Welcome, New User!

• Do You want to know what European Tribune is about?
• Don't Speak English well?
• Unfamiliar with the structure of group blogs?
• Curious what kind of community you'll find?
• Do You want to post comments?

If any of the above concern you, you'll find answers on this short introductory page. If you have other questions, you can consult the New User Guide and the FAQ.

Introducing European Tribune

European Tribune is a community blog for people interested in matters all across Europe. The focus is on politics and public life, from a left-of-centre and pro-European-integration perspective, but those aren't obligatory constraints.

Articles cover everything from bridges through film critiques, sports, energy policy to wars and elections. In politics, beyond multinational politics, ET focuses on a good coverage of local politics: interested outsiders can benefit from direct access to locals, who can often provide more in-depth and more 'lively' reports than foreign correspondents of the mass media. The ideological spectrum of users runs from centre-right to hard-left, and not only do views of the EU differ, but non-EU, and non-European posters are welcome.

Language Use

European Tribune is at present mostly in English because of the blog's origin as an offshoot of an American blog (Booman Tribune) for its European readers. However, we hope to move on to multi-lingual blogging when that becomes possible, and even now, you are free to use other languages: there are regulars who could respond or translate in French, Spanish, Catalan, German, Dutch, Italian or Hungarian.

Group Blogs And SCOOP

Unlike normal blogs, group blogs not only allow the average reader to post comments to the articles of the blog editors, but also to post articles ("diaries") themselves, making the blog much more collaborative. Look at the right-hand column: you'll see boxes with links to recommended and most recent diaries. The editors can promote diaries to the front page of the blog (so they are often called "frontpagers").

European Tribune, like most big group blogs, runs on SCOOP software, which also allows the threaded display of comments, so it is much easier to follow debates. You can also access your own diary and comments separately (once you register, your personal drop-down menu will replace "New User? Welcome & Click!" at top center).

The EuroTrib Community

Compared to other blogs and other group blogs, the community that has gathered so far on European Tribune stands out in two things: a very diverse international readership, and civil discussion. The first means that no single nation dominates among users, what's more, many of them have roots in multiple countries. The second means that people have managed to keep discussions from dengenerating into flame wars even in strong disagreements. People are expected (and feel the need) to contribute thought-through arguments or evidence, rather than just call others idiots or fools.

While there are no fixed rules of behaviour, some guidelines that help us achieve the above are summarized in the ETiquette.

To keep out spammers, to prevent identity hijacking, and to control trolling by keeping a trail of posters, we prefer to allow posting only after registering with an email address. We hope that if you have something substantial to say, registering will only be a little one-minute nuisance.

Create New User Account

In order to create an account (which is free), fill out the form at bottom. You will receive an email containing your username and autogenerated password, at the address you provide here. Use this data to login. It's that easy.

Why is the password autogenerated? First, random passwords are typically more secure than non-random ones. Second, by requiring you to log in using a password we send you, we can make sure that the email address is valid. This makes it harder for malicious users to abuse the account creation system by creating an arbitrary number of accounts and spamming the site with stories or comments. If you do not like your autogenerated password, you can easily change it after logging in.

Again, your password will be mailed to the email address you enter here, so your email address must work. Do NOT enter a spam-protected or fake email address.

If you are concerned about privacy, this email will not appear openly on the site and will not be used to send you unsolicited information of any kind.

Now get started, and we hope you enjoy European Tribune!