How Our Content Engine Works
Welcome to ARRLSTX! Our entire website is fueled by the passion, dedication, and expertise of volunteers just like you. To ensure that every piece of content published on our site meets the highest standards of quality, we’ve implemented a unique, merit-based workflow.
By participating in this system, you don’t just help the community—you earn points, gain hands-on training, and level up your skills to take on greater responsibilities within our organization.
Leveling Up: Your Path to Staff
Everyone starts their journey at the ground level. As you complete tasks and earn points, you will automatically unlock new roles, granting you more authority and new ways to contribute. Here is the path of advancement:
- Subscriber: Your starting role.
- Contributor: Unlocked at 200 Points.
- Writer: Unlocked at 700 Points.
- Graphic Designer: Unlocked at 1,200 Points.
- Publisher: Unlocked at 1,700 Points.
- Moderator: Unlocked at 2,100 Points.
- Staff: Unlocked at 3,000 Points.
The Four Phases of Content Creation
🔌 Phase 1: Contributors
Contributors are the scouts of our organization. They scour the web for interesting ham radio news and submit those links via our Inspiration Module.
- +5 Points: Submitting a valid inspiration link.
- +15 Points: When your link is accepted by a Writer.
- +25 Points: When your suggested article is finally published.
✍️ Phase 2: Writers
Writers take the links submitted by Contributors and transform them into engaging, well-formatted 200-450 word articles.
- +10 Points: Accepting an article assignment.
- +20 Points: Submitting the completed draft.
🎨 Phase 3: Graphic Designers
Designers take completed drafts and create stunning, properly formatted featured images (1000×670 pixels) complete with the ARRLSTX watermark.
- +10 Points: Accepting a design task.
- +25 Points: Uploading the final, optimized artwork.
🚀 Phase 4: Publishers
Publishers are the final gatekeepers. They review the written content, ensure the graphics are correct, apply SEO tags, and push the article live.
- +15 Points: Successfully publishing an article to the public site.
Fair Play & Cross-Training Rules
To ensure that everyone receives fair training and no single individual monopolizes the workflow, we enforce a strict Anti-Monopoly Rule.
A volunteer may only participate in ONE stage of the workflow for any given article.
- If you submit a link as a Contributor, the system will prevent you from writing the draft for that specific article.
- If you draft an article as a Writer, you cannot be the Designer or the Publisher for that piece.
This dynamic encourages teamwork. By handing off your work to the next phase, you learn to collaborate with your peers, ensuring that the final product delivered to the public is the result of true community effort.
Advanced Merit System Features
To make the system even more engaging and efficient, we have introduced several advanced features:
- “Top of the Month” Leaderboard: A public leaderboard tracks the volunteers who have earned the most points in the current month. Resetting every 30 days gives everyone a fair chance to reach the top!
- Inactivity Penalties: To keep content moving, assignments are timed. If a Writer or Designer abandons an assignment for 48 hours, the system will automatically release it back to the public pool and deduct 5 points from their score.
- Unlockable Achievement Badges: Beyond roles, you can now unlock special badges that appear on your Volunteer Dashboard. For example, publishing 5 articles earns you the The Pioneer 🚀 badge!
- Automated Milestone Celebrations: When a volunteer reaches the high rank of Publisher or above, the system will automatically generate a congratulatory news post on the website to celebrate their dedication!
- Reader Upvotes (Bonus Points): At the bottom of every published article, readers will find a “Like” button. When an article is upvoted by the community, every single volunteer who contributed to that article (Contributor, Writer, Designer, and Publisher) instantly receives a +5 Point Bonus! This not only rewards you for creating highly engaging content, but gives us a great metric to see what our readers love the most.
Reader Engagement Merit System
You don’t have to be a staff member to earn points! All users can start their path to staff just by being an active part of our community. Once you accumulate the required points, you become eligible for promotion. Please note: Promotions are not automatic; they are awarded manually by the administration team based on your active contributions and accumulated points.
- Daily Visits (+1 Point): Log into the website once per 24-hour period to instantly earn 1 point.
- Reading Articles (+2 Points): Take your time and actually read our content! If you spend at least 20 seconds reading an article or page, you’ll earn 2 points.
- Liking Articles (+2 Points): Smashing that ❤️ Like button at the bottom of a post doesn’t just reward the staff, it rewards you with 2 points as well!
- Commenting (+3 Points): Engage in the discussion! Leaving a comment on an article earns you 3 points (max 1 rewarded comment per article).
- Sharing (+5 Points): Help us grow! Use the social sharing buttons at the bottom of an article to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn and earn 5 points (max 1 reward per article).