[DoEE] Article etiquette

Day 2,726, 02:55 • Published in Australia Australia • by Aus Ministry of Finance




Today we will look at the media module. Often populated by primadonnas and those with self-serving agendas, you can still find some useful things in the press. Here, we consider your options for supporting your favourite authors. Or *gulp* throwing a virtual rotten tomato.




Writing articles is a simple action for its own sake. Opening a newspaper is remarkably easy.

You can open a newspaper from reaching the menu "My newspaper", under the "Community" tab.







That shows a page where you can set the name and description of your newspaper. It will cost you 2 gold.




You can reach the homepage of your newspaper using the same menu shown above, or by clicking on the name of your newspaper in your profile page.



On the newspaper page, at the top right, you can change the name and description (no charge), or write a new article.







The articles


Every article needs a title. This needs to be snappy, to draw people in. Or descriptive, if you’re so inclined.


They also need content, and the selection of an appropriate category. This tells the game what section of the news to put your article under. Generally speaking, social and entertainment is very crowded, along with politics. Doing the hard slog with numbers in warfare analysis or finance is less common. Battle Orders are normally the domain of the Department of Defence only. Similarly, it is rare to see a private newspaper in the First Steps category.



Often players use a tag inside the title, enclosed in square brackets. These tags normally represent public institutions or political parties. Sometimes one newspaper is used for more than one purpose, and it is important to distinguish the article purpose.



For example, the Dept of Education & Entertainemnt use [DoEE] tag.




Readers also appreciate the presence of images and a good text formatting that can help with the article reading. In the coming days we will publish information regarding the formatting of the articles. Not everything you can do, format wise, is available with the buttons ERepublik gives you.



In eAustralia currently we boast the presence of players from different nations of the world. it is good practice to publish articles in the language used in eAustralia, English.

Please also note a fundamental unwritten rule of the game: you can write articles related to the game itself. Avoid talking about purely RL issues. Definitely avoid RL politics.



Before you post your article, use the green tick button to see a preview of it. This is a good way to check that your images are displaying correctly and that your links work before you post. That can be embarrassing...




You can edit or delete your article only in the first 30 days after publication. Once an article is posted, it is good practice to read it through. Almost always you will find a typo… They hide in plain sight, the evil little things...











The vote


Votes help the author to highlight the article. The game shows the highest voted articles among those written in the last 3 days on everyone’s homepage. There is an international top news area too. Articles need hundreds, if not thousands, of votes to make it so far.



If you like the content of an article you should vote for it. As a writer, it is devastating to not get any votes, so don’t do it to others!




To vote an article, you have to click the green button atthe top left, next to the article title.








When you click on the button it will change:







The number could increase by more than one if you vote. Because since the loading of the page and your click on the button, another player could had voted the article.







Comments


On the bottom of each article you can leave a comment. The comment is useful to provide your consent to the idea or outline your opposing considerations. Or to simply ask questions



By using the field at the bottom of the article (and under existing comments), you can give a general answer to the whole article, sent to the author and other commenters.








You can also reply to other comments in the article already. In this way you advise the author of the comment, and the latter will receive a notice from the game about your comment.












You can also vote other people’s comments. The author of the comment will receive a notification that you did so. Nobody else will know you supported the comment however, so if you strongly agree it is best to write a comment in reply.


Common emoji used in comments in Erepublik are:


o7, representing a person saluting.


o/, representing a fist or arm held high. Sometimes a high-5 comment.


\o/, representing two hands in the air. Not for surrender, normally it means a more emphatic version of the single arm.






The endorsement


This option allows you to support the author by donating virtual currency.

To support an author, you have to click a button on the top left, under the button to vote the article.







You can choose how much money to give (25, 10 or 5), according to your liking.




Your name will then appear on the bottom of the article, to identify your support.







All subscriptions are paid to the author. If you materially benefit from an article (say, how to play the monetary market), it is polite to share your wealth with the person who gave you the knowledge. Similarly, if it is clear a lot of work has gone into an article, showing your appreciation will help the author stay motivated to do more of the same.



Trust us, good articles are hard work!







Subscriptions


At the top right you can support the newspaper with a subscription.

The game offers a page where you can view only the latest articles published by subscribed newspapers (in practicality this page is rarely used). If you see a newspaper while you are in another country that has excellent information, or amusing comics, or whatever tickles your fancy you can subscribe so that there is at least one page somewhere you can find more articles by the author.



The subscription is useful for the author, because once they reach 1000 subscriptions (and for every 1000 later), the game gives out a gold medal and 5 gold. This is probably one of the hardest medals to achieve (if not the hardest).




To subscribe to a newspaper, you have to click the button in the upper right corner.







The subscription can be done once for each newspaper, and can be removed.





Recap


Too long, didn’t read? Below, in short, the advice on how best to use the media tools in the game.


•If you have something to say, write an article.


•If you like an article, vote the article.


•If you want to show your support to the author or want to add something, comment the article.


•If you really like an article or gain some material benefit, or the author has put a lot of work in, endorse the article.


•If the author keeps putting out quality work, subscribe the newspaper.

Your friendly DoEE team, Ilene Dover, Gueneo and TheMaster13