Originally posted by fingapointa
I was going to post this on ATSNN, but couldn't work out how to
I know there is an excellent, in-depth guide to submitting stories to ATSNN somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find it. So, to the
wonderful person who created that guide, I'm not trying to step on your toes, just to help a fellow Aussie out.
Posting on ATSNN can be tricky
if you've never done it before, so here's what to do:
First things first, use the Search function to see if your story has already been submitted. You can also check
ATSNN
directly. When you are confident that you have the scoop on your story, you can begin to prepare it for submission to ATSNN.
At the top of your screen, there is a button labelled
SEND NEWS:
Clicking on this button will take you to the submissions page, where basically all you do is fill in the required fields. You first select the
News
Category, which in this case would probably be either "Political News" or "General Terrorism" or even "War on Terrorism", depending on the
story content.
In the field next to this, you write your
Submission Subject, which is like your story title. You must use Initial Capital Letters, like in a
book or movie title.
Next is your
Introductory Paragraph. This has to be a single, decent-sized paragraph in which you outline, in your own words, a summary of what
this story is about. You do not put your opinions on the story in here, this comes later. Introductory paragraphs need to be more than just a couple
of sentences and you cannot copy and paste text from the article in here to serve as your introductory paragraph. This paragraph appears on the
summaries on ATSNN, so it is important to get this part right.
Next, you put in the
Reference URL from the site where you found the story and then copy and paste one to three paragraphs from the
original
source, exactly as they appear on the site where you found them. They cannot be formatted in any way. It is important to note that the first three
paragraphs are not always the ones you should submit. Find the three paragraphs that really go to the heart of the story and copy and paste these
in.
Now comes
Your Comments. In this field, you are required to give one to three paragraphs about your own take on this story. What are your
thoughts on it? What opinions do you have or how can you help other readers understand and appreciate it? In this section, you must give a well
thought-out response. One or two-line comments will result in your story remaining a Submission for all time.
Almost there - everything else is plug and play stuff. The next field is for
Supporting Links To Similar News Stories. An easy way of filling
these fields is to go to
Google News and get the links from other sources that have reported on your story. Try
to find credible sources - India Daily will be frowned upon.
Put in three or four links here.
Finally, the last field is for
Supporting ATS Links. Often there are threads on ATS that deal with issues
relating to your story. Use the search function to find some and copy their URLs into these fields. This way, interested readers will be able to
explore the subject further.
When you're done, double-check your grammar and spelling, which is very important on ATSNN, and hit the
Submit News button down the bottom.
Hope this helped, fingapointa. It's really not that hard, but it is nerve-wracking the first time. Let me know if I can help further.
Edit
Here is an excellent tutorial on submitting good ATSNN stories by
Banshee. It
turns out that to find it, I had to open my eyes.
It's been a long day.
[edit on 15/10/05 by Jeremiah25]