[Imc-cymru] [Imc-uk-network] Re. How To Guide [for publishing]

[ilyan]

Still waiting for a reply to our new imc application of last year, what 
should we make of this third para?  

Ilyan


Genny wrote:
> Hi Kriptik
>
> Thanks for the feedback!
>
> I'm in the middle of finishing a newsletter at the moment, but when it's 
> done, I'll go through this and try and fit in your additions as space 
> allows, or shuffle stuff around etc.  Will post the link to the edited 
> wiki to network/outreach etc.
>
> I agree with the points you've made, especially the emphasis on 
> indymedia being about YOU. :o)  As far as I can see, it's THE most 
> important thing to get over to anyone who's new to indymedia.  I was 
> just talking about it on the wales list last night:
>
> "I don't think it's a good idea to launch a page for Wales unless and 
> until we have a core of committed and active collective members.  I do 
> understand the argument that this might come about once the page is 
> launched and people become enthused and inspired by it, but I'm 
> personally not prepared to take the risk of this not happening.  Once 
> something is there, it's too easy for people to see it as a 'service' 
> provided by others for their benefit, rather than the collective, 
> participative project that indymedia should and can be."
>
> Anyway, back to the how to guide...
>
> The phrase "Today you do an action; tomorrow you click the publish 
> button" is Maqui's, from the leaflet he produced after last year's 
> climate camp.  So if we're going to edit it, we really need to check 
> with him.
>
> Maqui - are you happy to have this altered to: "Today you do an action; 
> tonight you click the publish button" or similar wording?
>
> Re. resizing photos - I'll include the link in this leaflet, although 
> the plan is to have a separate leaflet on taking good photos for 
> indymedia, which would include resizing/compressing advice, what not to 
> upload, along with basic stuff like remembering to clean your lens 
> before you start! The freeware suggestion (as per the link) is great.  I 
> was wondering how we'd cover the multitude of different photo editing 
> programmes people might have.
>
> OK, will get onto it when I have a minute.
>
> Cheers
>
> Genny
>
> kriptick wrote:
>   
>>> I'm re-posting this link to a "how-to" guide I've been working on.
>>>
>>> http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/HowToGuide1
>>>
>>> It's planned as one of three, although I haven't started on the others
>>> yet because of other commitments, and didn't want to do much more
>>> without some feedback on the first one.  Anyone? Please? :o)
>>>
>>>       
>> Hey Genny it's great that you're taking this on as it's really needed doing
>> for ages. I'm afraid I'm a complete phobic & duffer with wikis so hope it's
>> ok for me to reply on this list. I do however have quite a few years of
>> publishing articles and have devised a lot of tips & tricks myself over that
>> time to get around the many site idiosyncrasies so hope you don't mind me
>> suggesting mods.
>>
>> I'm not into the philosophy stuff much myself but I would suggest the
>> following for
>> page 2:
>>     
>>> Today you do an action; tomorrow you click the publish button
>>>       
>> [should be]
>> Today you do an action & publish your story on the same day
>>
>> [I really think we should urge people to report stuff promptly, if at all 
>> poss the same day like mainstream journos do - also emphasises the immediacy 
>> of indy. It frequently winds me up that some leisurely posters don't upload 
>> a report until many days after an important action by which time those 
>> checking the site just for coverage of that specific action may have given 
>> up & gone away. Recent Palestine demo was a good example of this. This is a 
>> news site remember. Old news quickly becomes non news.]
>>
>> & for page 3:
>>     
>>> It's a project which allows you to become the media yourself,
>>>       
>> [The YOU should be bold, italic, underline, 72 point, neon red etc - you
>> follow my drift  :-) . This point & other occurences of "you" needs to be
>> really emphasised as otherwise people will perpetually wait for "someone
>> from indymedia" to come along and report their action which always winds us
>> up.]
>>
>> Page 4:
>>     
>>> (3)
>>>       
>> [Need to give the reason for using a wordproc or people won't. After losing
>> many blocks & lines of text, this is the successful publishing method I've
>> evolved over many years.]
>> The publish page can hiccup & lose text that has been hand typed into the
>> various fields which is very frustrating. We therefore strongly suggest
>> typing all text into a wordprocessor beforehand. This should include the
>> title line, the abstract block, any titles of each photo and then finally
>> your block of article text. Doing this potentially saves much retyping and
>> also allows ALL parts of the headings and text to be spell (and grammar)
>> checked. Remember any typos in your article title will be visible on the
>> front page newswire which really grates. Each section/line of checked and
>> saved text can then be separately copied and pasted into the relevant fields
>> of the publishing form.
>>
>>
>> (3) Have you resized any photos you plan to upload with your report?
>> Suggest pointing publishers to the photo editing help page here:
>> https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/UkResizeImagesWithFreeware
>> otherwise they won't have a clue how to resize pics - that's why they keep
>> uploading monsters.
>> [Add] Save your selected & edited pics in a separate folder and with
>> meaningful names as this will help you upload with correct titles in the
>> correct order. frontofmarch.JPG is much easier to remember than DSC20371.JPG
>>
>> (4) Do your photos need editing?
>> [Also for incriminating pics I'd suggest just] NOT UPLOADING ANY
>> INCRIMINATING PICS as it's often possible for cops to ID them using
>> distinctive clothes, hair etc cross refd from their own pics that will
>> include the face.
>>
>> Page 5:
>> STEP 1 - YOUR DETAILS
>> If you include your email address, we suggest including it without the @
>> sign:
>> yourname [at] yourdomain.com to prevent it being spam harvested.
>>
>> Step 2 - YOUR ARTICLE
>>
>> the text of your article
>> [add:] if you include any web site addresses in your article, be sure to
>> include the http:// before any www as otherwise they will NOT be hot
>> clickable in the published result. http://www.thewebsite.com
>>
>> Page 6
>> STEP 5 - PUBLISH
>> What it says - click the button only once
>> [This is where the site often hiccups so I think it's important to add the
>> following for both publishers and admins sanity:]
>> Provided you receive the message "Thank you for submitting your article to
>> Indymedia" then please DON'T click publish again as your article HAS been
>> accepted and should appear in a few minutes (or longer if the site is busy).
>> ONLY if you don't receive this message, check that all the mandatory fields
>> have been filled in & then click the publish button again just ONCE.
>>
>> [Add after:]
>> what happens next
>> You should bookmark and monitor your published article for the next few
>> days. This is important as people may wish to ask you questions or
>> clarifications about it or make suggestions about how to be more effective
>> in future.
>>