Signal Cartel Group Blog Submission Guidelines

NOTE: The Signal Cartel Blog is Not Currently Accepting Member Entries.
If a Signaleer is interested in reviving this worthwhile project - please reach out to Katia Sae or Aldar Roanaok! 

Visit the Signal Cartel Blog

Please also read this introduction forum post for more information.

Content Guidelines

• This is a Signal Cartel blog: posts should focus on exploration, the Credo, our corp, or our alliance. We’re going to try expanding our content to include exploration both in game and out of game.

• Suitable content includes (but is not necessarily limited to) stories of your exploration adventures in New Eden, examples of the Credo in action, personal musings about our corp or culture, discussion of ships and fits for exploration activities, original fanfic or fan art that you created (art should be accompanied by some words about process or inspiration), in-character stories, and announcements of new guides or other resources you have created for public use. Real life exploration adventures, what inspires you to explore, latest scientific discoveries around space exploration, etc.

• Other ideas for post:
  • In-character posts (1500 words or less) written by our pilots about their lives in game when they are not in their pods nor focused on Signal Cartel business. We've seen some of these from our members over the years but we would like the kind of stories that indicate deeper thinking, issues being grappled with, etc....stuff that reveals a fully fleshed out character rather than a cardboard cutout. For example:
    • What do they do in their downtime?
    • Do they have serious hobbies?
    • Do they participate in local politics?
    • Do they have families that they see?
    • Do they have issues with managing their own subordinates?
  • Well-reasoned well-written, respectful op-eds about changes to the game which affect Signal Cartel.
  • Reflections from our pilots about their experience with game-related struggles and resolutions impacted by their membership in Signal Cartel. For example:
    • Interactions with outsiders in challenging situations
    • Decision struggles
    • Credo-compliant resolutions

• All material posted on this group blog must comply with our Credo. To further clarify: Don't trash-talk or bash other players, groups, or playstyles. Avoid salty, non-constructive whining about game changes or mistakes by CCP or players (including yourself). Don't brag about stuff you did that violates or skates on the fine edge of our Credo, even if done on an alt (this is a blog by and about Signal Cartel members, not their out-of-corp alts). Our family-friendly policy applies to the group blog. Do not post NSFW embedded or linked material. In-character posts with mild conversational swearing are probably okay. Vulgar or sexually explicit slang or topics is a NOPE, not even with asterisks masking some of the words. To quote BRAVE, keep it classy.

• The primary value of your post must be in what you write or create, not what others have created. Do not re-post dev or player blogs, EVE fan art or fanfic, or other content that you yourself didn't create. Link to them and write about them, sure. If linked material was not created by you, attribute the creator in a caption or inline.

• Journalistic articles may quote from other sources to support the topic you are writing about. You must attribute quoted material to its creator.

• Posts offering nothing but "helpful" linked lists of resources are discouraged.

• Just because it's on the Internet doesn't mean you have the right to use it. Technically, all images are copyrighted by their creators at the moment of creation. Except for EVE-related images created by CCP or captured from in-game, use of any imagery for decorative illustration is to be avoided unless you provide a link to the image's Creative Commons licensing info.

• All posts containing memes images that are not Signal Cartel specific will be rejected. We have standards here, people. 👵🏽 <-- Spacemom Mynxee Look

This list may evolve as situations arise which need to be addressed.

How to submit your work?

With your first submission an email address will be needed for you to create your Contributor account (so your name can be set as the author).

To Post Newly-Written Original Material:

• Paste your draft into a Google Doc.
• When your draft is ready for review, send Katia Sae an EVEmail with the subject "GROUP BLOG SUBMISSION: NEW POST".
• Include a link that permits Katia to comment (NOT edit). Then we can collaborate as needed to get the post ready for prime time.

To Cross-Post From Your Blog:

• Send Katia Sae an EVEmail with the subject "GROUP BLOG SUBMISSION: BLOG X-POST".
• Include in the email a link to the original post and any other relevant info.
• Send ONE EVEmail per submitted x-post. Submit only a few gems, not your entire catalog of blog posts.
• When we publish your cross-post on our group blog, we will link to the original post to help drive traffic to your blog.

To Cross-Post From Our Forums:

• The post must have originally been authored by you.
• Consider whether the content is suitable for public view.
• If so, paste it into a Google Doc draft.
• In the draft, redact all names of non-Signal Cartel pilots unless you obtain permission from them to use their name in a public-facing post.
• If comments from other Signaleers add materially to the story, add them (with attribution) at the bottom your draft.
• When your draft is ready for review, send me an EVEmail with the subject "GROUP BLOG SUBMISSION: FORUM X-POST".
• Include a link that permits me to comment (NOT edit). Then we can collaborate as needed to get the post ready for prime time.

To Suggest Page or Menu Additions/Changes:

• EVEmail me with your suggestion.
• Subject line should be "SC Site Suggestion"

Note: Use the subject lines we've suggested here, not your creative take on them. That will help me to parse my inbox faster.

Over time, we expect to give regular contributors Contributor or Author privileges in WordPress, depending on the frequency and editorial quality of your posts. Eventually, we will consider giving Editor privileges to one or two trusted C2 members with demonstrated excellence in writing and editing.

Editorial Quality and Decisions

Katia Sae (and future Editors) will ride herd on the editorial quality of posts. We want our visitors to have an enjoyable reading experience here. Submissions that are poorly written, poorly organized, laden with typographical errors or misspellings, or which otherwise do not meet certain minimum editorial quality criteria will be subject to rework by the author before they will be published.

The final decision on what is published on our group blog rests with Katia Sae. If something is deemed unsuitable for publication, comments in your Google draft will provide guidance as to issues and how they might be fixed.

Generally when there is a crush of submissions, we will choose to space their publication dates to feed new content out in a measured way.

Questions?

Ask Katia Sae! We'll update the wiki page as necessary to cover them.

Reference

Original forum post: Signal Cartel Group Blog Submission Guidelines