Rules for articles

Each Crowder has the possibility to write articles for our internal column called "Crowd Stories" and which will be visible on Otium. The articles must be at least 300 words long and on specific topics that will be published regularly on Otium. To participate, you will have to subscribe to the appropriate Otium group where topics will be published on a regular basis.

Topics:

Articles should be written on the topics suggested on the group, but the Community Managers (CM) of Crowdville will accept submissions on other topics.

Articles will cover the following topics:

- Articles about technology and the digital world, including reviews

(e.g. 10 must-have smartwatches)

- Movies and TV series related to streaming platforms

(e.g. What to watch today on Netflix or Disney+)

- Crowdville and Crowder guides

(e.g. 10 tips on how to run a bug campaign)

- Topics related to current campaigns

(e.g. Football campaign: article about 'what matches to watch this weekend')

- Topics related to discussion groups on Otium

(e.g. Music Group: ‘Best guitar for playing solos’)

Bonus points

The best articles selected by the Crowdville staff will be published on a regular basis on the Crowdville blog and will be visible outside the community. In this case you will earn 5 additional points.

Original content

Every article must be original and content copied and pasted, in whole or in part, from other sources is not permitted. Paraphrasing is allowed, and quotations from other sources are allowed, provided that they are delimited by inverted commas and that the source from which they were taken is cited.

Example 1: cited within the sentence

Fashion is a great way to ‘express one’s stance on social issues’ (John Smith, The News 2002) which is admirable.

Example 2: cited at the end of the article under References

Fashion is a great way to ‘express one’s stance on social justice’ [1] which is admirable.

References:

[1] John Smith, The News 2002

Articles will be checked with anti-plagiarism software to ensure that they are not copied from articles already published on the web. If copied content is found, the article will not be removed and the author will have points deducted. On the third warning the Crowder will be suspended from the competition. However, it is allowed to write about a topic already covered by another crowder.

Product reviews

A product or service review is allowed as long as it does not lead to a purchase or blatant advertising. The description of the proposed product or service must be objective and contain both pros and cons. The best way to avoid producing an advertising article is to compare several products or services and leave the personal evaluation to the reader.

Opinions

Crowdville staff reserve the right to remove articles which, although personal, make defamatory, harassing, persecutory or threatening statements about others, and/or which may be offensive to the community.

Grammar

Articles must be written in fluent and correct language. In the event of serious grammatical, spelling and syntax errors, Crowder will be asked to correct them and points will be suspended until correction is made.

Some practical tips

- Structure: write your article in such a way that it has the most important information at the beginning and goes into more detail in a cascade of topics. Set up a first paragraph of 2 or 3 lines in which it is clear what the article is about.

- Keywords: choose some keywords (key words or key phrases) that encapsulate the main topic of your article and include them in the title and first paragraph. If you are writing, for example, a review of a decoder, it is better to put the word decoder in the title and in the first paragraph.

- Boldface: highlight keywords in your article using boldface, but do not exaggerate (maximum two or three words per paragraph). Excessive use of boldface will make the text difficult to read.

- Headers: use headings within your article (called headers) to divide paragraphs and make them easier to read.

- Links: if you write more than one article for Crowd Story try to link them with internal links. However, do not include more than 2 links per article (1 is the ideal number).

Links to external articles are also allowed, as long as they do not lead to advertisements or abuse.

- Photos: It is important to always include an image in the article. You can also create your own (we recommend using sites such as Canva or similar).

- Don't copy: all articles you write should be original. Duplicate content is heavily penalised on the web.

NB: Please note that by publishing an article on CrowdNews you waive your copyright on it. The use of such content within other portals, in identical and unchanged form, constitutes a violation of the rules.