Preparing for "Breaking Dawn Part I"!

Hey Girls!

Tara here! Sorry it has been so long since y'all have heard from me--graduating and getting married makes one fall off the face of the earth. While I was gone, Misty (EdwardsBella) helped take over with blog and really pursued her own ideas and initiatives to get our readers further into the Twilight world and keep them coming to their favorite blog, US! Thank you, Misty, for stepping up! Daryl and I really appreciate someone taking initiative! As such, Daryl and I are announcing that Misty will be and is now officially a TwilightBlog.net Lead Journalist, and it allowed to refer to herself as such in any communications or articles she writes. Congratulations, Misty!

A couple of things to keep in mind with Breaking Dawn Part I hitting theaters November 18th!
1) Be EXCITED!
2) Post anything related to the actors, the movie, books, and/or promotions of the release.
3) Be careful to not infringe upon copyrights and/or steal/copy articles and pictures from other sites!

THINGS TO DO!:
1) Everyone should come up with their own idea of a weekly/bi-weekly promotion of Breaking Dawn Part I. This may be a read through of the portions of the book the movie will cover, anticipation reviews, contests specific to Breaking Dawn, countdowns that cover what you are excited to see/expect to see, creative short stories series of your version of Breaking Dawn, etc. You are NOT limited to these ideas! Within the next week (by August 14th), everyone e-mail me back or post here what your idea is, what you are calling it, whether it is weekly or bi-weekly, etc., and why you think your choice is beneficial.
2) Keep up the good work with tags! Just remember that we don't need a million little tags like "vampire" or "music," but some (2-3) good ones like "Breaking Dawn Update" or "Kristen Stewart." Also, remember not to create a new tag without permission.
3) Please, please remember that the title is what catches a readers attention. Making the perfect title IS VERY HARD, I know. However, the titles need to be short, if the title is long people will not be interested in reading the article. Moral of this story-titles are to be short, sweet, descriptive, and SHORT!

Also, we will be holding more interviews for journalists for the blog, so please be welcoming and helpful to anyone you see that is new in the near future!

Posting Ideas

Writers,

Here is a list of some ideas to branch out for information to look for and write about. I would like our posting to be more well rounded and not just pictures and obvious information.

-Sources about new cast members and characters

-Filming updates

-Events and/or spotlight Twilight people, fans, creators

-Interviews with cast members

-Your thoughts on Twilight (write a "review" of sorts for the books, movies...)

-Creative pieces found or originally written

-Discuss a relationship within the Twilight Saga

-Discuss expectations for Breaking Dawn, Renesmee, the conclusion of the Saga

Please, please, please, do not be afraid to express your opinions/thoughts and get into them. Some of our best interactive responses from readers have been controversial material and thoughts that were well expressed and discussed in a positive manner.

Only Two Posts A Day, Per Person

Writers,

Just as a reminder there is more than just one of you attempting to contribute to the site. Please be respectful that other people would like to post. Therefore, we are making a new rule to try and create more of a working team and true QUALITY posts. The limit of posts per day per person will be two. Use them wisely and make them good and type tons of information! If you think you should have an exception to this rule you may present your case to Daryl and I (Tara) in an e-mail and we will consider it. Otherwise, if you post more than twice in a day, then that counts as one of your three warnings. Lately posts have been very generic and only towards the Twilight group that wants to "stalk Rob." Let us also provide Twilight themed posts to the other Twilight groups.

-Tara S.

Co-Founder of TwilightBlog.net and Head Journalist

Copyright Infringements

Dear Writers,

In an attempt to defuse situations that TwilightBlog has been finding itself in with copyright issues we are going to address this topic publicly will all of you, not just the writers than have gotten personal e-mails about instances that their writing/posts have created.

TwilightBlog can, and does get in trouble for posting illegally scanned and posted pictures, as well as screened videos, and copying SOMEBODY ELSE'S article. These are all big no, no's. We have given grace generally in the past and have corrected posts behind our writers (but not always addressed the issues) that we have found before the company or person owning the material does.

From now on you CANNOT copy another article without 1) italicizing the entirety of the portion copied, 2) directly saying that this is someone else's article and linking to it immediately, and 3) not copying more than a few sentences or a small paragraph. If you need all of the information provided in the article put it into your own words and still link to the original article.

Regarding pictures from magazines, etc, make sure that they are for public use and not illegally scanned or copied. Also, only post a few, not an entire gallery. Always, always, always, link back to the original owner of the pictures so that they receive credit for their work/ownership.

Videos also are an issue. Typically videos found on YouTube can be stolen from the owners original website, another big no, no. Try to find the video on the owner's site before falling back onto something possibly illegal on YouTube. Again, link to the owner of the video, as usual.

To enforce these rules we will no longer just be giving grace, I'm sorry. You will be allowed three chances/or three graces regarding copyright issues and if Daryl or I need to talk with you regarding infringement that we see or we get legally notified about, we will have to remove you from TwilightBlog.net.

To ensure that you read the entirety of this post, I need every single writer to post underneath 1) "I ____ have read these regulations and agree to abide by them" and 2) discuss which area they think is the hardest to watch out for copyright issues and why OR which area regarding copyrights they believe that they struggle with possible wanting and/or posting material from.

If I do not receive these replies by the middle of next week (July 28th) you will be automatically removed from TwilightBlog.

'Eclipse' Reviews, Cleaning Up the Site, & Good Clean Posts

Dear All,

With Eclipse on the horizon in just over three weeks we need to make our posts as concentrated on Eclipse themes, photos, info, actors and actresses, etc. Feel free to write any of your own creative pieces having to deal with or that revolve around Eclipse.

All of you also have the chance to, once you see the movie, to write a review of the movie and post it on the site. We are looking for 500-750 words for reviews. Our readers/fans will also have this opportunity. A few photos of your experience are also allowed in the post/review. Let me (Tara) know here with a comment if you plan on doing a review and when you are going to see the movie so I know around when to expect to see a review from you on the site.

I am cleaning up tags and the site some more and plan on getting a character list of the characters we are behind on having profiles done for. If you would like to be given a character or two to do profiles for, let me know here as a comment as well. The profiles will have to be done in the usual format and approved by me before posting.

An issue we need to address in general is quality of posts. Posts are getting sloppy again and titles massively long. Rules to remember (but please, all of you need to refer back to the guidelines for more in-depth instructions: go here):

1)Titles are short and sweet and describe the post. Robert can be shorted to Rob and "And" to "&" etc. If on the "Posting" tab your title is cut off with "..." then it is too long. An every once in a while exception is okay.

2)Combine posts if there is little info or it is about the same night/event/person. We want quality over quantity!

3)DO NOT post a video without an explanation, photos either. There needs to be 50-100 words a post!

4)Make sure you are tagging appropriately and are not forgetting tags. There should be 2-4 tags for a post, some have many more...

5)DO NOT MAKE TAGS/LABELS!

6)I have made a new Tag/Label, one that has been discussed in the past: "Promotional" this is for any charity events, Twilight Saga promo events, etc that are....Promotional! Ta da. Use this to label/tag them, not names of the events!

-I really do not like having to go through posts at the end of the day and clean them up and change all of these things...so please make quality, NOT quantity.

New 'Twitter' Tag

I have now added a 'Twitter' tag for posts when information is pulled off of Twitter. If y'all could help me out and try and remember the last few posts you did that included Twitter and add the tag that would be great. I'm not asking for all your posts, just the last few so that tag gets a start.

Administrative Updating on TwilightBlog

Hey guys, as today has been on going I (Tara) have been working on cleaning up the site which is taking forever. However, as I have been working on tags all afternoon I wanted to bring a few things to your attention.

1) Please make sure you have 2-3 tags, ALWAYS! On rare occasions you will only have one, however, I have fixed TOO MANY that either have inappropriate tags or only one tag when there are 2-5 available for that post.

2) I am deleting some tags that were not getting used like we had hoped and creating some new ones. 'Werewolves' and 'Vampires' are now gone, for instance. Now I have created a 'Debate On Twilight' tag which is for those posts that are on your own thoughts, or debates/interviews between Twilight actors/fans/etc against those not for Twilight or for another series. The term for this tag is to be used generally, it does not literally have to be a debate, just your thoughts basically.

3) I have edited the New Moon (still working on this one), Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and Midnight Sun tags to have 'Update' after the movie/book name. These I think were confusing people as to what they applied to. So now it should be obvious that the tag applies to any New Moon Update (book or movie), etc. Also, now that we are on the 3rd movie I have finally added a 'Twilight Update' tag. So for anything specifically for the Twilight movie/book you can use this tag. I am trying to go through old posts and add that tag were needed.

4) I also edited the 'Twilight Merchandise' tag because it seemed to only be applied to the Twilight movie/book merchandise when it was meant for the whole Twilight Saga. So it is now the 'Twilight Saga Merchandise' tag.

5) I wanted to ask it y'all would think it appropriate to have a 'Rumor', 'Twitter', 'Promotional' tags? Any feed back for those? 'Twitter' seems really vague and I would only want it used for when people/actors/etc. actually post to Twitter and we report it. Please let me know what y'all think of those three.

Updating TwilightBlog

Hello Bloggers!

With Eclipse coming out in about two months we need to get the site ready for release of the 3rd Twilight movie. How this is done will not only include a re-vamp of the website design but the types of posts "allowed." Publicity is really starting to roll on Eclipse so we need to be reporting on the movie and book, not about actors from previous moves and what magazine they have posed for recently. While we strive to bring everything Twilight to our readers when it comes to a new Twilight release we need to change, especially, what we post. So please, when you post make sure everything about Eclipse has been posted that you have found or know of BEFORE you take time to post about a recent activity of Rachelle Lefevre, a random Rob sighting, etc.

Thanks for all the hard work!

TwilightBlog Guidelines

TwilightBlog Guidelines

Here are a quick, hopefully, set of guidelines to make your posting easier here at TwilightBlog. The guidelines are not meant to restrict, but to help keep TwilighBlog uniform and clean while also presenting our audience with information of interest. You are REQUIRED & MUST read our guidelines and the quick links section. I suggest you print out this guidelines post and keep it with you for a few days until it becomes routine. These guidelines are not hard, and some of them are for copyright and legal reasons, they MUST BE DONE!

1) Titles: Be creative with your titles while also incorporating what the post is about (creativity with the titles will be limited, we recognize, so just do with it what you can!). Also, do not make them really long, just be precise! Also, avoid using "video" and "picture" in your title. You can always still say "Robert Pattinson on Ellen" or "Ashley Greene At Charity Event" without having to say "Video of Robert Pattinson on Ellen" or "Pictures of Ashley Greene at Charity Event." Long title take too long to read and generally wont accurately describe the post so if under "Edit Posts" your title is cut off by "..." then it is TOO LONG!

2) Tags/Labels: DO NOT create new tags. Tags help our readers find more material and so I (Tara) have created specific tags (and continually work on them) that will best present more posts and categorize material for our readers. Click on "Edit Posts" to see all the tags listed on the left hand side to get familiar with that tags we tend to use! Generally most posts have 2-4 tags. You cannot not tag a post! We will know when you have created a new tag, Tara has them memorized!

3) Pictures: please use the newest pictures available, not ones several years old. Don't forget to insert a title into the Alt tags (alt=""). Access this by selecting the "Edit HTML" tab (as opposed to Compose). For more information on filling out the alt tags, click here.

Also, check your post after it's on the site to ensure that the size of the picture doesn't overflow into the sidebar and that the text flows smoothly around it. Make sure you if you are posting a "gallery" of pictures that you have 3-4 pictures (this keeps people on our site as much as possible instead of just giving them the url to see the rest of the photographs after only one picture) and that they are 400-500 px wide (when pictures are small our viewers cannot see them properly). In other words the picture(s) should look like this:

4) Quality: Quality is of great importance! Make your news, video, or information entertaining and well written for the audience. Your can ALWAYS write a paragraph no matter the subject. This includes your own personality, don't leave that out!

5) Questions: If you are unsure of anything, just save your work as a draft and then get help via the blog's board from Daryl or Tara. Your question may be useful to all, so don't be shy! If you have a question simply post a new post here on the board and ask away. Daryl or Tara will get to you as soon as we see it and comment back with an answer!

6) Gossip: This is a touchy subject and hard to deal with as things done in public, are well, public. For the most part at TwilightBlog we do not like to speculate when there really is not any evidence and they are just rumors. However, if there is a picture that makes something obvious, that is fine. We just ask that you point out both sides of the "argument" for the picture and don't just start saying somebody did something when they may have not. Just present the evidence well and let the audience do the speculating.

7) Sources: Not everything needs a source. However, if your information is coming from an article (which is somebody else's work) then you MUST give credit. The correct way to do this is: {via SOURCE} Replace SOURCE with the source name and hyperlink to the article. This is placed at the end. You are only providing a source if you have used someone's WRITTEN work. You do not need to source photos or videos.

8) Italics: If you have written a lengthy article this may get annoying, but it is proper grammatics. Please italicize movies and TV shows. Do not use "" in a post, italicize!

9) Capitalization: In the headlines please capitalize every letter except prepositions. Also, use basic capitalization rules when writing (proper names, titles, first letter of sentence, etc.)

10) Post Length: If your post is more than 5 sentences, please try and break it into at least 2 paragraphs so that our readers eyes flow over it better. We always say that there is SOMETHING that you can write, so posts need to be at least 50 words (generally this happens with a video or single picture).

11) Videos: Please make sure the video is no wider than 500px. Also, NEVER post just a video, ensure that you include a short synopsis about the video and why it's interesting. This text should always precede the video. You must always tag/label a video!

12) Font Colors: Please do not change or alter the color of the font. This messes with how the posts look and we have it the way it needs to be. This includes when you hyperlink - so do not change the color of text or links.

13) Other Works: As our favorite Twilight actors work on other projects we LOVE to keep our fans updated on what they are doing. However, since we are a Twilight website we need to be careful on the quantity of those posts. This does not mean you do not have to slow down on posting information on their other projects but you need to simply just combine the pictures, videos, and information so the quantity of those posts appears to be less. An easy way to do this is to start a draft on "so and so's" new movie and add information until you have 2-4 items pertaining to it before posting. This gets all the same information to our views but makes it appear like we are still mainly Twilight. Ta da! "Problem" solved!

14) Grammar: Please use correct grammar, this MUST HAPPEN! Check your posts and edit them. We have actually can and do get complaints from readers about this. Take your time, this isn't a test or a race.

15) Sending Readers to Another Site: If possible, do not always give an option to go see the "rest" of something, this makes readers leave our site, however, it will have to be cited, of course!

16) Posting Copyrighted Material and Personal Information: Please be careful when posting information or pictures that belong to another source, company, or magazine. Some are very particular when it comes to their copyrighted material that has recently been published and we have had to deal with some copyright infringement issues over time with various companies. Another thing to be careful about is personal information of a fan, reader, or anyone involved in the Saga. If you have not been given permission by the actual person involved to post their Facebook page, e-mail, personal website, etc then DO NOT do it. We have received justified complaints regarding this and it should not happen.

Please Note: Christmas

Hey Bloggers!

Thank you for all your hard work! With Christmas just a few days away we know some of you may be traveling and be away from internet. Don't stress about having to post, just do what you can, when you can around Christmas and your travels.

Merry Christmas!

-Tara

How To: Labels/Tags

Hey TwilightBlog Writers!

You're all doing a really good job (especially for just starting out!) One thing we wanted to bring to your attention was the importance of filling out the 'labels' (right under where you type your main post). Just type 2 or 3 keywords (as you start to type them, they will show up, so if you type 'robert' then "robert thomas pattinson" will show up because we've used it before). The box for the labels/tags in located underneath the text box where you write your posts. Typically when you start typing someone's name (for example) it will appear for you. Tags include people, movie names, some genres, etc.

Thanks everyone!

-Daryl

How To: "alt" Tags

Hey guys!

"alt" tags are extremely important to fill in on TwilightBlog. Basically, they show up whenever you insert a picture into your post. To fill in the "alt" tags, go to your "edit html" tab (as opposed to the "compose" tab), find where the picture is, and you'll notice some text that reads:

alt=" "

Within those quotes you're going to want to type 2 or 3 words that describe the picture, i.e., "Robert Pattinson Shirtless" or, "Jacob Black Motorcycle."

Thanks, everyone!

-Daryl

How To: Getting Started with TwilightBlog

Once you have been added to TwilightBlog Guidelines (this blog!) you will be instituted within a few days onto TwilightBlog.net's part of Blogger. You will get another e-mail asking you accept from Blogger to join TwilightBlog.net on Blogger. Once you accept you are free to post! Find your own news and have at it! We don't give out jobs so you can learn how to find information and have creativity with what you choose to do. You can post immediately when you find something you believe is worthy of notice!

Happy posting guys! Glad to have y'all!

Holiday Policy

I wanted to throw out what is hopefully understood, but if not, I'll say it anyways: with Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas being the biggest holidays of each year and are holidays that are meant for friends and family, we do not expect anyone to work and post on those days. Take a day off and enjoy those around you! Enjoy the love, food, and fun! If you need to take other time off just let us know via e-mail: TwilightBlog.net@gmail.com

How To: Using the Boards

Using the Boards

This site is to help us as the TwilightBlog working community to keep up with each other/our work on the site.

This is to help you and your fellow workers know what is going on and any updates that need to be taken into consideration. We ask that you follow the site with your Blogger account so that you see the updates in the feed when new things are posted. This is in case you forget to do a quick check daily to make sure you haven't missed anything.

If Daryl and Tara have any updates for you guys we will post in here for all to see and benefit from. If you have questions about what we post just comment so we can all benefit from the question or comment.

If you have a question not about a posting please create a new post with your question! Just 1) tag it as a question and 2) head it with "Question: (whatever the questions about)". Daryl or Tara will get back to you quickly and respond in a comment so again, we can all benefit from it.

While it may feel weird posting for all to see, whether a question or comment, it really does benefit us all. If you have that question, somebody else probably has it, too! However, if something is actually a private matter (time off, etc.) please e-mail Daryl and Tara via TwilightBlog.net@gmail.com