submit-story.html

---
layout: page
title: Submit Story For The API Report
---

<p class="mytitle">Submit A Story</p>

<p>If you would like to submit a story:</p>
<ol>
<li>Check our editorial policy for what we cover - <a href="http://api.report/editorial-policy.html">http://api.report/editorial-policy.html</a></i>
<li>You can submit in two ways:
	<ol>
		<li>(preferred) as a pull request) - see below.</li>
		<li>by email.</li> 
	</ol>
<li>You can also become a regular contributor - see below.</li>
</ol>

<p>All post are subject to editorial control and we operate on a strictly best effort basis. We reserve the right to reject any post without giving reasons.</p> 

<p><strong>Become A Contributor</strong></p>   
   
<p>The API Report is open for anyone in the API comunity to post, all you need is a Github account. The API Report runs on Github, using Jekyll and Github Pages as the front-end site you experience. To submit a post, all you to is fork the repository, and add your story under the _posts folder. If you need a primer on <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/docs/posts/">how to craft a Jekyll post, visit the Jekyll website</a>, as they provide some great content to get you up to speed.</p>   

<p>When ready, submit a pull request for your story. Once a pull request is received on the gh-pages branch of API Report, an editor will make a decision on quality, and whether it meets the format guidelines below. Not all posts will be accepted, but rejections will come with feedback on how to change and make more acceptable.</p>
   
<p><strong>Story Format</strong></p>  
   
<p><a href="http://api.report/2014/08/03/bitly-updates-their-privacy-policy/"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/kinlane-productions/api-report/api-report-format-example.png" align="right" width="250" style="padding: 15px;" /></a></p>   
   
<p>The API Report is meant to provide an easy to read format, allowing anyone to quickly scan the daily API news, and if they want more detail they can visit linked websites for more information.</p>

<p>After four years of publishing API analysis on <a href="http://apievangelist.com">API Evangelist</a>, you start to get a feel for the format readers prefer, something I've adapted to be the API Report format:
    
<ul>
    <li>Informative, catchy title</li>
    <li>Simple opening paragraph</li>
    <li>Details of the news in bullets or paragraph format</li>
    <li>Quick wrapup paragraph</li>
    <li>Single photo</li>
    <li>Link to more information</li>
</ul>

<p>The goal is to provide a summary of the news, without adding much analysis or opinion, allowing readers to quickly get up to speed and decide if they want to click, and receive more information.</p>

<p>While the editorial process is fairly open, we will be looking for posts that stick to this simple format, avoiding longer pieces that are over 500 words. We will provide feedback with any posts that are rejected, giving authors a chance to better understand the format.</p>

<p>If you have any feedback, <a href="https://github.com/kinlane/api-report/issues">submit as issue</a>, or <a href="https://github.com/kinlane/api-report">fork the repository</a> and make the changes, and submit a pull request.</p>

<p><strong>Posting Checklist</strong></p>  

<p>Here are a few things to consider when submitting your post:</p>

<ul>
    <li>Make your post file name in this format YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-your-post.html</li>
    <li>Make sure your YAML header material uses quotes for text or single quotes when appropriate</li>
    <li>Put all your photos under /image/[github user folder] - which you will have to create the first time</li>
</ul>
<p>More items will be added to the checklist as the project matures, so check back often. If you have any problems posting <a href="https://github.com/kinlane/api-report/issues">submit a Github issue</a> for the repository.</p>