Ten Commandments for Erepublik Journalists Revised
Day 902, 19:17
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Took Lowind
Intro
This is an article that I posted quite a long time ago. I'm basically reposting this article because of complete boredom and I want to see if I can still write something relevant. I'm hoping that this article can still make some impact in the way journalism is done in this game. I've noticed that our media isn't really in the greatest condition right now. I've read several articles that have had essentially no content or just flat out suck. I'm not a great or even a good writer, but I at least try to be respectable and I feel like some people today don't even try to do that. Hopefully this article will help create a media with more content and that actually helps inform the people of e-America what is going on. Th
[Note: This article won't be a word for word copy and paste. I will make a few edits.]
Article Begins Now
In eRepublik, nearly everyone aspires to be that next big writer. They want to be the person that everyone goes to for their news. Journalism is one of the best ways to be known in this game, and everyone wants to be known. Unfortunately, not everyone can be that effective of a writer, or they do not simply know the keys to be a respected journalist. These commandments can help the most polished or the least polished writers be a little bit of a better writer.
Commandment 1: Thou Shall Not Spam.
If you want to be a failure of a journalist that no one respects, then do this. This will get you noticed, but not in a good way. Spamming is posting many articles in a short amount of time. This is annoying for two reasons. First, it bumps other articles off the page. Second, no one wants to read your opinions over and over again. I realize that some people do not realize that posting many articles effect other people. Well, it does. As a rule of thumb, only release an article once every twelve hours. Some people believe that you should only make one article a day; it just depends on who you talk to.
[Edit: I really don't think three or four articles a day are too bad. If someone can release three or four solid articles a day, more power to them]
Commandment 2: Thou Shall Be Relevant
A very important aspect of writing is being relevant to the game. A lot of articles I encounter tend to be focused on real life issues. Leave your real life political opinions in the real world if you are making a political article. A "McCain is Hack" or an "Obama is a Secret Scientologist" article is not relevant to this game. Generally, only write about the game. Of course, I do not take issue with the occasional poetry or short story. It is rather refreshing to see those things.
[Edit: The election of '08 is over, but real life political articles are still useless. Unless real life issues are applicable to the game, I really wouldn't advise writing them. Games are an escape from the real world. But yeah, completely irrelevant articles suck]
Commandment 3: Thou Shall Use Proper Grammar
This is really important to have if you want to be taken seriously. You do not have to use perfect grammar (I know I don't) but you at least need to make your article look respectable. It doesn't matter if your content is the greatest content in the world, if you don't show some basic English skills, you will not be taken seriously.
[Edit: This is still important. I'm sure I have messed up grammar somewhere in this article, but it's the thought that counts. If you attempt to make your article look respectable, it'll be perceived that way. Nothing detracts worse from an article than if the author looks like an idiot]
Commandment 4: Thou Shall Know Stuff
Generally, don't write about a topic if you have no experience with it. A lot of people wrote articles about how they were embarrassed that Canada controls Michigan, and that we really need to work hard to fight the USCAN war. That's all fine and dandy, but that war ended months ago. It makes you look foolish if you don't know what in the hell you are talking about. I know V1 will put restrictions of the ability of new people to write, but even if you can write, you need to at least be one-hundred percent sure you know what you are talking about.
[ All this info about the USCAN war is pretty much irrelevant. Also, we're obviously in V1. But, getting basic facts right is essential to being a good journalist]
Commandment 5:Thou Shall Be Rational
Seriously, articles that say "ZOMG INVADE DEM MEXICOS" are just idiotic. Please know something about the situation of our country before you start spewing things. If you can't back up an idea, don't write it.
Commandment 6 Thou Shall Have Decent Sized Articles
Generally, write articles with at least 4 or 5 paragraphs. I'm actually guilty of breaking this commandment from time to time, but I feel like shorter articles are a waste of my readers time. A good article should have an intro, reasonings to back up your articles, some offensive statement (this is for the most part a joke) and a good conclusion. Usually 4 or 5 paragraphs will cover those benchmarks for a good article.
[Edit: Yeah, longer articles usually do the trick. It's not always the case though. I've seen a few articles by Mr. Hyphenated articles and they are wonderful. Sometimes shorter is sweeter, and what he does with the news is brilliant.]
Commandment 7: Thou Shall Not Caps Lock Everything
Even though caps lock is cruise control for cool, it makes your articles look unprofessional and gives the reader the impression that you are yelling or shouting irrationally. I normally don't take Caps Lock articles seriously.
Commandment 8: Thou Shall Read the Media
A good journalist learns from reading other good journalists. You'll pick up ideas from other writers and you'll be able to strengthen your own ideas through other journalists works.Becoming informed, finding common ground, developing a style;this is what reading the media will do for you.
Commandment 9: Thou Shall Not Have Walls of Text
They are really hard to read, and pretty annoying. Most people will just give up on reading them.
Commandment 10: Thou Shall Subscribe to The Lowind Press
[Edit: I'd actually add Be Interesting as another commandment. Also, being different would be another good one.]
End Article, Begin Commentary
I hope everyone takes some of these suggestions to heart. I haven't really been involved with the game or the media for awhile, but I might be getting started again. There are plenty of brilliant articles out there and there is plenty of crap. Hopefully this article moves are media away from the crap and more to the brilliant. If you have any comments, please post them.
Thanks for reading!
Took Lowind
This is an article that I posted quite a long time ago. I'm basically reposting this article because of complete boredom and I want to see if I can still write something relevant. I'm hoping that this article can still make some impact in the way journalism is done in this game. I've noticed that our media isn't really in the greatest condition right now. I've read several articles that have had essentially no content or just flat out suck. I'm not a great or even a good writer, but I at least try to be respectable and I feel like some people today don't even try to do that. Hopefully this article will help create a media with more content and that actually helps inform the people of e-America what is going on. Th
[Note: This article won't be a word for word copy and paste. I will make a few edits.]
Article Begins Now
In eRepublik, nearly everyone aspires to be that next big writer. They want to be the person that everyone goes to for their news. Journalism is one of the best ways to be known in this game, and everyone wants to be known. Unfortunately, not everyone can be that effective of a writer, or they do not simply know the keys to be a respected journalist. These commandments can help the most polished or the least polished writers be a little bit of a better writer.
Commandment 1: Thou Shall Not Spam.
If you want to be a failure of a journalist that no one respects, then do this. This will get you noticed, but not in a good way. Spamming is posting many articles in a short amount of time. This is annoying for two reasons. First, it bumps other articles off the page. Second, no one wants to read your opinions over and over again. I realize that some people do not realize that posting many articles effect other people. Well, it does. As a rule of thumb, only release an article once every twelve hours. Some people believe that you should only make one article a day; it just depends on who you talk to.
[Edit: I really don't think three or four articles a day are too bad. If someone can release three or four solid articles a day, more power to them]
Commandment 2: Thou Shall Be Relevant
A very important aspect of writing is being relevant to the game. A lot of articles I encounter tend to be focused on real life issues. Leave your real life political opinions in the real world if you are making a political article. A "McCain is Hack" or an "Obama is a Secret Scientologist" article is not relevant to this game. Generally, only write about the game. Of course, I do not take issue with the occasional poetry or short story. It is rather refreshing to see those things.
[Edit: The election of '08 is over, but real life political articles are still useless. Unless real life issues are applicable to the game, I really wouldn't advise writing them. Games are an escape from the real world. But yeah, completely irrelevant articles suck]
Commandment 3: Thou Shall Use Proper Grammar
This is really important to have if you want to be taken seriously. You do not have to use perfect grammar (I know I don't) but you at least need to make your article look respectable. It doesn't matter if your content is the greatest content in the world, if you don't show some basic English skills, you will not be taken seriously.
[Edit: This is still important. I'm sure I have messed up grammar somewhere in this article, but it's the thought that counts. If you attempt to make your article look respectable, it'll be perceived that way. Nothing detracts worse from an article than if the author looks like an idiot]
Commandment 4: Thou Shall Know Stuff
Generally, don't write about a topic if you have no experience with it. A lot of people wrote articles about how they were embarrassed that Canada controls Michigan, and that we really need to work hard to fight the USCAN war. That's all fine and dandy, but that war ended months ago. It makes you look foolish if you don't know what in the hell you are talking about. I know V1 will put restrictions of the ability of new people to write, but even if you can write, you need to at least be one-hundred percent sure you know what you are talking about.
[ All this info about the USCAN war is pretty much irrelevant. Also, we're obviously in V1. But, getting basic facts right is essential to being a good journalist]
Commandment 5:Thou Shall Be Rational
Seriously, articles that say "ZOMG INVADE DEM MEXICOS" are just idiotic. Please know something about the situation of our country before you start spewing things. If you can't back up an idea, don't write it.
Commandment 6 Thou Shall Have Decent Sized Articles
Generally, write articles with at least 4 or 5 paragraphs. I'm actually guilty of breaking this commandment from time to time, but I feel like shorter articles are a waste of my readers time. A good article should have an intro, reasonings to back up your articles, some offensive statement (this is for the most part a joke) and a good conclusion. Usually 4 or 5 paragraphs will cover those benchmarks for a good article.
[Edit: Yeah, longer articles usually do the trick. It's not always the case though. I've seen a few articles by Mr. Hyphenated articles and they are wonderful. Sometimes shorter is sweeter, and what he does with the news is brilliant.]
Commandment 7: Thou Shall Not Caps Lock Everything
Even though caps lock is cruise control for cool, it makes your articles look unprofessional and gives the reader the impression that you are yelling or shouting irrationally. I normally don't take Caps Lock articles seriously.
Commandment 8: Thou Shall Read the Media
A good journalist learns from reading other good journalists. You'll pick up ideas from other writers and you'll be able to strengthen your own ideas through other journalists works.Becoming informed, finding common ground, developing a style;this is what reading the media will do for you.
Commandment 9: Thou Shall Not Have Walls of Text
They are really hard to read, and pretty annoying. Most people will just give up on reading them.
Commandment 10: Thou Shall Subscribe to The Lowind Press
[Edit: I'd actually add Be Interesting as another commandment. Also, being different would be another good one.]
End Article, Begin Commentary
I hope everyone takes some of these suggestions to heart. I haven't really been involved with the game or the media for awhile, but I might be getting started again. There are plenty of brilliant articles out there and there is plenty of crap. Hopefully this article moves are media away from the crap and more to the brilliant. If you have any comments, please post them.
Thanks for reading!
Took Lowind
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Didn't know you were still around!
Took is always around, randomly deciding to do more than feed himself every once in awhile 😉