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Gentle reminders
2005-06-29
A gentle reminder on posting rules in light of our 95-post day yesterday:

Please check for duplicates before posting. Please check for duplicates before posting.

Please remember to edit and cut the fluff. It makes articles shorter and easier to read. There's no need to put "snip" in anywhere -- MSM editors don't use "snip" when they edit out all the balance and content, why should you?
Your comments go as hilite text on a separate line (almost always), not embedded in the article text. Sorta like this.
There's no need to add extra paragraph breaks. If you want to embed a snarky comment or a dumb-assed comment like mine within the article, use the 'strike' text.

Also, remember to put the link in the 'source' box -- don't embed it as an 'href' in the text. Try not to embed pictures that reference out to another news source, as it eats bandwidth, unless we really need the pic to understand the story.

Opinions go to the new & improved 'Opinions' page. Snappy, eh? 'WoT Operations' are for the end-result: who whacked whom, etc. 'WoT Background' is for the rest of the WoT. While many of us have a fondness for tech, space issues, and the like, that generally is found elsewhere on the net -- if you feel you have to post that stuff here, edit it severely. Stupid animal-human stories are always welcome. Edit severely and put into 'Non WoT'.

'Short Attention-Span Theater' is not used to move a story to the top -- we have the ledes at the top for that purpose. Put the post in the category that is appropriate.

As always, thanks!
Also, please wait a moment and check to see if your comment got through before you resend it. I've been deleting duplicates when/where I notice them, but since the Net has been slow lately with kids out of school, a lot have been creeping in.
Thanks!
Update for Mike and the lovely Mrs. Davis: as the other Steve noted, put 'EFL' in hilite text at the top; we'll all know that you edited the post for length/content. There's no need for 'snip', ellipses, or anything else. Most weblogs I've seen that summarize news from elsewhere do it this way.

For Phil B: Tranzi idiocy is always welcome. If the original was an opinion piece, put it in the 'Opinion' section. If from a weblog, put the title and source in the proper boxes but don't quote the text (or just the key lede); we can go there.

And don't be putting large pictures, loooong links or collections of links in comments. It can blow formatting on the whole page. I just had to put someone in the Troll bin for that very reason. If Fred is feeling kind he may let you out.
Posted by:Steve White

#23  itn a rainbow community Muck - we don't allow them to marry tho'
Posted by: Frank G   2005-06-29 23:56  

#22  They cross colorlines sometimes to confuse the citizenry. Cheap thrills I guess. They'll deny it, they always do.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-29 22:44  

#21  thanx. thatn cleer theengs up. :)
Posted by: muck4doo   2005-06-29 21:46  

#20  Purple's Robin...
Posted by: Elmerong Cleretle8013   2005-06-29 21:45  

#19  rantberg becumin complacencated

lemme see if ima remeber thisn rite.

yelo=fred
green=steve w
bloo=seefarius
red=steve
pruple=?nuther steve?
Posted by: muck4doo   2005-06-29 21:42  

#18  
To the Rantburg Rulers and GeeWiz Server .fisher people.

How about a one time idiot post [for us-ens] with all the posting examples, color pic rules, bandwidth suckers, fallopian tube demerits etc.

we could then file them in a mouldy file somewhere.

Posted by: Splendor in the dumb   2005-06-29 20:47  

#17  And I'd like to ask...indirectly...what color belongs to what editor??? Don't get me wrong, the colors are pretty, but I didn't get that memo explaining these things...anyone have a copy?
Posted by: Rafael   2005-06-29 20:44  

#16  Direct questions are so ver uncool Capt. Try a rephrase.... What the hell's SAST and why should we care? Is it a variable in the price of AK-47s in far away Preshawar? If so why isn't there a ticker on Spot AK-47 sales? I see a lacka foresight here. We need real-time hardware quotes.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-29 19:29  

#15  U B benign ruler?

Whatz a "Short Attention Span" define dear ruler.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-06-29 18:18  

#14  .com's rich and doesn't care. Besides he's got all kinda weird ass traps and snifers. It's gonna take me ages to steal everything.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-29 17:02  

#13  When you say no "loooong links or collections of links," I presume you mean not typing the URL directly in the comment? I presume it's still OK to use the [a href=''] jobber? I sure hope it's all right to .com to include links to his picture collection, as long as he doesn't do the [img src] thingie?
Posted by: Jackal   2005-06-29 16:35  

#12  Ratz, and I just lerned how to do it good.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-29 13:29  

#11  The problem with linking to other sites' pictures is that if they're not there -- connection's down, been removed, whatever, the server sits there grinding, trying to find the non-existent. Add in the fact that with 90 posts and 600 comments, you get a lag every time you look for another site to pull the photo. One or two are no big deal, if they're there, but multiply the lag by a dozen or two dozen and you've really hurt page load time, which doesn't get any quicker the bigger the page gets.
Posted by: Fred   2005-06-29 11:55  

#10  How does linking to pictures hosted on other sites affect Fred's bandwidth? If he's not hosting the picture, it shouldn't count against his bandwidth -- or am I mistaken on this premise?

I'm not advocating widespread linking to other sites' pictures, by any means, because it will chew up their bandwidth ("bandwidth highjacking" is a common term I've heard to describe this practice). However, linking judiciously to pictures, especially on already high-trafficked sites like Yahoo news, etc., shouldn't affect their bandwidth too noticeably.
Posted by: Dar   2005-06-29 11:11  

#9  That's fine. I use ellipsis when I bother at all. And I always cut the reiteration of what everyone already knows without bothering to note it.
Posted by: Fred   2005-06-29 10:35  

#8  I thought the right way to edit out un-needed stuff was to place ....befor and after.... an edit section?
Posted by: raptor   2005-06-29 10:33  

#7  Re snipping: I use an elipsis (". . .") for small edits, and a hilited comment (e.g. "Long analysis deleted to save space.") for long cuts. Is that good or bad?
Posted by: Mike   2005-06-29 10:12  

#6  cool - I thought our idiotic Islamapologist was back....
Posted by: Frank G   2005-06-29 09:41  

#5  Wrt duplicate comments: I had JavaScript turned off yesterday (don't ask), and when I clicked 'Submit Query' for the comment the article didn't redisplay--I got a blank screen. So, like a dummy, I hit 'Reload.' Presto, two instances of the comment. Note to self: caffeine is a good thing in the morning...
Posted by: James   2005-06-29 09:34  

#4  It is an indication that there is more at the link if you choose to go there.
When you edit a bunch of trash out of a story to get to the meat of it, put "EFL" (Edited For Length) and highlite it before the story. That way people know there is more at the link.
Posted by: Steve   2005-06-29 08:25  

#3  I'm suprised, he didn't mention a word about my filthy fu*king mouth.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2005-06-29 07:28  

#2  Dissent on snip. It is an indication that there is more at the link if you choose to go there. Absence indicates that the whole article is copied and no need to go to the link. Who cares what MSM does? It's not like they've got aq ton of credibility.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-06-29 07:01  

#1  I assume tranzi idiocy - UN, Kyoto, HRW, AI, etc, etc - is still welcome.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-06-29 06:14  

00:01