The heart of GenSport United is to promote the platform and build our community.  We are quite proud of what we have built and are always looking for ways that we can expand our efforts to do even more good.  The GSU Car Blog was started as a way to dispell myths, answer questions, and help our members get the most out of their cars.  To that end, we have a few rules we’ll ask you to abide by as a writer for GSU…

  1. GSU Car blog is not a political, social, or religious platform.  The intent of the blog is to help our members, not create controversy or piss people off.  Make sure that what you write follows this guideline.
  2. When you post an article, post a link to that post on the GSU FB page to promote it.  You will generate discussion and questions… please don’t be offended and go on the attack if someone doesn’t necessarily agree with what you wrote.  You can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time.  Use the FB discussion to clear up any misunderstandings, and if necessary, make the appropriate updates to your post to clear up any future misunderstandings.
  3. Stick to the facts!  If you reference a number, fact, or article, be sure you know where you got that number and reference it if need be.  You can use the tag (note) and (/note) (use square brackets [ ] and not round ones) to create a footnote.  Just add what you want in your footnote between the tags and WordPress will handle placement for you.
  4. Proofread!  Your articles are a reflection of you.  When you fail to proofread, you open yourself up to criticism for something other than what you were writing about.  Grammatical and spelling errors distract from your message.  If you are not sure, get someone to proofread for you!  Don’t click the “publish” button until you know that it’s right.  If you find a mistake later, just correct it.  Don’t make a big deal about it.
  5. Don’t be a dick!  Yeah… that rule still applies here.  Again, the point of the blog is to inform and to help.  If your post doesn’t fit into one of these two categories… don’t publish it!
  6. Your post does NOT have to be car related… but it should be related to GSU in some kind of way.  If you have a new way to cook bacon that you want to share… have at it…. but if you want to discuss needlepoint, there might be other forums better suited to this type of article.
  7. Gensport United does not promote nor do we endorse any products or services.  While there are very good products and vendors out there, our position is that we would like to stay neutral.  We don’t want to play the “fanboy” wars… and promoting one product over another inevitably becomes an argument about what brand is best.  We are just happy we have choices.
  8. Try not to get a stick up your butt and have a good time with it!  There are few things more satisfying than helping folks through their problems… but we can’t discuss those here.
  9. Try to stay current!  You’ll find that certain topics run in waves…such as…. (what oil should I use?)  I suspect that this is because people see the question and begin to question their own setups as well… but because the question asked didn’t answer their specific problem, they ask again… in a different way.  Stay in touch with the pulse of the community and stay current with the issues!
  10. If you want to Vlog… that’s cool too… you can embed your video into a post as easily as writing one… just make sure you still do an extract (a summary) of your topic and attach the appropriate categories so that your Vlog can be searched and found.  As we add new content, your entry will get pushed further and further down the line… we don’t want it to get totally lost.  Proper cataloging and summarizing can prevent that from happening.
  11. Your intellectual property is your own.  You will get full credit for any articles you write.  You are granting GSU to publish your article in perpetuity; however, GSU makes no claims to your ideas, writings, or videos.  You are free to republish your work wherever you like without requesting any permission from GSU.  Additionally, at your request, GSU will delete any submission that you have made in the past if it is your wish for us to do so.
  12. Once we promote your account to “Contributor”, please go to the profile page and update your information.. especially your biography… which will show at the bottom of each of your posts.  We like for our readers to know who the information is coming from and why they should listen to you.
  13. When we initially promote your account to “Contributor” you will not have rights to direct publish your articles.  You will have to submit them for review.  As you mature as a writer and we feel confident in your submissions we will add the ability to direct publish for yourself without a review.  You can edit your submission at any time.
  14. If you have never used WordPress or blogged before, we can help you with the interface.  We use a plug-in called “Magee Shortcodes” to help embed things like videos and animation.  This is a form driven tool, so no coding experience is required on your part.
  15. I’ll think up some more stuff… tips and other things that I’ll put down here.  In the meantime, if you still think this is for you, let me know and we’ll get you hooked up!

Bob

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