As a Topix editor, you may have had a posted story killed before.

Here are the 2 main reasons why a story may be removed.

Off topic

Stories are most often killed due to being off topic. If you are a local editor, you’ll want to keep your stories on topic about your town and surrounding areas. For example, posting about Yoda, the four-eared cat from Chicago, is certainly interesting but is not on topic for the town of Utica, NY. The same rule of thumb goes for posting in a top node. A news story about Pakistan has nothing to do with the 2008 Presidential Election.

Duplicates

Sometimes there are duplicate stories. Let’s say you post a story about a local fire. As time passes, there may be more details known about the incident, another editor may post an updated story and your story may be killed. At the same time, if there isn’t much editor activity, roboblogger may be posting the same stories as well.

You don’t need to visit Sarah Palin’s hairdresser in Wasilla to copy her hairdo, just visit the Halloween forum on Topix and read the article posted on “How you can look like Sarah Palin on Halloween.”

Halloween is coming up fast, and there are no editors for the Halloween news page. You could be the first one! Other fun stories to post could be healthy alternatives to candy and treats, recommended horror flicks or tasty holiday recipes.

Apply here!

When editing a local news page, there is a trap that as an editor, you should avoid at all costs. Small towns definitely suffer from a lack of new news sometimes. That said, when a big story happens, they can become inundated with new content very quickly. Unfortunately, 99.9% of that new content is going to be about that one big story, right? This is where the trap lies.

If all this new content is now added to the news page in a flurry of excitement, you soon end up with a news page devoted to that one big event instead of your town as a whole.

When that happens and continues for any length of time, you lose readers. Really! You lose readers!

You know how sometimes you hear a song that you just LOVE and you play it and play it and play it, until you get so tired of it that you hope you never hear it again? That’s what happens to your readers. If every time they visit your news page, all they see are multiple headlines about a particularly bad car wreck or a church scandal that made national headlines, they start to get bored and move on. It is always important to cover the big news, but try to never lose sight of the rest of what goes on in your town.

Even in the midst of real tragedy, life goes on in small ways all around you. Make sure those other stories make the news. Don’t forget the local sheriff’s race or the Founder’s Day parade or that giant flour truck that overturned, mixed with rainwater and made pancakes that grilled right there on the asphalt. That’s all good stuff! Make sure it makes headlines too!

Today we turn the spotlight on HOGstr, an active editor who never lets the dust settle on the Offbeat news forum. HOGstr is a shining example of a Topix editor, constantly keeping the news page updated with interesting stories. Who would have ever imagined one could share a passion for both Harley Davidsons and Chihuahuas? Let’s see what she has to say!

What are some editing pitfalls you’ve learned to avoid?
Posting a duplicate a story is the main pitfall for editors that I see. An editor should always review the page to make sure another editor hasn't already linked to a story already on that page. Having two (or more) comment threads splits the conversation and confuses the reader. I also find it annoying when an editor posts a story on a page that's not relevant to that page.

What is your prior editing and writing experience?
I owned a photography business for 15 years before going back to college and getting my journalism degree. After graduation, I started as a reporter/photographer for a small weekly newspaper group in southern New Jersey before moving up to become the managing editor. When Gannett bought the papers, I was transferred to the Asbury Park Press as a night desk editor. Eventually, I morphed into a humor columnist and social interaction Web editor. I now write a weekly humor column called Kickin' Back and blog Say What? about unusual news two or three times a day as well as approve user-generated articles and photos for app.com. I also monitor user blogs, online forums and story chats.

What is your editing environment like? Do you post from work or home?
Because I'm an offbeat news junkie, I post stories I come across while I'm at work and from home. I'm constantly looking at the news wire to see what's new. Because of this, I'll see stories that are posted before they make most major Web sites. This gives me an advantage to blog about breaking stories and post them right away. I almost feel obligated to post on Topix as often as I can because I don't want readers to miss out on the latest offbeat news and what's happening around the world. It can become obsessive at times.

What do you do when you are not on Topix?
I own and ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle, thus my screen name HOGstr (Harley Owners Group). I also spend a lot of time with my three beautiful grandchildren who are very young, of course ... :)

What is your most memorable editing experience on Topix? Big story? Reader response?
Possibly the story I posted about the man assaulting his father with a bag of Cheetos. I think that got a lot of response.

What advice would you give to other editors in making a great page?
Post photos with your stories.

The Offbeat forum has a close family-knit feel to it. Would you say being an Offbeat news editor has helped your relationship within the Offbeat community?
Ah, yes. This is so true. The Offbeat community has many, many regular posters who are smart and witty. They make my day with their unusual and creative comments! I don't think there's a day that goes by when they don't make me LOL! And, they have been very receptive to my story selections. I can't thank them enough.

One of us at Topix has an obsession with her two Chihuahuas, and noticed you have an insanely cute picture of one in your avatar. Does he have a Dogster page?
I have three Chihuahuas. I call them perma pups (they always look like puppies no matter how old they get). My avatar is a picture of my first little girl, Elsie, who got her name because she has cow markings. When I first brought her home, she was very lonely and used to chase flies for fun. So ... because her only friends were flies ... I adopted an older female Chihuahua who became her mom so to speak. I then figured well, I have two, why not three, and bought Toots who is my plus-sized girl. None of them have a Dogster page, but as soon as I get time, I'll see that they sign up.

What other user-edited pages on Topix would you recommend?
As an owner of three Chihuahuas, I think the Pet page is excellent. I'd like to contribute to it more, but never seem to get the time.

Anything you'd like to say or comment on?
I have to say that Topix is the best online site that I've come across in a long time. The moderators are great and allow readers to express their feelings without taking away their individuality. Nothing worse than having to say (because of site restrictions) "I have to urinate" when you really want to say "I have to pee."

Bravo Topix, for allowing your readers to be themselves and still maintain a wonderful site where they can politely interact and, at the same time, have a hell of a good time!

Kudos to you, HOGstr, and carry on!