Hello all. Learning to change from the freewheeling nature of the channel to the more professional look of the site may seem hard and intimidating but it is super easy. These are all small things and while they may seem arbitrary, there is a good reason behind all of them to insure that the site stays easy to use and find things for users while making a good impression on new users. This will be a step by step guide to publishing an article. It may seem extensive but I want to make this as easy to follow as possible and by your second or third post this should become second nature If you have any questions, as always feel free to direct this to a mod. Daughter of Uhtred in particular is intimately familiar with all the bumps and struggles to make things work.

Step 1 – Start a new post
To start a new post you can either select the Write button in your header on the upper right side

Or you can select the My Site button on upper left side and then select the add button next to the Blog Posts

After you do that, WordPress offers the option to copy a previous post. If you wish to do so, look on the right hand side under Post Settings and then More Options.

If you select “Select a post to copy”, you will be taken to the screen below and you will be able to copy an old thread and make the necessary changes.

This can save a lot of work as you will be able to skip a number of the steps later on but is by no means necessary.

Step 2 – Title
If your post is the latest installment in a series (such as Open Threads or Parental Guidance), please do your best to keep the format of the title the same as the rest of them.

If you are doing a TV Show review, same deal and make sure to include the show name, episode number, and episode name so it is easy for people to find both now and in the future.

Since comment sections here don’t close, we want to make it easy for all those people who like going through episode reviews months or years in the future.

If this is a standalone post just title it so it’s clear what the subject is about.

Step 3 – Categories & Tags

Much as the Disqus channel forced you to pick a category before posting, we are doing the same here. On the right hand side under Post Settings you will find the Categories & Tags box.

There are a number of options available and they all correspond to the header on the main page so please stick to one of them, selecting Other if yours doesn’t fit.

This is purely to make your article appear under there whenever someone clicks on one of those buttons in the header and keep the number of categories manageable for the mods to maintain the site. If you select none, Uncategorized is automatically selected and it won’t show up anywhere besides the front page.

Now tags are where you should feel more comfortable to get more detailed or add your own.

Just start typing and suggestions based on already created tags will show up. Make sure to properly capitalize since it makes everything look nice and the tags are where the menus seen below are directly pulled from.

For shows, make sure you add the show’s name here. If it is a review of an older episode, use the tag Classic Coverage as well.

If this is a recurring thread, make sure to add the name of the thread as well since that is the only way it will show up when people click on the button on the menus to find it.

For now the Q&A type posts are grouped under Avocado Answers but this may be changed in the future if someone can think of a better name

Feel free to add more details though such as the subject matter (e.g. Horror, Peter Lorre), a tone (e.g. Funny Stories) or if you are feeling witty you can add a jokey tag (not recommended but I’m informed you folks are very defensive of your ability to do this so go ahead).

Step 4 – Writing

With all that boring (unless you are mad like I am) formatting out of the way, now it’s time to actually write something. There are two ways to write on WordPress, Visual and Html

Using Html is going to be basically the same as how you were used to posting in Disqus. It’s also what you should use if copying over an old thread from the channel. It’s the way I always used when I used WordPress years ago (and now) and shouldn’t require too much tutorializing. WordPress has even helpfully included a bar with any common Html tag you will need.

Visual is more akin to using Microsoft Word. There’s no need to worry about html code or closing your tags. If you want to bold something, just highlight it and hit the B button on the toolbar.

You can even switch between the two if you find certain things easier to do in one or the other.

Step 5 – Pictures and GIFs

Now comes the more complicated and confusing part, pictures and GIFs. If you are using a picture or GIF you have saved on your computer it’s easy, just drag the file into the text area and WordPress formats it for you.

You can also add by clicking on the Add button on the toolbar above and then hitting Media.

From here you have a number of options. You can select an image or GIF that has been used before on the site by anyone by clicking one of the images that show up below. They are sorted by date used. In the future, we hope to add in a better way to organize them all but for now, this is how it works.

The way I assume most of you will add though is from another site. You can just do this by copying the picture directly into the Visual editor. That is easy enough but there is one catch, for every article, we wish for you to add a featured image.

The featured image is located both above the title

And on the right hand side below Categories & Tags

If you do not create a featured image, the default for your category will appear.

If you wish to use a featured image from another site though, you will first have to add it to the WordPress library. It’s annoying but necessary. After hitting Add -> Media as described above, you will see a button that says Add New. Click the down arrow and then click Add via URL.

Paste the URL in as you would on the channel and hit upload and it will be automatically added to the library.

If you are asking why all this is necessary the answer is twofold. First of all, when you post it the Featured Image will look all nice at the top of your page for anyone visiting.

Also, this is the image you will see on the thumbnail before you click on the post (much like the channel)

Big images and ones that are more rectangle than square are preferable because they look the best and keep all those images in a nice little row like you see above instead of using a square image as you can see below. It’s not a requirement, it’s just one of those things that make the site look a little nicer for visitors.

Step 6 – Posting

You’ve done all that hard work and now you are ready to actually let people see it. Well before you do, you can hit the Preview button in the upper right corner and see what your beautiful new thread will look like on Desktops, Mobile, or Tablets.

It’s not a requirement and you can still fix your post later via the edit button but it’s a cool feature. There’s one more cool, but not required feature as well. Under Status on the right hand side, you can choose when you want your post to go up.

The default is immediately but you can also set the date or time for later (so you don’t even have to be at your computer for it to go up at a certain time if you are going to be away or if you just don’t want to worry about keeping the tab open) or earlier as we are going to ask you to do when we start the process of importing certain old threads.

When you’re done messing about, hit Publish… and your good to go!

This may seem a lot more complicated than you are used to but aside from the featured pictures (which I spent days and countless hours getting to even making it this easy and functional but if you are more familiar with WordPress and have an idea PLEASE shoot me a line) it really isn’t bad and it’ll be a quick adjustment. The mods will also be able to help out with the learning process and making sure everything runs smooth.

I’m excited for the new site and I think you guys have the potential to make it something wonderful, easy to use, and professional looking for years to come!