Part II — Planting and tending
03 · Writing articles
Some knowledge is a photo, some is speech, and some is written slowly: the recipe, the account, the step by step.
An article
An article is a text saber. It can have images, audio and video in the middle of the text. Articles show up on the Blog.
To write one: Blog → + new article, or Create saber with the type article.
The editor
The article's body is written in markdown — plain text with a few signs. The button bar puts the signs in for you:
| Button | Does | Sign |
|---|---|---|
| H | section title | ## Title |
| B | bold | **word** |
| I | italics | *word* |
| “ | quote | > someone's words |
| ≡ | list | - item or 1. item |
| 🔗 | link | [text](address) |
| 🖼 🎬 ♪ | image, video, audio from the saber itself |  |
The preview tab shows how it will look. You can also paste an image straight into the text, and simple tables work:
| ingredient | how much |
|---|---|
| fruit pulp | 2 spoons |One important thing: to put a photo, audio or video inside the text, the article must be saved (the files are its attachments). Write, save, and then, in Edit, use the media buttons — they list the article's attachments.
Draft and published
The published / draft switch is in the form. A draft only shows to people who can edit; when it's ready, flip it to published and save.
The Blog
The Blog lists articles (and any saber marked to appear on the blog), newest first, with reading time. It has the same search as the Archive, with the prefixes (t:, i:…), and the territory filter: a territory's blog shows only what belongs there, in its colour.
Writing well for the network
- Start with what matters. The first lines become the card's summary.
- Say where it comes from. Who told it, when, in what place.
- Use sections (
##) in long texts: readers find their way. - Captions on images: the text between brackets
![…]is read aloud to people who can't see, and appears when the image doesn't load.
To talk about in the circle
- Which recipes, prayers, ways of doing things in the community live only in one person's memory? Who can help write them down with that person?
- An article can have the voice of the person telling it (an audio) and the text beside it. Which knowledge calls for both?