This online community is designed to be a reflection of our Idaho Falls community. We get lots of discussion activity via the chatbox and comment responses to articles. This series will help more people make the transition from reacting to published stories to writing stories themselves.
The more people who write about local topics, the more comments get generated in response, the more engaged our community is both online and in the physical city.
This series consists of beginner, intermediate, and advanced information. Beginner information is enough to begin writing and publishing your own articles. Intermediate information will address topic categories in detail. Advanced information will explain the text editor viewing options, how to align your images to allow text flow, editing your article’s timestamp (to publish in the future), and answers to questions as they are asked.
The only hurdle most IdahoFallz.com writers face after the beginning challenges are either topics to write about or our established Categories system. If you are stumped for a topic, you can read this article or simply ask questions in the chatbox (everyone is willing to express what they would like to read).
As for our Categories, let me first explain their location, then their purpose, then what they mean so you know how to select them for your own articles.
When you are logged in and on the ‘Write’ screen where you write your article, you’ll notice a series of blue bars or boxes on the right side. You should first notice each blue bar has a name (like Discussion or Categories), and a plus or minus sign (+ or -). Clicking the plus or minus sign simply opens or closes the information box under that blue bar. 
I will explain some of the other information boxes in the next article (Advanced Information), but don’t’ sweat it now. Defaults are preset for those other boxes so you don’t have to know them right away.
You can see in the screenshot image that the categories can be selected by simple checkmarks, just like any web form. You can select one or multiple categories, depending on the subject matter of your article. The ‘Open Mike’ category is pre-selected by default in case you forget to select your own.
Categories are used as another way to organize our information. You’ll notice you can organize information at IdahoFallz.com by author, by month or day, or by category. Visitor traffic has shown categories are a frequently navigated method on this site, so attributing your article to appropriate categories can help your article get read by more people (which lead to more comments, one of the exciting returns on your writing investment).
I custom created all the categories on IdahoFallz.com; you will not find the same set on any other website because this site is a unique community reflection. Most categories are self explanatory if you just read the list, but I’ll explain my rationale on some of them. If you feel some topics warrant new categories, please suggest it and categories may be added.
‘All Apologies’ was designed for public apologies, like to release a press release apology to the community, or to simply say you are sorry you cut someone off in traffic or were rude to someone in our community.
Business Ideas was designed to share what businesses we would like to see someone try in Idaho Falls. I hear lots of people express business ideas that they themselves would never pursue (either for lack of money, experience, time, or personal passion in the subject). Many of the ideas are great, however, and perhaps by airing those ideas someone else locally will have the right combination of money, experience, time, and passion to make it happen. Our entire community is strengthened by successful businesses and individuals, so sharing your ideas is an investment in our community.
Business Profiles is the only category that is sold to local businesses, and cannot be used by everyone. Please understand this, since this is a unique way for local businesses to get killer, devoted advertising space and one of the few ways this site pays for itself. If you want to buy a business profile for your business, simply contact me.
Calls for Kindness was designed to appeal for charity or donations, or for more compassionate acts. The Invisible Children article written a week or so back clearly belonged to this category.
Design Matters was designed for anything having to do with planning or design execution, like buildings, streets, advertisements, even home improvements.
Education Upgrades was designed for any kind of learning process improvements that you recognize happening, that you see being done somewhere else and might like to see done locally, or for suggestions.
Ethics was designed for values-based thinking-out-loud, kind of a philosophical topic.
From the Library was designed for book reviews, or for making improvement suggestions having to do specifically with our local library. I have enjoyed our library for decades and so I felt a category dedicated to it was warranted.
Funnies was designed for some humor. I ask you to only publish the very funniest jokes without any racist or sexist or discriminatory humor. By ‘the very funniest jokes’ I mean the ones that really have you rolling on the floor laughing, not the one-laugh deals you receive all the time in your email. I like to re-read jokes two or three days in a row before posting them here. If I think it’s still funny after two or three days of reading them, it probably is pretty funny.
Healthy is Wealthy was designed for health tips and fitness strategies. Holiday Hits was designed for holiday-themed events or traditions. Irony was designed for presenting two locally-published statements that seem to contradict each other. Kudos was designed for expressing a thumbs-up to someone or some organization.
Open Mike, the default category, was designed as a catch-all, for a category if you don’t think your topic fits into any others, or for a springboard to new topics. Open Sores was designed for local problems that are festering like an open sore. Out and About is for writing about things that happen when you go out and about in Idaho Falls. Privacy Protection was for privacy issues, especially keeping your identity safe. Scene in the City was designed just for an interesting occasional snapshot taken locally.
‘Senior Subjects’ was designed to engage our community elders with some topics that they would be more concerned about that wouldn’t get addressed elsewhere. Site Announcements is reserved for site admins to make announcements.
Story Behind the Story was designed for locals to fill in what the local media does not report. The Single Life was designed to support our large local singles community. To Eat or Not to Eat? was designed for balanced restaurant reviews (not full business profiles as described above) or compiling the best restaurants in various categories. Video ‘views is a shortened name for ‘Video Reviews’ and was designed for discussion about most anything local in video format.
The next article in this series will explain more advanced topics of writing at IdahoFallz.com, such as aligning images, code views, and timestamping for later publication.
Please feel free to comment your publishing questions in response to this ‘how-to’ article.
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