NYCPB is looking for contributors. If you are interested in joining the NYCPB team as a contributor on a regular basis (3-5 entries per week), please . Even if you aren't interested in becoming a regular contributor but still want us to post something that you feel our visitors should know about, we want to hear from you!

NYCPB is not accepting photographs at the present time. We need contributors who can provide informative topics of discussion for the front page. Photographs uploaded to a Flickr account and taged"nycpb" will cycle through the right-hand column of the site. Please do not ask how you can have your photos submitted to the site.  

These guidelines are intended as a consensus document for writers contributing to NYCPB.org. Using a common style promotes consistent feel to the site, and also enables more efficient and consistent formatting by normalizing the content of posts.  

The NYCPB reader base ranges from folks who have been shooting seriously for several decades to those that have just bought their first camera. Keeping this in mind requires both a diversity of content as well as the occasional extra sentence of explanation.

Content should preferably be New York or photoblogging-centric. Given the numerous sites already covering new cameras and products, it’s probably better to avoid new product news unless it’s specifically relevant to the site’s reader base. Conversely, even if a product has been around for a while, if it’s not well known and might be especially interesting to NYC photobloggers, it’s probably still a good subject for a post.

Assume the reader is smart, but don’t assume they’re up on every technical photography detail or current event in the photoblogging scene.  

The general tone should be concise and conversational, without unnecessary colloquialisms. Avoid foul language or other profanity – they’re not necessary, and they may unnecessarily put the site off limits to users browsing or searching with content filters active.

Proper names should always be spelled out in full (first and last for people, full site or company name for entities) before you start using any shortened version. This is also necessary for place names – always provide a borough if referring to a small neighborhood (“Greenpoint, Brooklyn”). This will also help make the pages available to people visiting via search.  

Keep your posts as short as possible, especially the section “above the fold” being placed in the “entry body” box. If a post is more than two paragraphs long, place the extra paragraphs in the “extended entry” field rather than the entry body. This allows more headlines to show up on the front page.  

Please use proper “American” English for all posts, with appropriate punctuation based on widely-accepted standards. For further guidelines, refer
to the AP Style Guide or similar broad-based style guide.

Use normal capitalization for all posts and credits.

Use a single space between sentences. Double spaces are for typewriters.  

All images included in posts must be uploaded to the NYCPB server. This is done to protect the integrity of the archives, as well as ensure that images linked to do not change. Additionally, please take great care to respect the copyright protection of photographers. Unless you took the photo, or you have a reasonable “fair use” situation, do not republish photographs without explicit written permission from the photographer. (Fair use includes writing about a product and using product photos, and writing about a weblog or photographer and using a small thumbnail of the page or photo.)

If you use a photo with permission, you are encouraged to provide a credit and link to the photographer in the following format: [Photo:PHOTOGRAPHER] with a link on the name.

Images should only use the standard height, width align=”left” and align=”right” attributes, plus an appropriate alt=”” tag. Feel free to use the standard Moveable Type popup window code if you would like to show a larger version.  

HTML should be used within posts only to delineate structural elements rather than formatting. Please use the “B” and “I” buttons to add emphasis and italics. Do not add coloring, font changes,

Use the blockquote element when quoting text from outside sources.

If you are posting a story that you obtained via another news site, credit the source at the end of your post with the following text:

[Via SITENAME]

Readers will appreciate this extra information; not only are you providing the news item, but you’re offering them a news site they might be interested in.  

Please set your nickname using the Moveable Type profile. Use proper capitalization – our layout designer can choose to convert your nickname to all lower case if so desired, but adding proper capitalization is difficult. Please use a name “Jeff”, “Jon”, “Tom” rather than a “handle” and a last initial if necessary to distinguish yourself from others with the same first name.