Diary Guidelines

Diaries are one of the unique features of SB Nation, so here's a brief primer.

So what are these things? Well, they're a chance for readers to become more actively involved in the content of our site. While comments are great for one-liners and specific ideas related to a front page posting, diaries enable you to post links to new stories and add your own commentary. But quality counts, so be mindful of that.  Matt at Blog-a-Bull put together a good primer here, so that's the best place to start.  Here are the keys according to Matt, who knows a lot more about these things than we do:

So I thought I'd write up a quick tutorial on how to make your diaries sparkle with substance. I like everyone having the chance to write up their own say, but this isn't going to turn into some two-bit message board, damnit. So some pointers:

Format your diary: Nobody wants to read a bunch of garbled unorganized text. Brother site Bleed Cubbie Blue has a nice write-up on the formatting tags that this site uses. Keep in mind you can also use standard HTML tagging if you know that syntax.

Link your sources: We're all part of one big happy internet family, so if you're going to quote a source, please provide a link to it. And learn the formatting so you can effectively quote and link the sources.

Don't duplicate ideas: If you see someone already posted something similar to what you were thinking, just add a comment to that post instead of creating another separate diary. Similarly, if you have an off-topic point feel free to start a new thread.

Use a relevant title: That way people can more easily follow the conversations happening on the site. Don't use vague diary titles like 'I have an idea', and 'trade'.

Aside from that, keep it clean and on point.  We're not looking to censor anyone, but foul language and mindless drivel won't be published.