Welcome Crasstalk writers! Thanks for dropping by the workshop. We hope that this will be an opportunity for us to trade ideas and come up with some new ways to achieve internet victory. Continue reading
housekeeping
19 posts
This post is a way for people to exchange story ideas. Feel free to post ideas you have, and if you are a writer, feel free to use any of these ideas for your own articles. If you have used an idea please strike through the text, but don’t erase it. Example. Try to keep the list orderly so The Grand Inquisitor doesn’t have to keep cleaning it up. Don’t forget to hit update if you add or take away a post idea. This post is solely for listing article suggestions. Please don’t use it for other issues. Don’t forget to book mark this page, and I will drop the link into the writer’s guide as well. Happy posting!
Suggestions:
So! In the Lazy Girl’s Guide to Being Pretty, we discussed how you can look hot without moving too much or putting on pants without elastic waistbands. Because we’re lazy. Now, we’re going to tackle something everyone, but especially lazy people, absolutely dread: moving.
I’ve moved at least ten times in ten years. God, it could even be more; I’m too lazy to count. Some of these moves have been cross-country; some have been cross-city. It doesn’t really matter– it’s all a hell of sweat, swearing, and lifting or carrying heavy things. I have, however, discovered along the way, a few tips to help you move, and a few more tips to help those of us who keep getting evicted having to relocate. Continue reading
Greetings comrades. I come to you tonight to humbly ask your assistance in our effort to win The Internet. As you all know, we have experienced a pretty amazing transformation in the last few months and our humble collective has turned into the beginnings of a Dictatorship of the Internet Proletariat. No longer mere peasants; we have taken control of the means of production.
However, our battle has just begun and it is time for our armies to grow. For this to happen I need your help. As you may have noticed, we have added some new editors and moderators in the last couple of weeks in an effort to improve the quality of the site. Now that we are making that effort, we need to find a way to get the word out about the great stuff going on here. For this I need a few volunteers to be part of the Crasstalk Ministry of Propaganda.
The CMP will be charged with getting Crasstalk content out to other places on the web. This includes the social media platforms we already use, but we are also looking for some really creative ideas about getting the word out about the community here. We actually have some really interesting stuff here in our little web oasis, but we need to find ways to show it off to the rest of the world. I know that many of you are smart and innovative thinkers and we would really love to have your assistance as we continue to grow and shape the site.
If you are interested in helping out please send an email to [email protected]. If anyone has suggestions or ideas for promoting Crasstalk please put them in the comments so we can get some ideas rolling.
As always, it is an honor to serve with you.
Hello Crasstalk! As is pretty obvious to everyone, we have grown a lot over the last few months. This means we have more commenters and more writers than ever before. This also means that the people who work to bring you the site have had a lot on their hands. To remedy this we have recruited a little help to keep things running smoothly and to improve the articles we publish here. So please give a warm welcome to the new members of the team.
New Editors
The first change is that we have added a few new editors to help posts get through the publication process and make sure they are as good as they can be. These folks will edit your posts just like Dogs, Bots, and I have and please treat them with the same respect you show us. If they ask you to make changes or fix something, please do it. They have all been picked because we are confident in their abilities and you should be as well. The new editors are:
New Commenter Mods
You might have also noticed that two people now have blue boxes around their names. These are the new commenter mods. Please feel free to direct questions to them, and please point newcomers their way so that we can make them feel welcome. Again, please treat them with the same respect you do the other mods.
Please give big welcome and thank you to these folks for helping us all out. Their assistance will be a key factor in our winning of The Internet.
Good evening Honey Badgers and thanks for dropping by. Please start by reading this. Yes, I know most of you have read it, but just take one more look to humor me. The purpose of tonight’s workshop is for us to brainstorm and share ideas for post topics. Please post any ideas you’ve had or things you would like feedback on. To make this work it is essential that we give one and other feedback so please reply to each other. Here are a few suggestions to get people started:
- Tech and Internet Culture (besides Gawker)
- Music Reviews
- Book Reviews or a Book Club
- City Guides and Vacation Reviews
If you are new to WordPress or are having difficulty with it I highly encourage you to watch this video to help you get situated.
Oh, and here’s a few more tips:
- When you’re done set the post status to Pending Review so we now it is ready to go.
- Edit, edit, edit. Please check over your posts for grammar, spelling, and formatting before you put it in the pending queue. This will really help us out a lot and it will make me think you are a wonderful human being if you do it.
- Your post needs to have an “image thumbnail” that is hosted on Crasstalk. Save the picture to your hard drive and then load it into the Crasstalk media library (it’s in the left side menu). Copy the url after it is uploaded and paste that into the thumbnail space back on your post page. People who insert their thumbnails properly are incredibly sexy. I am just putting that out there.
- Don’t use HTML tags in the “Visual” editor. It shows up as text and makes us look like a Sarah Palin fan fiction site. Is that really what you want for Crasstalk?
- When you embed a video you must be in the HTML mode of the editor and you must use the code under the embed button on You Tube. Pasting the url will not work.
- Preview your post to see how it looks. Make changes and preview again. Then do it again. Make sure it looks pretty.
- Spell check. Firefox has a built in spell checker.There is no excuse for you to leave this to us. None.
- Make sure that you spread the word about your posts. When they are published send an email to BooBooKitteh at [email protected] and she will put you out on Twitter.
I want to say a big thank you to all of you who write for Crasstalk. We know that you all have busy lives and we appreciate the time and effort you put in to make Crasstalk fun.
You may now begin the sexy dancing.
Hello Crasstalk. Hope everyone is enjoying an easy day and relaxing a bit. Just a reminder that there will be a writer’s workshop at 5 PM EST tonight. Please help us win the internet by coming up with exciting new ideas for posts. Since we have been doing a little bad country in the other post, I thought I would put some of the good stuff over here.
Have a great day.
Hello Crasstalk. As most of you can tell by the box on the upper right side of the page, Crasstalk is an Amazon Affiliates member. This is to help us raise the money we need to keep the site running and so that someday little Timmy can have that surgery so he can walk again. In an effort to increase the amount of funds we are raising Crasstalk has created its own Amazon store.
However, to make it a success we need to stock it with the kinds of cool stuff that people might actually be interested in buying. To find that cool stuff we are asking for your help. It is clear to us that the Crasstalk Nation has great taste so we are asking for your recommendations to pick the items for the store. Got a favorite band, writer, or designer? We want to know.
Making a recommendation is simple. Just find the item you want to recommend on Amazon, find the ISBN or ASIN numbers from the Product Details section, and post the number here in the comments section. You can suggest anything sold on Amazon. Music, books, accessories, games, or anything else you think other people would enjoy. Hopefully, this will not only be a way for us to raise some cash, but also a way for us to share some cool things with each other.
Anyway, your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Below are a couple of screen shots with the product codes highlighted so it will be easier to find. As always, it is an honor to serve with all of you.
Well hello there, cuties! Welcome to the Crasstalk writing clusterfuck. If you have an author’s account or are planning to write in the near future, you are in the right place. Tonight we are going to try to get everybody ready to post or to improve your posts if you already are. I am going to try and cover some basic issues about the mechanics of posting, but I also want people to kick around some ideas and coordinate with one and other if you are working on related topics. I will be around for the next few hours and will occasionally add to the post, so refresh your screen now and again for new announcements. I will be in the thread so feel free to asks questions, but since I am drinking some delicious beer tonight look for the last 20 minutes or so to consist of my sending you bunny pictures and typing I love you guys in all caps through my drunken sobs.
All right, let’s get to work. First, everyone of you need to go and read this now. Yes, you! I don’t care if you read it yesterday, take 5 minutes and look it over again. I’ll wait.
Ok, so now I want to post something for those of you who are new to Word Press. First, click on this link and bookmark it. This will answer 99% of your questions about creating a post. Also, if you have never posted watch this video to help get you started.
Ready? Great! Now that you have Word Press mastered you are set. Now, let’s move to the next issue. What the hell are we going to write about? There are no content limitations for the most part and there are no assigned beats. Write whatever you are passionate about. Don’t feel like you have to have some amazing topic to get started. Write about what you find interesting and your enthusiasm will probably spread to your readers. Don’t be afraid to take the plunge. We are all pretty nice over here. Also, the beauty of Word Press is that if you really hate it you can just take it down. Take a deep breathe, you are going to be good at this.
So let’s go ahead and throw out a few ideas for each other and try to give each other some feedback so everyone can develop their ideas. Please post ideas if you have them, or if you want to see what people think about a topic. Also, I know several of you have similar interests, so maybe you can work together to come up with some stuff. I know there are a lot of TV fans out there, so we can try to come up with what shows you guys want to cover.
Here are a few things that myself, Dogs, and Meat want to stress:
- Please try to take the time to write up good material. You don’t have to write a novel, but you are making this for our community, so give them something good.
- Please don’t over post. Everyone who is taking the time to write here deserves to have their stuff seen.
- Don’t be a jerk commenter to people who are just getting the hang of this. I should not have to add any more to this.
- Let us choose the categories for the posts. It is necessary to keep the front page looking orderly.
- Make sure you have a thumbnail image for every post. You must load the image into the media library and link it from there. You can not just copy the link from the internet.
- Ask of if you have any questions are need help. The admin types here are doing this because we really enjoy all of you guys, we are here to help.
I am going to post a few links to some good stories that have been posted in the past. Please take a look at them because I think they will really help you.
Here is a wonderful story from Aunt Betty Crocker.
A great music column from Left Coast Lady.
Great political column from Arken. I think this was Arken’s first post so he deserves a bro hug.
I can’t even really explain this one, although it is an example of a post from a recurring column.
Ok, let’s get to it. Post your questions, ideas, irrational fears below and we will all try to make sense of this.
Quick note: If you are interested in a certain topic, put that word first in your reply so others can find you. Second, please thank Coffee and Cigs for being our sexy secretary this evening.
New Update:
I am putting some topic threads below. If you are interested in those topics, put a reply in the disscusion so I can see who is who. Also, I noticed no one said thank you to Coffee and Cigs for taking notes. Don’t make me take the cute bunny pics away.
BTW, here is a really fun TV column.
OK. I am going to take a break for a minute. Please take a brief dance break.
Also, I could really use a few news items for tonight’s overnight open thread. Send ’em if you got ’em.
Update: I think we have had a productive night. If you are reading this late still feel free to add comments and sign up under a topic section. I will check this post in the next couple of days to see what people are thinking and what they are interested in. I think the next step will be to have some posts for each section so we can help each other develop our posts. I will try to get that started in the next week. In the meantime, please feel free to put up posts and get started if you haven’t already. Let us know if you need help.
It has been an honor to serve with you all. Together, we will win the internet.
These rules for commenting should help everyone have a fun, productive and enlightening time on Crasstalk. To make this clear, yes, we are oppressing you and trampling your freedoms just by having these rules.
- Be respectful of other commenters and authors.
- No personal attacks.
- No promotion of illegal activities.
- Good grammar, spelling, punctuation and capitalization are expected. Yes, we all make mistakes, but that’s different than purposely ignoring the rules. Capslackers have been warned.
- Don’t be needlessly argumentative. Going out of your way to argue with others for no reason creates a bad atmosphere and makes people not want to come back.
- Arguments about the decisions of the moderators or admins about these rules will not be indulged.
- Animated GIFS in the Open Thread posts go in the reply (ITR).
- Images of bugs, snakes, etc. go in the reply (ITR).
- No more than 2 images, or 1 image and 1 video, in top-level (OP) comments.
Any commenter who violates these guidelines will be moderated and/or receive at a minimum a 24 hour suspension from the site. We reserve the right to permanently ban anyone who, in the opinion of the site moderators and admins, doesn’t contribute positively to the overall experience of using Crasstalk.com. All decisions of the moderators and site admins are final.