FAQ

Topics

This blog is about finding and becoming our ideal self. We welcome all articles to that end, including religious, political, humorous and any other. However this blog is not about finding converts or promoting a political party.

This means we welcome posts on how self reliance with reduced taxes (or a government program through increased taxes) would help self-fulfillment, but will block posts on Obama birth certificate or Tom Delay conviction.

Similarly, we welcome posts (and, particularly, testimonies) on how your faith helped (or a religion inhibited) your personal growth, but will block posts on morality of the pastors, history of the religious conflicts or authenticity of religious texts.

In general, if you could use a line from “If” or “Invictus” as post’s title, then it is probably appropriate for this blog.

Content quality

We don’t have the goal of having the most articles – only the best ones, with no pop-psychology platitudes or general rambling.

Please use appropriate language (no chat language, please!) and be sure that anything you write you are proud of and are prepared to take responsibility for.

Our editing staff will mediate all posts to ensure their consistent quality and relevance.

Grammar

Always check over your post for spelling and grammar errors, and your use of words. (HINT: Try pasting your post in a word processor first and using the spell checker or use an internet spellchecker before posting on your blog.)

Fact checking

Make sure things you write about are factual. Link to your sources. But never link to something you haven’t read and understood completely. When you link to something, make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be in poor taste or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably warn readers by using a parenthetical note or some other word of caution.

Criticism

We expect plenty of criticism in posts and comments; however we expect civility, respect, appropriate language as well as well constructive, clearly laid out arguments.

Copyright

We prefer your own unique posts and would rather you not reprint someone else’s (from other blogs or publications). However if you believe that some article would really benefit the readers of our blog, you may either refer it to our editing staff or reprint it under author’s name and with the author’s explicit permission.

Of course, you are always welcome to re-post entries from your own personal blog.

Personal information

Refrain from putting yours or other people personal information on the blog. No last names, phone numbers, home addresses, IM screen names etc. It is probably not wise to give out your personal email address either.

“All Things If” is a monthly magazine. New issues come out on 15th of each month.

If you are interested in becoming an author here, proceed to the “Submissions” page.

To post a link to a YouTube video is extremely easy here on All Things If.

You can do so in a new post or one you have posted previously. In the post editor, above the main text field and above the editing buttons are two tabs. One labelled Visual. The other HTML. You need to make certain the  Visual Editor is active. This is the default if you have not previously changed it. In the Visual Editor bar, are a series of icons. The bold Red one with a white arrow is the one for posting a YouTube video.

Now, place your cursor in the editor window where you want to place the youtube video. Be sure there is a line (space) both above and below the location you want the video inserted and any text in the article.

Now, in a separate browser window, navigate to the YouTube video you want and click the button labelled “Share” below the video. Copy the URL in the field and come back to the All Things If editor and click on the the above mentioned Red icon – the browser window will dim and a dialogue will appear.

Simply paste the “share” URL from YouTube into the field in the dialogue and click insert. Then you will see the line of text where you inserted the video, which will look something like this…

[yframe url='http://youtu.be/pRpeEdMmmQ0']

If you need to adjust the text, add some more, etc., just be sure to put it all on a separate line with some space between the video URL and paragaraphs of text – If you want a caption, just eliminate the space between text and the video.

Now, when you are satisfied, go ahead and Publish the video.