Ways To Become A Content Contributor
As a member of the XIV community you may wish to share your work to a greater audience on a more optimised, formatted and stylised platform than a Google doc or a series of pins within Discord. With that in mind, AkhMorning is always happy to host your work.
You can reach out to us via the following avenues:
- email via content@akhmorning.com
- contacting @AkhMorning on Twitter
We are committed to the content we share being accessible, authentic and factual, with an emphasis on ensuring things are of great quality.
By this we mean for content to:
- be easy to read and understand
- be original and not be plagiarised
- be correct and promote best practices
- grab the attention of the viewer
- be grammatically correct
- flow and be legible
- value the viewer’s time
All requests will be considered carefully.
Individuals
One person may work on a piece as an individual effort. They have full autonomy over the provision and maintainance of their content.
Individuals have the right to place their content wherever they wish for it to be shared. They also have the right to request the removal of their content from AkhMorning at any time, as long as a week’s notice is given to facilitate the removal process.
Collaborators
A group of people may collaborate on a piece. In doing so, decisions for the provision and maintainance of the content should be agreed upon as a group by majority consensus.
Collaborators have the right to to place their collaborative content wherever they wish for it to be shared. They also have the right to request the removal of their content from AkhMorning at any time, as long as there has been an approval by the majority of collaborators, and a week’s notice is given to facilitate the removal process.
Commissioned Content
AkhMorning may commission people directly for creatives &/or written content.
Content in this category falls under ownership of AkhMorning and is not for redistribution.
Permission for redistribution may be requested from AkhMorning.
What Do You Get Out Of Contributing?
This is a very important question to AkhMorning and will be covered below.
Greater Reach On A Multi-Device Friendly Platform
AkhMorning presently sees thousands of unique Users visiting the site every day, with new content posts causing spikes in traffic. In turn, this translates into tens of thousands of page views as Users on average are visiting multiple pages before leaving the site.
It is with this traffic in mind that we want your content to reach as many people as possible. Not only those who would want to read it, but also people who would read it after not realising that the content existed in the first place.
We are optimising and addressing layouts and styling for multiple devices continuously, so that the content can be received on multiple platforms with the best performance and quality possible. It is hoped that this would be levels above the older content sharing methods through Google docs and Discord pins.
Connecting With Like-Minded Players
In joining with other contributors, you will be meeting and perhaps even working alongside like-minded players who share your goals and ideals for sharing quality content with the community.
It is among our core beliefs that there is always something more that people can learn from one another and that together we can grow even more.
Promoting Your Projects
We recognise the scope of work that goes into various projects, not only ones to be hosted on the site, but also personal goals, be it YouTube channels, Twitch Streaming and personal works of art.
As such, AkhMorning is more than happy to help promote your projects, whether it is via social media platforms, our listings on the website to feature links and embeds to your platforms, or even our upcoming Streamer pages to show when you go live. We want you to grow successfully as much as possible in your own right.
AkhMorning will, however, not provide support to those using their platforms for discrimination, hate and illegal activities. Be mindful of how your content might be perceived in other parts of the world.
Future Contributor Benefits
In the future, AkhMorning would like to be able to do more than just host and promote your content and will be looking at ways to further benefit contributors.
Let us have your thoughts.
What Does AkhMorning Get Out Of Contributions?
At its core: more people visiting the site, preferably repeatedly, and greater awareness of what we have here.
When growing a website, there are multiple details in traffic sources to go over in the website analytics for improvements, notably:
- organic search growth (organic refers to traffic from search engines that is earned and not paid for)
- direct growth (direct refers to traffic where the referrer or source isn’t known, often direct links here and there)
- social growth (social refers to traffic from social media sources such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)
- referral growth (referral is traffic that comes when a user finds the website through a site other than a major search engine)
Every detail is gone over carefully and is related back not only to the User experience, but also in terms of feedback for how well a contributor’s content is being received.
As content quantity and variety increases on the website, so will the reasons for people to not only come by and come back for something in particular, but also to stay and look at more content that would be of interest to them. This results in more of a positive feedback loop for AkhMorning as it becomes more of a recognised name among players. It then gets recommended further and use of the website grows.
It is hoped that as more players visit, so too will people aspire to contribute and support what AkhMorning does. Our goal is to provide the best we can “By the community, For the community”.
One of our future paths may involve minimal-intrusion ads. Higher website traffic would produce further benefit here in terms of potential earnings from CPM and CPC ad creative metrics. The earnings would then go back into maintaining and improving the website, as well as funding the supply of merchandise, giving back to the people that have been a part of making things happen and, organising future giveaways to the community and charities.
The Contributor Content Pipeline
When a contributor has given the go ahead for content to be published on AkhMorning’s website, there are essentially two options:
- the Webmaster ports over the content to a new content branch, then later merges it into the Staging website
- contributors can create/edit content in the Content Management System, which is connected directly to the Staging website
The first option is admittedly the quickest due to the Webmaster’s familiarity with the site and its codebase. The Webmaster then acts as a point of contact for ensuring the end result is as desired, performing any requested additions or edits.
The second option, with the Content Management System (CMS) allows contributors to submit content directly to the Staging website and edit it with a Markdown WYSIWYG editor. The advantage of this over many HTML WYSIWYG editors, is that often you may not know whether content was formatted or styled consistently without going into the code itself. Markdown helps take care of this matter through limiting the options for markup.
In addition to the base level Markdown, AkhMorning also features various block templates that form certain key sections and layouts of the site, such as video embeds and accordions. Contributors can select these and organise their order on a page as necessary.
Version control of the content ensures unintended commits can be rolled back as necessary. The CMS also allows for only one user to access a specific content file at any one time. A main consideration with the CMS approach is that the overall content process may take longer to complete, but does allow for greater contributor autonomy. There are, however, a limited number of User slots available.
As a protection measure, with our separation of a Staging website and Master (production) website, AkhMorning is able to ensure a visible quality control step before content goes live.
When approved, the Staging content is merged into the Master website and will be updated automatically within minutes.
Explanations for content flow for Individuals and Collaborators is explained below.
Individuals
As an individual contributor, the conversations surrounding the content pipeline are at their most simple: a direct dialogue between yourself and AkhMorning’s Webmaster.
You will have entire autonomy over what is your content, prior to an editing and formatting review for flow and legibility.
Adding New Content
Individuals may already have existing content not on the website, or a new idea that they would like to publish. Once the content is ready, it can be submitted to the Staging site.
Once content is submitted to the Staging site, a preview of how it will look when pushed live is visible on the Staging website. As a contributor you will receive a User ID and Password to access the Staging website to engage in a round of feedback for any changes.
Once changes are agreed upon, quality checks are then performed. If content is not given the OK, it is revised then submitted back to the Staging site. Only when the content is given an OK has it passed AkhMorning’s quality checks and will be approved to go live on the main website.
The approved content is then merged into AkhMorning’s Master repository from Staging.
Editing Existing Content
Individuals that have existing content on the website may wish to update their content.
If the individual is working with the Webmaster, they will submit the updates and the Webmaster will push the updates to the Staging site. Once the updated edits are agreed upon and submitted to the Staging site, quality checks are performed.
If they are working through the CMS, they have autonomy over performing the edits. After their edits are complete, quality checks are performed.
Approved updates are then merged into AkhMorning’s Master repository from Staging.
Withdrawing Existing Content
Individuals that have existing content on the website may wish to remove their content from AkhMorning.
They must confirm a request to AkhMorning’s Webmaster to withdraw content from the site giving a week’s notice.
Content is then removed from AkhMorning by the Webmaster.
Collaborators
As a collaborator with other contributors, the content pipeline has an additional step since you are working with others as a team.
While you will have autonomy over your specific part(s), the direction of the overall content remains a team decision by majority consensus. Following that will be the conversation with AkhMorning’s Webmaster pending the team’s agreed upon changes. Overall this represents one additional step as a team than as an Individual contributor.
Adding New Content
Collaborators may already have existing content not on the website, or a new idea that they would like to publish. The content must be peer reviewed to agree by majority consensus that it is ready to be published. Once the content is ready, it can be submitted to the Staging site.
When content has been submitted to the Staging site a preview of how it will look when pushed live is visible on the Staging website. As contributors you all will receive a User ID and Password to access the Staging website to engage in a round of feedback for any changes.
Once changes are agreed upon, quality checks are then performed. If content is not given the OK, it is revised as a group then submitted back to the Staging site. Only when the content is given an OK has it passed AkhMorning’s quality checks and will be approved to go live on the main website.
The approved content is then merged into AkhMorning’s Master repository from Staging.
Editing Existing Content
One or more collaborators that have existing content on the website may wish to update their content. The group must agree amongst themselves on the level of edits involved.
If the collaborators are working with the Webmaster, they will submit the agreed upon updates and the Webmaster will push the updates to the Staging site. Once the updated edits are agreed upon and submitted to the Staging site, quality checks are performed.
If they are working through the CMS, the collaborative group has autonomy over performing the edits. After their edits are complete, quality checks are performed.
Approved updates are then merged into AkhMorning’s Master repository from Staging.
Withdrawing Existing Content
One or more collaborators that have contributed to existing content on the website may wish to remove their content from AkhMorning.
The group must review the wish to withdraw existing content.
If there is a deadlock from the lack of a majority consensus, the content remains as is.
If the majority agree in favour of removing the content, they must confirm a request to AkhMorning’s Webmaster to withdraw content from the site giving a week’s notice.
Content is then removed from AkhMorning by the Webmaster.