How to contribute content
Been to a conference recently? Worked on something cool? Got something else Mattermost-related you want to post about? Writing a blog post is a great way to share your experience with the community.
Submitting a blog post quickstart guide
Write your blog post
Submit your draft and any image/video files to the Content team in the Mattermost: Content channel
Address recommendations for scope and clarity (if applicable)
Submit bio and headshot to include in post (first submission only)
Share published post on your social channels
Writing for Mattermost
The purpose of the Mattermost blog is to help developers learn how they can be more productive and to share how the Mattermost team is solving interesting technology challenges. Our intent is for every piece of content to educate and inspire readers to improve their own productivity, whether they’re troubleshooting individual processes or optimizing workflows for their whole team.
The mission of helping developers be more productive doesn’t mean focus only on productivity tools and tips -- sharing how we solved broader technical problems, interesting tech that we’re excited about, and industry trends and issues are all relevant to the larger goal of helping developers unblock their workflows.
Great blog submissions
Are focused on a single, clear topic
Cover a new topic or angle that isn’t already part of our content catalog
Are written concisely and clearly, and formatted for easy skimming
Include images or other visuals that enrich the reading experience (videos, gifs, infographics, charts, etc.)
Check out this post and this post for examples of well-focused content.
Our content wishlist
While we don't have a specific content wishlist, we welcome a wide variety of content submissions, especially on techinical topics. If you're not sure if a topic would be appropriate for the Mattermost blog, feel free to ask on ~Mattermost: Content.
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are a few general types of post that we’re always looking for more of:
How we solved a technical problem, e.g. Monitoring Cloud Environments at Scale with Prometheus and Thanos
How we built or designed a feature for our product, e.g. How Mattermost approaches accessibility for the visually impaired
Best practices (or at least, our practices) for a common workflow or process, e.g. An Introduction to CI/CD pipeline security
How to use Mattermost in a unique way, e.g. 5 workflow automations for Mattermost that we love at n8n
Need help writing?
If you’re not a confident writer or don’t have time to draft a complete article, you can still contribute! We have some great copywriters on staff who are here to help you turn your ideas into fully-fledged content. Just ping Ashley Dotterweich to connect with a copywriter.
Posts requiring approval
Note that for some types of posts, additional approval is required before moving forward with the publication process. If the content of your post needs to be reviewed by someone else, please have them review the post before submitting it to the Content Team, and let us know if they will need to approve the final copy before it is published.
Some types of post that may require approval:
Posts about security issues
Posts about upcoming or new features
Posts referencing customer use cases that haven’t previously been published
If you aren’t sure if your post requires approval, let us know!
Submitting content
When you have a post ready for review, please submit a draft and any image/video files to the Content team on the ~Mattermost: Content channel on the Contributor server. You can upload files to this Content Submission folder, or link them directly in the channel.
Accepted formats
Google Docs (preferred)
Markdown file
Review process
After you’ve submitted your post to the Content team, we’ll review it and get back to you within 3 business days with any feedback or suggestions. Articles may require up to 2 rounds of revisions.
Here are the types of edits and feedback you can expect to receive:
Grammar and spelling errors: We check the post for grammatical issues, spelling errors, etc. Generally, there is no follow-up required for these edits.
SEO review: Search engine optimization helps ensure that our content is discoverable in search engines and is more visible online. These edits include changes to the title and headings of the post, rephrasing some sentences to include target keywords, and adding backlinks to other content. Generally, there is no follow-up required for these edits.
Additional recommendations for scope and clarity: To ensure that every post fulfills our editorial mission statement, we may ask for additional edits with the goal of making your post more accessible and useful to readers. These might include:
Reordering sections within the post for flow
Splitting a long post into two or more articles
Removing sections that don’t support the core topic of the post
Adding additional context or detail
You (and any other required approvers) will have a chance to review the final version of your post before it goes live. Remember that our goal isn’t to change your voice and tone, just to make you sound like the best version of yourself!
Publishing
After your post is approved, the Content Team will take care of getting it ready for publication in WordPress and let you know when it is scheduled to be published.
If this is your first time submitting an article to the Mattermost blog, don’t forget to submit a short bio and a headshot so we can include it in the post!
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