Dating 101: The Six Steps to Happily Ever After

Things i need to know...

Citizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism or democratic journalism, is the act of non-professionals "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information."

The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.

Like always Mr. Sanjay has his Indian world view. During christmas season in the Western world, most people thinking about a relationship, not being alone. Good article fits to the holiday season danesller. Needs no improvement. India lives bombs and Cricket, have no christmas feelings

Mr. Sanjay I recommend urgently integrating in the international society of independant writers. You should learn to apply your rules first for the editors, who copy mostly the articles. See your Pirate Somalia comment today. A story board I developped since half a year, then you jumping around, saying it's not newsworthy and a other Editor is then Frontstory, cashing in on my work. second Why you not appear at Frontstory "France has a new leader", complete rewritten Junk, wrong, discriminating, not newsworthy, but a editor trying to survive, mostly unable with limited english Frontstory. Pls think about the readers and not your carrer first.  This is a crowd newspaper, your prefabricated statements you can send by private mail. The way you act is not acceptable, so make a U-turn to International.

Sorry Guys! Still i don't know what is my mistake there, i removed and edit already the link that the spirit of Christmas, that i write...
If i gathered information from other published sources, I do it very carefully. Some newspaper also note when an article uses information from previous report. Sourcing is not bad... I'm researching and reporting a story with a balance between objectivity and skepticism...
Best wishes, danesller

What this post shows is that almost everyone has their own definition of "citizen journalism" (and, apparently, their own list of wrongs, rights, wrongers and wrongees).

I have been asked to join this cacophony, and I do so reluctantly.

That researching the above Bible verse was my first step was serendiptious, as it opens thusly

Let us begin with less gongs and cymbals.

Now, much to the distaste of hard-bitten, hard-news, eyeshade-wearing, cigar-chewing, cynical editors, there are places in publications, even newspapers for such an article.  Wipe those smiles off your faces and take back those muttered oaths; that does not mean anyone has won or lost.  

OK, I am a reader.  I am sucked into this article because She Who Must Be Obeyed is making my life a misery.  Of course, I, as the reader, know I still love SWMBO (poor sap) and I see a way of fixing my trouble by reading this article.

"most couples are made up of two different communication styles."

Very good, excellent, in fact!  Now, what are those two different styles?  Hello?  I see them not.  As there are no set communication styles, one for men and another for women, a possible exploration of those styles might be in order. 

The man, for instance, might have a communication style when he likes to say what needs to be said when it needs to be said in a manner befitting what needs to be said.  The woman might talk on and on incessantly about the smallest little damn thing (and expect you to remember all the details), presenting conversations with others verbatim (rather than "I saw Sally today and she's fine and says hello" you will get every word that passed) and relive all their internal problems, physical, mental and emotional like it or not.

For the worried reader who wants to mend fences with SWMBO (for reasons only known to himself and certainly beyond me, poor chap).  A solution for getting those styles to intersect would be helpful.  Or just a solution that the two sit down together and "share" (gag) their feelings about communication.  The poor guy needs to know that as long as their is the least suspicion of a communication problem, he will exist in a living hell.

Now, as for the Bible quote, it would be good to be cited as to chapter, verse and version.   That is easy enough to do with the highlight tool.

Ok, your reader is now crushed as the Bible does not say love knows when to shut up and leave him alone (though that bit about not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs might come in handy, he thinks - let us hope the poor fool doesn't try to use them). 

However, Yahoo.com's Dating Personals now weighs in with important news.

Every couple needs to take certain steps -- six, to be precise

Ahem.  Just what are those steps?  Yes, I know the reader can click and find out and that excerpt very well may tempt him to do so (fool that he is).  However, a quick rundown of those six steps, in my humble opinion, would not be amiss at this junction.

By the end of the article, as they taught us in journalism school, you should have informed, educated and/or entertained this poor wretch who has put his doomed love life in your hands.  In an article such as this, you would, for example, give him hope and drive to face the communications problems and work them out (much the same way as a priest works to hearten a man to bravely face the firing squad).

So, to sum up. You in the back, sit back down we are not through yet!

1. You do not have to go into great detail, as I have done here (but there is a reason for that which will be explained shortly).  
2. When you say there are "X" amount of things involved, be so kind as to list them
3. Let the poor reader find a way any or all of it pertains to him
4. In "how to" articles, you want them to leave at least thinking they have learned something.

Now, as for gongs and cymbals, we have people in this outfit who are quite literate and write so well you want to kill them . . . uh . . . I mean you can't help but admire their work.  There are many people who are quite eloquent in their own tongue and make a total shambles of English.  There are native English speakers who cannot put together a decent English sentence to save their lives. 

We have all those people and only one sandbox.  We all have to play in that one sandbox.  

Thus:

1. Rants and challenges to duels should be limited to personal messaging, with copies to the seconds. 
   
2. If you have a problem with a person, please do not ask us to join in
3. Feel free to bring friends and relatives to weigh in a story, just don't start a range war.
4. No piddling in the sandbox.

All that being said, I hope I have been able to clarify a few points and, most of all, I hope to have gone on long enough to ward future requests at intercession.

NOTE:  This post does not in anyway represent the official policy, code of conduct or practices (or any of the rest of the "fine print") of NowPublic, its management, staff, cleaning crew and/or tea ladies.

It's okay! Guys' I think the comment 'need improvement' should not be published on public, instead, it should be on the private message only, this is not a 'reality tv show' it's a way of attacking personally and it's an ethical, as a citizen journalist, it's a sort of discrimination around here, why because i'm a Filipino? We need to be fear and balance in reporting, We are on a Media, No descrimination or 'racist' here. We should read 'the elements of journlism'...  Thanks again!  :D

Thanks everyone for your feedback here.

When an editor flags a story as "Needs Improvement," the story is essentially 'hidden' on the site and excluded from headlines-view and the front page.  Therefore, although the flag appears publicly it becomes difficult for anyone to find the post, but we will certainly take your suggestion to have initial contact made privately into consideration.

I think everyone has brought up some great points about what we all consider to be news, especially on a user-generated site like NowPublic.  We make every attempt to keep the community and our stories as open as possible.  Editors use their best judgement - but we are only human and if a story doesn't appear to make sense or seems irrelevant, it is flagged.  

In this particular case, my personal opinion is that the story has relevance but the source (a personals website) makes me suspicious as to the motivations behind publishing it.

It's our job to help you write the best stories you can, and therefore if your story is flagged you are encouraged to contact an editor and ask for help or use one of the many resources we've provided in the Newsroom to help you write engaging and newsworthy stories.  That's what we are here for - to ensure that NowPublic has a diverse range of great stories written by our equally diverse membership, not to further our own agendas.

Please feel free to message me privately or create a forum thread to address any additional questions or post further comments.  Thanks everyone!

I think the topic on love is interesting, and one can never have enough ideas to share on  happy relationships. This topic is definitely newsworthy.

Dating sites have had some controversy, but because so many people are meeting on line and the competition is strong, there have been some good sites that have done professional background work, and can be a good source of information.

Everyone has a different section in the newspaper that they like best. Some like World news with its politics and disasters. Others like environment and global warming stories. Still some like heartwarming or light topics.

All are newsworthy, and of equal importance. I am still waiting for the comic and sudoko section.

Now as far as presentation goes.... do we want just professionally researched and presented stories? This I don't have an answer to. But I do know I like the idea that there are writers from all around the world at NP. We create stories in our own way. All artists are different.

My personal style of writing, is that I like to research several sites, and tie them into one story in my own words. I don't always do it though.

danseller, thanks for the story, and provoking thought. Anything that does that is a good story to me.

PS I agree that the male and female brain are hardwired differently, and they see things through different eyes, therefore communication can be difficult. But even with same gender relationships (as in friends), past experiences shade our perception. We see through our own window, no matter where we are from and what gender we are.

Communication is a worthy topic. That is the very heart of NP!