The Capri Lounge: Rants and Raves from Rolling Stone's Editors

Newer Older Latest

Dispatches From the Intern Desk: Welcome to Guam

May 22, 2008 12:48 PM

Before starting my online internship at Rolling Stone, I thought that there was a magical program that popped all editorial content onto the website. Little did I know that for every article in the magazine, it takes a complicated series of modifications to tailor it for your viewing pleasure.

Take HTML formatting. You wouldn't think twice about the foreign characters in Beyoncé or Mötley Crüe's names, but it's my job to plug in the nerdy combos of ampersands and numbers that make them look pretty on the site.

Oh, and end dashes — you know, these kind — there's a formula for them, too.

Don't forget paragraph breaks. Assume the return key separates blocks of texts? Think again. And if you've ever read the Rock Daily blog and clicked on a link to an artist's page, it's because I went in and made sure that another window pops up when you do. (Yes, we actively make sure that your computer is cluttered with new windows).

I do all of these tasks in a room referred to as "Guam," because you might as well charter a flight to get from there to the editorial section in a timely manner. So what if I stare at a computer screen for 8 hours a day with the lights off? It thrills me to know that you can read The Hills cover story without any issues — even if it means getting Carpal Tunnel.


RS Intern
Newer Older Latest

2 Comments


have some cheese too | July 21, 2008 9:44 PM

Despite how stressful it may be for your precious non-carpal tunneled fingers to type <br> every once in a while, please remember that some people pump out real code for a living. So, stop complaining the one out of one thousand times when you need to add a &yacut e; or &yum l; and get back Guam.

Fellow Webmaster Kyle | May 27, 2008 12:05 PM

Ha! Welcome to the mundane, and aggrivating real world of operating a website that's updated daily. Ahh..if people only knew how hard making lines that seperate text accurately really was...

Leave a comment



Advertisement

Advertisement