IdahoFallz.com

Writing articles at IdahoFallz.com is free, easy, and pleasantly surprising how your ideas can kick start asynchronous interactive discussions among local people you’ve never met. I encourage anyone and everyone to write and publish their own articles that you feel relate to Idaho Falls and southeast Idaho.

Why write anything at all here? I said long ago, “The more people who write about local topics, the more comments get generated in response, the more engaged our community is both online and in the physical city.” If you care about our area, get involved. IdahoFallz.com is one unique way you can easily get involved locally.

What makes a good article? What makes a bare-minimum decent article? I think at least two healthy paragraphs about a topic of local interest is the low threshold. Maybe the topic is not something in which you are an expert, but you think it will generate vibrant discussions? Take a few minutes and write what you do know. Take a few more minutes to research the topic (mmmm, Google + Wikipedia) and write about what you find. Clearly cite sources if you re-use anyone else’s words, and be honest about writing your own words (not pasting someone else’s words as your own). You can include an image or two if you think they help your words, but images are not required or prerequisite to a good article.

You can simply email your article and related pictures to site administrator Joe Eagle at idahofallz@gmail.com. You can also register and use the writer’s tools in the IdahoFallz.com backend system. Register by clicking the “Register” link at the top of any page. Enter the user name you want to appear as your name (this can easily be changed later if desired), and the email you want to use with IdahoFallz.com correspondence (which can be anonymous). The system emails you a password within a couple minutes, then you can login.

Upon logging into IdahoFallz.com, you first see “The Dashboard”, which displays information about recent comments and incoming links. Skip this and click on the big “Write” link in the upper left corner. This takes you to the “Write Post” section where you write, save, and submit articles for IdahoFallz.com. The new system is much friendlier than the old, so it is mostly self-explanatory. If you don’t understand an area, you don’t probably don’t need to worry about it. Ask Joe if you have a burning desire to know what something does.

All articles need a title, which you type in the top “Title” input box. Try to make it short but catchy, and try to use descriptive keywords. “Five Ways to Improve Idaho Falls Parks” is much more descriptive than “I think we need some of these things”. Titles are important, but don’t sweat them too much. Great articles and discussions have happened under dreadful titles.

You’ll see the large “Post” area, which is obviously where you type your paragraphs. There are some word-processing formatting buttons which should be obvious to use, but don’t sweat the controls too much. The most important thing is just to get your words in there and saved. My favorite method is to free write as long as I can, then reread it to fix spelling and grammar errors, and then I also see how some parts need a little reorganization or trimming to make better sense. If your article goes long (like more than ten big paragraphs), consider cutting some parts out and entering them as follow-up comments to your own article. This strategy helps others digest your thoughts much easier.

Under the “Post” area is a “Tags” input box. These are not currently implemented so don’t worry about it. Under this is “Categories”, where you can pick one or more logical categories, or topics that you think relates to your article subject. This does not have to be perfect, and Joe can hone it later, so again don’t sweat the details. Ignore everything else below the categories part.

At the page top, next to your title, you will have noticed the nuclear buttons: the “Publish Status” and “Save” and “Submit for Review” buttons. If you want to save and work in your article later, simply leave the publish status on “Unpublished” and hit save. When you login later, you will see your article by the title. Click the title and you will pull up your draft again.

If you are ready to publish, hit the “Submit for Review” button and an email notifies Joe that a new article is pending. As soon as he can review your article he will most likely release if for publication on the IdahoFallz.com main page. This is the current process simply intended to ensure spam and nasty junk does not get published.

So registering, writing, and publishing articles about our area is super simple. I think the IdahoFallz.com platform is the easiest and friendliest publishing platform in all of southeast Idaho, and certainly among Idaho Falls media companies. I hope to read many new articles from a broad range of local folks.

What questions do you have about writing or publishing at IdahoFallz.com? What kind of content would you like to read more about at IdahoFallz.com?

No questions? Write your own article!