You can be part of this online community of journals in 3 ways:
1. Contact us by email with your views and reactions to discussion on the site. We’ll publish emails
2. Speak to us directly - if your computer has a microphone - using Evoca and we can post your message to the site.
3. Become a Greenlightnigeria blogger… see below to find out how…
If you are a contributor, here’s a really basic guide to using the site:
1. Go to http://www.greenlightnigeria.org/wp-admin/
2. Enter your username and password.
(If you’ve forgotten it you can hit “Lost your password?” and it will be emailed to you.)
2. Click ‘Write a post.’
3. Enter your title… and… type away.
4. Yes, it’s that simple 
5. You can either “Publish” your post right away. (Which submits it for moderation to the editor, which would be uh. Me.)
Or you can “Save & Continue Editing.” (It will be saved as a draft)
Or just “Save” and do something else…
6. If you want to edit posts after you’ve written them, go to “Manage” in the dashboard, and scroll down the list, find the post you want to edit and hit “Edit”.
We’ll put more detailed tutorials up here later, but the best way to learn how Wordpress works is to play and see what results you get!
What should I write about?
Nigeria and democracy would be a start… beyond that, anything really.
There’s no style guide, no peer pressure to write in any particular way. You can write - or submit photos, video and audio - about anything, it’s pure self expression… you can write a one line note or a Phd thesis if you want.
There is always an assumption that people who read the site want to know what’s going on with Nigeria’s election process, and what it all means… but I think you figured that out already.
However, if you want me to get more specific… type “blog” (ugly word if you ask me but we’re lumbered with it) “journal” and “Nigeria” into your favourite search engine.
You’ll see the style people write in tends to be off the cuff, thoughtful, personal, snappy… but don’t feel you have to copy that style.
I’ve always wondered what Jane Austen’s online journal would read like…
Let sense and sensibility be your watch words, dear contributor.
For more inspiration:
http://www.moveon.org has changed a generation (so they say.)
http://www.dailykos.com speaks for a generation.
http://www.saidia.org Tobias speaks sense, and without him you wouldn’t be reading this sentence. (Because he came up with the idea for greenlightnigeria.org in the first place.)
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org speaks to the whole world.
http://hrw.org/blogs.htm Human Rights Watch speaks up for human rights, and they want you to blog for them. Plus they have more links you can check out.
Can I write for greenlightnigeria.org?
We really, really want people to write for greenlightnigeria.org as contributors.
You can already go in and comment on posts, but as a contributor can write regular posts for us. We welcome Nigerians and anyone who supports democracy in Nigeria to join us as regular bloggers.
However as publishers we can get round pesky UK laws, and we want to check our facts in any case (we’re sticklers for the truth)… That’s why if you already are contributing there’s a slight delay as I get my act together, stop messing around with my favourite open source content management application and moderate your post.
Everyone understands that the rules governing what you write in an online journal aren’t quite the same as publishing a newspaper… but errrr it’s kind of a legal grey area, don’t you think? We’d prefer not to be a test case.
For that reason we will happily respond to people who want to blog for us, but we’ll have to do some basic ID checks and ask you to follow a Code of Conduct in using greenlightnigeria.org if you’re invited to join up.
Contact us if you’re interested.
I hate having to sound like a grown-up sometimes…
- Tim
By becoming a Greenlightnigeria.org contributor, you agree to:
- Allow the editors to moderate your posts for factual accuracy, and to comply with applicable UK and international laws of electronic publishing, including copyright and defamation
- To enter into a balanced debate and discussion
- To refrain from expressing views and using language likely to cause offense to a general readership of all ages
- To fully disclose in posts any personal conflicts of interest in posting views (for example, political party affiliations)
