FAQ And Instructions
What’s the purpose of this site?
A good question. There are several purposes to this site! Some of them are: To point
out that there are many good and interesting things going on in the world, to share
news that is not sensationalist, and to improve the outlook of people, inspiring
them to see the world as a better place than the ordinary news portrays it as. We
want to show news from around the globe, in many different categories. And have
none of it make our readers want to despair for the world. We also aim to encourage
people to hunt for and share positive stories, to discuss them and also think about
the fact that news is so often negative. We hope this will lead to a change.
Why did you create it?
Basically? We were fed up with the news. The news programmes on TV were full of
war, destruction, and economic crises and to set it off nicely, fluff and celebrity
gossip that definitely did not belong on the "news". Flicking through
our local newspapers, we were lucky to find two or three articles with a remotely
positive headline or spin on it each day. Apparently it's only when a story's got
a negative spin that people want to read it. Or that’s what they’re telling us anyway.
You can prove us wrong, we hope!
We’re not journalists, but even we have to ask "why" there seems to be
so little good news. No, it’s not a news site for innocents, nor do we think good
news has to be fluffy or non controversial. We do realise that bad things happen
in the world and that it’s important to know about them. We’re not about living
in denial. But you are what you read, potentially anyway, and we didn’t want to
be depressed constantly. We’re here to balance out the negative news.
What is ‘good news’?
Simply put, it’s any news article that’s not negative and that people would find
interesting, or, even, dare we say it, exciting!
Who are you aimed at?
We’re aimed at everyone who is fed up with all news being negative. But we can’t
guarantee to be suitable for children, as even positive news can have adult themes.
When do you update?
Sporadically. So keep checking back!
How can you help me?
We can help show you the positive things happening in the world, help you practice
your writing and researching skills, and make your day more pleasant in general.
How can I help you?
You can help us by doing several things.
- By submitting ‘good news’ articles that you have seen or written or summarised
- By commenting on news items
- By showing the site to your friends
- By advertising with us
- By donating webspace- advertise for us!
- And by donating money.
This helps make the site more active. For every bit of time you spend submitting
articles or responding via comments, or telling your friends about us, the site
will become more and more fantastic. It gives you a chance to make the content of
the site balanced in the favour of topics you’re interested in. If you’re a writer,
it gives you practice in writing articles. Donations of time keep the site running,
and money helps keep the site up for you and others to enjoy, by paying for hosting
and other costs. (This is also why we have Google Adsense.) We appreciate every
minute and every small donation.
Making comments
Please do! You can make an account first, or, post as a guest.
We greatly encourage conversation about the articles. When commenting on articles
you are encouraged to stay relatively on-topic. Obviously, do not spam, or otherwise
abuse the site or users. Remember that we do not screen your comments, your words
and opinions are your own.
However, we do not permit comments which are threatening, menacing, racist, homophobic,
pornographic, harassive or libelous in nature. We reserve the right to delete such
comments.
Reporting comments (and why)
If you see a comment that is spam (i.e. a link that is not related to the original
topic, or other obvious spam), or objectionable (not just a different opinion to
yours) then click the ‘report comment’ button. The comment will disappear to be
reviewed by the administration. You may also email us for more detailed help.
Making an account
To comment, you should make an account with us. It is easy. Just go
here,
which is also linked from the login box and follow the signup instructions. If you
have forgotten your password, click 'Forgotten Password' and a new one will be
emailed to you - this is why you must have a real email address in your account.
When you have received this new password, you will be able to change it to one that
you can remember.
Another benefit to you other than being able to post comments, is that you become
part of the community and your article submissions are attributed to you. Later
on there may be other perks!
What sorts of things can I submit?
Anything that has interesting news-type content to it, and is not doom and gloom!
Take a look around the site to see what sorts of things other people have submitted
for a rough guide of what we are looking for. While we reserve the right to pick
and choose which submissions end up on the site for public view, if yours doesn’t
get through, try again with a different article! It is easy to send us:
- Links to articles you would like us to cover
- Links to articles along with a summary which you have written
- Articles you have written from either primary or secondary sources
- Summarised and reworded newspaper articles
- Links to videos of good news, along with a summary
- Articles you have rewritten to have a positive spin on them.
How do I submit articles?
First, go to Submit News in the menu at the top of the page. Then:
To suggest an article This option is for if you do not know how to summarise
or rewrite an article, or you would not like to. In the text box under
Submit News
please simply give us the url of the original article, along with a title, though
this title may be changed by us. Or, if it is a newspaper article, type up the original
article in the description box and tell us in the title that it is the original
news paper article, and include all references such as date published, name of newspaper,
title of article, and author if possible, in the references box (ignore the url
if it is a 'real life' newspaper article rather than an online one). When we have
time, and/or if it is suitable for the site, someone will do the summarising or
rewording for you. If it’s an online article that you have written a summary for
This is the better option, as it will get onto the site much faster.
So, you have found an interesting good news article, and want to contribute to our
site with it. Fantastic! Here’s how to do it.
-
Check that it has not already been posted and that it does not break any of our
guidelines. Don’t forget to log in if you have an account!
-
Summarise the article. All article summaries must
- Aim to inform the reader of the actual details of the article in an interesting way.
- Be well spelt.
- Include only an acceptable amount of quoting from the original article.
- Be clear on which country or area you are talking about, if applicable. We're an international site.
Summaries may
-
Be either entirely in your own words, or be a section of the original article, as
long as it still complies with the above a)- d).
-
Include either html links to the relevant article within the text, or at the end
or beginning of the article.
- Include quotes from the original article.
- Make sure you have included the link to the original article.
- Give us a title!
-
Click Submit. Your article will be placed in a pending articles queue and if
approved, will appear on the site soon. If it’s a newspaper article in the
submission form, tell us exactly where the newspaper article came from,
including name of newspaper, original article headline, and if possible,
original author. Then rewrite or summarise the article in your own words.
For a newspaper article summary, the summary absolutely must be able to stand alone,
as we, and most of the readers, most likely do not have access to your newspaper.
You may of course include small parts of the original article as quotes.
Click Submit.
If it’s a summary of a piece of good news that includes several different references
This happens sometimes- you see a piece of news, and then you just keep clicking
around to find out more. So why tell us about only one of the links?
Summarise the piece of news, rather than one article, again making sure that the
summary will make sense to people who do not click the links. Include your references
at the end of your summary in the references boxes, and you can put it within the
text as well. If some of those references are newspaper articles or books or other
non linkable articles, please provide those references at the end of your summary,
with as much detail as possible.
Click Submit. Video links Sometimes sites such as
TED
or news sites with embeddable videos have good news.
To submit these to us, please summarise the video in a way that accurately describes
the content of the video, that will be able to stand alone if the link later fails.
Then copy and paste the html embedding code into the submit text box.
If there is no embedding code you may also link directly to the video, for readers
to click on.
Click Submit.
If it’s an article you’ve written yourself We do encourage original articles,
either from primary or secondary sources!
Tell us that that’s what you have done by including “Original Article:” in your
title. Provide your secondary or primary sources in as much detail as possible.
Copy and paste your entire article into the submissions text box. Include your name
if you wish.
It will remain your property, but you give us permission to use it on the site.
Click Submit.
If you have any questions about this, please contact us.
If it is an article you have put a spin on Sometimes you see an article in the
news where you notice that they have taken the very worst view of the situation.
We’re not saying you should invent a positive side for every negative story, definitely
not if it’s a tragic situation, but if there is clearly a more positive spin on
the piece of news, we encourage you to rewrite it.
An example is an article we saw with the headline “Thousands of schools miss out
on new government PE initiative!” where it could (or, should have been!) “New Government
PE Initiative Trialled!” The thousands of schools were not ‘missing out’, as it
was a new initiative and had to be trialled. But the News just had to make it sound
like it was something parents should be worried or even angry about, rather than
something to look forward to or be interested in. And for those of you who don't
know what PE is, it's where Australian kids are forced to run around and do sports
and school, and stands for 'Physical Education'.
So, you can help make the news a more positive thing! Give us the link(s) or details
for the original article/piece of news, either at the beginning or end of the summary,
or in the text. Then summarise that news in a positive, though not over blown, way,
that can be understood by people who may not click on the link. Additional research
is welcome, please also reference that.
Click Submit.
If you (or someone you know) have done something fantastic That you think
is newsworthy, please tell us about it via Contact Us, and we
might ask you for more details. You may end up with an article written about you!
Editorials You may want to submit an ‘editorial’ style piece that you have
written, on content that would be appropriate for our site. To do so, submit it
with ‘Editorial:’ as part of your title.
Additional questions about article submissions
What if the link dies?
It happens, and this is why you should include as much referencing as possible,
and make sure that any summaries make sense and are useful without having to read
the original article.
How do you title your article?
It should be informative, and interesting to a casual reader.
What are tags?
Tags are another way for you to search for articles that you like. So, an article
might be under the main category of "Politics" and also under tags of "Australia",
"Government" and "Britain".
How do I add tags?
At the moment, you don't. That's our job. Later on you may be able to. For now,
just enjoy clicking them!
What are the categories?
The main categories are Environment, Business, Politics, Health, Technology, Science,
Society/Civics, Local Issues, Global Issues, Other and Original Stories. Articles
that are in one of these categories will appear on the main page.
The secondary categories are Internet News, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Editorials,
Reviews and Old News. To find stories that are only in these categories and not
in any of the main categories, you will have to click their category in the menu.
Articles can be in more than one category.
How do I add my article to a category?
When you are submitting your article, you may pick one from the drop down menu.
Additional ones will be added by the site staff.
The inclusion of photos
Photos may only be included if you hold the copyright or they are in creative commons.
In most cases this means that there will be very few photos allowed. They must also
not be too big.
Why was my entry edited? Why was it put in that category?
We aim to have a site that is easy to read and use. Sometimes an entry isn’t exactly
what we’re looking for, but instead of rejecting it outright we will edit to make
it something that we can use. Each article goes into at least one category to make
the site easier to search for similar articles. Some of these categories do not
appear on the main page of news, but can be found in the menu of categories.
Why does it take so long to go up?
We only have a small team of staff, and we’re going to get to it as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience. To make our job easier, please make sure you have followed
the guidelines!
Some reasons why your submission may not have gone up.
It wasn’t what we were looking for for this site, it wasn’t referenced correctly,
it didn’t seem true, the spelling or proofreading was hugely lacking, or a similar
story had just been posted
What about referencing?
When you have references please include them in your submission. It can be in your text using html where it is a link, as well as
at the top of the text, or at the bottom of the text in the additional references
section. If you only have one link, please put it in the 'Main Article Link' rather
than the 'References' section.
Disclaimer:
All submissions are the responsibility of the poster. Content may be accepted or
refused at the discretion of the administration. We’ll never publish or sell your
details. All articles are submitted to the site at the discretion of the editors.
We do not accept content that is designed to be offensive. If an article has breached
copyright, it will be removed. If an article is proven to be untrue (where the person
submitting it knew this) it will be removed. We always aim to only tell news that
is true, but each submission is the responsibility of the person who submitted
it, and sometimes it’s impossible for us to tell if it’s true or not. One person’s
good news is another person’s bad news, gay rights etc. Still want that on our site.
We reserve the right to change our policies at any time.
Contact us
If you have questions or comments about anything to do with the site, please do
not hesitate to email. Go here to do so.