GameInformer

Jolt:

I have a question. I'm in the process of prettying up my profile, and I noticed that most members have a banner type thing at the top of their profiles. It's above the directory for the member where you can choose their blogs, reviews, favorites, etc.

How would I go about adding one of those?

That banner is called your Hero Image. To change it put your cursor on the image and a button will appear in the upper right hand corner. Click it and you will be able to upload a picture of your choice from there.

Huh, easy enough. Much obliged Snake.

So I'm a big Bungie fan and all. I have their site as my homepage. I have recently been reading their articles about the end of their Halo stat tracking, and I decided to submit the news tip to Game Informer. I see that they now have the article up today and I was sad when I had no recognition at the end. Could it be that they had plans to make this already? or do they no longer recognize people when they submit news? I'm not mad, just kind of sad about it. I'm also going under the assumption that they normally or used to recognize news submitters.

Keep in mind there are hundreds of thousands of other Bungie fans, and any of them could have sent in the same news tip. Also, GI probably gets hundreds of news tips per day. Just because they put up the same story doesn't mean they found out through you. They're a news-centered magazine, so they have other ways they hear things.

What Cru said. Tons of people send in news tips, especially for popular subjects.

GoldvsSilver:

I know that I had always wondered this when I was first starting out, and it'd probably be nice if we could answer the same question for everybody else!

GIO community members who have had the past experience, what does it take to be Blog Herded, Review Herded, or Member Herded?

As far as Blog Herding goes, as Saint says, he tries to pick well-written and interesting blogs the whole community will enjoy. So usually I suggest picking out something you're passionate about and just writing for yourself, it's the best way to ensure quality. One last thing, blogs with spoilers or ones not about gaming or the community (this is Game Informer Online) are almost guaranteed not to be chosen.

As for Member Herding, I can't speak on Saint's process exactly as I don't know it myself. But I can make educated guesses. First of all, I think he does take nominations into consideration. Next, he generally tries to find people who are going above and beyond by being a positive force in the community whether by writing meaningful comments, posts, and blogs, organizing community events and creations, or trying to help your fellow members.

Most importantly, never sit there and do stuff just for the herding, be it blogs, reviews, or member. There's a certain amount of dedication you've got to have towards taking enjoyment in your work and community, and that spark just won't show if you're merely doing it for the glory. I never expected any of my herdings to happen, I just poured a lot of my heart into my writing and community organization, and it got taken notice of. Hopefully you all understand a bit better.

Well, If I'm correct, I have been blog herded quite rarely, because I usually don't write blog posts about the industry, some news or other things like that. When I get the time, I will write a blog post soon that has the potential to be blog herded (since it's not a review, an impression of a game or a not game-related blog post. I think for most the US people, it might be very insightful.

As for member herding, I think you just have to be active and not just sit there, but be there to help others as well. And you can always hope that one of your friends or anyone else who has been herded, will notice you and tell about you to Saint. Because before and after being Member Herded, me and Saint haven't talked much. I think the only time we talked was during the interview. That's simply because our ways of communication are so different.

It took me more than 6 months to get Member Herded. And as I know it myself from my own experience: Don't go chasing to Saint to get herded. Wait for it and he'll come to you by himself.

@ Stranger, Drym: That's great advice! I thank you, both personally and for everybody else. Learning about that will help a lot of people, I think.

Hey, so I have another question. How do you have multiple people on the same conversation thing. The private message chat. I'm trying to get one for BFtP, but I can't figure out how to have more than myself and one other person.

That's a good question...is that even possible?

Sora3Ben:

Hey, so I have another question. How do you have multiple people on the same conversation thing. The private message chat. I'm trying to get one for BFtP, but I can't figure out how to have more than myself and one other person.

I don't think it's even possible, you may want to do the review through Skype.

Alright, I guess I'll do that then. Have to learn how to start a group on Skype.

Could I write a blog series about "this day in videogame history"? I wasn't sure if it would be a large enough topic to be a blog. I'm not sure how often I would do it.

Yeah, whatever idea you can work with. I guess it would be a little bit on the short side, but I think you could pull it off.

Thanks for the support. I will start looking stuff up to see whether or not I will have enough to say each time. I will pack them full of all I can.