So you've decided to write for the Cloud Four blog… Congratulations! There are a few things you may want to know about how our blog works:
Don't miss the "Excerpt" field at the bottom of the post editing UI. By crafting a short excerpt here, it will be displayed on the post listing pages and used for social media posts. If you don't set one explicitly, one will be created using the first few sentences of your post.
Note you may need to open the "Screen Options" dialogue at the top of the page to make the "Excerpt" field visible.
Similarly, don't forget the "Featured Image" field in the sidebar. If you set an image here, it will be used for social media. This image is not displayed in the post content, however, so if you want to use it as a big image at the top of your post, you'll have to do that AND set the featured image.
Wordpress has a couple tools for organizing your posts: categories and tags. In the current iteration of cloudfour.com, we primarily use categories, and rarely use tags. Here's some background context from Tyler:
In past versions of the site, a large amount of tags proved tricky to navigate. So currently, we only expose categories (though we call them "Topics") in the front-end. Sometimes we use tags as an organizational tool behind the scenes, like flagging "featured" articles for the homepage.
We have a small collection of useful shortcodes and classes to apply design patterns from our pattern library.
Note that our blog has two preview features. The "Preview" button only works for authenticated users. The "Enable Public Preview" checkbox will give you a public URL to share with unauthenticated users.
Sometimes the public preview can get stuck or cached. To reset, just uncheck the preview box and check it again.
Jason's favorite time is 8:30 AM Pacific Time. Before lunch on East Coast, but late enough to be what people on West Coast see it first thing when they arrive in office.
We don’t have a formal policy on comment approval, but here’s Jason's general guideline:
- Let the author approve comments so they have the opportunity to process and respond if they want to.
- Replying to comments is up to the author. If they contribute to understanding and there is nothing else to add, don’t feel compelled to respond.
- Delete comments that are spam, troll, or jerk-like behavior.
Despite the fact that we ask people to be kind, courteous and constructive when they submit comments on our site, when articles reach a larger audience, we will inevitably end up some with comments that start to inch into an unkind territory. It can be hard to tell how to respond. If they are blatant jerks, I’ll simply delete their comment—you don’t get to come into our house and tear the place up. Sometimes with an obviously snarky comment, I’ll ignore the sarcasm and respond to the question as if it was asked in earnest.
Don't approve pingbacks. We keep the feature enabled so we can see if websites link to us, but there's not very much review in displaying them on the site, and we don't optimize for them in our design.
We have received requests to translate our articles in the past, but don't have a set answer. We'll considering saying "yes," if we still get credit, a link back to our site is clearly included, and they have a demonstrable track record of respectful translations.
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Don't Feel Like an Expert? Share Anyway.
Too many of the most interesting voices in tech and design talk themselves out of writing or speaking about their work—because they don’t think they have enough experience. But you don’t have to wait for “enough“ (whatever that means). Here’s how to find what’s special about your perspective right now—wherever you are in your career.
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In advance of a recent podcast with the incredible technical writer and Smashing Magazine editor-in-chief Rachel Andrew, I gathered up a bunch of thoughts and references on the subject of technical writing. So many smart people have said a lot of smart things over the years that I thought I'd round up some of my favorite advice and sprinkle in my own experiences, as someone who has also done his fair share of technical writing and editing.
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“Just” makes me feel like an idiot. “Just” presumes I come from a specific background, studied certain courses in university, am fluent in certain technologies, and have read all the right books, articles, and resources. “Just” is a dangerous word.
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Words To Avoid in Educational Writing
I'm no English major, but as a writer and consumer of loads of educational (mostly tech) writing, I've come to notice a number of words and phrases that come up fairly often and don't add anything to the writing. In fact, they might detract from it.
Obviously; Basically; Simply; Of course; Clearly; Just; Everyone knows; However; So; Easy;
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Plain Language Is for Everyone, Even Experts
Professionals want clear, concise information devoid of unnecessary jargon or complex terms. Plain language benefits both consumers and organizations.
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Keep Code Samples Short & Relevant
When writing technical blog posts, please take care that the code samples in the article aren't long. In my opinion, the post shouldn't be the full repo. Highlight the specific parts of interest, and peel away boilerplate so people can read less and learn more. Then, if needed, link to a more complete code example on CodePen, JSBin, or something similar.
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Channel your inner Hulk voice and use it to describe whatever you need to get writing on. Hammer down that shift key (caps lock is a cop-out) and type max 4 words for each bullet to capture the core sentiment of what you’re arguing.
WRITING IS HARD; YOU THINK TOO MUCH! WE HAVE A SOLUTION; THE HULK SUMMARY!