Posts & blog articles

What would you like to share?

Imagine coming home from a mineral show. You might want to share a few favourite finds while the day is still fresh, or ask other collectors about a piece you saw. A post is a good fit for that kind of conversation. If you want to write a fuller account of the show, with photographs between sections and room for what you learned, a blog article gives the story more space.

Neither replaces a specimen record. If the aim is to catalogue a piece or offer it for sale, start by adding a specimen. You can then link to its page from a post and tell the story of how you found it.

A post starts a conversation

Once you're signed in, Create a post in the Create menu opens a writing window without taking you away from the page. You can share text on its own, let a photograph speak for itself, or combine words with up to ten photos or videos. There is room for 5,000 characters, but a short introduction is often all a photograph needs.

Give people something to respond to. Alongside a new acquisition, you might explain what caught your attention or ask about a feature you're trying to understand. An @mention lets you bring another collector into the conversation. Links can add context too: YouTube and Vimeo links can appear as playable videos, while other links may show a preview card.

Posts are shared when you choose Post, after any attached media has finished uploading and processing. They are public on your profile's Posts tab and may appear in the feed. Signed-in members can like and comment, and followers or people you mention can receive notifications.

The writing window does not save a draft. If you want to come back to an unfinished post, keep a copy of the text before closing it. After sharing, your post's menu lets you Edit and Save changes, or Delete it; there is no option to turn it back into a draft.

A blog article gives a story room

A field-trip account, a closer look at a locality, or the story of how your collection developed may need more than a caption. Write a blog post in the Create menu opens an editor with headings, formatted text, and images within the article.

A working title is a useful place to begin. It also lets the editor create the article's URL and start saving a draft. You can change the title as the story takes shape. If you edit the URL yourself, it needs to be valid and available. Before leaving, check for Saved; Add a title to save means the draft has not been saved yet.

Think about what a reader needs to follow the story. A photograph of the whole specimen can introduce it before a close-up draws attention to a particular detail. Short sections help readers move between the place, the people, and the minerals. A subtitle can introduce the subject, and an optional Hero image provides a cover at the top. Neither is required, and you can leave the read-time and search preview settings alone while you concentrate on writing.

When you are ready for readers

A saved blog draft stays out of public view until you choose Publish. Publishing makes the article public on your profile's blog. If you also want it listed in the shared EarthWonders Blog, choose Publish to community blog under Visibility. That option controls where the article is listed, not whether it is private: an unchecked box still leaves a published profile article visible to readers.

You can return to an article after publication, perhaps to add a photograph or correct a detail. Those edits save directly to the published article, rather than becoming a separate draft. If you would prefer to work out of public view, Revert to draft takes the article offline while you revise it. View post opens the published page when you want to read it as your readers do.