Content writers wanted for home page articles

[Brogan]

As a trial, I'm going to put the articles back up and use the author avatars next to the titles.

While this isn't as good as having images, it will help to break up the text a little and gives an extra bit of recognition to the authors.

I'll get that up soon to see how it works - just need to finalise the markup and find some suitable threads.

What it does mean is anyone without an avatar won't be able to have their thread featured, so a small incentive there to get one

Unfortunately, I've just discovered the same applies to those using Gravatar, so if this turns out to be more trouble than it's worth then it will require another rethink.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I've spent the last couple of nights in bed waiting for the little one to drop off mulling over my next long winded war and peace on F1. It's going to be thought provoking, long and otherwise distracting for the masses for about 10 seconds but at least it keeps my mind off of the impending nappy changes.

 

[Brogan]

Wait 'til the teething starts...

 

[cider_and_toast]

Wait 'til the teething starts...

Yep, one more thing in the list of things to worry about.

 

[Brogan]

Aarghh!

Too many people are using Gravatars for this to be a simple thing - the code can't pull the Gravatar to display on the home page so it just ends up as a missing image.
I've just tried 8 different threads and 3 had no avatar and the other 5 were by members using Gravatar, so it's very hit and miss.

Just about to give up on this idea altogether...

 

[Brogan]

OK, managed to get it working.

So it breaks it up a bit at least, but it's not going to challenge the BBC "for sure"...

 

[racecub]

What's a Gravatar?

 

[Brogan]

http://en.gravatar.com/

I'm considering disabling it though as it does slow the site down quite a bit sometimes, when the Gravatar servers are playing up.

 

[racecub]

Oh I see. So where ever you go you have the same avatar, it just follows you about. ...... No sneaking around incognito then with one of those

 

[jez101]

Looks great, Brogan. Just what it needed and a nice tie in to the author and the forums in general.

Can you add the category (F1 Discussion, stats & analysis...) next to the author name perhaps to link to more like this?

 

[Brogan]

Yeah, I thought about adding the forum, it's just a bit of extra work when updating the page each time, so I was being lazy

 

[Jos the Boss]

Can we have a countdown to xmas? After Brazil?

 

[Brogan]

I suppose that can be arranged.

 

[Jos the Boss]

 

[Brogan]

The circuit previews have now been removed from the home page and won't be returning until late February/early March.

Get writing you lot!

 

[Brogan]

Great timing GeoffP

I was looking for a suitable article for the home page to replace Galahad's article on the Jacarepaguá circuit.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Is this an ongoing thing for this year as well?

 

[teabagyokel]

Mephistopheles - Of course, sir, write a good 'un, and mysterious forces (possibly Administrator) will pop it on the homepage.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I've started one called.

Formula One A Young Man's Game.

It's to do with driver ages over the years considering Schumacher is still driving at 43 and how drivers in the early days drove on into their 50's and when did the change take place from old to young was it a gradual thing or did it happen slowly like evolution.

It hasn't already been done has it teabagyokel I would hate to think I am wasting my time....

 

[Brogan]

Is this an ongoing thing for this year as well?

Absolutely chap.
We're always looking for decent articles to promote on the home page.

As long as there are several paragraphs then there's a good chance it will be featured.