Call for Submissions: About that big idea you had for an article ...
by Lisa Poisso 
Sep 10th 2010 at 3:00PM
Your article should run between 750 and 1,000 words. Multiple submissions are welcome; only the very best articles will be accepted for publication. We will not accept proposals submitted under player names or pen names; please use your full, real name and email. Please include your email address again at the bottom of your synopsis in the body of your submission. Links should be included as full URLs in the body of the copy; no active links, please.
Artwork is not mandatory, but any you choose to include must be your own work or from Creative Commons. Images should be exactly 580 pixels wide and no more than 350 pixels tall. Please include a description of the content and attribution details at the bottom of your article (along with your email address).
The Seed program currently only accommodates submissions from individuals living in the United States. Unfortunately, we are not accepting guest post submissions outside of Seed; we appreciate your enthusiasm, but sorry, no exceptions. If you live outside of the United States and would like to keep tabs on the possibility of international submissions, please check Seed.com for updates.
To submit an article, read up about our guest post program, then sign up for Seed. WoW.com articles are not listed among Seed's publicly listed assignments; click here to view this assignment and submit your article. (You won't be able to see it unless you have a Seed account.) We'll accept submissions for this assignment until 12:00 midnight EDT on Fri., Sept. 17. If you have further questions about this assignment, drop us a line at seed@wow.com. Good luck and good writing!
Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions, and be sure to sign up for Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Dril Sep 10th 2010 3:04PM
My big idea was to write from the UK.
Seriously, what's taking so long for Europe to recognised as an Official Place Where People Who Can Speak And Write English May Live?
(cutaia) Sep 10th 2010 3:14PM
Well, it's been said time and time again that it's AOL's deal and not wow.com's choice, so perhaps your first step should be to direct that English writing of yours at the correct people?
By the way, seed.com is still in a Beta state. It constantly screws up your formatting, sometimes deletes things altogether and occasionally e-mails you to tell you that published articles from 3 months ago weren't accepted. Is it, you know, just at *all* possible that they're waiting to jump through the hoops required to accept foreign submissions until they've finished the basics of the program?
Do we really have to do this every time they post a call for submissions?
Dril Sep 10th 2010 3:18PM
Perhaps they shouldn't have released the whole thing so early, if it's broken, country-locked and the like.
You'd be complaining if only Canadians and Europeans could write.
(cutaia) Sep 10th 2010 3:29PM
"Perhaps they shouldn't have released the whole thing so early, if it's broken, country-locked and the like."
Is there something about the concept of a Beta that you don't particularly understand? I suppose you hate that the Cataclysm Beta is also limited access with glitches that have yet to be fixed and features that have yet to be implemented? Maybe they shouldn't have released the Cataclysm Beta so early?
"You'd be complaining if only Canadians and Europeans could write."
Thanks for the completely baseless speculation, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that this is not true.
Docp Sep 10th 2010 3:43PM
It's also not like they couldn't say "If you're from the USA please use our SEED program, if you're from elsewhere then send your ideas by email" or throw one of these as a non-seed submissions call.
Dril Sep 10th 2010 3:56PM
You seem to be trying to apply game beta rules to something totally different. Allow me to spell out their differences: a game beta is SPECIFICALLY designed to be tested by people to eliminate bugs before release, hence why it is the BETA and is almost universally invitation only; due to it being a beta it is not released into the public domain (although in some cases one could argue that that's an open beta); the Seed "beta" serves absolutely no purpose as an actual beta-test.
A beta is for testing things, not as a scapegoat for "this won't work/excludes people for apparently no reason (bearing in mind that the Cataclysm beta accepts people randomly and not by any specific group) but we'll let people use it anyway for shits and giggles." This is what we, in the industry of random internet, know as an unfinished product.
Well, here's a thing: maybe you wouldn't complain, but that fact is that you don't constantly receive sub-par service, pricing, release dates etc etc on a regular basis. Perhaps you need to wake up and think about what it's like getting everything later/never and/or in a worse state than the US and realise why complaining is at least a minute spark to getting some semblance of equality.
(cutaia) Sep 10th 2010 4:05PM
"It's also not like they couldn't say "If you're from the USA please use our SEED program, if you're from elsewhere then send your ideas by email" or throw one of these as a non-seed submissions call."
Except it's probably exactly like that. They are a part of the AOL blog network, and I'm pretty sure the AOL blog network has instructed that they are to use Seed for these types of things.
Docp Sep 10th 2010 4:13PM
Well if they stated that I would stop complaining. Unfortunately all I've seen so far is "Seed is not available outside the USA and we don't control that" Nothing to ever say they've tried to find a work-around or a compromise or even a specific 'non-USA one-off" with AOL.
I don't mean to sound bitter, I'm just a fan of this site and would love the chance to get to contribute and it just seems so arbitrary that we can't.
Faith Trust Sep 10th 2010 4:30PM
In the develpment world, we like to sometimes focus our test phases to controlled groups.
If you need other teams aside from the developers (as in lawyers to deploy the app to other countries) then, its likely you will get a no-no and stick to a target audience that requires "less effort", it doesn't mean they are not "feature complete" or that they are, it just means they are focused on a small group, that happens to imply less trouble to set up for payments, taxes, laws, etc...
It might be not cool, but as long as they are fixing glitches and getting feedback its all good, in time it might be deployed to other countries as part of the test, or it might be only released to the US audience.
You can only speculate, it sucks that us people that dont live in the US dont get to use it yet.
And I dont know what are you talking about sub par pricing, release dates, etc.
CDave Sep 10th 2010 4:33PM
I'm sure it's mainly because of copyright limitations. Anything you write that is published here ends up as property of AOL, so having the possibility of a copyright shitstorm outside of the country probably isn't in the company's best interests.
And c'mon, the company is *America* Online, what do you expect?
(cutaia) Sep 10th 2010 4:35PM
"Unfortunately all I've seen so far is 'Seed is not available outside the USA and we don't control that' Nothing to ever say they've tried to find a work-around or a compromise or even a specific 'non-USA one-off' with AOL."
And as someone with a job, I for one don't blame them one bit for not making those concessions. That's how work goes. You get told what to do and you do it. "They don't control it" is all the info we need. This is Elizibeth Harper's job -- her livelyhood, for Christ's sake -- and you don't know her superiors, you don't know her contacts at AoL. For all we know, her direct boss may be some faceless guy in California that she has a conference call with once every two weeks who doesn't have time to hear about the complaints of some blog commenters. So, it kinda sounds like you're upset at the lack of evidence that she's not out there rocking the boat trying to get your way for you, which is something I find completely unfair.
I understand completely that there's a desire for you guys to be able to join in on the Seed program. What I don't understand is the insistence on making these same complaints week after week when they've made it pretty clear that they'd love to accept foreign submission, but it's beyond their control.
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 10th 2010 5:58PM
"you don't constantly receive sub-par service, pricing, release dates etc etc on a regular basis"
We don't?
If the "REAL America" is supposed to be all shiny and perfect and everything is on time and done with a smile and there's no crime or unhappiness and everyone picks up after their dogs... then I'm no longer sure quite where it is that I'm living.
Docp Sep 10th 2010 6:11PM
I have a job too and I know that I certainly don't feel my job would be threatened if I was to merely offer a suggestion to my boss, enquire about a certain policy or offer simple solutions to minor problems. Especially if my job was to manage part of their business for them and to solve any potential problems that arise.
I don't want anyone to put their jobs at risk for this, nor am I saying that Elizibeth Harper should be stood outside AOL HQ with a sign on a stick and a catchy chant. I'd just like a little more communication on the issue, Has wow.com tried to suggest alternatives (either alternative methods for entry to a submission call or alternative submission calls about a different topic) for their Non-USA readers and if so why were these suggestions shot down? Neither of those questions to me seem particularly job threatening in the slightest.
The reason I keep complaining at least is because I want to make sure people know there is demand and support for the extension of this program, you never know who's reading! (and yes, I have sent emails to AOL about this as well, so I'm not merely hammering at wow.com).
Like I said, I love the site and I love the content, all I want to do is participate a bit more =(
Dril Sep 11th 2010 3:06AM
Grovin, the point is relative, not absolute. IF you'd chosen to take my comment in-context and read it in relation to games, the point still stands that if you think you get bad service for your MMOs, nine times out of ten it'll be worse in the bedraggled, poverty-stricken and terribly Socialist Europe.
(cutaia) Sep 10th 2010 3:08PM
This is convenient timing for me. I realized just yesterday that I had completely missed the deadline for the last call for proposals.
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 10th 2010 3:18PM
My Breakfast Topic was picked through Seed.com and published back in July and since there was nothing posted there about a limited time to retrieve your earnings, I left the $10.00 in my account at Seed.com figuring I'd eventually write something else. A month later I got an email from them saying "Sorry your article wasn't picked..." WTF?! So I checked Seed.com and the box on my Dashboard by which I would have my earnings sent to me was gone.
I emailed them with a link and was basically told "We'll look into it", followed by nothing for a week or two, emailed again and got "Oh we're sorry about that, we're forwarding this to the tech team to see what happened", followed by nothing for another few weeks. $10 may seem like nothing, but money's money. (As a wise man once told me, "If the dollar amount doesn't seem significant to you, tack on zeroes until it does.") So my emails to them are about to get a little angrier.
I don't mean to pee in anyone's oatmeal, but in One Guy's Opinion, Seed.com is complete FAIL until further notice. I hate to see WoW.com affiliated with something so shoddy and strongly recommend looking for alternate submission vehicles.
lisapoisso Sep 10th 2010 3:26PM
Grov, I may have some details that may help you out. Email me at seed@wow.com.
ShadowPriest Sep 10th 2010 5:22PM
lisapoisso, i'm going to send you a e-mail as well, because the same thing happened to me, money in the account one minute, several months latter i get a e-mail saying my article, wasn't accepted. And like Grovinofdarkhour, i contacted AOL Seed and got the same "well get back to you" line. I hope you can resolve our issues, I love having the opportunity to write for WoW insider about my favorite MMO,
Al Sep 10th 2010 5:36PM
Unrelated, but thanks for the post earlier.
Scougelord Sep 10th 2010 3:44PM
I don't know much about how publishing stuff on the Internet works so excuse me if I'm totally wrong; but why can't we just email our submissions to wow.com directly instead of going through Seed? Writing from Ireland here, and annoyed that I can't submit an article.