Ram Gopal Siddh
Ram Gopal Siddh Ram Gopal Siddh

How to Create a Blog Post for the Community Blog

How to Create a Blog Post for the Community Blog

Welcome to the BangPypers Community Blog! This guide will walk you through the process of creating and publishing your own blog post.

Getting Started

The Community Blog uses GitHub and Jekyll to publish content. All blog posts are written in Markdown format and stored in the _posts/community/ directory of our repository. This is separate from the main blog posts in _posts/, which are typically written by core organizers.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Blog Post

1. Fork the Repository

First, fork the BangPypers repository from our GitHub page to your own account. This allows you to make changes without affecting the main content.

2. Create a New File

Create a new Markdown file in the _posts/community/ directory with the following naming convention:

YYYY-MM-DD-post-title.md

Example: 2025-02-21-my-first-post.md

3. Add Front Matter

Every blog post must start with YAML front matter that looks like this:

---
layout: post
title: "Your Blog Post Title"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
authors: 
  - your-username
categories: [ community, python, tutorial ]
description: "A brief description of your blog post (appears in previews)."
featured: false
---
  • title: The title of your blog post
  • date: Publication date in YYYY-MM-DD format
  • authors: List your author handle (add yourself in _authors/ directory if new)
  • categories: Relevant tags for your post (available: community, python, tutorial, workshop etc.)
  • description: A short summary for social sharing
  • featured: Set to true to highlight your post on the homepage
  • image: Optional URL to a featured image for social sharing

Author Registration

If you’re a new author, create a profile in the _authors/ directory. Create a file named your-username.md with YAML front matter like:

---
username: your-username
name: "Your Full Name"
logo: https://example.com/avatar.jpg
email: your-email@example.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/yourhandle
web: https://yourwebsite.com
description: "A short bio about yourself."
---

This profile will appear with your posts. ```

4. Write Your Content

Use Markdown formatting to write your blog post. Here are some useful formatting tips:

5. Preview Your Post Locally

Before submitting, preview your post to ensure it renders correctly:

  1. Install Jekyll and dependencies: bundle install
  2. Run the site locally: bundle exec jekyll serve
  3. Open http://localhost:4000 to view your post
  4. Check formatting, links, and images

6. Submit Your Post

Once your post is ready:

  1. Commit your changes to your fork
  2. Create a pull request to the main repository with a clear title.
  3. Our team will review your post.
  4. Reviewers check for: adherence to guidelines, quality, relevance, and technical accuracy
  5. If changes are requested, update your PR accordingly
  6. Once approved, it will be published to the community blog

Content Guidelines

  • Posts should be Python or community-related
  • Be respectful and follow our Code of Conduct
  • Avoid promotional or overly commercial content
  • Attribution is important—cite your sources
  • Posts should be original or properly attributed if previously published elsewhere

Need Help?

If you have questions about creating a blog post, feel free to:

Troubleshooting

  • Jekyll won’t build? Ensure you have Ruby and Bundler installed. Run bundle install to install dependencies.
  • Images not appearing? Check the URL is correct and accessible. For local images, ensure they’re in the right path.
  • Front matter errors? Validate your YAML syntax—use a YAML validator online.
  • Post not showing? Check the date is not in the future and hidden is false.

We look forward to your contributions!