How to Submit a Blog Post

The Future Blogger is a potent outlet for your original predictions, thoughts on the future, future-based sci-fi, product prototypes, scenarios, trends, reactions to Future Scanner articles and much more. Posting your content here is a great opportunity to develop a reputation for your simulation of the future, work on your blogging voice, and get feedback from other future-focused readers and bloggers.

To get the most out of your contributions you can add catchy images, video and links wherever appropriate, and most importantly: title, format and tag them properly. This will dramatically increase the chance that others who are interested in your material will locate and spread it. The sky is the limit if people like your stuff, so make sure that you're giving yourself the best chance to get it out there.

Here's a run-down of the fields you need to fill out to submit a blogpost. It's very similar to the form used to submit scans on the Future Scanner, if that helps. It might seem confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it!

• Headline: The headline is the most important part of each submission. Write one that describes the post and entices the audience.
• Introduction: This is the portion of your blogpost that will be seen on the front page if voted up. Some tech people refer to it as "above the fold." Following this portion will be a "Read more" link to the rest of the piece, so make sure you hook your readers! If your post is very short, it may all fit in this text field.
• Body: This is the rest of your blogpost. If your post is several paragraphs long, a good tip is to paste/write all of your blogpost here, then cut and paste the first portion of it into the Introduction field.
• Tag by Category: Select up to three categories and/or subcategories under which your topic falls. Choose the one that fits your topic best as the primary category.
• Tag By Article Type: As with the category, select up to three scan types under which your topic falls. Choose the one that fits your topic best as the primary scan type.
• Tag by Year: Select the one year most appropriate for your piece, if it is indeed year-specific. However, many topics are not year-specific and will thus fall under general (including stories about current events).
• Tags: This is where you include info not covered in the above fields. Think about search terms you would enter to find your post and enter as many of those as you can. Common tags include proper names, specific fields and other descriptive terms.

Formatting: If you wish to include an image or use rich text (such as bold, italics, indentation, etc), check the formatting guide for directions. If you don't use photo sharing software like Picasa or Photobucket, you can upload images via My Profile under the Profile tab. To insert these into posts, click the "Insert Image" link on the Submit Blog Post page.

To get this effect	Type this
Bold phrase	*Bold phrase*
Italic phrase	_Italic phrase_
Strike Through	-Strike Through-
Line break	Line <br/> break
Bulleted list Bulleted list	* Bulleted list * Bulleted list
Numbered list Numbered list	# Numbered list # Numbered list
Indented block	> Indented block
Centered paragraph	p=. Centered paragraph
Justified paragraph	p<%gt;. Justified paragraph
Header	h1. Header
Link to MemeBox	"Link to MemeBox":http://www.memebox.com
	!http://memebox.com/images/memebox.png!

Lastly, if you spot a bug, want to report an issue related to functionality, or just want to give us some valuable advice on how to better meet your MemeBoxing needs, write to us via the Feedback Forum! We're continuously working to better the site for our users and therefore welcome your feedback, positive OR negative!