Entry tags:

official: policies, official: submission guide

Submission Guide
Submitting a skin to this community is a fairly easy process. Note that all new submissions are moderated, but the mods will attempt to get to your skin as quickly as possible.

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1. Firstly, make sure your skin complies with the Submission Policy. If your skin doesn't comply with these rules, your skin will not be accepted in the community. (You are of course still welcome to post your skin elsewhere, including on your own journal; it just won't be accepted here.)


2. If you use any images in the skin that aren't already part of the sitescheme, or if you have a screenshot that you'd like to include in your post, please contact ciaran_h or snakeling and ask about the possibility of having them uploaded to ljskins_images's ScrapBook. This isn't absolutely necessary, but it means that users who use your skins don't need to worry if your hosting or ScrapBook becomes unavailable, and gives a little extra peace of mind. You will then be given the appropriate URLs to use to reference your images in the skin and post. (Don't worry if you lose them; all images will be uploaded into a gallery with your username, and can be accessed from the main ScrapBook page.)


3. You may want to join this community as posts for designers are made members only, in order to keep the view uncluttered for people who just want to use the skins. Membership is open. (This step is optional; it's possible to post without joining the community if you wish.)


4. Click here to open a posting page in a new window, and in the Subject field, put the title of your skin.


5. Make sure the "HTML" tab is selected, then copy and paste the following template into the post and fill it out, taking note of the lines surrounded by [brackets]:
   
   <b>Name:</b> [replace this line with the name of your skin] <b>Author:</b> [replace this line with your LJ username, or the username of the person who created the skin if it wasn't you] <b><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/?view=schemes">Sitescheme</a> required:</b> [replace this line with the names of the sitescheme(s) your skin needs to work] <b>Screenshot (click to enlarge):</b> [if you have a screenshot, link it here, preferably including a thumbnail. If you don't have a screenshot, delete this section.] <b>Description:</b> [replace this line with a description of your style. You can use as much space as you like.] <b>Installation link(s):</b> [replace this line with a link to your style. If it's hosted on userstyles.org, link to the description page. If you have multiple skins with variations on a theme, link them all, one skin per line, and after each link, put in parentheses the name or distinguishing feature(s) of the different style.] <b>Installation instructions:</b> [if your skin has special installation instructions - for example, if you aren't hosting your skin on userstyles.org - replace or modify the paragraph below with instructions relevant to your skin. Otherwise, just delete this line and the empty space.] In Firefox, you will need <a href="http://www.greasespot.net/">Greasemonkey</a> (with the <a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/10190">LJ Skins: Class Adder</a> script) and <a href="http://userstyles.org/stylish/">Stylish</a> to use this skin. Please see the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/ljskins/2270.html">Installation Guide</a> for further details and for information on working with other browsers. <b>Feedback:</b> [if you want to use another method of getting feedback, replace or modify the line below with your preferred method. Otherwise, just delete this line and the empty space.] Please leave feedback on this skin by commenting on this post.
   


6. Submit the post. It will go into the moderation queue, at which point our moderators will assess the skin to make sure it complies with the Submission Policy, and that the template is filled in correctly. At this point your post will also be tagged with the "skins" tag and other tags, such as one for your username (so people can see all skins made by you). After the post is approved, an entry will also be made in the memories for the specific skin.


7. If your post is not approved, you will receive an email with the reason, and the complete text of the post you originally submitted. Don't take it personally; normally this will simply be a case of a problem with the skin or its adherance to the Submission Policy, so please feel free to resubmit after making the appropriate changes.

Other users will be able to comment on your post. Because you will be the poster, you will receive notification emails automatically unless you have turned them off, so you will be able to see feedback easily.