Greetings from the Staff of The Pennsic Independent!

This year, you are ALL the Staff of The Pennsic Independent! Welcome to your edition, your stories, your amazing tales of perseverance, creation, battles, encampments, parties, and the monumental effort we are all part of in order to have fun! Click READ MORE to find out how to contribute!!!

All you need to do in order to participate is to create an account. That is your registration. What you do after trolling in is up to you.

There are several ways to contribute. To start, click on your Workbench in the upper left-hand side of your screen. Then click Create Content.

To write a story: A screen with what looks like a miniature word processor will be the first thing that you see. There is a box where you can type the title of your story. The next visible box is where you can type or paste text. Make sure to give yourself credit! Your byline is important! You can change the look of the text the same way you can in a regular word processor. Play around with it until you are happy with the way it looks. We may or may not be able to proofread it, but an editor will read it to ensure that it is acceptable to publish. As with any content displayed on this site, it must be family-friendly and legal! 

Above the text box are words that say Body (Edit Summary). Click on that and a summary box will appear. Type in a brief summary of your content. This is what will show up on the main page of the site once your content is published. It can be as simple as a brief description (ex. from this article: "How to create content for The Pennsic Independent Plague Year Edition.") or it can be more elaborate (ex. from this article "You are all very important to making this year's Pennsic Independent and Virtual Pennsic War a success! Share your stories, your photos, your videos, your letters, and even your sorrows with the Known World. We want to see your camps, your battles, your parties, your messages, and anything else you want to share. Here's how to get started."). Just remember to keep it brief!

There is a drop-down menu below the text box called News Type. Select the category your content fits in. 

Share a photo: Click on "Choose Photo" under Headliner Photo. This photo will show up as part of your content in the news feed, as well as part of the content on the page when people click on either the story or photo. To add more photos, scroll down to Photo Gallery near the bottom of the page. You can add as many photos there as you like.

You can also embed photos in your story by clicking on the image icon in the tool ribbon of the word processor. There are options for the placement of the image, as well as the option to use a caption. We strongly recommend adding a caption with a description of the photo and credit for the photographer. If you like, you can add "Staff Photographer, The Pennsic Independent" to your byline, since you are a staff photographer this year!

NOTE: There is a required "Alternative Text" box for embedded images and headliner photos, and a voluntary box for gallery photos. This allows those who are sight impaired to know what you are sharing. Please use them!

You can contribute more than one photo by using the Photo Gallery at the bottom of the page. Add as many photos as you like! "Alternative Text" is not required there, but it helps users to understand what you are sharing.

In order to include a caption, click twice on the photo and check the box for caption in the box that pops up.

Best of all is VIDEO!!! Embed video of your class, your backyard encampment, your drum circle, your performance, whatever is going on at your Virtual Pennsic! Just select the button that looks like a small movie projector with a “play” icon in the center. Click on that, then enter the link to share your video. (Note: We do not have the space to host videos. Videos from your YouTube channel work best. Be sure to use the "Share" link. Although you can enter the link to the page for the video, it will only send people to YouTube instead of sharing it at The Pennsic Independent.)

FINAL STEP: When you have finished your masterpiece, you save your submission on the final dropdown menu on the bottom of the page. The default Save As is Draft. Change that to "Returned" so we can edit any mistakes, determine suitability for publication, and finally publish your content!!!

Please remember that this is a work in progress. We are still working out bugs and adding features. Watch for new ideas and look-and-feel changes as Pennsic continues.

Most of all, enjoy your experience here. Welcome Home!

Despotissa Heirusalem Crystoma, Publisher for The Pennsic Independent

[Note: The photos in this article are intended as examples. Not all of them pertain to Pennsic or this site. They were in my picture file and I like them.]

 

This is an image of the image icon
The tool ribbon
By Despotissa Heirusalem Crystoma
Staff Photographer, The Pennsic Independent