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Please Post Your Articles With Consistency

15K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  Peter123Wallace 
#1 · (Edited)
The staff of GMI have been discussing some renovations to the forum for the last few weeks. And with this in mind, we would like to request that anyone who chooses to post an article from another website/blog/forum, please do so in a fashion that is consistent with articles posted by GMI staff members. We appreciate the enthusiasm shown by members who choose to get the news posted quickly, but if you saw it somewhere else, then we won't be credited as the source for the news. This will allow all of us the proper amount of time to format the article for consistency. Now, some of you may be asking, "How do I format my article?" Well, I'll be happy to tell you.

This is how the article will normally look:



A) The Title for the thread. This can be copied & pasted from the website where you get the article from.
B) The title for the article. It can be the same as the title of the thread.
C) The link for the original article. If you get it from Autoblog, then they should get credit. If they got it from Motor Trend, please follow the Autoblog link to the Motor Trend article, since MT was the first outlet to publish the article.
D) The date that the article was originally written. If you post it days after the other website did, no big deal.
E) The author of the original article.
F) A picture. Typically, most websites will publish a picture that has some relevance to the story. You may use the same photo as the article that you are linking to.
G) The article. Please limit your copying & pasting to only 2-3 paragraphs. If the article is only 2-3 paragraphs long, then just post 1 paragraph. Please do not post the complete article.
H) A friendly reminder to use the link (C) to see the full article.

When you are trying to type all of this, your comment box will look like this:



Staff members may choose to edit your posts as necessary to conform to this model or we may choose to not move your article into the News section of the forum. If you want to better your chances that your article will be seen as a News article, this format will do just that. Most members will be able to post in the Suggest A News Article forum or in any of the Discussion forums.

Thank you again to everyone on the forum for making this a highly recognized location on the Internet for news, information, & discussion about the auto industry & GM in particular.
 
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#6 ·
This is probably something that we should talk to with the tech wizards behind the scenes. If we used it in template form, it would look like a page full of boxes for typing text into. Do you think that this would be easier? I have started threads on mobile devices before, & I'll agree, it's a pain.

Wha???
"Here's some crap from somewhere else." is no longer allowed??
What are you talking about. That's all that we've had for a while.

So what if there's an article from AutoGuide but it was sourced from Automotive News?

Of course, since AG is part of the same company as GMI, we want to give them a shout, but in interest of integrity, we need to reference the original. For example:

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/07/buick-envision-arriving-in-us-next-year.html
I feel like the website/blog posts a story, they deserve the credit. Other sites who repost the info didn't get the scoop. I've hunted for original sources if a blog referenced some other site as the source. I feel like it's the method that offers the most integrity. In a strange twist, I closed a thread that linked to another site. That site referenced one of your threads here, 2 weeks afterward. :fall:
 
#8 ·
Are you posting from a mobile device? :lmao: Most desktop browsers offer an option to right click & "view image". This shows just the picture & it's link is in the address bar. Copy & paste, then back to your post in the thread.
 
#9 ·
For what it's worth, there is a sticky in the "Suggest A News Article" Section outlining the same thing, but clearly gets rarely used. I think anyone who doesn't follow this should just have their postings deleted. It's the only way people are going to learn. To say I'm frustrated at the lack of effort is an understatement!!
 
#14 ·
We have on occasion had people say, "I posted the same article. Where did it go?" This could be for many reasons. From a duplicate thread, to incorrect format, we have some people who may take a removed thread personally.

No, a laptop, I switch between using IE and Chrome. I've been right clicking and opting for "copy image", most of the time in GMI nothing happens when I go to paste it.
I use Firefox, & there are even some options with it that I haven't seen on Chrome. I haven't used IE in years. Firefox has "copy image location" & it will paste.

If you click "Copy Image URL" instead, then use the "Insert Picture Button" in the reply box, there's a tab for "From URL". Just remember to uncheck the "Retrieve Remote File And Reference Locally" option.
This is normally how I do it. If you've gotten really used to this forum & it's software, you can just type the tags while typing & paste the link in between them.

[QUOTE="Tone, post: 5301057, member: 6656"]For me: yes, for a couple of reasons. First, I can't usually remember the details of the preferred format, so I've got to open your post (or the existing sticky) in another tab and toggle back and forth while I'm creating the post. Second, while the site understands markup, some of it isn't standard, which makes it hard for me to remember -- meaning I need that tab reference to remember how this site does, say, embedded video. Last: since the format is fixed, replicating it every time I post news is just a waste of time that introduces the chance that I'll forget some element and it won't be quite right. A template ensures it looks the same each time; I'm just focused on gathering the needed elements. Ideally, this would be easier on mobile as well as it would be a more straightforward cut and paste. Toggling between symbol screens for markup and accurately cutting and pasting inside tags can be a real pain![/QUOTE]

I'm trying to draw up an example of something that we might be able to try so that the IT team will understand what I'm trying to convey. If we can get something uniform & working right, then it may appear after our site renovation.
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
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