Submission Guidelines

So, you have read the publishing policy and, if necessary, checked out the volunteer checklist and you would like to contribute something to this website. Here are the guidelines. Please, don’t be scared of them – they exist to standardise information and media on this website and make it easier to view and listen; as well as make the process easier for you and decrease the amount of editing for I-M.

Rule #1: DO NOT request information from anybody on our behalf. We do not allow this, we feel uncomfortable about it and it’s not fair to put us in such a circumstance.

Submission guidelines for all written material

What is written material? News, tablatures and sheet music (if in text format), gear guides, articles, transcripts.

PLEASE, SPELL PROPERLY. Use apostrophes where necessary, do not put blank spaces before commas, question and exclamation marks, just after them.

Attach the document to email or use HTML formatting, to avoid line breaks in wrong places.

– Submission guidelines for news

Quote your source for the news. This is of vital importance as some sources were often proven to be fake and both the independent and mainstream media were harvesting information from this website in the past. Also, the record companies and event organisers supply information to it, too.

I-M reserves the right not to publish your news if it’s ruled out as irrelevant, off-topic or against the publishing policy.

– Submission guidelines for typed out articles

Do not indent first lines of paragraphs, add drop caps or anything of that kind.

If there are pull-quotes in the article, add them where they’re supposed to be and note down that it’s a pull quote, so it could be typed and styled properly.

If the article is not on the site and you do not have magazine scans available, at least make sure to find the date and publication it’s from.

– Submission guidelines for translations

Don’t forget to translate the article title, intro, pull quotes and write down the author’s name.

Watch your grammar. If you’re not sure of your language knowledge, don’t worry, I-M will find someone else to help out.

Make sure the idioms and phrases from your native language are explained somewhere, e.g. below the translation. This is something to be careful with, as it could lead to many people misunderstanding the article.

– Submission guidelines for interview transcripts

State what you’re transcribing. If it’s on I-M, supply a link to the page where you found it. If it’s on another website, supply a link to it as well.

If there are sounds, breaks, mumbled words and so on, write them down between square brackets, [like this]. Do not use asterisks *like this*, parenthesis {like this} or normal brackets (like this).

If there are breaks in audio or video to play music, talk with someone else or show a music video or other footage, use normal brackets in a new row to note it. You don’t have to indicate commercial breaks, unless they were significant or if album/single talked about was advertised.

Follow the format! Here’s an example of a well-done transcript, to get you started.

– Submission guidelines for concert reviews

Make sure you have the correct date, venue information (if it exists), information of other artists who performed, if any. That will help a lot.

Try not to turn the review into a story of how happy you are for having been there. That sure is good for you, but it does not help those who need show information. Focus on music and, if anything odd happened, that too.

If you’re supplying any media with the review, check out the media guidelines.

– Submission guidelines for setlists

Do not number the songs, that will be done automatically.

If you’re not completely sure of the songs’ order or if something is missing, note it down.

Separate the encore, if any, with a subtitle.

If John appeared on stage with any band that performed before or after him, include that too, explain what it was etc.

Submission guidelines for all media

What is media? Photographs/scans/screencaps, wallpapers, fan art, audio, video, fonts and UI elements.

Rule of thumb: everything’s best when sent unedited and as big/uncompressed as can be.

In case of live photographs, live video and audio, wallpapers, other fan art, fonts etc…make sure it’s yours. If you’re submitting something taken by your friends, please disclose their written permission, to avoid any arguments. If you’re sure that the author is someone who allows their files to be circulated without prior permission (there are some such tapers, for example), state that, too. If you have something from a website that was closed, make sure you state where it was, was there any name or contact data, so a permission can be obtained.

Feel free to send your media via email or, if they’re too large and/or your Internet service provider doesn’t allow large files to be sent that way, use a file sharing service. The ideal options are Dropbox or a server of your own. If you don’t feel like installing their client on your computer; Mediafire is OK.

If you have film photos and no scanner, video tape and no way to transfer it to digital, dial-up Internet or broadband with limited bandwidth or any other problem that would prevent you from sending the files via email or file sharing service – no problem. You can send your material via regular mail. If you need someone to pay for postage or film development, chances are there are people who would do it, for the greater good.

– Submission guidelines for audio

If you’re familiar with audio editing and have managed to improve the files, clear out the noise or anything like that, that’s awesome. But note down if the edits are major.

The best formats are FLAC lossless and mp3 at 320 kbps. For the later, do tag the files with songs’ names, track numbers, artist name. Album name and comments will be added subsequently.

No .amr files or anything of such low quality.

– Submission guidelines for video

Video formats are a tricky thing, as they keep on changing all the time. For the site, they’ll be converted to .flv for online viewing; but since using HTML5 video is planned for the future and a torrent tracker and/or a permanent solution for huge files is being considered as well, send the files in whatever format they’re in.

Nothing of extremely low-quality, e.g. things from early mobile phones with video capability and resolution lower than 320×240 should be sent, as it’s probably impossible to even know what you’re viewing.

– Submission guidelines for photographs

I-M is always looking for mostly concert photographs from 1988 on. For everything taken before that, given how dubious it is, you have to explain what it is, why it can be shown to the public and we will decide if it’s OK to publish it. E.g. John’s high school yearbook photos were OK to publish.

Unless you’re experienced with retouching and graphic design in general, do not edit your photos, send them the way they are and they will be fixed for you. If there’s anything you want removed from the photos (e.g. if you’re in the photo and you don’t want to be seen), please note it.

Supply your name or an alias, as it will be on photos. If you have an URL you want your photos to link to, supply it as well.

Unless you’re professional or semi-professional and therefore owning a website where your collections of photos are displayed, do not add your watermark. When people with no experience do that in programs like MS Paint, it can get ugly.

If your photographs were taken with an analog camera, please refer to the guidelines for magazine scans.

– Submission guidelines for magazine scans

When scanning, make sure you’ve set the image resolution to at least 300 dpi. For older magazines and those with lower print quality, feel free to increase the number until pleased with results. Send the images in original resolution, unaltered. If there’s any shelf wear or damage somewhere, it will be fixed.

Note down what is missing, if anything.

If the article you’re scanning is not in the I-M collection of articles with no scans yet, specify where it’s from and when.

In all cases, name the files in a way it’s clear what they are. Example: Some magazine, March 2001, cover image; Some magazine, March 2001, foreword; Some magazine, March 2001, table of contents; Some magazine, March 2001, interview, page 1; Some magazine, March 2001, tabs introduction; Some magazine, March 2001, tabs page 1, album advertisement from page x…

– Submission guidelines for screencaps/stills

Make sure you note down what the screencaps are of. That said, you’re free to screencap anything from the video archive; but also the videos available elsewhere, other than those listed here

Number the files according to where they are in the video you were taking screencaps from. If there are less than 100 files, put a single 0 in front of one-digit numbers; if there are more than 100 files, put a single 0 in front of two-digit numbers and two 0’s in front of one-digit numbers. This is necessary for the files to appear in the correct order.

– Submission guidelines for wallpapers

As of December 2011, anything horrible, creepy, badly done and smaller than 1024×768 pixels (unless it’s intended to be used on a mobile phone) won’t be accepted. Older wallpapers may be cleaned-up as well.

The mobile resolutions supported are CGA (320x200px) and QVGA (340×240).

Nothing wider than 2048px. The biggest resolution supported is 2K. If you’re confused, check the chart.

It’s ideal if you start from the largest possible screen resolution and make sure your wallpaper can be made to look good in lower resolutions (e.g. it has a margin that can be cropped for smaller screens or it can be centered on someone’s screen).

If you don’t understand the above guidelines, send in what you have and perhaps it can be sorted out.

– Submission guidelines for other media

If you designed a T-shirt or anything similar (please, no underwear) and would like to share your template with others, make sure you know what you were doing. .jpg and .png files are not T-shirt designs, neither is something done with colour set to RGB.

If you have made a font, try to include all standard characters and as many special characters as you can.

As per publishing policy, this website no longer hosts avatars/icons and it has never and never will host colour bars, gifs, image macros, memes and other LiveJournal/Tumblr trash of past and present. Same goes for your tattoos, birthday cakes and any form of fan art that goes beyond tasteful and conventional.

Submission guide for music-related material

What is music-related material? Tablatures, sheet music and guides on JF and collaborating musicians’ gear used on specific recording and shows/tours.

If you don’t consider yourself skilled enough to transcribe music, but you’d like to try, ask for help on the message board.

– Submission guidelines for tablatures and sheet music

The desired format is still being determined. You’re welcome to make tabs in text-only format or in format for well-known guitar programs. Guitar is a priority, but you can also write tabs, chords and sheet music for the other instruments.

The ideal tabs are those written in both text format, the ideal sheet music is done in Sibelius, so it can be previewed on the site.

– Submission guidelines for gear guides.

To be written, as the pages are still worked on. Some rough drafts can be found here.

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