01-26-2014, 12:12 PM
The Daily Prophet
a guide to submissions: who, what, and how
a guide to submissions: who, what, and how
What to Submit
There is a wide variety of article types that can be submitted to the Daily Prophet. While the staff will handle broad events that will effect the entire board, if something newsworthy happens to your character feel free to submit an article. A newsworthy event should either be especially spectacular, involve prominent members of society, or be of undeniable interest to other characters. When in doubt, ask a member of the staff!In the event that a character other than yours is involved in an article you write, you must get consent from the players of all characters involved. The exception to this is Advice Column entries and Letters to the Editor, in which your character may ICly mention who,ever you like! Just remember that IC name dropping might lead to IC consequences; also, if your character's letter might have significant impact on the development of another character, please discuss it with their player first. You may also jointly write articles with other players.
Members may mark threads at the top with specific justification as to why their characters will not be caught, but it is by no means required, and threads that are marked but do not show suitable methods of discretion will be subject to IC consequences regardless.
If you find a thread that you think is deserving of consequences, don't hesitate to contact a staff member or hag!
Examples of What to Submit
- Upper Class Engagements and Weddings. If two members of the Upper Class are marrying, this is considered newsworthy. However, be sure to include a lot of detail! Why is the engagement of interest? What was the wedding like? Think about colors, flowers, and fabrics. The point of this sort of article is to catch the interest of the masses and either let people who could not be there feel like they were or to let people on the outside connect with those on the inside. Think about tabloids and gossip magazines!
Scandal. Did that upper class business just marry a lower class woman? Is she pregnant? Did an upper class woman get caught with a stable boy? Anything shocking and scandalous about the upper class could be written about.
Crime. Little crimes aren't interesting but murder, burglary of wealthy homes and businesses, kidnapping, and other such headline-grabbing events are all free game to write up.
Deaths. Especially sudden deaths and deaths in the upper class.
- Lower Class Society. Let's face it: the doings of average citizens don't end up in the paper.
Anything that Only Effects a Few Characters. Think about things from the point of view of characters other than the one you're writing about. Would they care? No one really wants to open the paper and read about what was served for lunch on Tuesday or petty fights between two students.
NPC Reporters
When you write an article, please choose the appropriate NPC as the reporter for the article.Olla Mirage
- Breaking News! The top reporter at the Daily Prophet, Olla covers whatever is on the front page be it politics, crime, or scandal. Reserved for staff use.
- Crime and Politics. Ian covers the everyday crime reports and political action. He might not get as much notoriety as Olla, but he claims this is because he cares more about the truth than seeing his name above the center fold on the front page.
- Social and Gossip. The replacement of Yente Ventus, Mrs. Fidelia Spiller is a nosy woman whose husband is dreadfully boring but has an excellent mustache. Marriages, births, deaths, scandalous sitings and more are all her domain.
- Sports. The latest quidditch victories, changes in teams, upcoming matches - though Mitch is supposedly required to write on all sports, almost exclusively his columns have been on things to do with quidditch.
- Advice. Mabel Knott is the good-natured replacement of Harmony Aidworth. Either submit your letter and her response or write a letter seeking advice and post it here to get a response from Miss Aidworth in the Daily Prophet.
- Staff Writer. Gulliver gets the worst assignments. Whatever the other Daily Prophet employees don't want to cover, he gets stuck with. As bad as it sounds, he's fine with it as it means that he can travel the world and cover natural disasters, new inventions, and everything in between. Use Gulliver Doran when none of the other NPC reporters fit what you need.
- Letters to the Editor. Does your character have something to say? Feel free to submit a letter to the editor!
Submit an Article
Simply fill out the following form and PM it to the Daily Prophet account, as well at least one Gossipmongering Hag to make sure we see it! If we get multiple articles for the same day they will be grouped into the same thread; otherwise each article will get its own thread. With five people all sharing DP duties, it's hard to know which articles have already been sifted through; please make the title of your PM the date you wish the article to be published to ensure it doesn't get overlooked!Headline:
Subtitle:
Article Date: The article will be posted on the date you put, so please get articles in at least one day ahead of time. If it doesn't need to be on a specific date, please just give us a range.
Reporter: Either choose one of the NPCs listed above or write your character's name if it's a letter to the editor. If you play a journalist, you are encouraged to publish under their name(s).
OOC Author(s):
Picture: Optional. At least 450px wide. It will be included at 450px wide in black and white, so you may pre-edit or let the staff edit the picture for you.
Quote:Article goes here.
Code:
[b]Headline:[/b]
[b]Subtitle:[/b]
[b]Article Date:[/b]
[b]Reporter:[/b]
[b]OOC Author(s):[/b]
[b]Picture:[/b]
[quote]Article goes here.[/quote]