Thank you for your interest in RH Reality Check reader diaries. Your reader diary allows you to submit posts directly to the site.  The best and most recent diaries are featured on the front page and you can browse all diary entries on the Reader Diaries page.  Below is a video screencast that will take you through the process of posting a reader diary entry as well as a written guide. If you have any questions the answer may also be on the Reader Diary Frequently Asked Questions page, and if you still have questions do not hesitate to contact us.

1. Create an Account

To start your RH Reality Check reader diary you must first create an account, if you have not already. To create an account click here, or the ‘Create Account’ link at the top of any page on the site. Fill out the short form and click the ‘Create new account’ button. You will be asked to verify the account via email.

2. Log in

Once you have created an account, or if you already have one, continue by logging into the site. To login click here, or click the ‘Login’ link at the top of any page on the site. Provide your username or email address and password and click the ‘Log in’ button.

3. Click ‘Create New Diary Entry’

After logging in you will be presented with your account’s home page. You can take some time later to fill out your profile and provide a headshot for your user image. To start writing your first diary entry, click ‘Create New Diary Entry’ in the My Account menu on the right side of the page.

4. Complete the four parts of your diary entry, the Title, Categories and Tags, Teaser and Body.

1. Provide a pithy, descriptive title for your diary entry.
2. Choose a category from the Blog Categories list that best fits your diary. Control-Click or Command-Click to select multiple categories.
3. In the Blog free tagging field please provide a comma-separated list of terms or phrases that will help search engines and other users find your content, i.e. President Obama, Barack Obama, Obama, White House, etc. You can list many terms. As you type, terms that are already in the system will be suggested to you, if a term similar to the one you have in mind is presented, we encourage you to choose the term already in the system.
4. In the teaser field please provide a short description or excerpt of your diary that will be shown on listing pages. Keep teasers to fewer than 230 characters, or about three lines of text.
5. Now you’re ready to write the body of your diary entry. Write your post in the Body section. You may use the formatting buttons provided to help compose your post (click here to learn more about these buttons) or you may cut and paste a previously written post from Word using the ‘Paste from Word’ button (), the far right button on the rich text toolbar (unfortunately, this only works with Word on PCs). The tools provided are, in order from left to right across the toolbar: Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Left align, Center align, Right align, Bulleted list, Numbered list, Blockquotes, Link and Unlink, Add image and Paste from Word.
   1. Adding an image: You can add an image to your post by clicking on the ‘Insert/edit image’ button (). The image must already be on the web somewhere. If you want to add an image from your computer that is not yet on the web you can upload it to an image sharing site first, like flickr.com. The only required field is the Image URL, which is the link to the image where it resides on the web (i.e http://farm1.static.flickr.com/113/276558233_96f8bd5617_o.jpg). You may optionally add a description of the image, set the image alignment, alter the image dimensions, add a border and margins.
   2. Adding video: You can embed videos in your post from YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and Revver. For instance to embed a YouTube video you would simply paste the video's URL, or link, (i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FECeRd2kYFM) in the place you want the video to appear in your diary entry.
   3. Pasting HTML: You may already have your diary entry composed as HTML. To paste your HTML simply click the ‘disable rich-text’ link below the body field to be presented with a simple textarea into which you may paste your HTML. Please note the allowed HTML tags listed below the Body field. All other tags will be stripped from your HTML.

5. Publish

By default the diary is set to be published after you click the ‘Submit’ button. You may uncheck the ‘Published’ setting to keep your diary unpublished for now. You can always find your unpublished diaries by clicking the ‘My unpublished diaries’ link in the ‘My Account’ menu on your user page. After you diary is submitted, you will also see a 'Publish' or 'Unpublish' tab when viewing your entry which you can use to publish or unpublish your entry.

6. Sharing/Distributing your reader diary posts

We encourage you to share your diary posts widely with others. Here's how you can maximize the impact of your diary post:

1. Email: Send a short note with a link to you diary post to friends, colleagues and email lists. Encourage them to comment! We have seen that the more comments a post attracts, the more attention and links it garners. Create a community around your post and help it grow by starting with your own personal community. Encourage your friends and colleagues to share your post as well.
2. ShareThis Button: Your dairy post has a button that makes sharing your post on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon easy. The button () appears at the top and bottom of your post. Click on the ShareThis button, find your favorite social network(s) and click the appropriate button to share your post on that network.

Also, be sure to watch the comments section of your diary post. Participating in the discussion is another great way to encourage more commenting.

Have Questions?

If you are having trouble posting a reader diary or have any questions at all, please use the reader diary contact page to send your inquiry. RH Reality Check staff is available Monday through Friday between 9 and 5 ET. If you submit an inquiry after hours we will respond to you as soon as possible the next business day.