Tips for all 11x2 community members

I've been on this website for a long, long time and during this time, I've met countless other users, those users helped shape 11x2 the way it is now with their contributions and dedication..Sadly, most of them left the site but the tips they provided me and the other users will stay forever with us.

Okay, you may have thought I was being way over-dramatic with my blog intro, reading it again, it felt like it's a dramatic speech for a movie..Anyway, I'd like to give all community members tips to help 11x2 and make it a bigger/better community..

1. Always check for duplicate stories

The problem with this website, is that most users just approve the stories without bothering to even check them while others do check them but don't pay attention if it's a duplicate..The easiest ways to check if a story is a duplicate is to look at the tags of the story and search one of the essential ones..Exemple: "Guardiola keen on Bale" There should be a Bale or Pep tag in the story, search it, look at the approved stories, no similar story? Then no duplicate story approved BUT most people don't realize there may be a duplicate story in the PENDING section so the easiest way to search for a dupe story is to search the page (CTRL+F) then write "Bale" (for the story I mentioned above), if no similar story pops up, then you're good to go and the story obviously isn't a duplicate.

Note: People will say that the duplicate system is enough when posting a story to see if it already exists but this isn't the case, the system is messed up and doesn't show most of the time actual duplicate stories..Just ask Jak3yb0y ;)

2. Failed submissions

I bet there isn't anything more irritating than spending 30 minutes or so or more of your time submitting stories just to come back 2 days later to see that all of your stories failed because no one bothered to approve them..Yes, it happens A LOT.

Best thing to help reduce the number of failed submissions is to approve stories from the bottom of the LAST page..Most users approve new stories (Mostly highlights and high degree stories) and forget about other stories on different pages, I've talked with Mezzo about this and I hope people will start approving starting from the last page.

There's another trick I've came across too, when a day passes after a submission is submitted, it only takes 3 approvals for a story to pass, right? But what if someone approved the story before when it needed 5 approvals and the supposed story is about to fail? Easy, just click on the 24h+ story, click on the approve button, CANCEL your approval, then re-approve again..Tada! The story has been approved (3/3) and is out of the pending section.

3. Adding tags

Since the creation of this website, all of us users have been complaining about the huge amount of missing tags and our inability to add them (except for mods/admins)..It's still annoying because most of the times we want to submit a story, essential tags that relate to the story are missing..But now that Mezzo is a mod, we can send him our needed tags, and I'd prefer if it's at least 5 tags per message (Good luck Mezzo, with the countless messages every day!) but I still hope Cat will make adding tags eligible for contributors..

4. Managing stories

The thing I really hate on here, is that people approve stories without even bothering to check them..For the few good guys here *gives a special wink to no_more_heroes*, Industry is for Industry related stories ("you don't say" faces from you lot) like the introduction of goal-line technology or player getting fined by the FA..Rare exception for Industry is when there's an article about like something "50 greatest football players now" and since Industry is the most relevant thing, you add it.

Culture is for Football-UNRELATED stories like Maradonna is a father again or Cristiano Ronaldo funny new commercial just don't put something really lame that no one would bother to read because people would report them.

As for transfer news, you don't have to add the leagues of the players mentioned..Here's an example ( http://bit.ly/XiDH4G ), it can be time consuming when you have no idea from which league he comes from so it's better if you just add Transfers, name of the players and the name of their clubs like this story ( http://bit.ly/XiDVZI ) But it's your choice..

5. Boosting your stories

Most of us know about know about the infamous twitter trick (Think I'm the first one in the newsboiler network to discover this trick!) Anyway, if you tweet your story, the heat will go to 100 degrees+ within minutes but using it a lot is an unfair advantage to other users who has never used this, so it's better if it's used only like 3-5 times per month.

Other techniques to boost your stories is to simply comment..It won't heat to 100+ degrees obviously but it's get to 30 and if someone replies, it'll get above 50 and it'll appear on the front page but don't comment with useless stuff like "I agree with him" or reply to someone with an emoticon or tell him "Agree" just so your stories get a better heat, it's against the rules (I think, yo Cat..) and it'll result in a bubble down, so just comment casually like you will do with other stories.

5- Getting more bubbles

Most users have the standard 3 bubbles except for the old members who have been here for a long time..Most people get irritated because they can barely comment/debate on an article because of their bubbles. Best way to gain bubbles is to write respectful comments, debate with others in a friendly way, help other users and be funny, all of this will result in a bubble + from other users (unless they hate your guts).

Well, here is all I could think of right now, share your tips in the comment section if you have any :)