Why Create Local

How local? Think local as in street block local, neighborhood local, out your window local. But why create a local news atlas? Local is where you live, work and play. Local is where your friends are. Local is where you can have an impact. We live local. We eat local. We work local. We politic local. It is like creating a website just for your own backyard.

Local Features and Places

With 2 million ready made locations in the United States, the first step is just register and edit those places that you know right next to you. This is not just a list of cities, but a comprehenive list of just about every place, feature and geographic location. Pick a place you know and put the 'name' and 'state' in the Search Global box. See what you find. If you are on a local page, then use the title/tag search to find what you want. The just open and edit.

Creating Local

Creating a local web is a simple as three easy steps: Pen, Tag and Pin

1. Pen: Write a title and description.
2. Tag: Tag your content with words and phrases.
3. Pin: Pin your content on a map

Pen

All content needs a Title and a Descriptions (body). You can keep the description as simple as a few lines of text, make it look nice using our web editor or copy and paste full html. Each content type has different additional requirements, for instance Events require Start and End times and dates.

Tag

To help keep things organized we ask you to Tag your content with one or more words or phrases. What you use here is pretty much up to you. We do provide a host of tools that help you keep your Tags similar to other Tags, but these are tools are just for your convenience and are kept optional. Setting a Directory:If you wish, you may select a Directory for your content. This automatically organizes itself at the bottom of every page of nearby content. Selecting a Directory is optional.

Pin

Pin your content on a map. The simplest way to start this is to provide a Zip Code (Postal Code), which is at this point required. You may use a Full Address, Zip Code and Country and Clicking on the Map to pinpoint the location of your content. Don't worry about the details, like latitude and longitude. We take care of that fancy geo-spatial-wizbang stuff behind the scenes, where is should be.

What to Create?

Now that is really up to you. FatAtlas provides you with a ton of cool web tools to help you along. So let's start with some basics. Think of these as building blocks. Each of these building blocks are standalone types of content.

Wikis

Wikis are community editable pages. This means that a wiki has more than one author. See How to create a local Wiki.

Posting

Postings are short term annoucements, like a classified advertisement or quick event notice. See How to create a local Posting.

Gigs

Gigs are short term projects. Like Classified Ads, these postings are temporary. See How to post a local Gig.

Links

Links are URLs (web links) pointed to things of local interest on the web. See How to create a local Link.

Events

Events is something with a start and end date. See How to create a local Event.

Polls

Polls allow you to see what others think. See How to create a local ThinPoll (survey).

Mix it Up

Mixing it Up means taking these core building blocks and creating something amazing. For instance, create a neighborhood association, local newspaper or local social media hotspot. More to come...