"Articles" Feature coming soon

[Mark]

We will be introducing an articles feature soon to SSC and I'm interested to hear what people think about it?

The main idea behind adding an articles feature is to give our members the ability to easily write autonomous content which presents nicely (like a blog post) but can also be discussed with the power of forum software unlike many blog sites which can only handle a basic comment section.

Authors will be able to link to other resources (websites) and promote their own sites, products, or causes as long as the content is of value and not just an advertisement. Affiliate links will not be allowed though.

Guest posting/writing has always been a difficult thing to manage (I trialed it briefly on my blog) but with this articles system it's much easier. The author writes or pastes the article directly online to SSC and then submits their post for "approval" for an admin or a moderator to proof. Once it's checked and released, the post becomes visible as a featured thumb on the main article page - nice and easy. If the article needs amending for whatever reason the author is notified through our alerts system and can then make changes and re-submit quickly by a simple click.

The basic details are:

• Will have an "Articles" tab to access the Articles page from the top navigation bar.
• Will be open to Premium Members.
• Will have several very broad categories and content creation will be set to a minimum of 300 words - which isn't a lot of writing but still more than most thread posts.
• Can be customised by video, images, and practically any other media.
• Articles can be rated and liked.
• Be multiple pages for very long posts or content best served on a separate page.
• Can be used for promotional purposes (within fair use boundaries).
• Pinterest style appearance.
• Automatic article loading as user scrolls down the page.
• Easy to follow prompts for author to write and submit their article.

I believe the ability to write articles on SSC will be a beneficial feature and whilst I will likely be the main contributor initially, participation is likely to grow as SSC membership develops over time.