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Unknown News is more fun and more informative with your participation, so please don't be shy. Consider yourself invited to speak your mind. But... we get a lot of email.
When we publish incoming emails, we usually edit out the sender's last name, email address, or anything else that would tend to uniquely identify the author (if we slip up, please let us know). But if your email is unambiguously intended only to annoy, insult, or threaten us, we'll publish all the details, and leave it on-line forever.
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We love hearing from readers, but please don't send attachments or other crap we don't want. To get past our filters, please send only plain, uncoded text. Our website is obviously a labor of love. We give it virtually all our spare time, and work our asses off tryting to make Unknown News a site worth visiting. But our time is limited, so ... See, if you're following our friendly guidelines, you're helping us, and we love ya. But if you're not following these guidelines, you're wasting our time As soon as an incoming email seems to violate these guidelines, we stop reading, hit the delete button, and move on to the next email, with no reply and no regrets. People who repeatedly violate the guidelines are simply repeatedly wasting our time, so we'll auto-filter their emails into the trash. With that introduction out of the way, here are our guidelines for . news . dialogue . and commentary. And here's what you might need to know about the basics of journalism, bylines, chitchat, copyright, disorganization, feedback, hate, hidden URLs, how many is too many, investigative journalism, language, length limits, quality and quantity, reality, rewrites and change-of-hearts, sites we won't link to, and wingnuts.
1. Our beat is 'unknown news' 2. We do not link to 'news' from nutball sites. Our credibility is on the line: Every news link must trace back to a mainstream professional journalistic site or to an alternative source or reporter we (Helen & Harry) trust entirely. 3. "If it bleeds it leads" is the media's mantra. We have a different perspective: Personal tragedies are rarely news beyond the victim's friends and family. 4. Other 'news' that isn't news includes . poll results . news conferences . politicians making speeches . talking heads talking . backstage political squabbles . announcements of government statistics . et cetera, ad nauseum 5. Please look at Unknown News once in a while. Seriously. It makes our heads shake side-to-side, but most of the news-link suggestions we receive are suggesting links we've already linked to. 6. We only include material that really grabs our attention. And you're much more likely to get our attention if, instead of just sending a link, you tell us what you think of the news behind the link. Also, we'll tend to take your suggestions more seriously if you send one or two or even 3-4 link suggestions, instead of twenty, thirty, or 150 at once. Cut through the crap: That's what we love, what we need, and what we like best. 7. If you're sending your comments along with excerpts from an article, please make it really, really obvious which is which. Don't make us scratch our heads and pick through every paragraph to separate your wheat from the Boston Globe's chaff. 8. Many media websites let readers "send an article (or an "e-postcard") to a friend." Please don't 9. We welcome press releases, but we don't welcome wastes of our time. And while we don't appreciate the thought, we don't want to receive a junk e-mail every time you update your website. So when we receive a press release or other announcement that doesn't interest us, future emails from the same source will be filtered straight into the trash. (We seem to receive fewer and fewer press releases...) 10. News from months or years ago is rarely of interest, unless a rerun would shed light on some aspect of more current events. News link suggestions should be sent to unknownnews at myway.com. (If you send news to one of our other email addresses, we'll still get it ... just not as quickly.)
"Dialogue" is what we call our "letters to the editor." 1. We publish incoming emails that, in our opinion, add to the dialogue. That means, primarily, emails responding to something that's appeared on Unknown News, or emails about topics that would interest us and our readers (which, with only rare exceptions, does not include flying saucers, tin-foil hats, conspiracy theories, Nikola Tesla, who killed JFK, technical details of the World Trade Center's collapse, Skull & Bones phobia, and so forth). The dividing line, between what we'll publish and what we won't, is whether it makes us go "Hmmm." It's a subjective standard, but if you're trying to meaningfully discuss something tangibly related to our general topics of freedom and/or current events, we'll almost certainly publish your comments. 2. It's rather important that you let us know what the hell you're talking about. Feel free to respond to anything we've published, recently or years ago. But we've published thousands of pages, so please please please please PLEASE cite the URL, or at least summarize what was reported or said. Sadly, because we've been wasting more and more time in fruitless inquiry with people who don't send an URL ...
... if you don't include an URL and/or we can't quickly figure out what you're responding to, we'll hit the delete button. 3. Our dialogue section is for dialogue. It is not a frickin' bulletin board, and it's not a place where you can publish your weblog, free ads, daily list of links, or idiosyncratic sermonettes. We won't publish: . forwarded emails . emails addressed to someone else . press releases, petitions, mass mailings, etc. . advertising disguised as dialogue (believe me, we can tell) . entire articles or lengthy excerpts you've cut-and-pasted from elsewhere . lunatic emails or material that's wildly off-topic (unless it makes us laugh) . "Johnny One-Note" stuff (serialized emails reiterating the same points over and over again) . comments that amount to endorsements of the status quo (hint: the status quo isn't working) . today's amusing anecdote that's already in everyone's email in-box and on-line at 171 websites . anything with more than 3-4 links, unless you've coded the links yourself (coding links takes time we don't have, and besides, the name of the page is "Dialogue", not "Lectures"), . long and/or rambling commentary unrelated to anything on this site (e.g., your lengthy opinions about the Vice President's wife's new dress, or elaborate theories about who really killed JFK or engineered . anything else, if we don't see your point, or if we don't see what it adds to the dialogue ("conversation between two or more persons"). 4. Dialogue is usually published verbatim, but we reserve the right to edit for clarity, length, or privacy concerns. We strongly recommend you proofread and spellcheck your email (because we probably won't). No rewrites, please, and no "change of heart" requests. Don't ask ME to fix YOUR mistakes after you've sent something in 5. We usually edit out the sender's last name, email address, or anything else that would tend to uniquely identify the author (if we slip up, please let us know). But if your email is unambiguously intended only to annoy, insult, or threaten us, we'll publish all the details, and leave it on-line forever. We won't tolerate hate material. We don't enjoy knocks on the door from the Secret Service, so we won't publish or tolerate "jokes" about killing the President (or anyone else), ambiguous calls for the people to rise up in violent revolution, etc. Yes, we're willing to be imprisoned or killed for the things we believe, but we're not eager to be imprisoned or killed ... for the things you believe.We won't tolerate hecklers, dim bulbs, cranks, kooks, or people who otherwise waste our time. We might delete and permanently block such emails instantly, or we might (if we're in a good mood) try to coax something coherent out of unreasonable emailers. But life is short Please note, assholes and idiots are not guaranteed three strikes. If we're in a bad mood or you're an especially smelly asshole, you might get only one strike before you're out.6. We welcome and encourage disagreement, especially from people who think we're wrong and want to explain why and how. But you're in our apartment, not in a bar, so we expect the dialogue to be cordial. We also recognize, sadly, that many people are too stubborn or simply too stupid to discuss political issues cordially. Our standards aren't particularly high, but we utterly, absolutely, and wholeheartedly reserve the right to put troublesome types out of our misery. 7. We ask readers, please, to send no more than one email intended for publication daily. We cheerfully help readers toward this goal by publishing no more than one email per person daily. 8. If you send cut-and-pasted comments as if they're yours, or send other people's comments with no attribution and no hint they're not yours, this is called "plagiarism." It's tacky, and it'll get your future emails filtered directly into the trash. 9. Here's a rule you didn't expect: Please don't use the symbols "<" or ">" unless you're coding HTML (see below). Use ( and ) or [ and ] or { and } instead. Why? Because < and > are cornerstones of the code that builds web pages like ours. If you use "<" or ">" as text and we don't catch it and fix it, it'll almost certainly make what you've written look all wrong. 10.Yes, HTML may be included in your email, provided it's correct, and provided it's limited to the commands listed on our HTML page. Fixing your code doubles our work, so if you're coding, please make gosh-dang sure your coding is correct. We also ask nicely that HTMLers don't screw with our general styles, 'cuz screwing around makes the page confusing to readers. Our general format? . What you're saying appears in plain text, with occasional italics or bolding for emphasis . Lengthy quotes appear in italics, with indenting . Our responses appear in bolded italics. Coding to generate graphics, animation, sound, or change font color or size, etc., is not allowed, and it'll get your email automatically deleted. Dialogue should be sent to unknownnews at myway.com. (If you send dialogue to one of our other email addresses, we'll still get it ... just not as quickly.)
1. We love publishing original commentary. But due to time constraints, we only publish writers we're familiar with. Sorry, but we have to know our writers well enough to know that they're not nuts, won't prove "difficult" to work with, won't send eleven rewrites, their facts will be factual, they won't go shriekingly insane when someone politely disagrees, etc. And how do we get to know you? Usually, our best new writers start as letter-writers, on our dialogue page. You're very much invited to participate there, and get to know us while we get to know you.2. Sorry, but we simply will not respond to writers who: . won't read or follow these guidelines, or . won't allow their work to be edited in the slightest, or . won't communicate with us when there's a problem, or . otherwise make themselves ass-pains. 3. We only include material that really grabs our attention. Generally, this means an opinion piece must say something startlingly out of the ordinary. It's not important whether we agree or disagree with anyone's commentary. If we only published what we agreed with, we'd be our only byline. 4. Check your facts. Cordially, with all the affection in the world, facts are rather important, and our credibility is on the line with every article we publish. If the "facts" cited in your article are less than factual 5. Any article published by Unknown News is subject to editing for clarity, grammar, and style. Material should require a minimum of tinkering to be presentable: . Like any reader, we're far more likely to take an article seriously if it's written and presented seriously. . Please use standard spelling and grammar rules for American English. . Please proofread your article before sending it. We recommend reading your article to yourself, out loud. . If you don't spellcheck or proofread, and you send an article full of exactly the sort of mistakes these simple tasks catch, we will understand that you don't give a damn about your writing (or our time). . Use common, everyday English, not lots of insider jargon or gobbledygook. . If complicated terms are necessary, define them in your article. . The first time you mention someone, tell us who he/she is. For example, "Albright said ..." is wrong and confusing unless you've established that you're referring to Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. . Similarly, all unusual acronyms must be defined the first time they are used . We welcome criticisms of the world's so-called leaders, but prefer they be referred to by name, not by infantile insulting nicknames. The Vice President, for example, is Dick Cheney, not SuckMyDick Chainy. We don't refer to President Bush as Bushie-Gooshie-Between-the-Ears. This has nothing to do with "respecting" such leaders, as most deserve no respect at all. It has everything to do with respecting our readers. Criticism requires thought; insults do not. . We have fully functional funny bones, but we're usually in "serious mode" while working on the website ... so if you're sending something that's intended as satire, parody, or comedy, please don't assume we'll "get it." Tell us, flat out and up front, "This is satire." . If you'd like to say a few or a few dozen words "about the author," please do. If you'd like your email address published, so readers can contact you, let us know. Elsewise, we generally publish articles as "by first-name last-initial," with only our email address for feedback. 6. We love and enjoy reading other weblogs and alternative publications, but we don't have any time or interest in duplicating their work. Thus we reject all "multiple sublissions." We also scratch our heads, wondering about authors who submit an article to several or dozens of weblogs. I understand the desire to see your work published and read, but I never have and never will understand this desire to see one's work published everywhere. 7. No rewrites, please, and no "change of heart" requests. 8. If you're sending something that's date-sensitive 9. We rarely link to or publish petitions or "open letters" to politicians. It's a waste of time, since we don't believe anyone on the receiving end cares. 10. Send original articles as plain, un-coded text, in the body of your email Commentary links and original commentary should be sent to unknownnews at myway.com. (If you send commentary to one of our other email addresses, we'll still get it ... just not as quickly.)
And, of course, we break our own rules when we feel like it... A bit about the basics of journalism: The bare-bones basics of journalism is: who, what, when, where, why and how. We're amateur journalists, but that doesn't have to mean half-assed, so if you're participating here, we do ask that you provide the basics.A bit about bylines and pen names: Authors "roll their own" bylines, and we don't keep records of who's who, so please tell us your desired nom de plume, each and every time.A bit about personal chit-chat with the folks behind Unknown News: Readers who raise thorny personal or philosophical questions but don't want their comments published will almost certainly get only a brief reply, if that. We're sorry, but we simply can't be electronic penpals. Our replies are usually brief.A bit about copyrights: Authors retain the copyright on their works. We hold only the right to on-line publication and -- someday, eventually -- an off-line "best of" collection for fundraising purposes.A bit about our disorganization: Please don't send multi-part emails, serialized articles, or anything that won't make sense all by itself (without referring to background material sent separately). We're far too disorganized to keep track of more than one email at a time.A bit about feedback: Some of our readers and writers fear their government, as anyone who knows anything about government should. For this reason, we keep no records of who’s who or how to get in touch. We have no files to seize.A bit about hate: We won't tolerate hate material (i.e., all or most ____________s are lazy, sick, inferior, or deserve a lesser lot in life). And we'll be the judge of what's hate material.A bit about hidden URLs: We can't guess why, but some websites prefer to hide their internal URLs, or change their articles' URLs after a few days, or even a few hours. The Canadian news site "canoe" is a perfect example; most articles people find and send from "canoe" are long gone by the time we get your email.A bit about how many is too many: This website is our hobby and our passion, but we do not post everything anyone sends. We're not stenographers.A bit about investigative journalism: If you have completed serious, credible investiagtive journalism, we'll cerrtainly consider publishing it.A bit about language: Tragically, we are fluent in English, and no other language.A bit about length limits: We don't have length limits, because when you need 10,000 words, you need 10,000 words. Generally, though, briefer is better, and more people will read a few hundred words than a few thousand.A bit about quality and quantity: If you're sending several link suggestions, please send them all in one big email, instead of several little ones. Quality trumps quantity, though. If you're sending more than 3-4 link suggestions daily, unless we're using virtually everything you send you're probably sending too many, or too many reruns.A bit about the reality of running this website: We don’t publish everything we write or find, so we can’t promise to publish everything you write or find. We’re low-level worker-drones doing the website in our spare time, and time is limited.A bit about rewrites and 'change-of-hearts': Folks unfamiliar with the work of web-coding sometimes think it's an instantaneous process, as easy as cut-and-paste. It's not. HTML coding can be a little tedious, and we do it by hand, with no prep-aid software. It can take half an hour (or longer) for us to proofread, edit, prep, and HTML-code an average, uncomplicated article for publication. An article with lots of special effects (bolding, italics, or links to insert) takes longer ... sometimes much longer.A bit about sites we won't link to: We won't link to nutball sites. This includes:A bit about wingnuts: Life is short, and the time we give the website is huge but never as much as we wish it could be. For this reason, we're impatient with wingnuts your |
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