Getting assigned to a topic
If you are interested in writing for FARP, we invite you to write in to  (sorry, spammers have forced us to post our address as a picture...), or take a look at our Pending Articles. If a topic catches your eye, you can probably have it. If you want to write about something that is not in there at all, you can probably do that too. Please email us. Remember to include the word 'FARP' somewhere in the subject so you mail will not get lost among the slush pile and junkmail.
We received number of inquiries from people interested in taking claimed topics that have been pending for the last x years. It would be polite to contact the claimant about it first, as there's a likelihood that they've forgotten about it, or don't want it anymore but neglected to inform us. (Hint: Their email can be found in the source code of the page.)
Formatting the article
Like the Wyvern's Library, FARP publish its articles in HTML. However, this section does make use of a few unique tags called FARP Tags. These are not as fearful as they sound, but if you have no idea how to used HTML, you have some extra learning to do. Refer to this article about basic HTML. Another helpful read is the Elfwood Survival Guide article to Smart Formatting in Wyvern's Library, where a few ground rules of using HTML can apply anywhere. A good presentation is as important as the article itself, so pay attention to how your finished product looks.
There is a width limit, so keep your tables and images 450 pixels in width or smaller. Make sure your images are no larger than 100-150 kb in size. If your article takes a long time to download, people might not stick around to wait!
FARP Tags (or how not to FARP up)
This section explains what the FARP Tags are and how to use them. Words that appear in dark red are information that you need to replace in your own article.
farp
This appears at the very beginning of your article. It contains the complicated body and title tags, so there is no need to use the <body> tag anymore. It also contains information that create that an image that is your article title. Because the title appears on one line, it is a good idea to keep it short as not to stretch the page.
The "submenu" attribute should be set to one of the following:
farp_1 - "The Art" area.
farp_2 - "The Writing" area.
farp_3 - "The Others" area.
farp_4 - "The Business" area.
farp_5 - "The Survival Guides" area.
artistname
This is where you come in. This tag takes your Elfwood user ID (your login name) and expands it into the name you use for your gallery/library. It also links it to your email. If at any time you update your email or change your name, the update happens here too. Neat, huh?
If your user ID (uid) is "axsmith", that should appear in the tag as follows:
farpboard
We all love comments. You can choose to insert a comment board on your FARP article; very much like the comment boards you can find in any gallery or library. And yes, it emails you new comments too. However you cannot edit or delete comments. If there is a need to edit a comment (profanity, etc.) please e-mail the FARP editors right away. The only way to respond to any comments is to leave your own comment.Here's how it looks:
It looks more complicated but it isn't. The 'title' is the same things you put in farp and artistname respectively.
'id' is not to be mistaken for the same 'id' in artistname. This one refers to the farpboard id - a unique name for your comment board. A combination of your uid (or part of it) and something to describe your article can work as a unique uid. Let me tell you why I'm stressing on unique: it is possible to use someone else's farpboard id. If you use 'charcoal' for your id, someone equally unaware might also use it. What happens? Your comment board and all your comments will appear on his article.
This small quirk can be used in a good way too. Some people write articles that are big enough to broken into several pages. All these pages can still share the same board ... by using the same 'id'.
Now for the last bit: 'url'. This may be a bit tricky to do as you may not know the final URL. Each new article gets a directory or folder of its own. The final URL will look something like this:
The rule of uniqueness also applies here; someone may already be using the generic 'charcoal' folder, so you will need to apply the same rule as creating a farpboard id. In order not to give yourself a headache here, use the farpboard id, as demonstrated in the example above. It keeps everything uniform and makes it easy for you to remember.
bookstore
This tag is optional, and allows you to recommend books that go with your article. If you wish to include this, a little research is required on your part. Go to Amazon.com and search for your books. Once you've found the item, get the following:
- The ISBN/ASIN - you can find this in the URL of the page, usually after ISBN or ASIN. You don't have to give us the whole URL; just the number will do. (e.g. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0874774241/...)
- An image of the cover - get a good large version. The 'Look Inside' section (if available) has a nice one.
- Book title - you know what this is!
- Book description - A short description of the book. Why do you recommend it? What is it about?
Include these at the bottom of your article or in an email. You may recommend more than one book.
/farp
You must now close what you started. You close the <farp> tag with a </farp> contains a number of standard information and copyright blurbs to include at the bottom of the article.
Putting it all together
Now that you have a basic understanding of how FARP tags work, let's see it in action. Here is what it'll look like in a text editor (i.e. Notepad):
<farp submenu=farp_1 title=" Using Charcoal"><p>
<h1>Using Charcoal</h1>
By <artistname id=axsmith>
<br>
Your article text here
<farpboard title="Using Charcoal" by=axsmith id=axscharcoal url="axscharcoal/axscharcoal.html">
<bookstore id=068481904X_1561385344 area=99>
</farp>
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You can copy the above out into Notepad, and replace the relevant information with you own. In fact, you can put together your article in a HTML editor before copying the HTML code for the body of the article and pasting it into the place where you see "Your article text here". Easy, isn't it?
Files and Directories
A few people made this small mistake: Saving the above file as "axscharcoal.txt". I call it a small mistake because the FARP editor can easily re-save it in the correct format, which is "axscharcoal.html". However, you can help by doing it right the first time!
It is possible to have sub-directories with your HTML files. This is especially useful if you have many illustrations and HTML files. Instead of throwing everything into the /axsharcoal folder, you can include an /image folder to hold all your pictures, while leaving your HTML files in the main directory:
/axscharcoal/axscharcoal.html
/axscharcoal/axscharcoal2.html
/axscharcoal/axscharcoal3.html
/axscharcoal/axscharcoal3.html
/axscharcoal/images/picture1.jpg
/axscharcoal/images/picture2.jpg
/axscharcoal/images/picture3.jpg
Send it in
Now that you're all done, it's time to send it in! First of all, zip everything into one file with a zip software. A popular one to try out is WinZip.
Email this file to . Don't forget to include the word 'FARP' in the subject!
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| FARP 101 |
About FARP
Why FARP? What is this section all about? Why was it created? Find out here.
Writing for FARP
So you want to contribute to this Project. This section will tell you all you need to know - how to start, how to use the special FARP tags in these pages, how to submit your files.
Pending Articles
View a list of articles that are in the works, or snatch up an unclaimed topic for yourself!
Connect!
Subscribe to our newsletter for updates, or join the FARP discussion list. |
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