How To Publish On Midas Oracle Using WordPress

How To Publish On Midas Oracle Using WordPress

Contents

About Midas Oracle
The Uniqueness Of Midas Oracle
Logging In & Author Profile
Computer and Internet Tips
WordPress = Open-Source Content Management Software
English First
Freedom Of Speech
Copyright
Code Of Conduct & Terms Of Use
Authors’ Privileges
Midas Oracle Authors & Authors’ Archives
Anonymity Of Some Authors
Disclosure
How To Appear Under Your Full Name
How To Have Your Face Picture Published
Web Usability Principles
How To Assess The Readability Of Your Post Or Page
Visual Editor Vs. Plain Editor
How To Write A Page
How To Write A Post
Post Footer
How To Paste HTML Code
How To Insert A Visual Representation
How To Embed A Chart Widget
How To Embed A Video Widget
Cross-Posting Policy
Comment Policy
How To Comment

About Midas Oracle

See the ABOUT page.
Midas Oracle .ORG has a PageRank of 6 / 10.
Here are the testimonies of the people who love Midas Oracle.

The Uniqueness Of Midas Oracle

We publish the best mutant ideas.
We link out a lot to external resources.

Logging In & Author Profile

You can register yourself on Midas Oracle and publish a blog post (or a blog page). Once you are registered, contact Chris Masse to have your status upgraded to full author. When you register, do create your account using your first name and last name, such as “john-doe”. The login is at the top of the sidebar.
As soon you are registered, you should log in, and ask your browser to remember your username and password —just after you have personalized your password. If you prefer, you can use your OpenID to log in on Midas Oracle. (An OpenID is a unique username that lets you login to any website that accepts an OpenID.)
If you are not able to log in with your username and password, just contact Chris Masse and he will reset your password, which will do the repair.
You can modify the content of your profile, including the URL of your website, blog or home page, which will be published on your author page (created just after your first post).
Registered members of Midas Oracle will receive an e-mail newsletter once in a while —only when important circumstances warrant. (There are e-mail options on your profile page, inside the Midas Oracle system, which allows you to opt out of mass e-mails, if you really need to.)
To have your name removed from Midas Oracle, send your resignation to the blog administrator (Chris Masse), and he will delete your profile from the blog database.

Computer and Internet Tips

We have set up a special webpage for the total newbies, with plenty of IT links that are very useful.

WordPress = Open-Source Content Management Software

The software packages that power Midas Oracle:

WordPress – (documentation – videos)
Themes, Plugins and Widgets.

English First

American English is the official language of Midas Oracle.
That said, we aim at diversity in all angles: geography, nationality, gender, religion, philosophy, culture, politics, education, background and interest.

Freedom Of Speech

Your freedom of speech is total, providing that you understand the spirit of the group blog and that you respect the Western jurisdictions’ limitations on free speech (e.g., anti-defamation laws).
You should write either for the general public or for a vertical public —or both. In all cases, whichever audience you aim at, don’t be boring.

Copyright

Copyright is retained by each author.
Each blog author is free to specify looser copyright rules for his/her own posts/pages in his/her Midas Oracle profile. (For more info, see: Creative Commons.)

Code Of Conduct & Terms Of Use

Authors’ Privileges

Blog authors can publish posts, and/or pages, and/or comments.
There are 2 kinds of blog authors. Post/page authors can publish posts, pages, and comments, while comment authors can publish comments only.
Almost all of the post/page authors can publish immediately, while a few of them get their writings assessed before publication.
All post/page authors are also de facto comment authors. Additionally, other comment authors are self-recruited in the blog audience.

Midas Oracle Authors & Authors’ Archives

Blog Frontpage
Site Map
The List Of All The Post/Page Authors
The List Of All The Midas Oracle Posters
The List Of The Last Posts By All The Midas Oracle Authors
The List Of The Guest Authors’ Posts – (that is, excluding Chris Masse’s ones)
All Guest Authors’ Posts – (that is, excluding Chris Masse’s ones)

Anonymity Of Some Authors

The Midas Oracle blog authors should appear under their real name. Request for anonymity may be granted in 3 cases:

Blogging speculators who trade on illegal, offshore prediction exchanges, and who are under special, personal or professional circumstances;
Blogging exchange managers or money managers whose freedom of speech is restricted by overzealous regulators.
Commenting professionals or academics who don’t want their colleagues to know their political opinions.

Disclosure

Please, do disclose any business relationship(s) –if any– to our readers. A line at the bottom of the text is more than enough. You’re, of course, welcome to have any consensual business relationship(s) —that’s the capitalism at work.

How To Appear Under Your Full Name

Login to Midas Oracle.
Go to “Users” and then to “Your Profile”.
Type your full name in the “nickname” box —first name, middle name or its initial, last name.
Update your profile.
In the “display name publicly as” menu, choose your full name.
Update your profile —yeah, for the second time.

How To Have Your Face Picture Published

You go on the Gravatar website and upload your face pic (or whatever image);
You associate it with the e-mail address you use as a registered Midas Oracle member;
Each time you publish a post, a page or a comment on Midas Oracle, the readers will see your “gravatar”, at the upper left of your text.
Smile, you’re on Midas Oracle.

Web Usability Principles

One idea = one blog post. If you have other ideas, publish each of them individually.
Write casually.
Put your most important sentence(s) in bold. Remember: The Internet citizens do not read on the Web; they scan. Help them scanning your text.
Link to the outside world, if possible.
Craft a short but informative blog title, using the keyword(s) you’re using in the body of your blog post. Be precise and elliptic; no puns (keep them for the text body).
For more information on Internet usability, see Jakob Nielsen. In particular, see: Blog Usability: Top Ten Design Mistakes in Weblogs.

How To Assess The Readability Of Your Post Or Page

There are readability data, above the title. Go there to read the explanation.
Here’s what you’ll see:

Visual Editor Vs. Plain Editor

In your user profile page, you will spot this option, “Use the visual editor when writing“. You can have this option checked, or not. The “visual editor” is a user-friendly editor with a graphical user interface. The alternative is a plain, simple editor where the code is apparent. You choose!… but we recommend that you use the visual editor.
When you write up a post or a page, you will notice the “Visual” and “HTML” tabs on the right upper corner of the writing area. At times, you will click on “HTML”, so as to insert there some video widget codes or some chart widget codes. (Beware that, for some widgets, you should publish right away without clicking back to “Visual” —otherwise, the codes will be broken.)

How To Write A Page

Same as when writing a post, except that a page has no category, no tag, and no feed.
To be able to publish a page, you should contact Chris Masse to enable your account.

How To Write A Post

Don’t use the “QuickPress” function on the dashboard —it is a minimalist writing area.
Put your mouse at the right of “Posts”, on the left-side menu. Spot the down arrow, and click on it. Once you see the sub-menu, click on “Add New”.
Alternatively, spot the “New Post” menu on the upper-right area of your screen.
You fill in the body text in the writing area. Don’t use the “Split post with the More tag” function or the “Optional Except” zone.
Put your most important stuff in the first paragraph (that’s called the inverted pyramid), and put your most important sentence(s) in bold.
Write a descriptive post title.
Above the writing area, you’ll see that you can shorten the permanent link (a.k.a. “permalink”). Use a series of keywords, each separated by a hyphen (”-”).
To insert a link, select the anchor text, click on the “Chain” icon (”Insert / Edit Link”), paste the URL, do not change the default “Open Link In The Same Window”, and write a short link title (which helps readers predict where they are going to go if they click).
On the right, under “Categories”, you can select the appropriate category(ies).
On the right, type your tag(s).
Spot the “All In One SEO Pack” box, just below the writing zone. In the description box, paste your most important sentence, or make up a good log line that describes your content. In the keyword box, paste there your list of tags (which you have copied from the tags box).
Under “Comments & Pings”, you can allow or disallow comments and/or pings —you’re asked not to change the default options (”yes” for comments and “yes” for trackbacks) unless you wish to disallow the comments, for some personal reason.
You can either publish right away (”Publish“), or save your text as a draft (”Save Draft“) for a publication at a later date.
For more information about how to write a post, please read the documentation of WordPress: Writing Posts. (Additionally, you can watch some didactic videos at WordPress.tv.)
If you run into trouble, contact Chris Masse.

Post Footer

You can end up your blog post with a footnote, stating your full name, your social status, the name of your organization, your site URL, and the ways to contact you (your e-mail address, made non-clickable to avoid the spammers, and/or your business phone number).
Of course, all these details are also published on each author’s page, but that would require the readers to click on the link embedded under your name at the bottom of your blog post, which they seldom do, alas.

How To Paste Code

Copy the source code from your source.
In WordPress, click on the “HTML” tab (at the right of the “Visual” tab, in the “Write Post” area), paste the code lines there, and then return to the “Visual” mode.
For some widgets, you should publish right away without clicking back to “Visual” —otherwise, the codes will be broken.
If WordPress automatically deletes your codes (even when you publish right away without clicking back to “Visual”), then contact Chris Masse, which will check on the “Unfiltered HTML” capability in your account.

How To Insert A Visual Representation

Insert a static chart or a picture already posted somewhere on the Web (including on Midas Oracle): Put your cursor where you want the image to be implemented, and click on the “Add Media” icon (”From URL”). Insert the URL and write up a short image description. Click on “Insert”.
Insert a static chart or a picture located on your local computer: Click on on the “Add Media” icon (”From Computer”). Insert the URL and write up a short image description. Click on “Insert”.
To embed a link into that image, select it, click on the “insert/Edit Link” icon, and add the external URL.
More information, from the WordPress documentation: – Using Images – Using Image and File Attachments -

How To Embed A Chart Widget

Insert a dynamic chart (i.e., a chart that will update itself in future): You have to implement a bunch of code lines provided by your chosen prediction exchange. Click on the “HTML” tab, paste the code lines there, and then return to the “Visual” tab. The chart will be placed where your cursor is in the “Visual” tab, and it will update itself in the near future each time a reader loads the blog post (a.k.a. webpage). Beware, though, that after two months or so after the contract expiry, the prediction exchange will likely drop support for that dynamic chart.
For the main InTrade-TradeSports chart widgets, you have to suppress the return lines at the end of the three first code lines.
For the InTrade presidential widget, you should publish right away without clicking back to “Visual” —-otherwise, the codes will be broken.
For the NewsFutures or HubDub chart widgets, you can paste the code lines as they are.
If you want to embed a HubDub chart widget, contact Chris Masse so he checks on the “Unfiltered HTML” capability for your account. Otherwise, the HubDub chart widget will not look good (unless you are an administrator or editor in WordPress, which are the 2 cases where the “Unfiltered HTML” capability is automatically checked).
It’s maybe a good idea to add a static chart, in addition to a dynamic chart, to any blog post, for the reason that the dynamic chart won’t be supported by the exchange server after the contract expiry.

How To Embed A Video Widget

Paste the video widget code in the “HTML” area.
For the YouTube video widgets, you should publish right away without clicking back to “Visual” —otherwise, the codes will be broken.

Cross-Posting Policy

Each Post Author is free to do whatever he/she wants —i.e., cross-posting the full text on Midas Oracle, or posting a summary with a link to his/her original blog post on his/her own website.
Our readers prefer to have the duplicated blog post published in its entirety on Midas Oracle —i.e., cross-posted. Once you have pasted your text, add a line saying that it has been cross-posted from your blog, with the deep link to your original blog post —as opposed to a link to the root of your blog. Follow this piece of advice from the Google Webmaster Central blog: “If you syndicate your content on other sites, make sure they include a link back to the original article on each syndicated article.”

Comment Policy

The consensus is that opening comments helps the blog, both in terms of content and audience.
That said, under some circumstances, you might be willing to close the comments. As a Post Author, it’s your call.

How To Comment