ShoutWire Blog Standards and Policy

There was discussion yesterday of several blogs removed from ShoutWire by content editors. The material of the blog was requested to be removed as they targeted a specific community member of ShoutWire, against that particular member's expressed wishes. This is well within a content editor's assigned duties and responsibilities.

While a degree of freedom is allowed with topics of blogs on ShoutWire, there is a drafted policy for the content of blogs in relation to material directed at members of the ShoutWire community. If it is determined that a blog's general bearing seems to be aimed to cause derision or needlessly single out and attack a community member, and that member expresses concern about the blog, do not be surprised if it receives a request to be removed. This especially holds true after a warning is issued on the subject, as was apparently done some time ago in this case.

If you feel the content of one of your blogs, images, videos or articles should be fair game and was removed by moderation staff, visit ShoutWire Forums and create a thread to discuss what you would like to have reviewed.

If you have any specific, future questions about ShoutWire's blog policy, and about what will and will not result in your account being locked, or run into a problem with moderation staff, email Bulshoy, Dockwats or Zero at the emails in their profiles.

Helpful Links
ShoutWire FAQ

ShoutWire Guideline
ShoutWire Forums - Need to ask a question, this is where site related items go.

-

Dockwats
Bulshoy
Zero

The Economy is Still Sinking

Despite the Holiday sales rush people are purchasing less and the economy seems to be headed towards a recession.

ShoutWire Site Update - The Gobbling November Edition

Good Day ShoutWirians,

As the warm of November sets in for our Southern friends and the bitter, bitter cold hands of winter begin to grip our readers in the North, hopefully today's site update finds everyone in good spirits and health.

The past month has been a wearing one for both staff and community as we've battled work load balance, server issues and crappy ads while trying to implement features crucial for providing quality news and entertainment on a consistent basis. Rugged after three years of Outback autoplays, Hanafi's piano rendition of 2 girls 1 cup and evilly crafted Rick Rolls, we'll weather this storm as well. That said, on with the new slang...

ShoutWire Radio Live

The cast for the Shout Radio Live show has been finalized and will feature our hosts DJ Jenna-Flare, NodNarb and ShanusMaximus. As the final format of the show is decided upon and set-up, and support staffers for it are organized, ShanusMaximus and NodNarb have one other cool idea and expansion for the radio project.

It's a well known fact that ShoutWire is filled with one of the most diverse assortments of opinionated, sometimes funny and oft times infuriating people on Earth. That said, when team-ups or more accurately show-downs on popular-culture or political opinion occur, it's a match that can be fun to watch.

Shanus and Nod think everyone should have the chance to create, mix and submit their own podcasts to ShoutWire, and I agree it's an awesome idea. Shanus has volunteered to work with people who want to submit shows to the site, we can create appropriate infrastructure for browsing and finding podcasts and already have resources to turn any podcasts into widgets that can be delivered to any platform.

If there are enough people interested in having podcasts featured on ShoutWire, we'll get it up and running. If interested, simply shoot an email to Dock at the listed address.

Potential Fresh, Juicy Content Everywhere but The Front Page

Day in and day out, there are countless crazy bits of news, entertainment and more that occurs in our Earth. From the typically absurd lands of America to Europe, who also has a disproportionately high amount of hot politicians, there's always something interesting going on.

When submitting a headline on ShoutWire, remember that stories which feature more than mundane items, have colorful descriptions and eye-catching yet relevant titles will do the best. If you see a fellow Shouter who has articles that tend to get high number of views, comments and Shouts, pay close attention to the content type. There's a good chance people will be come back for more of the same thing.

Greenlit Content and Featured Articles Section

Pending a final meeting sometime this week or next, we'll draft an official policy that ensures more quality entries are accessible from the front page. While more complicated (coding wise) solutions have been drafted and requested, our most recent implementation should be fully ready by the end of this month. So we've been told. Time will tell...

Greenlighting Phase 1

To ensure maximal delivery of high quality and preferred content on our front page, several ShoutWire staff will be trained to review and accept tips on hot item news stories and good bits of entertainment, that will be greenlit for front page presentation during times of article slow-down.

During this time period, if you have any pressing stories you would like to have reviewed simply swing by our chat at ShoutWire Chat to submit story tips to staff. You will see a new button for this as well. All appropriate tips will be archived for review by appropriate personnel.

Remember, items that have interesting description and titles, and cover stories that tend to be historically well received and popular on ShoutWire will be given priority consideration.

Greenlighting Phase 2

Eventually, and hopefully by month's end, you will have a module on the top page of your ShoutWire home page. The module will show Featured/Recommended upcoming articles (no videos, blogs or images), based on tips and search trends, giving you the option to Shout/Bash/View and Review the article headline. As this new module grows in elegance and implementation, Phase 1 greenlighting will be phased out.

Front Page Image Preview Thumbnails

Simply put, for the users who greatly contribute to and enjoying our growing image archive, do you find the flash based image box on the front page alright or annoying? Users have emailed staff about adblock control causing issues with the module, and would like it to turn back into its simple hardcoded thumbnail and headline on hover form. If you have an opinion on it, let us know via chat or email staff *a*t* shoutwire.com.

Nigerian and Romanian Spammers

It's been said that every day, a man by the name of Bulshoy wakes up in the frigid lands of Canada. After chopping a requisite amount of wood and forging metal with his bare hands, he sets down with a cup of tough black coffee, unfiltered. His focus, while tending to numerous other life duties, becomes the combat of spam. For three years this man has lead a team of unpaid, un-thanked and overworked content editors in fighting spammers and those who would have ShoutWire looking sloppier than a cracked out celeb at a Vegas brothel.

We hate spam with all our hearts and granted requests made to keep spammemrs out of our kingdom, will be demanding key features to ensure spam content cannot overrun ShoutWire. The implementation now rests solely in the hands of our new owners. If things go as asked, you'll see:

1) A required captcha field on all article and video submissions.
2) Spam quickly deleted from upcoming stories due to one simple add-on we should have had months ago when it was requested for a reason.

Stay tuned, the anti-spam wrath of an armed Band of Brothers only stays contained for so long and soon spammers will squeal in agony once more.

Death to Crappy Plus Sized Top Model Ad-fidels

Nodnarb has suggested that instead of having America's Next Top Model ad, we switch the module to do something clever like carry an RSS of links to stuff more suited to our demographic. But hey, I'm sure Westboro Baptist Church, Scientology, the '83 Nuggets and Jethro's Ain't Takin' Kindly Diner down in East Texas, off Lowery Road, all have interesting permanent ads to put in place too. We'll update on how the status of Plus Sized Whitney changes. Also, SpiritualWarrior, why did you shout Whitney?

ShoutOuts

We'd like to take a chance to give congratulate MrWomp and Smerrfy, two of our founding site members (you hardly see them on the main site these days) for the new additions to their family. While both of them refused the honourable name suggestion of Leonidas Maximus for their kids, we wish them all the best.

Another one of our other founding community members will be taking off next month in honor, but we'll leave that announcement to him.

So that's it for this month. Other than that, you guys stay cool and safe and come December, hopefully we have more reason to celebrate.

Sincerely,

Dockwats

Jon Stewart Rips Palin and Pfotenhauer Several New Assholes (Video)

I'm not going to make you sit through a bunch of boring prose. This will be short and sweet.

The latest bullshit rhetoric from the McCain comes from Pfotenhauer. Apparently, there are certain parts of states that are more "real America" than others. Not sure about the logic behind that, and it seems to be pretty fucking condescending of her to say that some people love their country more than others because of where they live. When confronted by statements as idiotic as this, we turn to a man who we know we can trust to make everything make sense.

Jon?



And, of course, Sarah Palin comes along with her "Small Town" bullshit; is anyone surprised by that?

But don't fret; there's a way to know if you're a real American or not.



Don't worry, we also get to learn just what small town America is really like.



Yeah. Being mayor of Wasilla makes Paling TOTALLY FUCKING QUALIFIED TO LEAD.

And there you have it- the final word on small town America, what parts of America are real, and how being Mayor of a miserable little shit hole of a town immediately qualifies you to be put into a position where you can easily become leader of the Country. There's no reason to question Palin's credentials ever again.

Sarah Palin's Sexy 1984 Swimsuit Competition Video

With us winding down to election month, we all knew we'd be seeing more and more of the lovely Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. Videos of her appearance at the 1984 Alaskan swimsuit competition have been appearing on the internet like crazy, and Youtube is working furiously to remove each and every one that its users upload.



Luckily for us, the guy a waxy.org was kind enough to all us internet dwellers to upload a copy of the video himself.

In somewhat related news, Barack Obama is set to slaughter McCain in a debate. More on that as it develops.