When posting news make sure that the story is relatively new. It should also be related to the topic of the NewsBoiler site you are posting on. In the case of N4G it should be Game related. Whenever possible always link to the original news source.
Try to find stories that you think the community will find interesting. There is also room for smaller stories, however that you are giving away a free t-shirt at your personal blog might not be considered very newsworthy by the community.
Posting rumors is fine as long as you make it clear in your post that it is a rumor. The rumor should also come from a somewhat credible source. A lot of people make up rumors on internet forums so be careful to check the source before posting. Submitting a rumor allows the community to vote on if they think it is true or not.
Articles should be of interest to the community and be professional and well written. The story type "Article" should only be used for objective or informative journalism.
Articles that are of a more speculative nature or where the author shares his or her opinion should be filed as an Opinion Piece when selecting story type. The opinion piece should be well written and be of interest to the community. Personal blogs do not qualify as a legit source for opinion pieces unless the author is an industry professional.
When posting videos avoid linking directly to videos on YouTube or a similar service. You should only post videos if the content of the video is professionally made and of interest to the community. User made videos can only be posted if other big websites or blogs have posted them; making them newsworthy. When posting videos, they should be embedded on the N4G submission when embed codes are provided. Videos from YouTube, IGN, GameTrailers, and Gamespot almost always provide embed codes to users.
When posting reviews of a product, movie or video game make sure the product is still new and of interest to the community. The review should also be from an established website or publication. Reviews from personal blogs and web forums do not count as a legit source unless the person is an industry professional. Reviews should be well written and of interest to the community.
The site will automatically detect if you try to post a story with the same URL as one that has already been posted. However many sites cover the same stories so before posting a story always check the pending news area to see if it is already posted through a different source. If the story posted is not the original source of the story it is OK to make a new post but only if it links to the original source of the story. If your story is not the original source you must post it as an alternative source. To do this click on the news post which covers the same story as the one you wanted to post. Now click on gear icon and the "Add Alternative Source" link. This way your news post will get attached to the original news post as an alternative source.
Sometimes a site does an interview with an industry professional where newsworthy information is revealed deep inside the interview. Other websites often create separate news stories focusing on specific bits of information that are of special interest to their readers. Even if the original interview is already posted it is OK to also post these side stories if the original post did not focus on this newsworthy information.
When posting a story, always link to the original source of the story. Many websites recycle news from other websites, so whenever possible try and track down the true source of the story and use that site's story as the basis for your news post. You can still give credit to the website you first found the story on by putting their address in the "Credit URL" form.
Word to webmasters and staff members: You should always submit using the original source URL where you found the news. You can input your article you wrote on your website in the "Credit URL" box.
Internet forums and message boards do not normally qualify as a reliable source. However, linking to images and videos posted on forums is OK. You can also link to forum posts if the post is made by an industry professional. Twitter posts are also an acceptable source of news, but only if they are made by an industry professional.
Always use a clean and professional language in your news posts. Do not use exclamation marks (!) in your sentences. Do not add your personal comment or opinion to the news post; simply report the news in an easy to read and objective way. When possible, always use the original headline of the source article for your headline when possible. Do not create your own headlines unless the original headline doesn't make any sense when posted on another site. A good example of this is for reviews, previews, and impressions.
When copying text from the source article make sure you read over the text and edit it if necessary. A good example is when a site writes "We" or "I" , as this should then be replaced with the site's or person's name, or you can quote the source.
An article on Cnet.com reads "We take a closer look at the next big thing."
When posting this article on a NewsBoiler site it should be edited to read "Cnet takes a closer look at the next big thing" or "Cnet writes: We take a closer look at the next big thing."
This will only take a few seconds and the news post will make much more sense to the readers.
Submitting your stories to a NewsBoiler site can be a great way to promote your site and to gain new readers. When creating a news post linking to your site always refer to yourself or your site in third person. Do not write "we" or "I", instead use your website's name when referring to your article. Also don't be too personal in your writing style, just write a clear and sober intro or description of your article. The text must give a clear picture of the news story and should contain some useful info. Do not only post teasers like "Want to know a secret? Read on and you will find out."
Also keep in mind that our editors retain the right to change the link of your news post if your article is not the original source of the story. If the main URL is changed your site will still get credit through a "Via Link".
We also recommend that you take advantage of the webmaster tools, this way your own readers can help submit your stories.
Make sure that both the text posted and the source story is within the posting rules before you give your vote for a news story to be approved. If you discover a problem or error with a story please use the report system so the author can make the necessary changes.
Be professional and responsible when posting news stories. Members who misuse their posting powers or fail to post news according to the sites guidelines will risk having their accounts degraded and will no longer be able to post news.
N4G gives you the option to add related tags to submissions to help other users find stories that relate to the games, companies, and industry professionals they care about. On the 2nd step (relations & preview tab) of the submission process, a list of potentially related tags is provided for you. If you do not see the correct tag, you can search for it. If a tag does not exist and you would like to create it, you can click the "create new" link below the relations box. Note regarding creating tags: Please do a thorough search before creating tags. Some games are listed under their formal name (example: "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" instead of "Uncharted 2"). Also, please be sure to check your spelling and platforms before adding the new tag.
Tags should only be added to submissions that are directly related to the tag. When submitting previews, impressions, and reviews, only the game tag should be added, and not the company tag. This aids users who search for company information, as their search will not be cluttered with previews and reviews of games, but instead will be filled with news and articles directly about the company. If users want to find a list of previews and reviews, they can search the game tag database instead.
