Frequently Asked Questions

We know you have questions, so hopefully we have the answers. You can always reach us at mail@citizenrain.com.

Why do you have only 10 communities? When will you add more?

Since the heart of Citizen Rain is an aggregator, we started with the communities that have the most blogs and stories written about them. Over the next few weeks and months, we'll be adding new communities, one by one. If you have one you're particularily interested in seeing, feel free to email us.

Can I publish stories and blog posts on Citizen Rain? How?

You can post directly to Citizen Rain by signing up, then clicking on the submit a story link to get started.

How do I add my own blog to Citizen Rain?

First, you have to meet a few criteria. It must be a Western Washington blog that frequently writes about the local community in some way. It must be updated at least three times a month. No racist, defamatory, illegal or pornographic content allowed. And it must have a valid RSS feed with dated posts (or it won't work in our aggregator.) If you meet these criteria, please send a link to the blog, link to the RSS feed and a short description to mail@citizenrain.com. Please give us a few days to add it.

Why should I create a profile on Citizen Rain?

You're required to sign up if you want to post a story. Otherwise, registration is not required. Coming soon, you'll be able to become "friends" with other people who have created profiles on the site -- a great way to meet folks in your community.

There's objectionable content on the site. Can you do something about it?

We have a list of rules in our terms of service for comments, stories, events and classified listings submitted to Citizen Rain. If you see something that's breaking the rules, please send us an email. On occasion, a blog in our aggregator may post something that some of our readers may deem objectionable. We tackle those complaints on a case by case basis.

How do the community events calendars work?

Anyone can submit a community event to Citizen Rain, and the events also appear on KING5.com's events calendar. We approve each event manually, so please allow 24 hours or so for it to appear. If you need to change an event listing, just click the "withdraw this event" link in the confirmation email and resubmit the event.

How often are blog headlines automatically updated?

About every 15 minutes.

How do you pick the news headlines and photos on the home page?

The news headlines are randomly selected every hour, 24 hours a day, from the most recent local news stories published from SeattleTimes.com, SeattlePI.com, KING5.com, KOMOtv.com, KIROtv.com, TheNewsTribune.com and HeraldNet.com. Click the "more headlines" link to see the most recent stories divided by publisher -- a quick way to catch up on all the news. The photos are automatically pulled from Flickr. Anything with a "Seattle" tag will appear within 30 minutes or so after they're posted.

I'm interesting in blogging. What advice would you give?

Do it! Blogging is a blast, but be warned, most bloggers burn out in the first few months. The most successful community-oriented blogs are updated several times a week, so make sure you're willing to dedicate enough time to make it work. You probably have a good idea of what you want to blog about, but if you're planning on starting a neighborhood blog, let us know so we can include you in Citizen Rain. As far as technology, our favorite blogging platforms are Wordpress (intermediate difficulty), Movable Type (intermediate), Typepad (easy) and Blogger (easy). The last two come packaged with web hosting, so it's a snap to start. The other two require a host but are more customizable for tech-savvy bloggers. (If you're looking for an inexpensive web host, we recommend LaughingSquid.) Here's a good overall how-to list for beginning bloggers. Good luck!

How do I get Citizen Rain to write about something?

Send us an email at mail@citizenrain.com and we'll take a look at it.