Frequently Asked Questions

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:: DIARIES ::

How do I post a Diary?

Posting a diary is essentially the same as submitting an article with one very important difference. Instead of selecting the “SUBMIT NEW ARTICLE”link, you will select the “CREATE NEW DIARY ENTRY” link in the “USER MENU” in the right column. This step is critical to ensure that your post is published to the appropriate sections.

Second, due to the volume of diaries on the same topic, please look at the list of recently posted diaries. It’s fine if another diary has been posted on your topic, but please make sure that yours has something unique and significant to add to the issue and be sure to do the following:

Guidelines: Read the diary guidelines!

Source Links: In particular: if you reference a story or website, include an embedded link as an attribution to the source.

Title: Give your diary a snappy but appropriate title so that people know what they're getting. A deliberately misleading title is lame. In addition, a title like "Look at this", "Must read", or "How long has this been going on?" is not very helpful.

Introduction: Put an introductory paragraph in the "Intro" box. This is the only diary text that will appear on the main diaries page. Keep in mind that this should just be an "introduction, or "teaser", or "lead-in". Think of your local news - they give you a quick headline at the top of the broadcast, and then go in-depth once they get into the program. No images in this section please! Save that for the “Extended Entry”.

Exteded Entry: Put the bulk of your entry, including any graphs or pictures, in the "Extended Entry" box. Consider this the "meat and potatoes", if you will. The section above is what gets their attention, this part is where you say what you've got to say. This part can be as long as you want - including lists, links, pictures, quoted paragraphs, etc.

If you have little or nothing to put in this section, you should probably put your post into the “Quick Post” section – especially since the “Diaries” have a 300 word minimum. If what you have to say is REALLY short, perhaps a line and a link, then consider simply posting a comment in a story or open thread.

Poll: If you want to post a poll, put the poll question in the title box and the available responses in the answers box. It's usually better to limit the responses to four to avoid splintering the votes too severely, unless it's just for fun. Also, you're more likely to get more readers for your diary if you include a poll AND if you include "poll" in your diary title.

That's it!

What's the Recommended Diaries List? AND How do I recommend a diary?

Once you're a registered user, you have the option to Recommend a Diary you like by clicking on the grey box entitled "Recommend It " OR you can "Anti-Recommend a Diary you dislike by clicking on the grey box entitled "Don't Recommend".

"Advanced Diary Voting" -- Unlike most other "Scoop"-based sites that offer the registered user only the opportunity to either "Recommend" a diary or do nothing, Political Cortex offers the additional option of "Not Recommending" the Diary. This acts like an "anti-recommend" and subtracts one point from the Diary's score. A "Recommend" adds one point. The net amount of all votes creates a score for that diary. If the diary is able to acheive a particular "threshold" score, then it is posted to the "Recommended" diary list where it will hold a more prominent position among the diaries.

How Do I Find Out Who Recommended My Diary?

Go to your Diary and then click on the box that says "Who Recommends This Diary?"

How do I post a “Quick Post”?

Posting a “Quick Post” is essentially the same as posting a Diary with one very important difference. Instead of selecting the “CREATE NEW DIARY” link, you will select the “CREATE NEW QUICK POST” link in the “USER MENU” in the right column. This step is critical to ensure that your post is published to the appropriate sections.

After that, everything is EXACTLY like posting a diary.

Remember that the “Quick Post”, which posts to the “Nerve Center” section and the “Nerve Center” listing in the right column, is a post intended to keep the Cortex’s finger on the world’s pulse. Thus, “Breaking News” and other alerts will go here. But again, one-liners should be reserved for comment sections in stories and ‘open threads’.

:: COMMUNITY RULES and GUIDELINES ::

As with any community, some rules and regulations are necessary to ensure civility, organization, fairness, and a certain level of standards.

Failure to adhere to the following rules may result in any of the following: editing or deletion of your submission, a warning by site administrators, or being banned from Political Cortex. So here are some rules and guidelines to keep our Cortex a happy home:

What are the Rules?

1. Daily Max: -- (For the first couple of months, there will be no restrictions) After that -- One Article Submission, and Two diaries. ‘Quick posts’ and Comments are unlimited.

2. No single-line diaries. If you want to bring attention to a single link, or make a one-line pithy comment, head on over to an Open Thread or the comments section of an appropriate post or diary entry.

3. No repetitive diaries. Due to the volume of diaries on the same topic, please look at the list of recently posted diaries. It’s fine if another diary has been posted on your topic, but please make sure that yours has something unique and significant to add to the issue. And if you post your same diary entry twice, consider it grounds for banning.

4. Use the "Extended Copy" box. If your diary entry is longer than 300 words, use the extended entry box. Be considerate and don't clutter up the Diaries section page with epic excerpts.

5. Titles: No all-caps for diary titles. If you want members to be drawn to your diary, choose an interesting title. Also, you should use the title "BREAKING NEWS" sparingly. Very rarely does a news item merit such a title.

6. Don't pad the "Body" box with filler... take time to write something substantive. Otherwise, your post is probably more appropriate as either a ‘Quick Post’ or a comment.

7. Delete your post if you’ve virtually duplicated somebody else's or if you're simply not satisfied with it. Consider redoing it with a different slant and use the ‘Edit Queue’ to receive invaluable feedback.

8. Images: Put any and all images (see below) in the "Body" section of the Diary!

9. No posting of pornographic images or links. Gruesome images (such as those from a war zone) MUST be labeled with a "WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT" title.

10. No posting of full articles. If you violate copyright laws, we can and will edit your diary accordingly.

11. No spamming. Advertisements of products or services in diaries or comments is prohibited. You can, however,

12. Racism and discrimination are not allowed on this site. Hateful, offensive, and deliberately inflammatory comments of this nature are not allowed.

13. Threats of bodily harm, whether to other community members or anyone else, will not be tolerated. If you make such a threat, your submission will be deleted and the authorities may be contacted.

What Can I Write About?

If you follow the rules, pretty much everything you want to write about is ok! But here’s a shortlist of some of the more or less "acceptable" things people write about:

Breaking News - although most people online have access to CNN and other "instant news" websites, sometimes people write about ongoing issues which they think the community at large would be interested in.

Analysis of Political Issues - anything from specific bills to what politicians are doing to policies to Congressional hearings - this is a politically-oriented website!

Personal Stories of Political Involvement - this could be anything from what you did or saw on election day to a Story about what Congressperson you called or a petition you signed

Analysis of News - sometimes the corporate media doesn't do a good job of covering news items and more in-depth analysis is warranted.

General Interest - this can be almost anything really – but should, in some way, be associated with current events, politics, government, history, activism, the blogosphere, etc., etc. The easiest way to determine what works here is by reading the other posts on the site.

But NOT these: Here are some of the more or less "unacceptable" things people write about, but probably shouldn't:

Duplicate Diaries with little else to add - sometimes people see something important developing in the news and want to write a Diary about it - the only problem is that someone else has already posted on it. The general rule with respect to Breaking News is "first in time". The first diary to report the breaking news, with a link and perhaps some background should be the one the community should keep. All other duplicate diaries should be deleted by the user. So again, if you decide to post something on a currently addressed topic, make sure your post has something unique and significant to add to the discussion. If the addition of your insight is something you can briefly express, then consider posting a comment in the other writer’s post on that topic.

All Hat, No Cattle Diaries - no matter how important an issue or article is, sometimes people quote a source and then add little to nothing themselves. There are appropriate venues for linking to valuable articles (esp. in the Open Thread) if you don't have anything to add yourself about the topic. If you find an interesting article, feel free to post excerpts from it, but then discuss its implications or provide some background on it.

Full Quote Diaries - under standard internet "etiquette" and the law in most countries, quoting an entire article from another source is usually prohibited. Make sure you quote just part of an article or another website and put a link for readers to click on to read it in its entirety

Personal Attacks - if you really feel offended by someone, send them an email! Nobody really wants to read hateful screed about another user here - we're all here to be friends (or at least colleagues).

My Pet Goat – People love to blog about their pets and other equally personal, yet politically irrelevant issues. Please stick with those subjects that have an effect that…well… supercedes your personal space.

How Do I Know if a Diary on a Certain Subject Has Been Written?

• Skim over the Front-Page, Recent and recommended Diaries, and Quick Posts.
• Use the site search function. The “SEARCH” link can be found in the “MAIN MENU” in the right column.
• Use the Google Site Search (Also available on the "Search" page.
• Check the “Keyword Tag Cloud” to see if your topic has been listed.

Don’t be intimidated by these guidelines, either. Read the site for a bit. If the articles that appear here interest you and you come across an article elsewhere that also interests you, chances are it will interest us too.

What should I really pay attention to?

Take note of the following important items to remember when writing your story:

• Check your facts! We cannot stress how important this is. Anyone found to be lying (That’s intentional deception) will be banned from the site forever.
• Check all of your URLs.
• Spam is NOT tolerated and will be deleted.
• Pay attention to what HTML tags are allowed in the story. To date, the following are supported: <A HREF="[url]"> <B> <P> <I> <U> <OL> <UL> <LI> <BR> <EM> <STRONG> <BLOCKQUOTE> (of course, all the relevant closing tags are allowed too). No other tags will work.
• The readers moderate the site - so expect feedback. Expect that sometimes your stories will post and sometimes they will not. Learn from what happens and keep trying.
• You are forced to preview each story at least once. We recommend doing it MANY times until you are sure your story is correct. We cannot stress how important this is. Too many people make this mistake and leave broken links and really poor language in their articles. This is the guaranteed, fastest way to make sure that your article never gets past the moderation queue.

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