Contribute
Do you live in San Luis Obispo county and have an opinion relating to our area that you’d like to share with your neighbors? Then you’ve come to the right place! It’s easy to opine by either simply commenting on the articles of others, or to write your own article if you desire.
Registration
The first thing you should do is register. It’s free and takes just a moment. While you don’t need to register (for now) to post comments on articles, it does make it easier for you each time you do comment.
Registration is required to author articles, as is your real first and last name. No anonymous articles are allowed. Don’t you want some fame anyway? And this is nothing unusual, newspapers’ Letters to the Editor always require this too.
Commenting on articles
You do not have to be a great writer to post comments, you only need to have something to say. Just write what you feel–one sentence or many paragraphs.
Submitting an Article
We invite anyone who can write clearly, and has something logical to say, to submit an article. Left or right, pro-development or environmentalist, a businessman or an artist, we don’t care. Like anyone else, the administrators have their own leanings, but the site itself is politically agnostic, meant to be vibrant by being open to all views.
You can write on any subject, provided it states an opinion on a local issue, and that it is not libelous. For example, this is the place for an article on local development, our tourism, city politics and such, but not a place for articles on national politics or general cultural issues if they don’t not somehow have a local connection. All articles must be unique and previously unpublished.
We do want articles of some substance, however. While word count is not always an indicator of substance, it does, however, generally help weed out the quick and simplistic, “vote for so and so” and “developers are evil” type of pieces that don’t have anything but the author’s feeling to back them up. So, we’re looking for articles that are at least 200-250 words minimum; you can go as long as you wish if you can do so without putting the reader to sleep. If you’ve got a quick point to make, post it to the Comment Wall instead.
Reviewing articles for publication is subjective, and people will we’re sure not always agree. But make it interesting, educational or entertaining and you’re more likely to get published. Think of the Letters to the Editor in our local Tribune–we’d take about about half of them as hey are or fleshed out some, plus the Viewpoints. The other half are just either boring, repetitive or ridiculous.
Once you are registered, make sure you are logged in, and then simply go to the User Controls area is the sidebar and click “Write Post.” You will then enter into a simple word processor where you can enter your article and submit it for review. The best method is to first write the article locally on your computer and then just copy and paste it in. Don’t worry about formatting if you get confused in the system. We always go through the article and will reformat it properly anyway. You’ll get better at using the site’s word processor as you submit more articles.
Once submitted for review, we’ll get back to you shortly. If we wish to make any changes to it, we will not do so (other than spelling and formatting) without talking to you first.
A little free publicity for you
In addition to entering as much as you wish on your Author’s Bio, each author is allowed to include a sentence about themselves, along with a website URL or phone number, at the end of each article. For example, “John Smith is a realtor with San Luis Obispo Premium Homes.” (You would link the web site to the company name.) Or, “Jane Doe offers dance classes each week at the YMCA and can be reached at janedoe@herisp.com.”
So, please don’t be shy!
Comments
One Response to “Contribute”
Comment Wall
Latest on Mon, 19:49: So I was in line in the market and there was Obama the Savior on the cover of Men's Health magazine. Uh, a health magazine? A decades-long smoker? One who won't release his medical records (McCain released 1200 pages)? One could could die of lung cancer? Hmmm, could there be a little bias? Naw, not in this election! LOL!
: Warning! Be careful going to Santa Maria. If you must, don't go at night! Have you read about all the murders and robberies? It's getting bad.
: Goodbye Insomniac Video, sorry to see you go. Thanks to Bob Whiteford for his 12 years of serving our community.
: I'm happy airlines are leaving our airport! It will help reduce growth since many people will not move here unless they can easily fly in and out. Businesses will think twice too. We can have SLO to ourselves! And those of us staying in town more will spend our money locally, not on vacations. Staycation here! We'll still get tourists driving in from the north, south and east. Our tourism economy will survive.
: "They" say that all politics are local. The same greed and mismanagement that has led us to national failure will soon visit us in SLO if developers and "consultants" [read lobbyists] get their way and turn the small-town ambience of SLO into just another shopping stop between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Vote out incumbents and elect Terry MOHAN, Dan CARPENTER and John ASHBAUGH, who will represent the wishes of the majority and the general plan. They won't run SLO for the convenience of just a few but will "run" this town for the residents.
: Another beautiful day in paradise
: Isn't it nice that the tourists have gone home now! I love September and October.
: Comment wall, huh? That's sounds fun. Wish I had something interesting to say right now.
: Interesting site. I'll think about writing an article. Good idea.
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Write an opinion article on San Luis Obispo | SLOpinion.com on September 19th, 2008 5:47 pm