How to Submit Media to this Web Site

Yes, we appreciate relevant submissions of articles, videos, audio, etc. from anyone! Don't make one person do it! If you are a writer or you find an article that can be submitted here, please help us by submitting it yourself. The process is easy, once you get the hang of it!!

• Watch a tutorial video to learn how to submit media. Painless!

Step 1. You must Register with the site

Just click the TWiki Registration link and sign up. You will need to choose a password and validate you email. Also, our administrator must add you to our Approved Users Group so you can edit. (This is to avoid evil google spam robots... I'm serious!)

Step 2. Create an Author/Publisher Topic

If you are an author/publisher who is a regular contributor, you may find a topic already created for you. Try to Jump (top right-hand corner) to JohnDoe (but use your name). If one does not exist, make it. The administrator will set up that topic so it lists all the contributions you've made.

Step 3. Submit Media

Just shift-click here --> Submit Media

I say shift-click so that you can continue to read these instructions while you work on that new topic.

(In the future, you will go to News Media and then to Submit Media)

When you click on that link, it will start a new media topic, but wait to actually name it until you save it. Then it will use the next available MXXXX number, where XXXX is a sequence number. You will edit this topic and then save it. Here are the details:

Step 4. Enter "Metadata" Information

Please enter information on related media in the form fields below.

• Title: - Full Title of the media, including subtitle. Use Title: Subtitle format. You don't need to italicize, that is done for you later.
• Publisher - Newspaper, Book publisher, etc. If you use a Wiki word, it will link to common Publishers, like Union Tribune, San Diego Reader, East County Californian, Los Angeles Times, etc.
• Author - For regular contributors, use FirstLast so people can find your contact information and see all your submitted articles at once.
• Pub Date - The date the article/book/video was published. Use "yyyy-mm-dd" format, like "2007-01-31" (so it sorts correctly!) NOTE: make sure you use two-digit month and day values.
• Media Link - Copy and paste in a fully-qualified URL, including all the http://www... etc. (This is optional. Sometimes, you will paste in the article directly.)
• Note - Short comments about the media to be seen when listed.
• Keywords - Very important so the media is listed on relevant pages. Keywords are:
  Blackwater, COPS, Election2008, Election Integrity
• Media Type - Just select one of the media types. Linked Article means the article can be accessed elsewhere. "Article" means it is copied into the topic you are working on. If you link AND copy it into the body of the topic, please choose Linked Article.

Step 5. Enter Article

If the media you are referencing is already on the Internet (the usual occurrence) then you are done! Click [Save] and it should appear in the media list.

Otherwise, enter the article into the text box if the article is NOT available on the internet. If you do, please add a blank line between each paragraph, and add <BR> to the end of any line you want to break without starting a new paragraph.

Then click [Save]. Look over the article to see if it formats alright.

Step 6. Feel good!

You're done! Now wasn't that easy!

-- Raymond Lutz - 13 May 2007