FAQ

General Info about BloggersBase, Bloggers and Readers

• What is BloggersBase?

  
  BloggersBase is an online magazine and also a community, giving everyone an equal and fair chance to be a contributing and influencing member.
  
  You can immediately become a blogger, contribute as a photographer, or publish your videos. On the other hand, if you are an avid reader, you can make your opinion known and influence the content of our magazine, effectively becoming an editor.
  
  BloggersBase aims to help its users to become professionals! BloggersBase also tries to the best of its capabilities to award highly talented members special prizes for their efforts and contribution.

• Joining as a Blogger – what's in it for me?

  
  We welcome every blogger, writer, journalist, photographer, videographer and artist to contribute to your favorite topic in our online magazine.
  You don't have to worry about anything but providing quality posts. We'll make sure your content appears next to challenging peers to match your level and take care exposing you to a large audience. Simply pick a topic you want to express yourself in and add a post which will contend for entering the main blog (such a post is called a Nugget).
  
  Your posts will be ranked by our influential readers, and at the end of the next Timeslot, the creator of the best Nugget (contender post) will be promoted to co-author the main blog. This also means that co-authors of the main blog who ranked the lowest in the preceding Timeslot, will have to compete for a place once again in the next Timeslot, by creating a new Nugget.
  
  Your rank is a complicated measurement, taking into account numerous factors such as: the amount of posts you contributed, their score, the amount of conversation the post generated, etc. The available ranks follow, in increasing order:
  Newbie
  Scribe
  Penman
  Composer
  Essayist
  Columnist
  Author
  Wordsmith
  Scholar
  
  You can check your rank on your profile page, as well as see more statistics on the Top Bloggers page.
  
  Please note: BloggersBase does not require exclusivity we encourage you to publish all your posts on your own personal blog as well. We'll also gladly link your profile and posts to your sites of choice. For a more details regarding our privacy policy, please click here.

• What do I get as a Reader on BloggersBase?

  
  We assure that you'll get the highest quality content posts in the topic of your choice - pure and simple! If you're an avid reader and would also like to influence the content of our magazine, we encourage you to vote on every post you read.
  
  You can also add explanations to your votes, write comments, and even rate others' comments. You can rate posts in the surface blogs and decide which bloggers are awarded grand prizes. You can also rate posts that are in the Goldmines and make sure your favorites bloggers are promoted to the surface blog.
  
  The more your rate, and the more professional your ratings are, you gain influence as a reader in your future votes. In the beginning you prove your expertise by matching the crowd's opinion, and as you gain more and more influence, your votes will become more influential and you'll become a trend-setter.
  
  These are the ranks available for readers and raters, in increasing order of influence:
  Subscriber
  Appraiser
  Commentator
  Reviewer
  Critic
  Analyst
  Trend-Setter
  Sage
  Oracle
  Go see your reader ranking on your profile page, and see how you compare to the others on the Top Readers page.

• How can you help us improve BloggersBase?

  
  We at BloggersBase think that our users know what's best, so we make it a habit to listen carefully.
  
  We gladly welcome any complaint, praise, comment, suggestion or question you might have. See the "Feedback" button on the bottom right?! You can use it to give us any kind of feedback you want, starting with your general feeling, through content problems, to specific bug reports.
  
  This great tool is supplied by Kampyle , if you want it on your blog as well, we'll gladly refer you.
  
  Another way to let us know what you think is to write a post for the Suggestions blog .
  Feel free to write anything you want and your suggestion can be rated and commented upon.
  
  Naturally, you can also contact us directly, either through the Contact us page.

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Blog Competition - Explained

• How does the Blog Competition Work?

  
  The concept is simple - maintain quality by periodical competition between the bloggers in each blog (topic). Only a limited amount of bloggers can author the blog at any given time, and they should be the elite of all bloggers on BloggersBase. At the end of each Timeslot the best bloggers earn status points, get awarded promotional prizes and keep authoring the blog. The ones with the lowest score in the current Timeslot will no longer be allowed to directly publish posts to the main blog, but will be forced to compete to rejoin the elite authors of the blog in future Timeslots.
  
  Bloggers who want to author the main blog should publish Nuggets (contenting posts) in the Goldmine of that blog. The blogger with the best Nugget will take his or her place among the authors of the main blog, during the Timeslot.
  
  So who determines who the best bloggers are? The readers of course! Readers rate the posts, both in the main blog and in the contenders section.
  At the end of each Timeslot, winners are declared, bloggers change roles from the Goldmine to the main blog and vice versa.
  
  Readers are not similarly affected by the Timeslots and are constantly evaluated by our algorithms, estimating their knowledge in the specific topic as well as their influence. They earn points, which increases their influence in future ratings. This way BloggersBase keeps a very high quality standard for both bloggers and readers.

• Timeslot

  
  Each blog in BloggersBase is in constant competition, which lasts a certain duration called a Timeslot. The end of each Timeslot marks the end of one competition and the beginning of a new one. The best bloggers in the previous Timeslot continue to co-author the blog and can receive special awards, while the ones with the lowest marks are forced to become contenders again, and create Nuggets for the Goldmine of the blog.
  
  The departing bloggers make room for the best contenders (bloggers who created the best Nuggets) to be promoted to the main blog and become its co-authors for the next Timeslot. The duration of the Timeslot may vary from blog to blog.

• What is the 'Goldmine'?

  
  The Goldmine resides beneath the surface of each blog and contains the Nuggets submitted to this blog.
  Nuggets are posts submitted by contender bloggers that want to author the surface blog. Some of the Nuggets are more 'Golden' than others and at the end of each Timeslot the bloggers who submitted the best and most Golden nuggets will be promoted to co-author the surface blog.
• What is a 'Nugget'?
  Nuggets are posts submitted by contender bloggers that want to author the surface blog. These Nugget posts reside beneath the surface of each blog in its matching Goldmine and are marked with a Golden Nugget to indicate their potential.
  Occasionally you'll see Nuggets even on the surface blog. These nuggets are randomly picked from the Goldmine and brought to the surface for a brief period to expose them to the general readers and increase awareness to them.
  We encourage influential readers to sift through our Goldmines and find the most 'Golden' Nuggets among the common ones.
  At the end of each Timeslot the bloggers who submitted the best and most Golden nuggets will be promoted to co-author the surface blog. Readers who correctly spotted the Golden Nuggets (by giving them an appropriately high score) will gain more influence points.
• What is an 'Ex-nugget'?
  The best Nuggets that have promoted their bloggers to the surface become regular posts and go into their respective Surface blog. The Nuggets that have not won the competition become ex-nuggets and remain in your personal blog, as well as appear in the BBGoldmine.

• How to Rate a Post?

  
  Rating only the only 'Overall' reflects your general opinion of the post. Click the plus mark to expand and reveal more rating criteria. 'Overall' is a calculated average of the detailed criteria ratings. If you didn't vote for one of the criteria, it'll not count in the average at all (will not be considered as zero).
  
  Here is a short description of the different criteria:
  
  Professionalism - Accuracy of the facts; Credibility of the post; Well based on sources and quotes.
  Presentation - Language, grammar and spelling; Appearance; Visual aids if applicabl; Flow and Readability.
  Value – Is the post relevant to the blog topic and the time it was posted? Was it enjoyable; Clever; Innovative, Imaginative? Was your time well spent on it? Did you learn or experience something worthwhile? Was it helpful?
  Agreement – To what extent do you agree to the opinion presented in the post?
  
  Read the FAQ section How is the overall post score determined? to understand exactly how your vote affects your influence as a reader, and the score of the post.

• How is the Overall Post Score Determined?

  
  Each user's vote always affects the overall score of a post, no matter when it is cast. There's a period of time after each post has been submitted, during which its score is invisible to users. This period is meant to allow unbiased voting on it without regard or influence from its current overall score. The effect of votes cast during this time will not be immediately displayed. Naturally, voting during this period is most important to a user's influence as a reader. Voting after this time still affects the score of the post, but reader influence is not changed. This period ends after a minimum amount of users have voted, or after enough time has passed.

• Blogs powered by our partners

  
  These are special blogs in cooperation with other influential blogs in specific fields.
  
  Submitting posts to these blogs usually require promotional codes provided by our partners. If you visit their sites and use the special invitations we consider you as experts in their domain and award you automatic influence points on the respective blog.
  
  The prizes are also different from the usual ones – most often winning the weekly competition will award you the right to submit a guest post on our partners site, giving the benefit of further exposure to you and your blog.

• What are the Upcoming Blogs?

  
  In light of user requests to add more blog topics to BloggersBase, we have added a new blog type "Upcoming Blog", to allow you to share all the topics you are passionate about.
  
  The upcoming blogs behave mostly like the regular ones, featuring the familiar rules of competition, Goldmine and user influence mechanics. Unlike the regular blogs, the upcoming blogs do not award money prizes, until they become regular ones.
  
  If the topic of your posts does not fit any of the regular competition blogs on BloggersBase, you can submit them to an upcoming blog of your choice or even propose a new upcoming blog. This way, you (the blogger) determine what upcoming blogs will be featured on BloggersBase. Upon reviewing your proposal:
  
  • If accepted a new upcoming blog is launched containing your post, with you as its first active blogger.
  • If your suggestion is very similar to an existing blog topic, your post will be published in its respective goldmines.
  • If for some reason (inappropriate/vulgar topic, post topic does not match suggested topic, etc.) your proposal is rejected, your post will remain in your personal blog.
  The most active and popular upcoming blogs can be promoted to become regular blogs over time and subject to various consideration of BloggersBase.
  
  Remember that as the creator or contributor to an upcoming blog, its success lies mostly in your hands. Being an expert in the topic of such a blog, you probably know other experts or enthusiasts in it – take this opportunity to invite them to join, either as contributors or reader/raters. The more popular it becomes the better chances it has to be promoted from the upcoming blogs.

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Prizes and Awards on BloggersBase

• What is my Payment Balance?

  
  Your current Balance field represents the difference between the total amount of money prizes you have been awarded on BloggersBase and the amount of money prizes you were already paid. At the end of each month your balance is examined and once it exceeds a certain threshold (USD 20), money is transferred to your Paypal account.

• What Payment Methods are available?

  
  In order to be eligible for payment of your awards, you must have an account in one of online payment services listed below. You can specify the payment account name on your profile page. It is your responsibility to provide a correct account name. You will lose your awards if the money is transferred to an incorrect account.
• Paypal
  PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information.
  
  

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Operating the Site Correctly

• Why should I select a Nickname and which one?

  
  You must select a Nickname by which you'll be visible and known to the BloggersBase community of users. Your real name is a very good choice (and hence it can contain spaces).
  
  You can also type nicknames with numbers and some punctuation signs.
  Please be advised that this selection of a username is permanent.

• What User Preferences Can I set?

  
  This section holds your preferences regarding the way you view the site. There are several parameters you can adjust:
  Number of Comments in Post – The number of comments visible in one page at a time.
  Number of Posts in Blog - Number of posts displayed in one page of the blog.
  Expand Rate Post Widget - If this option is checked you'll be able to rate by criteria by default, without having to expand the rating widget manually.
  Comment View Threshold - Comments with score (thumbs up or down) below this number will be minimized and grayed out (you'll still be able to see them if you want).
  Send inactive writer notifications - If selected, you will receive email reminder each time that the timeslot of the blog in which you are writing is about to end, in case that you haven't published any post there yet.
  Auto subscribe to comments in my new posts - If selected, then by default you will be subscribed for all your new posts comments. You will receive an email each time someone comments on any of the posts that you are subscribed to. After publishing a post you will have an option to subscribe/unsubscribe to that specific post comments. You can also do this at anytime from the post page itself.
  Receive notifications when someone replies to my comment - If selected, then by default you will be notified via email each time someone replies directly to one of your comments. This option is global and applies to all the comments you leave. Notifications will be sent only if the new comment is placed as a direct response to yours.
  To ease your RSS-In submission, BloggersBase can send you a preview of your post by email and allow you direct submission. Structure and layout are not properly maintained in RSS feeds, so your post might look a bit different. Hence, all your incoming RSS posts will automatically be saved as drafts in your BloggersBase profile. If you choose to get email notifications, an html preview will be sent to your email, and you'll be able to edit or submit it immediately. Not choosing this option means you'll have to manually log into BloggersBase, access the relevant draft post in your profile, review and submit it through our wizard. If you do not have html email support, you'll simply get a notification with a direct url for the post's preview.

• What Statistics can I see?

  
  What can I learn from the Statistics Zone widget? This widget is just a peek at the best things BloggersBase has to offer. Here you can see the best and most popular bloggers, as well as the influential readers who rate and regulate the content on our site. You can also see which blogs are the hottest at the moment.
  
  Finally, you have the option to follow the relevant links to pages with much more detailed statistics for each category.
  
  Notice that the information in this widget is adjusted according to the page you are currently viewing, displaying the most popular and influential either on the entire site, in a specific category, or a single blog respectively.
• What is the Best Posts Widget?
  These are the all-time best posts in the current context.
  For example, if you are currently reading a blog, the widget will display the best posts ever published in this blog.
  If you are just browsing the main page, you'll see the all-time best posts from the whole BloggersBase site.
• What is 'My Profile' Widget?
  The profile widget contains your avatar, and a few common actions for your convenience.
  You can access your full profile page to see all data and statistics about yourself, as well as your community. You can find your reader and writer ranks, all your posts, drafts and comments.
  You can also set preferences, add info about yourself and take other actions.
• What is the 'Most Recent Posts' Widget?
  If you read carefully the "How is the overall post score determined" you'll see that:
  
  1. Rating a post ALWAYS affects its score, hence determining who authors the blog during the next Timeslot.
  2. Reader influence changes only when rating new posts, whose score isn't displayed yet.
  
  If you want to gain influence points as a reader, it would be a good practice to check the newest posts and make sure you rate them as well. If their score isn't displayed yet (not enough time has passed since they have been posted, or not enough votes have been cast), it means your user influence can be affected.
• How does the Tag Cloud work?
  The Tag Cloud contains the most popular tags (that appear most) in the current context. If you are viewing the main page, the tags displayed are taken from posts from the entire site. If you are viewing a specific blog, the tag words in the cloud orginate from posts in this blog only.
  
  The size of the tag represents how popular it is (how many times it appears) the larger the font, the more it appears. Color reflects the tag's freshness - how new are the posts that this tag describes.
  
  The newer the post, the brighter green it is, and fading to grey as it ages. Since sometimes terms consist of multiple words, our tags are sometimes made up of multiple words as well.
• How do RSS feeds work on BloggersBase?
  RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. BloggersBase syndicates its content as an RSS Feed for the convenience of its users on several levels.
  
  You can register for an RSS feed on a blog (or several) dealing with the topic that most interest you.
  You can also choose to register for a category of blogs, which means you'll only receive the posts that make it to the category page (not all the posts in the blogs in this category). Similarly, you can also register only for posts making it to the main page of BloggersBase.

• How do I search BloggersBase?

  
  Type in the keywords that you are looking for and click search (the magnifying glass icon). You will get search results (powered by Google) without leaving our site.
  The category search is enabled only when you are inside a category. The search process remains the same but the displayed results are relevant only from within the category that you are currently viewing.

• How do I invite friends and import my contacts?

  
  Import Contacts is a feature that allows you to import friends/contacts from various e-mail accounts and social services on to BloggersBase. This feature expands your network and allows you to notify all your friends about your new posts in a quicker and easier fashion.
  
  You can find the Import Contacts component on your profile page under the community tab, on the invite page and when first registering to BloggersBase and validating your account.
  
  
  The different services that you are able to import from are Hotmail, MSN.com, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, Mail.com, Rediffmail, Indiatimes, Mobile me (.Mac), FastMail, GMX, Web.de, IcqMail, LinkedIn, MyNet.com, Data.bg and last but not least Ig.com.br. (as well as many others).
  
  You are able to choose which contacts you would like to import as well as see which of your contacts are already BloggersBase members. Inviting your friends to vote for your posts can increase your scores. Please note that BloggersBase does not store your password that you provide during the importing process.

• What kind of videos can I embed on BloggersBase?

  
  You can upload your video to any of the following video hosting services and embed them easily into your posts on BloggersBase:
  http://www.youtube.com
  http://www.hulu.com
  http://www.veoh.com
  http://vimeo.com
  http://www.metacafe.com
  http://www.dailymotion.com
  http://www.megavideo.com
  http://player.youku.com
  http://www.ustream.tv
  http://www.justin.tv
  http://www.wat.tv
  http://www.blip.tv
  

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Publishing Posts on BloggersBase

• How to publish a post on BloggersBase?

  
  You can publish your posts on BloggersBase either by using our on-site Publishing Wizard, or by directing an RSS-In stream from your own external blog. Let's discuss the Publishing Wizard first – it consists of 4 main stages, where each has its own dedicated tab. You can simply complete the first and publish, but we strongly recommend you go through all the stages.
  

• Any special instructions for the text editor?

  
  In this tab, you should enter the content of your post. Select your title and paste or type in the post's body.
  The FCKEditor provides you with rich text editing options as well as insertion of images and their formatting. You can also insert images from the "Tools" Menu at the bottom.
  At anytime you can save your data, discard it, or create a new post. Pressing the "Publish" button at this stage will skip the other stages and divert you to the final tab.
  

• What tools do you offer to help improve my post?

  
  You can upload images and send them to the FCKEditor;
  Explore the Zemanta tabs for related pictures and articles;
  Use the Flickr tab to import images from your Flickr account. Please note that if you want to import images by other people, you have to get their permission first, or pay for the license to use them.
  
• Zemanta
  We are using Zemanta 's revolutionary new web service for accelerating on-line content production. Your post is analyzed by Zemanta, which recognizes all contextual content. Zemanta then combs the web for the most relevant images, smart links, keywords and text, feeding the results back to us, instantly enabling you to enrich and inform your content.
  
  Zemanta images tab displays relevant images found on the Web, along with the how confident Zemanta is about their relevancy. Notice that these images are usually not free for general use. Please make sure that you use them according to the detailed license with the required attribution.
  
  Zemanta articles tab brings you articles related to your own posts from the Web. We hope you find this information useful.

• What is the excerpt text for?

  
  In this tab, you prepare your post for its appearance on BloggersBase homepage or the category page. If you are publishing a Nugget, it will also make occasional appearance on the surface blog, outside the Goldmine in its excerpt form.
  We generate a default excerpt text for you, simply by using the first sentences of your posts. If you prefer to change this text just uncheck the box below and type it in. If you plan on submitting a "video-only" post, it might also be a good idea to type in a short description here.
  

• What is the excerpt image for?

  
  Sometimes your excerpt will appear with a matching image, please select one from the list of your available images. Please make sure it's a square image. If you don't want to attach an image, we'll use the default image of the blog you post in. This image will only appear in the excerpt and never in the post body itself.
  On the bottom you can see the preview of the post you have created in the previous tab, for your convenience and review.
  

• How do you recommend tags and why should I use them anyway?

  
  Your post has been analyzed by the Calais semantic engine, which suggested a number of tags relevant to your post. When you click a recommended tag it'll be added to the tag list accompanying your post.
  
  We recommend tagging all your posts as accurately as possible to insure they are discovered easily and read more, both by BloggersBase users and by people searching for the relevant topic through an external search engine.

• What does the Attribution field mean?

  
  If you have previously published this post somewhere else, for example in your external personal blog, we recommend you type its url in the "Attribution" field. We'll display this link at the bottom of your post so readers can go directly to your blog.
  

• What is a trackback?

  
  If in your post you reference someone else's post or article, it's common practice to fill in the appropriate trackbacks field, so that person and the readers of his or her post know you have mentioned them.
  

• Where can I publish the post?

  
  There are three locations your post can be published:
  It can be published as a post in one of BloggersBase's surface blogs, if you have already posted a Golden Nuggets and were promoted to co-author the main surface blog.
  If you're still competing to co-author the main blog, you can publish it as a Nuggets in the Goldmine of the blog you are competing for.
  You can also choose not to participate in the competition and publish your post only in your personal blog.
  
  

• Is this what my post will look like?

  
  Yes, this is a preview of your post as it will appear on BloggersBase. Please examine the preview of your post and excerpt on the bottom before publishing. Once you publish your post, you will not be able to change or remove it.
  Good luck!
  

• When can I publish my post?

  
  By default, your post will be published immediately, but you can also choose to specify for it to be published in the future. If for example you are co-authoring the surface blog, and have three posts ready for publishing, you could submit them all now, but schedule them so they are published automatically every two days.
  

• How do I use the RSS-In feature?

  
  RSS-In is here to help you effortlessly submit posts you have already published on your external personal blog to BloggersBase.
  Do not use this feature unless you are exporting your full post through RSS!
  If you do, only a partial post will appear on BloggersBase, which will either not be rated, or rated very low by our users (as they cannot see the whole of it and will rarely return to vote on your post, even if they continued to read it on your site).
  
  As soon as a new post from the RSS feed is submitted into BloggersBase, you will be notified by email (you can disable this option from the "Prefences" tab on your profile page). If your email supports html, you'll be able to see a preview of how your post will look like on BloggersBase.
  You can choose to automatically submit your post from within the email, or edit it (be referred to the appropriate location on our site).
  
  You can find it under 'Preferences' tab in your profile page:
  
  
  And then in the bottom of the tab:
  
  
  Please note: All your incoming posts will appear in your drafts, and will not be automatically published. This is because formatting and layout on BloggersBase might be different from the original publishing location, hence we recommend you briefly review how your post appears on BloggersBase, make adjustments if necessary and then publish in just a few clicks. Contenders: If you are still competing to be promoted to co-author the surface blog, your posts will be published to the Goldmine of the respective blog. Please note that only one Nugget is allowed per Timeslot, so only the first post arriving through your feed will be submitted as a Nugget. The rest will appear as drafts on your Profile, to do with as you please.
  
  

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