the comments. But otherwise we're good. If you're writing in a word document, remember to add BBcode tags to your article so it shows up properly.

2. Images

We'd encourage you to add relevant and/or humorous images to your article. As before, we'd prefer these to be from an open source, so we don't get any copyright issues. Please add these images with [img] tags in your article. One change from before is that we're now going to be re-hosting all article images on a TCS account. This just means that older articles won't suffer from image loss if someone removes them, or whatever else might cause them to be lost or otherwise missing. Don't worry about that, we'll sort it, but it's a change from before I think we should mention.

3. Jokes

As before, we're (at least tangentially) a comedy site, so jokes in your articles will be awesome. Obviously, if you're writing something more serious or based on history, we can tailor those to the content, but often a dry subject will be lightened by humour.

4. Sources

Also as before, if you're writing anything reasonably serious, please try to include sources. Wikipedia is still okay.

5. Plagiarism

Run your article through this, because we will

http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/

6. Submit

Submitting your article to us has been completely changed, and has never been simpler. Go to the main page, and there's a button to "Submit an Article". When you press this you get the option to submit the text of your article, a title, and any additional comments. This will be posted to our editing subforum, where we can play with it.

I want to add here, that only registered users can access this button, and I'd like to think that anyone here will use this responsibly. However, in the event we get something which is obviously trolling or inappropriate, we're going to consider that grounds for a warning. We want to use this to make things a heck of a lot easier for everyone, but please don't mess around with it.

7. Editing

Once the article is in our hands, we'll go through it, alter minor wording, add jokes and images where necessary, and generally make it look like something we think we're happy to publish. Which brings us to the next bit that's a little different.

8. Author Consultation

Regardless of how much we edit, your work is still your work and we'd like to make sure you're happy with the final version before we post. Our new editing setup allows us to make a preview that only the author can view, so we can make sure you're happy with the end result before we post. As such, once the editing is done, we will approach the author to see if they're happy with the article, and we'll try to work with the author to make sure any concerns are addressed prior to posting.

However, if we are unable to contact the author of an article for a period of a month dating from the time we begin looking for author approval, the article will be eligible for posting. We'll try and only use this where absolutely necessary, but we don't want to sit on perfectly good content waiting months for someone to return to okay something. We want everyone to be on the same page about this; we will do our best to contact authors and get their approval before posting, and will only do this if the editorial staff deems it necessary. Ideally, this will never be an issue.

9. Promotion

Obviously we have social media up and running as well, but feel free to share your article, or any article you liked on your social media as well. The more people view this, the better.
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The Editorial Process

Postby Grapho » Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:15 pm

If it's already been pitched to Cracked but they sorta went "I don't know, change it into a new premise and we'll see", is it okay to pitch it here?

Please don't punch me in the face.
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Re: The Editorial Process

Postby Marcuse » Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:22 pm

Hi there Grapho! If you've got an idea, then feel free to submit it using the "Submit an Article" section on the main page of the site. If you'd like to discuss anything feel free to PM me, or hit me up on IRC.

If the article hasn't been published on Cracked then I see no reason why you'd be disallowed from reusing your work elsewhere. I'd be happy to take a look at it.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Learned Nand » Mon Feb 09, 2015 12:36 am

Make sure that just submission on Cracked doesn't give them copyright over it. It almost certainly doesn't, but still.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Grapho » Mon Feb 09, 2015 1:06 am

As far as I was able to find, it doesn't. You have to sign a waiver after they've given it the green light, just as you're getting your payment. I'll pitch something soon, then!
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Arakiven » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:43 am

What are this sites standards for articles? Is the anything so stupid, so pointless that you'll take one look at the subject and toss it to the side even if it follows all the rules and is safe fore work?

Could I write the article '5 Rays Rabid Bears Have Helped the Disco Industy' and it have a chance if it's written well enough? How about '5 Creative Ways to Kill a Man With Your Penis' or an article where I discuss the absolutely not true origins of the microwave within Ancient Greece?

Im sorry but I'm required to ask these question ever since I was allowed to host the last boardroom meeting at work and gave tips on how to get away with Pelvic Murder...
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Last edited by Learned Nand on Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Accidentally edited the post instead of replying to it. It is now as it originally was.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Learned Nand » Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:52 am

Arakiven wrote:What are this sites standards for articles? Is the anything so stupid, so pointless that you'll take one look at the subject and toss it to the side even if it follows all the rules and is safe fore work?

I don't know if we have definite standards, but no article has ever been outright rejected. Some have needed a lot of editing, but take a look at some of the things we published. Our most recent article argues that Hitler is underrated.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Kate » Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:09 am

Avi's right, nothing's been rejected outright, and that's likely not going to happen. Right now, the point of articles is to have some fun. They're fun to write, fun to read, and just generally enjoyable to have around. People work hard on them and there are some darn good ones, but we're not exactly a serious publication looking to put up the next Pulitzer winning piece.

Editing is also a volunteer gig, so if anyone's interested in that, talk to Marcuse about it. Editors will also work with you and give pretty honest feedback, so if you include something ridiculously factually incorrect, they'll talk it out with you and maybe put a disclaimer in. There are also a few things that would be considered too offensive and we don't want to host for obvious reasons (for example, if that article had been actually advocating genocide, that's something we'll say no to). But if that happens, you'll get an honest and open discussion about it and what exactly the problem is.
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JT's Art Thread - JamesT's awesome stuff.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby FaceTheCitizen » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:43 pm

...
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:45 pm

Hey! I'm not rabid! Just a maulaholic!
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby sunglasses » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:50 pm

Can someone please give me a "cheatsheet" of the BBC codes? I'd really appreciate it.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:56 pm

sunglasses wrote:Can someone please give me a "cheatsheet" of the BBC codes? I'd really appreciate it.

I just keep another TCS tab open and copy paste.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby sunglasses » Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:57 pm

Ericthebearjew wrote:
sunglasses wrote:Can someone please give me a "cheatsheet" of the BBC codes? I'd really appreciate it.

I just keep another TCS tab open and copy paste.


The problem with multiple tabs, is that I tend to accidentally close them.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Feb 10, 2015 6:08 pm

Let's say one ha a great idea for an article, but can't find enough parts for a list or if there's too little diversity about the subject medium-wise. Could there be some of collaborations workshop? Though I suppose that would have to wait until we finally implement a new hosting system.
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Re: The Revised Editorial Process

Postby Marcuse » Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:06 pm

Eric wrote:Let's say one ha a great idea for an article, but can't find enough parts for a list or if there's too little diversity about the subject medium-wise. Could there be some of collaborations workshop? Though I suppose that would have to wait until we finally implement a new hosting system.


I have no problem with none-list based articles. If you want to write about a single topic in more depth then please do.

As to a collaborations workshop, I think that'd be an excellent idea. Maybe we could start a thread in The Fridge for that?
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