Matters Author's Toolbox | A must-see for beginners (updated in 2023.04)

This series of guides is intended to help new users get acquainted with the Matters community more quickly. This article is for creators to sort out frequently asked questions, including using the editor, managing LikeCoin income, how to accumulate readers and other related questions, all sorted out here for you!

Novice on the road

You are welcome to use Matters as a platform to take your writing to the next level! For beginners, if you are not familiar with Matters, it is strongly recommended to refer to the guide for newcomers in Matters City written by the user Grandpa Volunteer, the comprehensive teaching and warfare of Novice Village in Matters written by the user Fengxiang Wanli , and the horses written by the user Reading Pen Geng . For newcomers in the special city, the nine-stroke memo . These three guides will help you quickly understand Matters.

If you want to let more readers know you, a good starting point is to write an interesting and wonderful self-introduction. Please add the hashtag #Matters newcomer check-in when posting, so that more people can notice you.

Basic Editor Functions

• How do I publish my first article?

Press the golden "Create" button to enter the draft editing area.

The Matters editor supports multiple formats such as text, images, YouTube video embedding, JSFiddle links, audio, etc. When typing in the editor, a "+" button will appear on the left, press it to add the above link.

The Matters editor supports basic text formatting functions. Select the text field to be changed, and the text editing tool will appear.

It is strongly recommended that you add appropriate tags to your articles, which will help readers find your articles on the site and help search engines. For information on how to use tags, refer to the Matters Tags Guide .

After finishing the creation, press "Publish Work" and wait for a few seconds, your article will be published successfully!

You can also refer to the novice editor guide written by the user Reading Pen.

• How should I set the cover photo of the article?

We encourage creators to include suitable images in their articles, and the recommended size is 1600 x 900 pixels.

Find "Set Cover" on the right side of the editor, you can choose one of the pictures in the text as the cover, or you can upload another photo and set it as the cover. If you don't include a picture in the article, after the article is published, the cover will display the default picture from the Matters website.

If you want to change the cover, go to "Set Cover" to modify it.

• I want to upload an image in an article, what is the optimal size?

Content images can be displayed normally on different devices, and images of any size can be uploaded with confidence, but it is recommended that the rendering effect will be clearer if the width is greater than 686px, and there is no specific ratio for the height.

• I want to set a cover photo, what is the best size?

For the cover photo of a single article, the ideal size is 686x375, and the display size of the mobile version is a square 375x375.

The best size for the cover photo of the personal homepage is 686x322, and the best size for the mobile version is 686x206.75.

• Can an article be edited after publication?

In the past, articles could not be edited after Matters was published. From November 2020, all published articles can be edited! The scope of modification includes content and article management (including cover modification, related works, tag management and copyright management of works, etc.), and each article can be modified up to four times. Body text is limited to 50 characters per revision.

The revised new article will generate a new IPFS node; after the revision, the original content will be overwritten on the site. If you need to keep the old version, please back it up yourself. For more information, please refer to this announcement: <Matters can revise published works! >

• What is the associated function? How can I use it?

The association function is a function that facilitates authors to cite and link related articles. You can use this feature in the editor or on your own work details page to link your own or other people's works. Users can only modify the association of their own works, but cannot modify the association of other people's works.

There are many ways to use associations, from extended discussions, series themes, serials, columns to special curation, etc., all of which are good times to use associations. Adding appropriate associations will help expand the topic and help more people discover your articles.

• What are tags? How can I use it?

Tags are a way of categorizing articles. We encourage authors to add appropriate tags to articles and form unique topic groups.

You can organize your own works through tags to form your feature page; you can also use tags to collect works of other authors on the site to form a wonderful curated feature. The specific operation method is very simple, you can refer to this guide .

Reference examples: #Matters newcomer check-in , #Matters X LikeCoin's 100 ways to play , #我和我created tags , #马特市百科, #让爱发电计划, #我心的matties , etc. are all included Quite a wonderful article.

• What are some interesting ways to play tags?

Each tag can be set with a manager and collaborators, and there is a maximum of one manager and four collaborators who can manage tags together. See this for more instructions . If the tag has no owner, the user can claim the tag and become the manager of the tag after claiming it successfully.

• What is a fireplace?

Ailu is a small community in Matters that has subscription-based and community interaction functions. Authors can use Ailu to gather your readers and build a private club that connects you and your readers. The furnace is currently in internal testing. Authors who want to build a furnace please write to hi@matters.town. For more usage methods, please refer to the user guide of the furnace .

• What is IPFS and public nodes? What is it for?

IPFS is a distributed storage technology selected by Matters. Every content published on Matters, including text, pictures, and links, will be uploaded to IPFS, but comments below the article will not be uploaded. After the article is uploaded to IPFS, it is stored successfully.

The public node is the storage address of a work in the IPFS network, which can be regarded as a copy of the article. If readers cannot directly visit the Matters website due to various reasons, the author can copy the public node of the article and spread the content. If you want to query the IPFS node of an article, you can click on the "Distributed Entry" under the title of the article, or use the query tool developed by user Deserve .

• Can I delete articles? Can an article be retrieved after being hidden?

Works that have been successfully published on Matters will theoretically be stored on IPFS, and this version cannot be deleted or modified.

But you can decide whether this article will be displayed in Matters. If you want to hide an article, you can choose "Hidden in the site", and the work will be marked as hidden in your list, and only the author can see it. However, if someone else knows the public node of this article, he can still see the content through the node.

Please note that the action of hiding is irreversible, and once hidden, the article cannot be opened. You can republish if you want to make the content visible on the site.

• Will the comments I post on Matters also be saved to IPFS?

The "comment" of a work will not be uploaded to IPFS synchronously, but will only remain on the Matters website. Comments can be deleted and modified, and can also interact with other users in the form of @.

• Does Matters support markdown?

Matters currently does not support markdown. Some authors have reflected this requirement, and this function will be given priority when development resources are sufficient in the future.

• Can I bring articles published elsewhere into Matters?

sure! Matters has developed a "one-click move" function for creators. As long as the work is saved in HTML format, it can be uploaded to the draft box of the Matters account with the import function. It is especially recommended for Medium users.

If you are a WordPress user, you can also use the plug-in LikeCoin – Decentralized Publishing to synchronously publish the articles you publish in WordPress to Matters.

manage my creative income

• What revenue streams do I have at Matters?

You can receive USDT, HKD and LikeCoin through Matters. Before receiving USDT, you must first bind the Ethereum wallet. For details, please refer to the Matters Encrypted Wallet Guide .

• Where can I see my current earnings?

You can see the income currently held in "My Wallet" .

• How do I know how many LikeCoins I got?

If you want to check all the LikeCoins you hold, you can download the Liker Land app , or check them directly at https://like.co .

• How much LikeCoin is a clap worth? Why is a clap of appreciative citizens more valuable?

Please refer to the description of LikeCoin :

Creators get feedback from two parts: In addition to appreciating citizens’ entrusted returns, there is also a “creation fund” reward.
The creation fund comes from the LikeCoin community pool, and the amount refers to the sum of the entrusted rewards of the appreciating citizen nodes, and is apportioned according to the total Likes of the appreciating citizens, and is given back to creators. The larger the amount entrusted to the appreciative citizen node, the greater the influence on the creation fund. The Creation Fund will be distributed at about 12:00 GMT+8 every day.
Free Liker likes can also allow authors to receive a small amount of creative funding.

• What is Appreciating Citizenship?

Appreciating Citizenship is a monthly fee system launched by LikeCoin. It has been revised into "Appreciating Citizenship Web3" in March 2022. Use a wallet linked to a Liker ID to entrust at least 5,000 LIKE to the "Appreciating Citizen" node to obtain Appreciating Citizenship. At the same time, appreciative citizens stop supporting credit card payments. If you want to know more about appreciating citizens, you can read this introduction.

• How do I manage the LikeCoins I got in Matters?

If you want to withdraw, transfer, or pledge LikeCoin, please download the Liker Land app .

• Where can I check the exchange rate of LikeCoin?

You can check the exchange rate and trend of LikeCoin on CoinGecko.

• I want to withdraw the obtained LikeCoin, what should I do?

You can withdraw cash through the exchange, please refer to this instruction for related methods .

On the way to being a creator

• I want to leave a message to readers, what are the ways?

If you want to interact with readers, in addition to leaving a message in the article comment area, Matters also has a "support feedback" function. You can write a paragraph in the support column to appeal to readers to support you, or you can write a private message to your supporters after receiving support. Detailed usage guide can be found in this description .

• I am a creator and want to accumulate readers and income through Matters, what can I do?

We encourage authors to interact with more users and participate in the message discussion below the work. You can use the creative space station as a business card, share your personal homepage on personal social media such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and encourage your readers to sign up for Matters to applaud you, allowing you to accumulate more income.

Long-term cultivation is the only way to accumulate readers. Many of the creators budding at Matters have spent hours writing and interacting with readers.

• How can more people see my work?

An effective way to get more people to see your articles is to increase followers. According to statistics from Matters, a certain percentage of readers use the tracking function to regularly read the creator's articles. Therefore, we suggest that in addition to encouraging readers to clap for you, tracking is also a very important action.

In addition, in addition to personal social media, you can also share articles in the following places: Matters' Facebook creator community , Matters Discord (mainly web3 content) , so that articles can reach more readers who don't know you.

• I want to know my creation data, where can I find it?

Matters provides data services, and the author's relevant creative data will be sent to your mailbox every week . Authors who want to ask for it can just leave a message in the comment area of the article.

• I want to chat with other creators in real time, where can I find you?

If you want to start a discussion about Matters, you can post on Matters and @Matty . Discord is also an important hub for Matters users to discuss web3 content. You are welcome to join Discord and participate in various discussions .