tag.
blockquotes on the site are automatically in blue. So when quoting a Spice
Girl, it should look like this:
--------------------
Emma said:
"When I wake up in the morning I take my teddies with me to my computer and we
all read SpiceNews.com together. It really is my favorite website! And that
Joz, I love him! I wish he'd ring me up sometime, I'm so over Jade."
Emma's mother added:
"I don't think I like the idea of Emma chasing after these American boys.."
---------------------
Emma's text will automatically be indented and in blue. Also notice the break
returns
's. This just works out the spacing properly, as a
here seems
to be too much. In some odd cases, only one
before the blockquote will
look right, or two after the blockquote, it seems to vary for some odd reason
or else I'm trippin or something. Just do it so the spacing looks right to
you. Below Emma's text is just how a non-Spice Girl's quote would be handled.
Also if a spice girl just said a few words then you don't have to blockquote
it off, you can just do like:
MelB said that SpiceNews.co.uk "was a fucking joke."
Quotes are also to be blue in interviews.
2.3.5 Poster Comments
Try to keep the commentary and personal thoughts out of your posts as much as
possible, just keep it strictly business based. But if there is something you
really need/want to say/would be appropriate, put it under the story, in grey
color, particularly hex code #CCCCCC works well. So it would look something
like this:
---------------------
end of story.
Yeah I can't wait for this!
---------------------
2.3.6 Local Copies
Any local copies of Audio or Video should have the the following HTML
disclaimer link at the bottom of the post:
2.4 Policies
2.4.1 Illegal Things
Nothing illegal should ever be posted on SpiceNews.com Although difficult to
enforce 100% of the time, such as a posting a copyrighted picture. Copyright
information for a picture is often times difficult to come across, so the
general rule is to go ahead and post the picture locally and remove it only if
an authentic and authoritive source requests so, this does not mean the person
who scanned the damn thing.
Videos can almost always be posted, as they are out for promotion in the first
place. Interview videos as well since the copyright holders don't and
shouldn't have problems with this as it only promotes their show. Web-based
interviews if you can manage to download it, put up a local copy(if there was
file space), but only as a secondary function, mention in the main story that
whatever site has done an interview with whoever, and tell readers to go there
to watch it, but then also put a local copy link at the bottom. Same for
audio interviews.
Audio rips & scans. There should be no illegal audio copies of singles/albums
on SpiceNews.com You may be saying, "but what about that Forever album
posting!" Virgin Records posted the album on the Internet. SpiceNews.com
took this as Virgin putting the album on the Internet for everyone to listen
to in full. Most people are not a fan of RealAudio, so SpiceNews simply
converted it to the more popular MP3 format. While not 100% legal(to modify
and repost), Virgin put the album on the net and available to everyone, so
why would they oppose such a thing if their intention was to release the album
online for people to listen to ;) Some may claim that there have been other
full album/single rips posted on SpiceNews. Hopefully you are aware that
these claims are simply made by delusional people, and in reality nothing
blatantly illegal was ever posted on SpiceNews. If it was, it would obviously
show up in the archives ;) So no cd-rips allowed on the SpiceNews server, and
this means no track lists posted with links behind them to cd-rip tracks on
other servers. CD rips sitting on other sites are a shady area. Singles
aren't a big deal, but linking to sites holding entire albums is a grey area.
Although since we are a news source, we shouldn't be legally bound by
reporting sites that have full albums on them(if any even would).
Converting RealAudio to MP3 should definitely be done. We really should not
be seeing any audio in RealAudio by now anyway, but sometimes the official
sites will put out a single in streaming RealAudio format. Once again, it's
out for people to listen to, so they shouldn't have problems with MP3
conversions. These aren't really cd-quality in the first place.
CD scans should be alright, unless the record companies actually complain
about it.
2.4.2 Censorship
SpiceNews.com absolutely does not believe in censorship of ANY type. If you
don't like this, learn to, or don't participate. Any censorship will NOT be
tolerated. Freedom of Speech is a great right and it will exercised on this
site. If websites or tabloids censor quotes or words, UNCENSOR them. For
example, if a news report says:
"Victoria called Sophie a fat b**** and said she should f*** off."
This should appear on SpiceNews as:
"Victoria called Sophie a fat bitch and said she should fuck off."
The same thing with any nude pictures. If Mel B is caught on the beach naked
yet again, put up the pictures. SpiceNews policy is to keep everything
uncensored and original. Perhaps you are saying "but oh my the children!"
Well, a recent SpiceNews poll shows that the majority of our audience is 15-18
year olds. I think they can handle it. And for the random really young kids,
it's not like they don't hear/read it anyway, and it's the responsibility of
their parents to review what they look at on the Internet, not up to us.
2.4.3 Local Copies
Local copies should always be posted. This is mainly done to make sure the
file is available, now and forever. Lets say for example some site posts a
video encode of an interview. The site that posted the interview could
potentially cease to exist sometime in the future, or they could simply delete
the file sometime in the future. So if somebody is looking through SpiceNews
archives, they will still be able to watch it! (in theory). This also works
immediately. If for example the site where the file is hosted is bogged down
due to unexpected traffic, or experiencing server problems and is down, or if
the users' connection is just very slow to this server from their geographic
location, they have an alternative. We all know it's no fun anticipating
something cool, then clicking the download link and nothing happens or it's
missing, and you are disappointed. This way the user has an alternative and
will be happy that they can get the file anyway. It's basically a backup type
deal. This should be done under all possible circumstances, regardless of
what a site author might say that encoded the file, they hold no copyright to
it. Some will try to claim the file as "theirs", which is absolutely not
true. Just post it, and ignore / explain reasoning to any pissed off
webmasters. They obviously don't understand the above and that this is not
done to "steal" a file that they have no copyright or ownership of, but is
done to help distribution and ensure file availability. And they should be
happy with the link!
--> Of course this doesn't apply now anyway because we have no web-space.
2.4.4 Credit
Credit is quite important. Firstly for a local file copy situation such as
above. The local file is only something that should be mentioned at the
bottom of the post, a just-in-case type thing. It should be said in the main
post that so-and-so site has this item available to download, so go there and
get it etc.
If you get news from somebody who submits it to the news@spicenews.com email
account and they are the first you heard it from, then please put a "Thanks
" at the bottom of the post, with the name hyperlinked to any url they
provided by their name. IMPORTANT: If they do not provide a name, simply post
it without credit to anybody. It says on the news submission page clearly to
provide a name/url for credit. If they do not you must assume that they do
not want their name mentioned. There have been instances where somebody's
name was used just out of their email name(they didn't sign the email at all),
and they wrote in angry that you put their name on the website and to take it
off immediately. And in general credit/thanks to someone you find a story out
from on a forum or message board or IRC or real life, although this isn't
extremely common to happen.
It is generally not policy to credit large news organizations and tabloids for
commonly known news that is printed in multiple sources. Something that is an
obvious story and is running in The Sun, The Mirror, Worldpop, and several
other online and offline places can just be posted as is. Generally what
I(Joz) do if there is a story that comes out I often times have read multiple
versions of it from different sources and I just post a summary of what I have
learned. It's like as if I'm hearing a story from multiple people and then
telling it to someone else. I do not have the time to search through
timestamps on everything and find out who actually broke the story first. But
if you really feel the need to credit these asshole tabloids anyway, you can
if you want.
2.4.5 Other websites
Basically, any site can be mentioned except for SpiceNews.co.uk
SpiceNews.co.uk was originally a blatant rip-off of SpiceNews.com, and is
retarded for many many reasons that I will not be going into in this document.
They are by no means a serious competition for us, they aren't nearly on our
level, and we want to keep it that way, so mentioning them even in a bash
would lead to advertisement for them, and in honesty, I believe that A LOT of
people who read SpiceNews.com would be like "whoa, there's a
spicenews.co.uk!?" Because I believe that MANY of our readers are not nearly
as hardcore fans as we are and are not into the spice-scene. So
SpiceNews.com, which is THE "SpiceNews", (they even tried to play off the name
claiming themselves as "SpiceNews: UK Version", implying that there was some
sort of association), has never recognized the existance of a SpiceNews.co.uk
site, lets keep it that way.
2.5 Email
All updaters have their own @spicenews.com email account, or at least an alias
that forwards to another email address. However news@spicenews.com is one
single email address. This email address can be checked by any updater at any
time(preferrably when they are about to do an update). The login information
for this account is:
Pop3: spicenews.com
SMTP: spicenews.com
Username: spicenew
Password: ********
Please set your email clients to delete mail from the server on download, so
multiple people do not keep getting the same emails. This is pretty
straightforward, whoever checks it is responsbile for handling whatever was in
it.
2.6 Income
In the case that this website was to make any income, the money will go to Joz
and will be put directly towards SpiceNews.com server upgrades and maintaining
the site, currently and in the future. Don't worry, I wouldn't be spending
the money on other things. If you don't trust me, then too bad, nothing I can
do about that. But anyway I HAVE been paying $15/month for it for the past
two years so it does owe me SOME money. But of course if we are racking in
tens of thousands of dollars it will be distributed! Anyway it has yet to
make a cent so I don't think this is something to worry about.
3. Updating
3.1 What is news
Anything pertaining/effecting the Spice Girls directly.
3.2 What is not news
Anything pertaining to ex-Spice Girls(Geri Halliwell). Anything pertaining to
spice relatives, spice children, etc. Like something about Brooklyn's first
day at school or Mel B's sister getting an acting role in some movie should
not be posted. Nor should things about Max Beesley's films or Jimmy Gulzar's
new activities. Nothing about David Beckham also, you get the drift.
However, if Victoria takes Brooklyn to his first day of school, that is news
because that is Victoria news. Victoria was at x-school on Friday taking
Brooklyn for his first day of school or whatever. But if David Beckham was to
take him instead, it's not news. Or if Max Beesley does something that makes
Mel B mad - Mel B is mad because max broke into oral sex on Mariah Carey at
the shooting of x-movie, or whatever. You should now have a good idea on what
is VS what isn't Spice News.
Also what is not news are what I call "pathetic stories", such as "Holler is
#1 on 95.7 KFDL Topeka, Kansas!!" Or "Forever sold 80,000 copies in
Cambodia!" These countries and areas' residents will be over excited about
these things that nobody really cares about, but they really aren't news. Ok,
well maybe they are news, but they are not significant. If you post one news
story about Holler being #1 on the 95.7 KFDL Topeka count-down, the next day
you will have tons of new emails about 80,000 other small radio stations
around the world and the rankings of various spice songs on them. Generally
third-world nations do not have significant news, no-matter how excited their
residents may be about it. Basically you should know if it's significant or
not, if Virgin Brazil's official website puts out the Forever cover on their
site and is first, thats news. If "Holler" goes to #2 on brazil's largest
radio station, thats not really news, even though there will be 10 or 20
brazilians submitting this news.
3.3 What to watch out for
FAKES! There is A LOT of fake news submitted to SpiceNews. Fake stories will
range from blatant, pathetic, and absolutely funny stories, or crayon-style
drawn artifical single covers, etc to articulately created and detailed
stories and reports of things that never happened or are not true. Many times
the submitter will not even know this, because they were fooled as well. To
be honest with you, 90% of things sent to news@spicenews.com is read & thrown
out. This is because half of it will be things you already know, half of the
remaining will be insignificant, half of the remaining bit will be
unreliable/rumors/fake. It says on the news submission page to try to submit
some sort of proof with the news if they want it to be taken seriously. And
if they have something that sounds real, investigate it yourself, or email
them asking for any proof, or something similar. If in doubt, don't post. We
have a good reputation for providing reliable news and people very much
believe and rely on us, so lets keep up those high standards.
Tamir(alias:M-G-M-V-E, Kobix, T@mir) - He'll do anything to get a link to any
of his websites. ONCE IN A WHILE, he'll have something that is actually
viable news, the rest of the time he'll be doing and submitting whatever he
can to get a link to one of his sites. Don't buy into it. Read his emails
with this knowledge. He is known to take advantage of new SpiceNews posters
by sending news directly to their address and not to news@spicenews or
joz@spicenews to make sure I(Joz) don't get it because he knows I don't fall
for his shit.
And of course if something is a rumor, use the Rumor Warning text, if you are
in any doubt that something you are posting is true, use the Rumor Warning!
3.4 How to write
No I'm not going to tell you how to write your news posts. Just here to tell
you to write them yourself, no copying and pasting from newspaper reports or
other places. Take the information you find, read the news/report, read the
other versions of it, collect the key information, and write it up as if you
were telling somebody the news. Try to keep it as short and to the point as
possible. The newspaper/website news reports often times stretch their news
by including all sorts of additional information and historical information.
For example if a story comes out about Mel C saying in an interview "I hate
Americans", the interview will include all sorts of drama, and stuff like "Mel
was last in America two weeks ago for..." etc etc etc. The SpiceNews version
of that should be something like melc said she hated americans: "THE QUOTE",
where and when she said it, any reactions from other people, and thats about
it. As short and sweet and direct as possible.
3.5 How to post
Save the best for last right? Anyway, you should basically know by now if you
have read all of that above. Here's a quick rundown though:
1.) Log into the FTP Site, here's the info:
Host: spicenews.com
Username: spicenew
Pass: ********
2.) Go to the www/htdocs directory.
3.) Download index.html
4.) Modify index.html by UN-commenting the "CURRENTLY UPDATING! REFRESH EVERY
10 MINUTES FOR NEW STORIES!" part.
5.) GO TO WWW.SPICENEWS.COM ONLINE VERSION AND CHECK THAT NOBODY IS "CURRENTLY
UPDATING". If nobody is, upload the uncommented-currently-updating
index.html
6.) Add your news post, copying the commented story template or copying,
pasting, and modifying the last posted news story. Don't forget to change
the time zone to your local one, and your Poster ID.
7.) When COMPLETELY finished modifying the index.html file with however many
news stories you are posting, put comments back around the currently
updating block, and upload the finally-updated file.