Submitting news and blog posts to Videogam.in is easy if you follow the FAQ, but there are a few guidelines that you should consider in order to write a better article that will be better received by your readers.
All Article Types
- In your headline, capitalize only the first letter and proper nouns (game titles, people, companies, etc.) and don't use periods or exclamation points. For example:
Final Fantasy VII remake rumors persist after Nomura comments
- Don't abbreviate game titles in headlines.
- Make use of the
<!--more--> tag in your article or supplementary text so your posts aren't cut off in mid-sentence when displayed in post lists.
- Always link to games, people, categories, and topics on the first mention of them in your article. Linking to these things is simple: just add double square brackets around the phrase. See the BB Code Guide for more information on linking to content pages within the site.
Public News Articles
Write as if you knew nothing of the topic at all
Present the information as if you are just learning some interesting new details. If you fail to do this you're going to alienate your readers who aren't as in-the-know as you. Take the following introductory sentence, for example:
In last week's Famitsu, Kojima revealed some new information about Metal Gear Solid 4.
Consider the following instead:
In [url=http://famitsu.co.jp?article=123]last week's Famitsu[/url], new information was revealed about [[Metal Ger Solid 4]] from director [[Hideo Kojima]].
Not only are you supplying the information in a clear fashion, but you are also giving links in case the reader wants more information.
Citations in English
Sometimes you may find it more appropriate to use language to cite your sources rather than using the [cite] tag. Consider, for example:
Japanese magazine Famitsu has scored [[Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker]] 40/40[cite=http://kotaku.com/123]Kotaku[/cite]. This makes the title the 14th to receive the coveted perfect score. Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has lashed out[cite=http://kotaku.com/456]Kotaku[/cite], citing the fact that the magazine is actually available in the game...
On post lists (such as the home page), the citations in the above text will appear in-line with the text, causing a disruption of the reading flow. Consider the following instead:
As <a href="http://kotaku.com/123" title="Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Scores Famitsu's Latest 40/40">reported by Kotaku</a>, Japanese magazine Famitsu has scored [[Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker]] 40/40. This makes the title the 14th to receive the coveted perfect score. Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has <a href="http://kotaku.com/456" title="Kotaku - Do Not Trust This Magazine’s Review Scores">lashed out</a>, citing the fact that the magazine is actually available in the game...
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