Notes on Submitting Content
Lord knows I appreciate all the 'news submissions' I can get. In fact, I've often thought of asking around for a 'Number One' to help me run the site in that area. But I have a few notes for those submitting, especially if you've noticed your submission not published.
95% of the time a submission is not published it's because I've already linked to it, probably days before your submission.
Sometimes with big site's content, (for example: linux.com, newsforge, madpenguin, etc.), everyone links to those and if you are going to submit those, submit the ones from today, not yesterday's or the day before's. Those links have already been seen all over the place and one of my goals is not to compete with or duplicate osnews, slashdot, and other big linux sites, but to distinguish myself. I love the big professional site's content, but if I'm not among the first to link to it, I usually don't want it.
Press releases. I rarely publish these anymore, I had received complaints both public and private. The only ones I'm really interested in are the ones which have some free option or are found interesting by a large number of my visitors interested in the opensource community. The criteria is a bit harder to describe here, much like the old adage of defining porn. Specialized commercial software solutions, especially for the larger enterprise/business, are probably not going to get much play here. I apologize, but majority rules in website management and I tend to yield to the wishes of my visitors. OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Novell, and Red Hat are among those that frequently issue press releases that are welcomed here. There are others too. Feel free to submit all you want, but please don't be angry if they don't get published.
Original content on linux distros, open source software for linux systems, etc. are among those especially welcomed. Please make sure they are current and not previously posted. Again, submit all you like, just don't be upset if they don't get published. One caveat, there's been a rash of duplication especially in (or mostly confined to, really) the area of Ubuntu howtos. I will scrutinize these articles much more than most.
Links to a post linking to an article aren't going to be published much either. I mean those that look like my regular links. A direct intro quote and a 'read more' link aren't going to get published. I'll probably just check that submission and link to the original article.
Comment spammers are wasting their time. I usually see these spam posts within minutes and they are promptly deleted and the user blocked. None of my visitors are going to click your stupid links and many write to advise they are here. So even if I don't see them within minutes, my regular visitors are on the case too.
Thanks for your understanding and thanks for all your help.
UPDATE: Oh, I just remembered - I try not to link to stories whose site requires registration. That annoys a lot of people.
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today's howtos
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re: hardware news ?
I used to link to hardware news a lot - especially motherboard reviews. I looooove hardware. But more recent financial considerations has waned my personal interest considerably and that's been reflected in my posts. I just don't read them much anymore. I'm not a window shopper and if I can't afford to buy, I don't go shopping.
I still link to those I see right in front of my face, like those that are tested specifically with Linux - like the sort that phoronix does quite a bit. And that's probably the criteria we should use, if the reviewer or author particularly mentions testing in Linux or free bsd systems. I really don't want to link to too many. There are specialized sites for hardware news. One I still read frequently read but don't link to much cuz he tests with windows is techgage.com. But he's a good friend with a great site. Hardware lovers might want to bookmark that site.
but not the case with one site
Sometimes with big site's content, (for example: linux.com, newsforge, madpenguin, etc.), everyone links to those and if you are going to submit those, submit the ones from today, not yesterday's or the day before's. Those links have already been seen all over the place and one of my goals is not to compete with or duplicate osnews, slashdot, and other big linux sites, but to distinguish myself. I love the big professional site's content, but if I'm not among the first to link to it, I usually don't want it.
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This is not the case with howtoforge articles you can check your website every article published twice once you will link to that and next time falko will submit that again.I hope if you are following some guidelines please follow for every user that would give more users confidence instead of repeating articles from one website
thanks you verymuch for your great news website
re: but not the case with one site
well, I was aware of that and I've actually tried to stop publishing his links if I already linked to it. In fact, I don't really visit his site much looking for links and just wait for him to come and submit. I know, sometimes they are a coupla days old by the time he gets here, but his don't bring the anger/annoyance that all those duplicated ubuntu howtos do. I get emails complaining about those, as well as public posts here. teehee. The only complaint about howtoforge I've gotten was back when I used to let them run twice (which I have stopped). I didn't see the harm in it until I got complaints.
Also, I almost hate to say this, but their howtos usually contain good detail and go more in-depth. Too many of those ubuntus amount to little more than "apt-get install <whatever>" It didn't take long for those to start getting old.
I'm not sure what's going on with this group of 3 or 4 Ubuntu howto sites, I haven't been curious enough to even whois, but it appears that either the same guy(s) are starting a bunch of sites and rerunning the same stories or others are directly copying the original work. Another popped up just recently called Only Ubuntu or something, but they are rerunning those old debianadmin articles - which have already been rerun by other little ubuntu sites. It just all seems "off" to me. I've gotten real leary of those. I'll still run those of debianadmin's if I think it's a first run and has some more detail than just apt-getting something. But it's getting hard just to try and keep those straight in my head and I'm not even sure debianadmin is the creator of 'em to begin with. It's gotten to be a mess.
re: not the case
Also, none of these basic guidelines are written in stone (except for the spam). Please feel free to submit. I was just really trying to explain why a lot of submission aren't being published lately. I didn't want folks to stop submitting cuz they think "well, she ain't gonna run 'em anyway."
basics are important
basic tutorials,howtos related to ubuntu are very important for new users to know more about ubuntu very easily.Some time users doesn't know about perticular package available for ubuntu so those are very useful for some users
re: basics are important
Then they should stick to the kiddie pool and leave the real pool to the adults.
I for one am COMPLETELY fed up with all the Ubuntu crap - it's a mediocre distro AT BEST, and deserves about as much attention as WinME did when it was released.
Feel free to start Ubuntumachines.org, but lets urge/support tuxmachines.org to continue to do their fine job of covering ALL the linux info not just the Ubuntu blatherings.
Re: Notes on Submitting Content
I've rarely submitted news links, because usually by the time I see something on the 'net I think would be appropriate to tuxmachines, it's usually already there.
Every now and then you somehow find a wonderful gem of a story that I haven't seen anywhere else, and I marvel at how you find such things.
I appreciate that you are trying to please your audience. But it's your site, and you ultimately have to trust your own judgement regarding content.