Ways to contribute content
There are several ways for area citizens to produce and contribute content to Northfield.org:
- Add comments to existing content
- Contribute a story
- List your event
- Publish your own weblog or podcast
Attach comments to existing content
Constructive feedback and commentary can make any item more valuable. Chime in on the spot to any story, page or other item that has the comment feature enabled. The author of the item will be alerted via email that you've commented.
Contribute a story
Whenever you want to report on something that the community could benefit from, submit it as a "story," selecting from among the categories: Blogosphere, Sports, Downtown, Government, Events, Arts & Entertainment, People or Business.
Stories are more interesting if they're told in your own voice (first person tense). It's fine to make yourself part of the story, even in small ways. For example:
"I was at last night's city council meeting and they passed an ordinance..."
"I happened to walk by this group of kids on Bridge Square and took their photo..."
Your story should be factual and in general, devoid of adjectives and tone that reflect your opinion. A "gorgeous" housing development might be another person's "ugly sprawl."
It should contain links to other websites, weblog permalinks, photos, etc. whenever it's logical and helpful to the reader. It can contain photos or other images, audio, and video. (See this page for information about submitting photos.)
Our editors review all submissions at least once a day to consider them for promotion to the front page. We ask that you submit all stories at least 24 hours before you'd like them to appear on Northfield.org.
Add an event to our event calendar
This is exactly the same as adding a story (above) , except that events have a date and time associated with them and show up in our events calendar. Click here to read more about adding events and giving them a date and time .
Publish your own weblog or podcast
You can use a commercial weblog service such as Blogger or Typepad to start your own blog. You can install weblog software such as WordPress or Movable Type on your own website. You can add podcasting to your weblog with a service like Audioblog.com.
Contact us when you get your blog or podcast going and we'll consider adding it to our civic blogosphere listing and aggregating your RSS feed.
But it all starts with registering as a user, so join your fellow citizen producers.