Review Content

Creating a New Post
Duplicate Reviews
Size Restrictions
Spelling and Grammar
Censorship
Using Images
External Links
Internal Links (known as Cross Linking)

Creating a New Post

Once you’re ready to start reviewing the game of your choice, use the toolbar at the top of the site (once you’re logged in) to go to the Dashboard. Hover the mouse over the HOUSE icon (located in top left) that reads “Nerd Bacon Reviews,” this will bring up a pull-down menu (see figure 1). Click “Dashboard.” Here you will see your options toolbar along the left side of the screen. To start a new review, go to “POSTS” and “add new” along with many other user control features. (see figure 2)

Figure 1 – Notice yours might look slightly different.

Figure 2 – Note that your dashboard will have different features as this image is set up for administrator duties.

QUICKER ACCESS TO NEW POSTS: Using the static top toolbar from anywhere, hover the mouse over “+ New” which will provide a pull-down menu. Here you can perform “Post” to “Add a New Post.” This “post” will be your review/article. See figure 3.

Figure 3

Before you settle in to type, please be aware of the following:

Nerd Bacon . com welcomes any and all styles of writing. We want you to have the freedom to express yourselves and let your creativity out, but we also want to insure that your articles fit into the bigger picture. Most importantly, be informative. If you can go about this in a fun and entertaining way, then go for it. By no means do we require a cold, clinical style of writing. Let your personality shine, but discuss the work in a way in which to help someone decide if it’s a title they should buy or not. Nerd Bacon is not a place for rants. NO RANTS. Not in your reviews, articles, news pieces, top 10s, or anywhere other than your personal blog (blog granted at time of authorship status. See AUTHOR STATUS as you progress through required information). Be as opinionated as you wish but please keep it within the context of the work. Opinions need to be backed with factual data. This way if someone calls you and/or our website into question, we can back it up.

Duplicate Reviews

Here at Nerd Bacon . com our writers are free to write about any games or hardware items they wish, even if it has already been written about previously. This practice is perfectly acceptable and I cannot stress this point enough. We welcome any number of opinions on the same subject whether they augment existing material, sharply contrast with prior articles, or present entirely new and different perspectives. To us, being diverse and all-inclusive means not only covering a wide range of differing material but also collecting several view points regarding the same material. See Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Notice the duplicate Titanfall reviews.

Size Restrictions

We have no strict word limits on reviews, but as a general guideline, we find a well-rounded game review contains roughly 600 to 1,000 words at minimum; 800 is a nice middle ground for an in-depth and informative article. Some games will warrant less and we understand. What we want to combat is sloppy and uninformative writing that discusses very little about the game in question. We also want readers to avoid going too deep into personal experiences and nostalgia. Some of that is great, but too much is problematic.

Giving the audience some measure of background information is essential to their understanding of your particular critique. When writing, assume your reader has never played the game. Yes, we want to explain what we do and don’t like about a title but for this information to be truly useful the reader needs a to have a reasonable grasp on the objective nature of the game first. One of our goals is to be as thorough and descriptive as possible; if you find yourself having 2000+ words to say about a game, then by all means go for it. There is no maximum. However, please be aware that most reviews longer than about 2,000 words can begin to feel long. If your review is lengthy, make sure the length is due to commentary and not description. You can locate this word count at the bottom of your article. See figure 5.

Figure 5

When it comes to hardware reviews these guidelines lose much of their significance. Depending on the hardware, articles of this sort may be very short, or the equivalent of pages of material. For example, discussing the awkward nature of the Atari Jaguar controller is a far less complicated feat than going into all the inner workings and performance strengths and weaknesses of the Xbox 360.

Spelling & Grammar

The administrators here at Nerd Bacon . com already have a lot on our hands. We love video games, and not only do we need the time to play them and meet the demands of life around us, but it also takes a considerable amount of time and energy to simply run the website. Furthermore we are always busy trying to recruit solid, stable writers for the cause. Although we do have an editor on staff who is happy to correct a few typos, we do require reasonably correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax, as well as an organized article. We ARE NOT English professors who will come down on you regarding misplaced modifiers, however, we don’t want to spend hours a day capitalizing “i’s” or attempting to break up your review into paragraphs. You don’t have to be a great writer; but you do have to be a competent one.

The more errors in your article, the less likely we are to fix them for you due to time constraints and a busy workload. It’s never personal. Most will find that taking the time to proofread your own review with a fine-toothed comb AFTER you have finished it results in an easier editorial experience for the editor. The easier it is on the editor, the less likely a review will need revisions on your part, meaning you can get your words out to the world faster!

Censorship

There is no censorship at Nerd Bacon. Writers are free to use whatever language they feel is necessary to express their views. Keep in mind though that material should be presented in an informative manner. Humor of any sort is acceptable but please, let’s not make it a point to offend large portions of the population just to get a chuckle in. Ideally we want people to stay interested in the piece while also gleaning some knowledge on the subject presented. You are free to use any images you’d like as long as they are relevant to the article.

Remember, your reviews reflect DIRECTLY on Nerd Bacon as a whole.

Using Images

Generating 100% original images would be optimal, but we understand that not everyone has the time, resources, or inclination to do so. (We sure as hell don’t). There are literally millions of perfectly adequate images available on the web. Feel free to use images from wherever you wish, but we do have a couple of simple requests. First, if you’re sourcing the image from elsewhere on the web, it is required that you upload it to our servers before using it. We do not want images linked to other websites.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to save the image locally to your computer and then use the “Add Media” button (see figure 6) from within your article to simultaneously upload it to our server and insert it in your post.

Figure 6

Secondly, inspect your image for watermarks (see figure 7 for an example). We understand that these marks get past everyone from time to time and that’s normal. We don’t want this becoming a chronic issue with any one member however.

Figure 7 – Note the left picture has no visible watermarks. The right picture has one in the bottom right (circled).

You can use the built-in “Edit Image” link (see figure 8) when using “Add Media” to crop out any watermarks as well as resize or rotate your image. This is all very easy to do. But beware of copyrighted images and fan-art images, as those cannot be used.

Figure 8

See “Adding Images” and “Sizing and Aligning Your Images” in Formatting Your Review for more information regarding images.

External Links

Everyone is free to use any external links within their article as long as they are relevant to the subject. Links to codes, videos, online retailers, etc. are all permissible. However, please do not add trivial links to Wikipedia articles or other tangential terms. Keep it relevant. When adding the link, please make sure to check the “Open Link in New Window” option (see figure 10.2). This isn’t necessary for links within the site; in fact we prefer that links to other pages on the site NOT open in new windows.

How to do it?

Highlight the particular word(s) you wish to link. Click the “insert/edit link” button that looks like a chain-link (see figure 9).

Figure 9

Click this button and now you will see the “insert/edit link” options. Here you can search for anything on the site, such as the racing genre as depicted in figure 10.1. Remember to UNCHECK the “open link in new window” option if the link takes you to ANYTHING within Nerd Bacon’s walls. If you are taking the visitor to somewhere OUTSIDE of Nerd Bacon’s walls, always check the “open link in new window” box (see figure 10.2).

Figure 10.1 – example: internal cross-link

Figure 10.2 – example: an awful website… I mean, external hyperlinking.

Internal Links (known as Cross-Linking)

In order for readers to get the most out of Nerd Bacon and stay ON the site, it’s important that we use links to other pages on the site whenever possible. This is known as “cross-linking” and we would be thrilled if everyone who mentions a game in their article other than the game under review take the following steps to ensure that it’s cross-linked to an existing Nerd Bacon review if possible. See figures 9 and 10.1 for visual references to internal cross-linking.

Highlight the text of the game mentioned. For example, if I’m reviewing Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island for the Super NES and I type something like “in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island the player assumes the role of Yoshi from Super Mario World” the text “Super Mario World” is what should be highlighted.
Once highlighted, look at the above options in the text editor (where you’re typing your article). Just to the right of the alignment options you’ll notice what looks like a chain link. This is the simplest way to add a link. Click on it.
You’ll be presented with a prompt. In the search bar, type in the name of the game (or part of it); in this case “super mario world” would be appropriate.
After a second or two of searching, you’ll see a listing of all articles containing the term, sorted in order of relevance. If the game you mentioned has an article here, it will appear close to the top. Click it. All the necessary information should automatically fill in the top two boxes.
Click “Add Link” and you’re done!

See figures 9 and 10.1 for visual references to internal cross-linking.

Obviously we won’t have an article on every single game mentioned in an article, but by spending a few seconds searching it saves us a lot of time later on and strengthens the site. If you don’t find an article for the game you’ve mentioned, no big deal, simply close the prompt.

This is not to say that the very next day an article may be posted about that very game, but this is outside of your responsibility and not something we expect you to monitor.

Note that the same procedure should be used with hardware references as well. Although we don’t have nearly as many hardware reviews as we do for software yet, we do have a few.

See “Required Crosslinking” in Formatting Your Review for more information regarding Internal Links.

If this is your first time, please read through the required reading IN ORDER.

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Required Information for Members HUB

Extra Information for Members (Optional)

Review Structure – (What’s in a review?)

Common Mistakes

Tips for Writing Better Reviews

Watermarking Your Original Images