New CoN News Feature and Contest

It appears that writing web code as my everyday job, instead of just managing people who write web code as their everyday jobs, kind of speeds up the CoN development process a bit, too. This is evidenced by the new feature we're rolling out today - the brand-new CoN news section. I'm not going to lie to you, there are a lot of parts of this news section where the enhancements might not be completely obvious to you visitors and members, but that's okay. There's also a lot of stuff that's obvious and useful, too!

First, let's say that you're particularly interested in news we've posted related to Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. Well, great, because now all the Final Fantasy VII news is neatly categorized into its own section, and you'll quickly be able to grab all of that and peruse it without having to also see me chatter on about the site. (Of course, if you love seeing me chatter about the site, you can do that too because all of the major types of news we post are also categorized.) Also to help out in quickly finding the news you want, the majority of our news posts also now carry post icons to give you a visual clue as to the main focus of the news. Of course, that's not the only way you can filter. If you've been out to see without internet for the last couple months, you might want to check out all the news we posted from June 2009 in order to catch up, which as you can see from the link is now totally possible. Hey, if you're really interested enough, you can even check all the way back to June 2002, the very first month of modern news at CoN, and every month in between. Hey, we even break it down by author, so if you just have the burning desire to news-stalk laszlow, we're going to give you the option.

Another neat feature we're giving you now is the ability to read news articles and associated commentary by your fellow members without having to go all the way to the forums, should you wish. Not only that, you can even add your own comments right there, too. As an example, check out this very news article that you're reading now. You can view this for every single news article we've posted in the last seven years, and if there are just too many comments, we'll link you right into the forums to view them all and post just like you used to.

Now, here's the biggest kicker as it relates to you guys. This system now enables you non-staffers out there to submit news to us, too. We know that there have been times where you guys have found news and we've been frustrated because you beat us to it; sometimes this results in threads being duplicated in the news forum, people not knowing where or how to post, and things like that. It doesn't have to happen any more, because we're giving you control to write up news just like we do it and submit it for our approval. If we approve it, your own username will show up on the site homepage and in the news forum just like ours, and we'll even track the number of user submissions we get from you guys and display it on every news article you have on the site. It's like postcount, but better! Even if what you post doesn't quite meet our editorial standards, though, we might be able to clean it up a bit for you, and if so you'll be credited right in the post, too.

So, that brings me to my new contest here. We want you guys to share news you find with us, and we're looking to help you get motivated to do it. So, for the next three months or so, we're going to keep special track of what you post and what we approve from your postings. At the end of September, we'll check to see who outside of staff has posted the most approved news items, and if it's greater than five, that person's going to grab up a $25 (or the equivalent in pounds sterling, Euro, or Canadian dollars) in an AmaCoN gift card. If we get more than ten people who post five or more stories, we'll give out another $10 to one of you chosen at random, too. And, hey - if you show up and rock our... socks... with the quality of your news posting, there might be an opening on our permanent news staff for you as well.

You might be wondering, "how best to get my news approved?" It's not too hard. Make sure you write with good grammar and spelling, make sure you post news that's really relevant to our audience (obviously, we focus on Square Enix news, RPG news, and news that impacts big portions of the console RPG audience like important corporate news), and make sure you cover lots of details in your post. Preview your post before posting it. Make sure your sources are accurate, and for bonus points, throw a little bit of your own personal opinion in there too. Follow that formula consistently and you'll be on the way to that gift card in no time.

Let us know if you have questions, we're looking forward to getting your submissions!