We've worked very hard to make submitting articles to Sox and the City as easy and harmless as possible.  We think you'll find that writing for the site is a breeze, but we also have to deal with some unfortunate realities of the online world.  In other words, there's a few procedures we've had to put into place to deal with spammers.

STEP 1: Request "Author" Status

Unfortunately we can't just allow all registered users to post to the site directly.  We need to verify that you are in fact a real person, and not a spambot trying to fill out site with Nigerian Money Laundering Scams, Viagara Ads, or worst of all, Cub Propoganda.

So, all you need to do is contact us and request to be an "author."  Any of the mods can handle this for you (but SABRSox is probably the best guy to go to).  Chances are nearly 100% that if you've posted before on the boards, you'll be approved.  We're not in the business of saying no to Sox fans that want their voices heard.

STEP 2: Planning Your Article (What is Appropriate for Our Site)

While we love the fact that you're a feminist, a gay rights activist, an up-and-coming poet,  a model-train enthusiast or an elderly banjo-playing shut-in, those subjects aren't really appropriate for our site.  Now, if you've got an article about the White Sox from a feminist point of view, or a poem about Kenny Williams, or a banjo version of "Go, Go, White Sox," those would be appropriate topics, and we'd love to have them on our site.

As long as it's about the White Sox, it's appropriate for our site.  And while we don't wish to censor you, we do reserve the right to edit your work.  Don't send us profanity-laced tirades that don't make any points.  That won't get on our site.  Don't send us any copyright infringing material.  That also won't make the site.  The articles should be a reflection of you.  Be courteous, use proper grammar and spelling, and try to sound intelligent.  You don't want to come off sounding like a Cubs fan. 

STEP 3: Writing Your Article

Now that you've been granted "author" status, you should see some new links in your user menu:

"Submit Article" is where you want to go to submit a general article about the White Sox.  It can be about anything so long as it's about the Chicago White Sox. 

"Submit White Sox Rumor" is where you'd go to submit, well, a White Sox related rumor.  Those stories are generally quick blurbs about what the rumored deal is, and most importantly, a link back to the source of the rumor.  Rumors without sources will not be published.  In the event of a radio rumor, list the name of the radio station, and the radio personality disclosing the rumor.

So let's say you're submitting an article.  Here's what you'll see: 

The submission page works just like it does on the message boards, myspace, facebook, or every other internet submission form.  We won't cover all the functions here, just the important ones.  If you forget what each icon stands for, you can hover over it with your mouse and it will tell you.

Start by giving your article a title.  Try to be creative with the title, but stay on topic.  People like boring headlines as much as they like non-sensical ones.  Just be sure you don't put any strange characters in the titles.  Dashes and colons are fine, but quotes, ampersands, exclamation points and similar characters will not work, and result in broken links.

The next thing you want to do is specify a category.  All user articles must use the "User Articles" category, unless you have been assigned a specific category or are doing a Game Preview or Game Recap.  Choosing the wrong category may result in your article not being published.  Why?  Your article will end up in the wrong queue, and it may go unnoticed for quite some time.

You'll notice there are two different boxes: Intro Text and Main Text.  Intro Text is required for each article.  This is usually the first paragraph of your article, and an accompanying picture if you have one.

The rest of your article should be placed in the Main Text window.  It will look seemless when read in full, and on the general "User Articles" page, only your first paragraph will appear, along with a "Read More..." link.   The reason we ask that you separate your articles this way is so that our pages will look cleaner when they are being browsed.

If you are submitting a White Sox Rumor, you do not need to put anything in the "Main Text" window. 

STEP 4: Submitting Your Article 

The disk saves your article and submits it, so be careful about clicking on it until you are completely satisfied that you are done.  The check mark saves your progress, but allows you to continue editing.  The 'X' cancels the article and allows you to leave the page.  You will be unable to leave the submission page without either submitting or cancelling an article.

Once your article is submitted, if goes into a moderation queue.  There it stays until a moderator goes over it and approves it, at which point it goes live on the site.  Now, sometimes the moderators are busy, and sometimes they just forget to check the site.  Don't be offended if it takes a little while for your article to appear.  If a few days have passed though, and it's still not published, contact a moderator and let him know you have an article in the queue.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do I insert a picture into my article?

That little guy there is the button you want to click.  We ask a few things about pictures:

• Don't steal them from the Tribune, Sun-Times or Chicago White Sox websites.  That's copyright infringement and that will not only get us in legal trouble, but it will keep your article from being posted.  You are free to put a URL up to those pictures, however.
• Make sure all photos are uploaded to a photobucket or imageshack account before you link to them.  In other words, don't hotlink.  We don't want to see broken image links, or bandwidth theft images appearing on our site. 
• There is a size requirement.  Make sure the images aren't wider than 600 pixels.  You can manually resize the images through the image insert/edit popup window.

How do I insert a YouTube video into my article?

To embed a youtube or google video player, all you need to do is insert one simple tag into your article:

[ youtube:URL] or [ googlevideo:URL] (minus the space after the [ )

The URL is the url of the video in Youtube or Google Videos, just copy and paste from your browser address, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPp9pEn62no

How do I change my author name to my real name, instead of my username?

Just contact a moderator and they can give you any alias you like for your article, be it your real name or a nom de plume.

Any other questions?  Contact a moderator and they'll help you out.