Writing your first publication

Article or discussion?

Pick Article when you are sharing a finished piece of experience, and Discussion when you are asking or comparing. You can't go wrong: both get comments, votes and search.

Where to post

Choose a community and one of its categories. A good category is the one where people who would care about your text already hang out. A moderator may hide off-topic publications.

Which language to write in

Write in the language you think in — any of 31. You don't have to choose it: under the editor, Written in shows the language we detected. If it's wrong, press Change. Readers who read in another language see your publication translated, with the original one click away. Languages and translation.

Formatting

The editor uses Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, ## headings, lists with -, links as [text](https://…) and images uploaded from your device. The preview shows exactly what readers will see.

Drafts

Not ready? Save a draft and come back later — your drafts are on the drafts page.

After you publish

• As a sprout (L1) you can publish up to 2 publications a day.
• Publications and comments with links from L1 accounts are checked by a moderator before they appear. This stops spam and usually takes a few hours.
• People can vote, comment and bookmark. Upvotes from members bring you points and help you grow to the next level.

Tip: a specific title (“How I cut my laptop's boot time from two minutes to 15 seconds”) beats a vague one (“Laptop question”) every time.