[hokiealumnus]

Hello OCF readers and posters! Here we'll explain what our front page (http://overclockers.com) is all about and, if you'd like, how you can get involved - just express your interest to I.M.O.G. and we'll get you in the mix.

The frontpage is entirely powered by people who volunteered from our forums! Our lead editors take care of managing content and publishing for the front page. That content is entirely user driven!

That content is where YOU come in. Yes, you can produce articles for the front page. The only requirements are that you have a topic of interest to the community as a whole (or your specific sub-community) and be able to form coherent, reasonably grammatically correct sentences. Doesn't sound too hard does it?

Within this post below, I'll go into more detail about what you can do to help and how you can get your name in lights as well! Simply click through the table of contents to jump to that section of the post!

• Table Of Contents
  1. Frontpage Organization Chart
  2. The Content Editor's (CE's) Role
  3. CE's - Generating Content for the Frontpage
  4. Article Guidelines And Stylesheet
  5. Frontpage Workflow
  6. Other Ways To Contribute

1. Frontpage Organization Chart
   
   These are your go-getters, the Editors, Proofreaders and the Content Editors (CEs) for all of the forums that we're trying to garner content from. If you have a topic you'd like to write an article on, contact them. Likewise, if you see an interesting forum post that you think you'd be interested in reading an article on, contact them.
   
   All forums and staff profiles have been linked. If the staff would be so kind, please supply any additional contact information you would like listed (such as your email). If you need to be removed from the list at any point and I have not done so yet, please post or PM a lead editor.
   
   From the original thread by I.M.O.G.:
   

   Originally Posted by I.M.O.G.

   Content Editors will be recognizable throughout the forum by white stars and a custom title reflecting the subforums they cover. As things change and we move forward, assignments will change as necessary. Our goal is to ensure the subforums are being represented and promoted as well as possible, and we're getting the best content from the membership featured up on the frontpage, Overclockers.com. We'll be making adjustments as we go to make sure we're meeting that goal.
   
   If your interested in contributing articles, helping find material, or gathering news, contact the content editor for that section. If your interested in helping out in other ways, contact me via PM.
   
   Everyone involved with the news team wears the news team banner in their title above their avatar.

   Editors:
   
   IMOG (matt -at- overclockers.com)
   mdcomp (mring(at)overclockers.com)
   David (David(at)overclockers.com),
   Splat (splat(at)overclockers.com)
   hokiealumnus (hokie(at)overclockers.com)
   MattNo5ss (mattno5ss(at)overclockers.com)
   EarthDog (earhdog(at)overclockers.com)
   
   
   Proofreaders: Wonderingsoul gschmell [at] gmail.com, mage_x
   
   Process Improvement: cobra342_ (cobra342+OCforums(at)gmail.com)
   
   
   Content Editors
   
   CPUs, Motherboards, RAM & GPUs: Earthdog (earthdog(at)overclockers.com)
   
   Cases, PSUs, Modding & Cooling: MattNo5ss (mattno5ss(at)overclockers.com)
   
   Teams & Operating Systems: stratus_ss
   
   Audio, Video & HTPC: jhanby (jhanby {at} gmail . com)
   
   
   
   Original post. I.M.O.G. made clear this list is a starting point and will be updated.
   
   Return to Table Of Contents
   
   
2. The Content Editor's Role
   
   What the Content Editor's job consists of, to give you a clear understanding of what it is Content Editor's are supposed to be doing.
   
   1. Contact members who start interesting threads, ask if they'd be interesting in writing an article - if so, get their email address and provide it to IMOG to have their wordpress account created, and give them the article template for Wordpress (they click "add new post" in wordpress to see the article template), ask if they have any questions, ask when they think they could have something finished for you, update your status thread
   
   2. Contact members who are regularly active in your subforum, ask if they'd be interesting in writing an article - if so, get their email address and provide it to IMOG to have their wordpress account created, and give them the article template for Wordpress (they click "add new post" in wordpress to see the article template), ask if they have any questions, ask when they think they could have something finished for you, update your status thread
   
   3. Contact members in the thread, or by PM - I have found contacting people directly by PM and getting commitments is usually more productive
   
   4. For those who are interested in writing articles, ask if they'd be interested in writing on a weekly/monthly basis - could be reviews, editorials, opinion pieces, anything relevant to the hardware, enthusiast, overclocking community
   
   5. Produce ideas for what sort of articles you'd like to see for your subforum, and reach out to people in the subforum and see if anyone is interested in writing it
   
   Return to Table Of Contents
   
   
3. Content Editors - Generating Content For The Frontpage
   
   This post is going to be continually updated, until it's something I'm happy with. For now this is a start, but it needs improved.
   
   This is a guide for content editors, to help them do their part and meet the needs of locating and generating content for the front page. I have a spreadsheet where I track those who've expressed interest thus far, and it was compiled just by contacting people I thought might be interested - overall, if you just ask people directly if they want to get involved, the response is overwhelming positive most of the time.
   
   1. Contact members who start interesting threads, ask if they'd be interested in writing an article - if so, get their email address and provide it to IMOG to have their wordpress account created. They will receive a password and instructions once their account is created. Ask if they have any questions, ask when they think they could have something finished for you, update your status thread
   
   2. Contact members who are regularly active in your subforum, ask if they'd be interested in writing an article - if so, get their email address and provide it to IMOG to have their wordpress account created. They will receive a password and instructions once their account is created. Ask if they have any questions, ask when they think they could have something finished for you, update your status thread
   
   3. Contact members in the thread, or by PM - I have found contacting people directly by PM and getting commitments is usually more productive
   
   4. For those who are interested in writing articles, ask if they'd be interested in writing on a weekly/monthly basis - could be reviews, editorials, opinion pieces, anything relevant to the hardware, enthusiast, overclocking community
   
   5. Produce ideas for what sort of articles you'd like to see for your subforum, and reach out to people in the subforum and see if anyone is interested in writing it
   
   Return to Table Of Contents
   
   
4. Article Guidelines and Stylesheet
   
   It helps if you know what the staff is looking for in an article. When writing your pieces, keep these items in mind.
   
   ***This is a beginning. These are some general tips to go by. An official stylesheet is being developed and items will be added as details emerge.***
   
   1. It's personal - the author has personalized it as something from his experience base.
   
   2. It's authoritative - the author's background establishes his bona fides as, at a minimum, someone to read with a degree of certainty that he knows what he's writing about.
   
   3. Good information - the article lays out quite clearly the basics in a concise and logical manner.
   
   4. Good follow-up - The reader can "extend" the usefulness of this piece by going to other sources to get more information.
   
   Original post.
   
   Return to Table Of Contents
   
   
5. Frontpage Workflow
   
   This is how an idea or forum post goes from the forums to the frontpage.
   
   Step 1:
   Authors get an Overclockers.com wordpress account created, then write their piece directly on Overclockers.com. Contact a Content Editor (or a Content Editor may contact you), give him the email address you'd like to use for the Overclockers wordpress account and you'll get a reply with your password and instructions.
   
   Step 2:
   Authors save their article as a draft in wordpress, then notify the Content Editors via email or PM that they are ready to have their article editted
   
   Step 3:
   A. If the material is ready, the content editor clicks the "submit for review" button which sends it to mdcomp, splat, hokiealumnus, or IMOG, then the content editor updates the status thread that their article is awaiting publishing
   B. If the material is not ready, the content editor PMs or emails a proofreader (wonderingsoul or mage_x), or makes/suggests changes to the author. If considerable editting changes are made, the content editor receives the authors approval for the changes, then clicks the "submit for review" button
   
   Step 4:
   The article is given a final review by David, IMOG, Hokiealumnus, mdcomp, or splat, then it's scheduled and published
   
   Original post.
   
   Return to Table Of Contents
   
   
6. Other Ways to Contribute
   
   If you are writing articles, great...there is a way for you to go the extra mile if you're up to the task. If you don't consider yourself a writer or don't feel like that's for you, there are things you can do as well!
   
   Forum Experts
   
   A Forum Expert is the go-to person for keeping the Content Editors and article contributors in line. They are our fact checkers. If an editor doesn't know something or needs help verifying something is correct, these are the folks they go to.
   
   Likewise, if you're writing an article and want to say something that you think is correct but need to be absolutely sure, you can ask the Forum Experts.
   
   Forum Correspondents
   
   Forum Correspondents are people that the Content Editors rely on to help point them to forum posts they would find interesting as an article on the frontpage. Content Editors are supposed to find such things, but they aren't omnipresent. Some items will definitely slip through the cracks. That's where a Correspondent comes in. To quote I.M.O.G, they "help <editors> stay up to date on forum activity."
   
   Of course, we welcome any member's input and everyone is more than welcome to submit posts for article consideration. The correspondent role is meant for the more active people in that forum that the editors can depend on for help sifting through the threads.
   
   ----------
   
   These two roles can also overlap and one can be both an Expert and a Correspondent. If you have an interest in filling either of these positions (or both), just PM the Content Editor of your forum.
   
   Return to Table Of Contents

Note - The great majority of this was written by I.M.O.G. and other editors.

[I.M.O.G.]

Updated, behold the beauty of proper organization - click in table of contents to jump to the item which interests you.

[MattNo5ss]

You're allowed to link to my profile
My email is my OCF username at gmail.

Any reason for the odd email formats? Stop bots from picking them up maybe? If not, then I think you should use the normal format and [noparse] to prevent the underlining and lame pop up.

[I.M.O.G.]

avoiding bots with that

[Jmtyra]

News team CE "guy" reporting in. Email: Public {at} Jmtyra {dot} com
More info here