Writing for The Man
Since early June I've been writing for themittani.com. They're hiring again (continuously), so I figured I'd write up my experience and share it for the curious.
So far, it's been interesting, good fun, and a way to make a bit of space-cash (payments are done in ISK). When I first started, I was handed an account for jabber and the website as well as a document full of policies, advice, and ways to get fired. Those last pretty much boil down to one thing: if you want to stay a writer, you have to write. Not hard, right? Apparently people fail at this.
Once hired and on jabber, I started picking up assignments in addition to the piece I'd written to get hired. Those mostly consisted of "such and such happened, and it was News, can someone please write it up" from one of the editors. These are most of the things I grab, although I can also pick my own stuff up and write that. All articles written pass through at least one other person for proofreading, error-checking, and general improvement. This has in at least one case saved my bacon in terms of comprehensibility.
The standards for article publication are fairly simple. To be published, an article must be reasonably well-thought-out, interesting to the site's readership, and well-written. The founding goal of TMC was good journalism, and it shows in the process for putting content out. As long as an article meets the above standards in the eyes of the editorial staff, it will be published. Said editorial staff actively seek out different perspectives-- I've seen several calls for a TEST perspective on the Fountain war and Fountain events, for example.
From the inside, the meme that the site is pure goon propoganda seems ridiculous. Yes, goon propoganda is posted-- it's clearly labeled as an "alliance update" and even comes with a handy disclaimer for those bad at reading between the lines. Other alliance updates are similarly posted as we reach into an era where people stick their "internal" stuff up ahead of the inevitable leak.
Overall, I'm happy I've signed on. Not everything I write is or will be posted there-- some of my blog content is more rambling or exploratory than a thing I want to put on a Serious News Website, and I recognize the limits to which the average person wants to hear CSM wonkery. Other things, such as news reporting, don't really fit with my blog's style and don't get linked from here. After all, if you wanted to read them, you would be over at the news site they're posted on. I feel like this describes the relationship between TMC and eve blogs in general, with both providing different features that occasionally overlap.