theblogpaper.co.uk is a news community which allows anyone to publish written and visual work online and in print. Rating and commenting, in other words the community defines what gets promoted to the front pages as well as to the printed version. theblogpaper publishes the first user-generated newspaper in London.
Members of theblogpaper write, rate and discuss content and therefore “make the news”. The main concept of theblogpaper is that many people are in control of what others are going to receive. Instead of a few people controlling the majority of what is being published and therefore read, theblogpaper aims to put the majority in charge.
What is different about theblogpaper?
We aim to combine two different yet equally important types of media: internet and print. theblogpaper is generally speaking a simple tool to make your voice heard, and to reach beyond the “limitations of the web” to different audiences / readers. Members of theblogpaper are able to individually upload content (at the moment: articles, photos and notes ). The content may be rated as well as discussed by the community.
Rating and commenting defines promotion to print.
Content is promoted to printed edition of theblogpaper depending on how well the content is rated / discussed. The community therefore defines content that is “valuable” and worth printing / distributing to others. theblogpaper follows no political line other than democracy. We believe in the power of the community, rather than in the power of the individual. We believe that the “news-making” process and its attached viewpoints and opinions should be under the control of many rather than a few.
At the moment theblogpaper.co.uk is still running in beta mode, so please be kind changes in functionality will be added over time.
RULES:
Please read these rules carefully. If you choose to participate in theblogpaper you have to be aware of the following rules. Please note that you also fully agree to the Terms of Service!
IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THESE RULES WE WILL IMMEDIATELY BLOCK YOUR ACCOUNT AND REMOVE ALL OF YOUR CONTENT! (Sorry, but we have to be strict on that…)
1. Do not upload material that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual. You can talk about that in your local, but even there people probably won’t listen to you!
2. Do not steal content. Your work MUST BE ORIGINAL!
3. Do NOT SPAM! You know it's incredibly annoying. -
- Anything we may consider to be spam or (aggressive) promotion will be removed!
WE WILL REMOVE ANY PROMOTIONAL ARTICLES WITHOUT ANY FURTHER NOTICE!
4. All content has to be in English.
5. Not more than 1 Article per day! - Focus on quality rather than quantity.
IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THESE RULES WE WILL IMMEDIATELY BLOCK YOUR ACCOUNT AND REMOVE ALL OF YOUR CONTENT!
6. To be promoted to print your content item must have at least 5 votes (+100 reads) for now.
Please read the Terms of Service for details.
COPYRIGHTS:
By uploading content to theblogpaper.co.uk you grant us permission to publish your content on theblogpaper.co.uk and in theblogpaper (print). We will notify you prior to any print publication. If you find that somebody uploaded your content without your permission please contact us on copyright(at)theblogpaper(dot)co(dot)uk.
Please read the Terms of Service for details.
IMAGE REQUIREMENTS:
All images have to be .jpeg or .gif format ( minimum width: 540px 72dpi ) for best results! But keep the overall file size as small as possible to keep loading times for your content as low as possible.
Important: Once your images are promoted to theblogpaper, we will contact you to request high quality files suitable for print, e.g. 300dpi.
ALL POSTS THAT DO NOT FOLLOW THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY!
What is the purpose of theblogpaper?
The aim is to publish a monthly and free newspaper in London. It’s a monthly summary of the “best” content that got published on theblogpaper.co.uk. The difference to other free publications is that theblogpaper consists exclusively of user submitted content. Content is researched, written and contributed by members of the theblogpaper.co.uk. Furthermore the community decides what is promoted to the publication, defining what sort of content is worth reading / printing. The community is therefore not only in charge of creating the contents of the paper, they are also responsible for editing the paper. Theblogpaper is a summary of the content that has made the biggest impact on the community.
Why a newspaper?
Our aim is to provide the opportunity to bloggers, citizen journalists, photographers and other “content creators” to reach out to new audiences. Theblogpaper gives those who participate the opportunity to break free from the blogosphere. On the other hand it creates a overview of the most important things that happened in a printed form for people who do not have the time to constantly search the blogosphere for the most valuable content. And it might be interesting for readers who in the first place haven’t read any blogs at all. Our prior goal is to create a platform for members to get their content out, and possibly gain new readers / followers for their blogs 7 websites.
The content...
The content of the paper is edited following the hierarchical order of the categories views on the website, meaning politics first followed by business, environment, culture…etc. In the paper, categories are distributed evenly throughout the available space. But we adjust that to whatever has been used most by the community. If we receive more content on “politics” than on “design” we will dedicate more space to “politics”. Every piece of content we print will feature a couple of stats that indicate who created this piece of content and a URL linking back directly to the source of the content – to drive traffic back to the content creator.
We encourage our community to engage in healthy participation as well as discussion around the news-making process. Our goal is to create a community which has complete control over every part of the news-making process (e.g. writing, rating, editing). The newspaper will therefore be a compilation of what the community (many people) filtered and found accurate, or worth sharing with others. You have to be aware that by participating you fully agree to the Terms of Service of this community as well as the Privacy Policy.
Content Types
There are several different content types users may upload. We are currently working on new ways to expand the range of content types into new and specific areas. You are welcome to add your thoughts to existing content types as well as helping us to create the content types that you believe could be a good addition to the existing ones...
At the moment there are 3 different content types available to theblogpaper community...
Articles:
Articles can be assigned to categories and can be uploaded with an image relating to the content. This image will also be shown in an "article teaser". Rating and commenting are vital to the promotion of articles to the "front pages" of the categories, as well as to the printed version of theblogpaper. The community defines (via rating) what sort of content is worth spreading.Comments/opinions on articles are a vital part of the news-making process because creating a discussion around a subject broadens one's view about it. Therefore comments will be included in the printed newspaper. That means it's worth commenting a little more than just: "Lol i think this sucks lol!"
Notes:
Notes are the second, equally important type of content. Users are able to upload an image or screenshot of something they think is worth sharing with the rest of the community. If a note and therefore the content that the link refers to receives high ratings, we will contact the person responsible for the content and arrange publication.
Photos - (Images/ Illustrations / Visuals):
“Photos” give users the chance to upload up to 10 images (relating to the same context, e.g. photos of an event, etc.), as well as to write short descriptions about every individual image. Photos can be rated as well as discussed (in the same manner as articles). For copyright issues see Terms and Conditions.
Rating
Rating promotes content to print. So if you upload an article or publish some photos and the community likes your content, by rating it high (5 points = best rating | 1 point = worst rating) we will take your content and publish it in the weekly printed edition of theblogpaper. We are aiming to give content creators (e.g. bloggers / young journalists / photographers, etc.) the opportunity to reach audiences beyond the limitations of the web and possibly reach readers who are not constantly up to date with the news online.
1. What is theblogpaper?
Our goal is to create a community which has complete control over every part of publishing a newspaper (e.g. writing, rating, editing). The publication will be a compilation of what the community filtered or found accurate (via rating and commenting), and therefore declared worth sharing with others. Theblogpaper publishes a monthly “best of” what got published online.
You have to be aware that by participating you fully agree to the Terms of Service of this community as well as the Privacy Policy.
2. How does theblogpaper work?/ Who creates content?
Registered Users of theblogpaper are able to upload content (Articles, Notes and Photos). The community rates and discusses the content. Promotion to print depends on how well your content is rated and discussed. The advantage of having many writers in one community is that it makes the content diverse and broadens the range of opinions.
3. Who decides what will be promoted to category frontpages and the paper?
You decide. The community is responsible for the content which is promoted to the paper. Every new Article can be found in the “latest articles” section. Users are able to filter the articles by category.
4. The paper?
The newspaper consists entirely of user submitted content. The purpose of the paper is to give a monthly overview of the most important content submitted by the community, and therefore to reflect the community's general perception of “valuable” content.
5. Articles VS. Notes ?
A “Note” is a visual reference / link to an existing (preferably interesting) piece of content. We will contact the owner of the content and ask their permission to publish if it receives good ratings.
6. What about comments?
Comments are an essential way to broaden someone’s opinion about a certain subject.
Comments therefore not only play a significant part within the online community but are being promoted to print as well! The main idea behind promoting comments to the paper is to encourage the community to engage into a constructive discussion around a certain subject /piece of content.
7. What about Copyright ?
Generally speaking you will have to own copyright to any content (except notes) you upload to theblogpaper.co.uk network. By uploading you give us permission to print your content (article, photos, comments, etc.) in the printed (and .pdf) version of theblogpaper.co.uk. If one of your posts (articles, etc.) is promoted to print, we will contact you prior to the publication in case you would like to publish additional info (see next question).
8. So, let's say the community likes my article and it is being promoted to print. What exactly will you post?
The written content and additional visuals have absolute priority. But we will also publish your name, the URL of your blog and rating results (i.e. how well your article has been received by the community). If your article has caused a debate, meaning lots of other community members commented on your article, we will also publish the comments which the community rated as valuable.
9. Ok, I still have a question!
If you have any other questions please contact us at feedback(at)theblogpaper(dot)co(dot)uk
theblogpaper featured on channel 4 news on the 21st of November 2009
It is really simple to post your content on theblogpaper. First you REGISTER for an account. You may customize it as much as you like but we insist that you do not post private information. Your profile will be accessible for the general public so be careful! Now you got your profile you may start posting content. Please read the Rules carefully!
