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204 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
204 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
Do you have expert knowledge of some aspect of bitcoin related technology ? Do
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you have an urge to write high-quality articles for
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extremely picky editors and demanding readers, sometimes under
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tight deadlines, for minimal pay? If so, writing for BTW may be for
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you. Please read on for information on how you can participate in
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the creation of BitcoinTechWeekly.
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# What we are after
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BTW is seeking authors who can contribute
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articles on a free-lance basis. Our needs fall into three areas:
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1. Lead-in editorials for the various Weekly Edition categories, based on
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current events.
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2. Brief updates and highlights, based on current developments in the
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mailing lists and community projects.
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3. Longer, feature articles that are not so tightly tied to this week's news.
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## Lead-in
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As of this writing, we are particularly interested in contributions to our
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weekly Protocol, BIPS, Crypto and Lightning pages, but other subjects are
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welcome too.
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Contributions to these pages will run in the "lead-in" position at the top of
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the page. They usually cover some topic from recent bitcoin news (a release,
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mailing list discussion, plans made, etc.). Our general guideline is for
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articles to be around 1500 words in length, though somewhat longer or shorter
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can work too. The best articles cover a fairly narrow topic completely, without
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any big omissions or any extra padding. We are generally looking for authors
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who have their own ideas on topics they want to write about. Looking at past
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weekly editions in the Archives is a good way to get an idea of the kinds of
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topics we cover and how we cover them.
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First drafts of articles are typically due on Monday, with a (hopefully)
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one-day turnaround for a final draft sometime on Tuesday. Our deadline is early
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Wednesday morning, CEST time (UTC+2), but it is best to not push up against
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that if possible. Articles that are less tightly tied to the news of the week
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can be delivered at most any time, the earlier, the better.
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## Briefs
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We are looking for contributors to our weekly briefs. The format is shorter
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than usual articles; the recommended length is less than 600 words.
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It can cover an update, release, new announcement or other developments in the
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Bitcoin technology space, and usually includes quotes and citations from the
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covered topic.
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The priority sources of news should be the development mailing lists
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bitcoin-dev and lightning-dev as well as other bitcoin tech communities like
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/r/BitcoinDiscussion and bitcointalk forums.
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Since brief updates are time sensitive, contributions approval will be faster
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but you need to contact us first to check if the topic is not already covered
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on our upcoming Weekly Release. The time of the news or event covered should be
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in the period *starting from the Thursday of last week to the Wednesday of
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current week* (last day before the release day).
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If you want your contribution to be included in the upcoming Weekly Edition
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release, the deadline is a strict early Thursday morning, CEST time (UTC+2).
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## Feature articles
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We are also always on the lookout for standalone feature articles.
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Feature articles can run independently, on the Weekly Edition front
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page, or both. Articles intended for a specific week's front page
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are subject to the same deadline constraints as other Weekly
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Edition material; others can be more flexible in their timing.
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Please note that we are, as a general rule, not looking for "how
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to" articles; there are plenty of other outlets for such content on
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the net. We're more interested in the current news and in informing
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our readers of interesting developments in the community that they
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may not have previously heard of.
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We are especially interested in authors who follow an area well
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enough to propose topics for articles and follow through quickly.
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# How to contribute
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There are two ways to submit contributions:
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## Open Contributions
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If you just wish to contribute your writing in an open way you should head over our [Github repo](https://github.com/sp4ke/bitcointechweekly.com).
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We encourage open contributions as they are more transparent and much easier to
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review. The contribution process works this way:
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1. Submit a *PR* including the *title* and a *brief summary* of your writing.
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2. You PR is reviewed and will accept or reject your proposal at our discretion, based on the topic relevance and other factors.
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3. If you PR is accepted you will be able to work on your drafts updates over PRs which we will review until the article is ready for publication.
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4. Your article is published under the "Open Contribution" section on BitcoinTechWeekly.com
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When you start a draft you need to use the [TEMPLATE](TEMPLATE.md) provided in the github repository and fill in
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the metadata at top of the template. (See [Formatting](#formatting))
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Open contributors will have the opportunity in the future to receive payments through community donations.
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If you wish to receive compensations for your contribution you should include your BTC or Lightning address in the metadata section.
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## Direct Submissions
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If you wish to send us directly your writings, the first order of business
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is to contact us (at authors@bitcointechweekly.com) or
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[on our matrix room](https://matrix.to/#/!CbOXWmBuZVDBBmPKdT:matrix.bitcointechweekly.com)
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to discuss your interests. Please do not just send articles without talking to
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us first. We'll discuss subjects and timelines and come to a determination on
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if and where your contributions fit into BTW.
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*Submission must be done done in Markdown format*. Please read our writing
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style and formatting information (below) to understand the kind of content we are
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looking for.
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# BTW style guide
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One can find on the interweb an abundance of Bitcoin related journalism. BTW is
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trying to distinguish itself from the lot through (1) a high degree of respect
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to its readers, (2) a significant level of technical accuracy and (3)
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top-quality writing. Contributors to BTW must aim for those goals. To that end,
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we will edit contributions before publication if necessary (though we
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much prefer writing which requires little to no editing), and we must reserve
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the right not to publish work which, in our opinion, does not belong to BTW.
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Furthermore, BTW is a *Bitcoin* technology magazine, not the run-of-the-mill
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"everything Blockchain" website you will find elsewhere. We will reject
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any "click-bait" writing in the form of "10 reasons you need a Blockchain"
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and make sure to ignore such a contributor.
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We will likewise reject any contribution which, at its substance, tends to
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primarily focus on price behavior or market predictions, unless the technical
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subject of the writing is tightly linked to the economics aspect (such as
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mining incentives, block rewards, transaction fees, etc.).
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*Audience*. You must assume BTW's readers to be be highly educated and strongly
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technical. Some of them will likely be participants in the projects you are
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writing about. Should you feel the urge to "dumb down" material, that urge
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should be resisted. Our readers are most certainly not "dummies". If you talk
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down to them, or only tell part of the story, they will call you on it.
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# Formatting
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Our preferred format is *Markdown*. For direct submissions we will prioritize contributions in this format.
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For [Open Contributions](#open-contributions), markdown is the only format accepted.
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If you prefer any other specific markup language, let us know we might be able to accommodate you.
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"Word" documents should be avoided at all costs; we will still consider contributions in this format but
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we strongly advise against it as it makes the review process much slower.
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# Compensation
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Compensation can be made in BTC and Lightning. Let us know if you want to get paid in an alternative crypto-currency.
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There are two ways to get paid for your writing.
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## Compensation On Open Contributions
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For [open contributions](#open-contributions) you need to provide a bitcoin (or LN[^1]) address in
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the metadata section. The readers will have the opportunity to make direct
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donations to each article. Half of every donation will be distributed to the original author. The
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other half is reserved to the costs of running the website and the BTW editors team.
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## Direct submissions
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For direct submissions which are accepted, there will be a "one time only" payment. Those
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contributions are not elligible to donations from the readers. If you wish to receive donations
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directly from the readers consider making an [open contribution](#open-contributions).
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Compensation starts at $200 for well-done articles from new authors. Those
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figure do go up quite substantially for authors who, over time, establish a
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record of good writing and on-time contributions. We'll entertain proposals for
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in-depth articles (or a series of articles) of greater complexity at a higher
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price; please contact us if you have an idea you would like to pursue.
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# Copyrights and further reproduction
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Authors retain the copyrights for their work. We ask that you grant BTW
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exclusive rights to publish your work during up to two weeks after publication.
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Thereafter, we retain the right to publish the material, and release it under
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the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license ([CC BY-SA
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4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)). After the exclusive
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rights period, authors may republish their work however they wish.
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# Still interested ?
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Drop us a [mail](mailto:contact@bitcointechweekly.com) or join us on [matrix](https://matrix.to/#/!CbOXWmBuZVDBBmPKdT:matrix.bitcointechweekly.com) and let's talk.
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[^1]: {{< footnote >}}
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For lightning payments you need to establish a LN channel with us. We are still setting up our LN node and will soon give
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more details for this procedure.
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{{< /footnote >}}
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