Indigo Jo Blogs

Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective

Guide for contributors and visitors

by · 20th October, 2005

Thanks to everyone who has signed up to write for Blogistan - I’m still looking for more contributors. I’d like to lay down some guidelines in order to improve the usefulness of the blog and the experience of the visitor, insha Allah.

  1. Please use Markdown. Markdown is a very simple HTML shorthand which makes it more difficult to make formatting mistakes such as forgetting to close tags. The full syntax can be found here, but the most important elements you’ll need are bold, italic and links, and block quotes are started by a greater-than symbol > in front of each line (line meaning after each return, not each physical line). You’ll agree, I’m sure, that it’s easier to write than HTML tags, particularly if, like me, you often use browsers which can’t handle the formatting buttons (Konqueror, Safari and family).
  2. Please don’t repeat paragraphs. Don’t put the first paragraph or so in the Entry Body box and the whole article in the Extended Entry - what will happen then is that if someone comes in via a link from outside (as when a trackback is issued), they will end up reading your first paragraph twice.
  3. The same rules that apply on Indigo Jo Blogs apply here. Such practices as insulting people, insulting Islam, or repeating the falsehoods you can find by the dozen on the comments pages of Jihad Watch will not be accepted here; you can expect that your comments will be refused or deleted.
  4. Please don’t post the things which were explicitly mentioned in my initial announcement; in addition, please do not post rumours, like the food scares which periodically appear on Muslim web forums, or use slander or offensive language.
  5. Please get a TypeKey identity. TypeKey is an authentication service run by Six Apart, the authors of Movable Type. This will allow you to get your posts displayed without moderation.
  6. If you submit an entry and it leads to an “Internal Server Error”, use the back button to the screen before that you used to build the entry, and rebuild the site (click “Rebuild Site” from the menu on the left). Don’t submit it twice as you will end up adding multiple copies of the entry to the blog.

If we all abide by these rules, insha Allah Blogistan will become a useful and respected resource on Islam and on, and for, the Muslim community.

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