Submission Guidelines & Tips

All submissions should be your original work. Please do not simply copy/paste information (online articles, links, etc.) and submit it as-is. (Excerpts from, or links to, other material may be used within the article, and should be cited appropriately.)

Writing Guidelines (click to see examples):

Announcement -- General announcements, major events, procedural or structural changes, etc. concerning the Movement as a whole.

Chapter Update -- This should be used by Chapter Coordinators (or those whom they have designated) to submit status reports and announcements related to their specific chapter.

Editorial -- An editorial is a written work that generally presents the opinion or view of the author or publishing entity. Technically, there is no minimum length for an Editorial, but it should be long enough to effectively communicate your position to the reader. Try not to make it so long that your readers lose interest before they even get through it. Most editorials are around 1-2 pages long, single-spaced.

Media Project -- If you have a work of art such as a comic/ drawing, poem, song, etc. that you'd like to share, please submit it to The Zeitgeist Media Project. Material submitted to that site will be periodically published on the Blog, under this category.

Meeting Minutes -- In addition to the recordings, at least one person per meeting should take Notes and post them here in a fairly neat and structured format, sometime after the meeting is over. The basic info should include:
-Date and time of the meeting
-The purpose of the meeting (Agenda)
-Meeting coordinator(s)
-Assigned action items and people assigned
-Any decisions and/or changes made
-A link to the audio and/or video recording (If there is no recording, please specify.)

News Article -- A purely factual submission based on news reports and relevant events around the world, as opposed to an Editorial, which includes the opinion/view of the author.

Narrative -- An original story based on relevant events, experiences, etc. that may be true or fictional.

Press Release -- A general statement, typically in response to a major event, that is published on behalf of the entire Movement. Click here for detailed instructions on how to properly write and format a Press Release.

Project Update -- This entry is pertinent for keeping members of the Movement updated on any new projects that are developing, as well as existing projects as they progress. Submit a Project Update any time you or your peers/ teammates begin a new project, or make any progress, breakthroughs, major changes, etc. to an existing one. Be sure to check these entries regularly before starting a new project to ensure that there is not already one in place that you can simply join. This will hopefully help alleviate any scattered or diluted efforts, and instead combine them into strong, streamlined projects and teams. (We may want to consider including an RSS feed that links to all the individual project team PMS sites. That way the people from those teams will only have to update one site, their PMS site, and it will feed onto the newsletter site automatically.)

Participation Guidelines:

Please remain courteous and constructive when posting content or comments.

For information on how your participation affects your karma, please read the Comment moderation FAQ.

-----------------Helpful Tips for Getting Your Submission(s) Approved:-------------------

Please note that these are by no means requirements, but your careful consideration of these factors will not only assist the Editors in sorting through boat loads of material, but will also give our readers, and ultimately the Movement as a whole, a greater sense of community and rapport, as well as improving the overall Blog experience.

Use your real name: We want to be able to share your content with the world, including third-party organizations when applicable, perhaps even for further publishing on other mediums. It's more feasible to do that when we are recommending an article by John Smith, Dr. Jane Doe, or Betty Sue, than if we have to recommend an article by "Cupcake" or "JRider" with no background or reliable method to contact him or her, assuming it is a "him," or assuming it is a "her."

Update your profile information: It might give Editors (and your readers ;) a better understanding of your material if they have even a minimal background on who you are. The general blog community might be eager to share an amazing piece of work written by Betty Sue the aquarist, or Bob Jones the carpenter… rather than a random article written by an anonymous stranger. Readers may be more likely to subscribe to your Blog's RSS feed (found on the Site Map) and "follow" you or your activity. You can create a well-deserved presence for yourself and your material in the blog community.

Use your real photo: Same as above. We are trying to build a community and we can't do that without building relationships. In fact, we're striving for a social system that will one day facilitate global empathy, meaning the whole world is the community. People generally remember, or at least distinguish, names and faces better than icons and aliases. More importantly, people connect with names and faces better than generic visuals and inanimate labels. The next time someone has an idea for a project, they'll probably remember to contact "Billy Johnson with the red hat, smiling kind of crooked" for help - much better than they'll remember "Alex1988 with a sunflower, or was it a rainbow, or a Skittle, or… what was it again? Something with colors. I think twelve other people had the same icon..." (We don't know anyone who has the same face as you. Do you? ;)

Provide sources: The members of the Newsletter Team, while extremely dedicated, only have but so much time on their hands to fact check everything so that we don't get burned for publishing something that's inaccurate. If you provide links and sources to back up whatever it is that you're talking about, you've saved us a lot of work. Not to mention your article will be just plain awesome, and more enjoyable for the reader. People will be saving it in their favorites for future reference... just wait and see. You may also want to provide convenient hyperlinks to any organizations, events, etc. that you may be mentioning in your article. (When possible, don't forget to use the 'Insert/edit link' tool to hyperlink the words themselves, so it looks nice and neat without all of that ugly URL formatting.) For example:

- You can learn more about this by viewing Peter Joseph's lecture. - OR -
- You can learn more about this by viewing Where Are We Going, a great lecture by Peter Joseph.

...instead of...

- You can learn more about this by watching Peter Joseph's lecture, Where Are We Going.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxPPnCW6sMo
(Once or twice is fine, but scattered randomly throughout the entire article, not so much...)

Take pride in your work: Comb through it for spelling and grammatical errors. Yes, we have a proof-reading team in place for that, but don't be so sure it will even make it to proofing if we can't understand it. If the content is unclear or the meaning is lost, due to poor spelling and/or grammar, it may get rejected by Editors beforehand. Most likely, if the content is excellent, but the spelling and grammar needs work, Editors may send it back to you for clarification or improvement. However, the bottom line is, with the amount of submissions that will be coming in, it's far more productive to publish polished submissions that require the least amount of additional work, and perhaps get to the other stuff later.

Spice it up: Nobody likes a bland article. Don't forget to upload a thumbnail image for your submission, and feel free to add any images throughout the body that may enhance the reader's experience. (Okay, don't get too crazy. Keep the images relevant, and placed neatly (resized if needed) so that we can still read your lovely submission without having a seizure.) You may also add a video if applicable. Granted, the written content itself may be as "colorful" as can be, but it's usually the imagery that initially draws people in to read it in the first place. Get creative, and remember, images from The Zeitgeist Media Project are available for anyone to use for free. :)
(Ooh, look! See what we did there, with the hyperlink? ;)

Carefully categorize your content: When filling out the submission form, don't ignore the drop-downs. (They're there for a reason. ;) Even if you're stumped, please try your best to accurately choose the submission 'Type' that best describes your work, and the 'Category' that it most closely relates to. It's much more difficult (and time-consuming) for Editors to sort through and approve a bunch of generic items submitted as "Other," than it is for them to pinpoint content for what it is, and go from there. Similarly, if it is in fact an "Other" (something that's not listed in the drop-down), go ahead and categorize it as "Other" and don't fudge it to be a "Press Release" or "Project Update," because if it isn't one, Editors will probably assume that you don't actually know how to write a Press Release, or that your so-called "Project" doesn't make any sense, and reject it. Always choose a Location when applicable, and don't forget to add tags.

That's all for now, but we may add more Helpful Tips as they arise. Happy Blogging!

Sincerely,
The Zeitgeist Movement Newsletter/Blog Team