[hokiealumnus]

Hello OCF readers and posters! Here we'll explain what our front page (http://overclockers.com) is all about and, if you'd like, how you can get involved.

iNet and the venerable JoeC have come together to more closely integrate the forums and the front page. In a few weeks, you will see a rather substantive change to the front page as they are switching web site engines (from Joomla to Wordpress). iNet are pros and the changeover should be rather seamless. As a result of the new collaboration, I.M.O.G, along with JoeC, has taken the reigns for producing content for the front page.

That content is where YOU come in. Yes, you can produce articles for the front page. The only requirements are that you have a topic of interest to the community as a whole (or your specific sub-community) and be able to form coherent, reasonably grammatically correct sentences. Doesn't sound too hard does it?

In the next few posts, I'll go into more detail about what you can do to help and how you can get your name in lights as well!

• First, we'll go over the Frontpage Organization Chart. These are your go-getters, the Editors, Proofreaders and the Content Editors for all of the forums that we're trying to garner content from. If you have a topic you'd like to write an article on, contact them. Likewise, if you see an interesting forum post that you think you'd be interested in reading an article on, contact them.
  
• The next post is simply what the Content Editor's job consists of, so you can have a clear understanding of what it is they're supposed to be doing.
• Of course, it helps if you know what the staff is looking for in an article. When writing your pieces, keep the items in this post in mind.
• Then, you will see what happens to an article as it goes from Forum Post (or straight article by someone interested) to the frontpage.
• Not very good with words? There are other ways you can help as well!

Note - The great majority of the following posts were written by I.M.O.G.. Since it looks annoying in quotes, I'll link back to the original post and take the text out so it's not all darkened and italicized.

[hokiealumnus]

Frontpage Organization Chart

Content Editors will be recognizable throughout the forum by white stars and a custom title reflecting the subforums they cover. As things change and we move forward, assignments will change as necessary. Our goal is to ensure the subforums are being represented and promoted as well as possible, and we're getting the best content from the membership up on the frontpage, overclockers.com. We'll be making adjustments as we go to make sure we're meeting that goal.

If your interested in contributing articles, helping find material, or gathering news, contact the content editor for that section. If your interested in helping out in other ways, contact me via PM.

White stars do not work for seniors, so they'll get their title changed but stick with their blue stars. Down the road, we're considering a badge system to reflect frontpage contributions.

Editor In Chief: Joe C

Editors: IMOG, mdcomp, David (when he returns)

Proofreaders: Ratbuddy, Wonderingsoul

Forum Content Editors

Team Content editor: Shelnutt2
Team Correspondents: Quietice (Seti), baditude_df (rosetta), El<(')>Maxi (Benching), Shelnutt2 (Folding)

Intel CPU/Mobo: sno.lcn, Earthdog

AMD CPU/Mobo: neuromancer, jamesman32

Memory: neuromancer

Air Cooling: jamesman32

Water Cooling: hokiealumnus

Extreme Cooling: sno.lcn

Microsoft OS: hokiealumnus

Alt OS: stratus_ss

Modding: ben333

ATI: ghost_recon88

Nvidia: zangler

Display/Imaging Devices: nightelph

Sound/Audio Devices: jhanby

HTPC: jhanby

Storage: JoeTeck

General Hardware: garyttu

Power Supplies/Electronics: krag

Laptops/Netbooks/PDAs/SFF: S_Wilson

Internet/Networking/Security:

Cyber Deals: Splat

Original post.

[hokiealumnus]

The Content Editor's Role

1. Contact members who start interesting threads, ask if they'd be interesting in writing an article - if so, link them to the article template thread to get started, ask if they have any questions, ask when they think they could have something finished for you, update your status thread

2. Contact members who are regularly active in your subforum, ask if they'd be interesting in writing an article - if so, link them to the article template thread to get started, ask if they have any questions, ask when they think they could have something finished for you, update your status thread

3. Contact members in the thread, or by PM - I have found contacting people directly by PM and getting commitments is usually more productive

4. For those who are interested in writing articles, ask if they'd be interested in writing on a weekly/monthly basis - could be reviews, editorials, opinion pieces, anything relevant to the hardware, enthusiast, overclocking community

5. Produce ideas for what sort of articles you'd like to see for your subforum, and reach out to people in the subforum and see if anyone is interested in writing it

Original post. I.M.O.G. made clear this list is a starting point and will be updated.

[hokiealumnus]

Article Guidelines and Stylesheet

***This is a beginning. These are some general tips to go by. An official stylesheet is being developed and items will be added as details emerge.***

1. It's personal - the author has personalized it as something from his experience base.

2. It's authoritative - the author's background establishes his bona fides as, at a minimum, someone to read with a degree of certainty that he knows what he's writing about.

3. Good information - the article lays out quite clearly the basics in a concise and logical manner.

4. Good follow-up - The reader can "extend" the usefulness of this piece by going to other sources to get more information.

Original post.

[hokiealumnus]

Frontpage Workflow

Step 1:
Contributions are gathered by or submitted to content editors

Step 2:
Content editors ensure the submission is in the article template format, do a quick proofread/edit (optional), then submit the material to mdcomp/me, I update my tracking

Step 3:
A. If the material is ready, I get the final OK from the author, I send it to JoeC and update my tracking, the article gets published
B. If the material is not ready, I send it to a proofreader and update my tracking.

Step 3:
The proofreader is instructed to do their part, and send it back when done

Step 4:
The article is given a final review by mdcomp or I, we get the OK from the author, then it's submitted to Joe C, I update tracking

Step 5:
Joe provides feedback
A. If minor edits only, Joe schedules publishing
B. If major edits, Joe sends back to me to obtain approval from author prior to publishing

Step 6:
Joe publishes. I update tracking and notify author.

Original post.

[hokiealumnus]

Other Ways to Contribute

If you are writing articles, great...there is a way for you to go the extra mile if you're up to the task. If you don't consider yourself a writer or don't feel like that's for you, there are things you can do as well!

Forum Experts

A Forum Expert is the go-to person for keeping the Content Editors and article contributors in line. They are our fact checkers. If an editor doesn't know something or needs help verifying something is correct, these are the folks they go to.

Likewise, if you're writing an article and want to say something that you think is correct but need to be absolutely sure, you can ask the Forum Experts.

Forum Correspondents

Forum Correspondents are people that the Content Editors rely on to help point them to forum posts they would find interesting as an article on the frontpage. Content Editors are supposed to find such things, but they aren't omnipresent. Some items will definitely slip through the cracks. That's where a Correspondent comes in. To quote I.M.O.G, they "help <editors> stay up to date on forum activity."

Of course, we welcome any member's input and everyone is more than welcome to submit posts for article consideration. The correspondent role is meant for the more active people in that forum that the editors can depend on for help sifting through the threads.

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These two roles can also overlap and one can be both an Expert and a Correspondent. If you have an interest in filling either of these positions (or both), just PM the Content Editor of your forum.

[hokiealumnus]

Reserved just in case there is further information we need to add in the future.