Frequently Asked Questions

General

1. What is BrooWaha?

BrooWaha is a network of Citizen Newspapers with local editions in a number of major U.S. cities. News articles and opinion pieces are daily submitted by you, your neighbor or anyone willing to participate in the news community. BrooWaha publishes almost all articles submitted by our users. The articles are then automatically sorted in order to present the most relevant ones to our readers.

2. How can I contribute?

To start contributing, all you need to do is sign up and start using our writing interface! Once your first article is submitted, it will be published within 24 hours. How about starting one now?

Account

1. Can I change my Display Name?

No, you cannot change your Display Name after you have signed up. Your Display Name is what you are known as by our readers and changing it would be confusing to them.

2. I lost my password, can I reset it?

Yes, all you need to do is go to the password recovery page to get a new password.

Articles

1. What should I write about?

We strongly encourage you to write about anything you are passionate about. Our readers will let you know if you have been able to communicate your passion through your articles.
Most writers and readers of the BrooWaha edition you are part of share one thing in common: your city. Local stories are very interesting and often disregarded by mainstream medias. BrooWaha is your chance to improve the media landscape.

2. My article has been published! Where is it now?

Your article may take up to 10 minutes to show up in the columns of BrooWaha after it has been published. It will appear in the section you have submitted the article in, and on the front page if the majority of our readers like your work.

3. How can I promote my articles?

Post links to your articles on as many websites and blogs as you can. This will help drive traffic to your articles and therefore increase the prominence of your articles in BrooWaha. Submitting your articles to content aggregators like digg.com, fark.com, or del.icio.us is a very good starting point.
Please note that your article will automatically show up in Google, Yahoo and other search engines within a few days.

4. Oops, there is a mistake in my article! Can I still modify it after it's been published?

You cannot modify an article yourself once it has been published. You may contact an editor who will do it for you if needed.

5. The number of views on one of my articles is increasing very rapidly! What's going on?

Your article has probably been linked by a website with major traffic. Congratulations!

6. Why has my article been rejected?

Although the editors try to publish all articles submitted and let the BrooWaha community decide how prominently they should be displayed, there are some exceptions. Spam, offensive, racist or very low quality articles will be rejected by the BrooWaha team. You will receive an email stating the reason of the rejection and your article will be reverted back to draft mode.

7. Can I attach an image to my articles?

Yes, you can. However, please make sure that you have the right to use the image you are attaching to the article. Also, please make sure to give to the photo credits at the end of your article. Please refer to our terms of service for more information.

Votes & Popularity

1. What is this popularity score?

This score reflects your popularity in the BrooWaha community. It is computed based on a number of factors, including the ratings you receive and the number of times your articles are read.

2. What are the votes?

As a user of BrooWaha, you are encouraged to rate the articles you read. The votes ranging from 1 (Bad) to 5 (Excellent) help the BrooWaha algorithm organize the articles and increase the overall quality of the publication. In addition, it provides very valuable feedback to the authors and can encourage them to write more.

3. What are the reviews?

Reviews are a subset of the rating system. They have been designed to give the author a more detailed feedback about his work. Reviews are strictly private and confidential. Only you and the author can read them, and your idendity will never be discosed, not even to the author.

Comments

1. What are the plus and minus buttons next to the comments?

By pressing the plus or minus button next to a comment you can reward an user for his/her insightful/funny/constructive contribution to the article. If the comment score goes below a certain threshold, it will be hidden and be considered as non-constructive.

Miscellaneous

1. How can I support BrooWaha?

Visit our Support page and send us some love!

2. How can I advertise on BrooWaha?

BrooWaha now offers advertising solutions based on keywords and geographical locations. Please send an email to advertise@broowaha.com for any inquiry.

3. My city is not covered by BrooWaha yet, what should I do?

Please request the creation of this new edition by sending us an email at info@broowaha.com. The edition will be created when we receive enough requests.

Can't find the answer to your question here? Shoot us an email at help@broowaha.com and we'll do our best to help you!