When I founded VTDigger in 2009, my original concept for the site included a component called “Tipster,” which I envisioned as a way to give readers more opportunities to shape the news.
Though we often receive emails and phone calls from readers, we know not everyone wants to take the time to pitch a story idea, suggest tips, send us material or ask for a correction.
We wanted to make it easy for readers to get involved in the digging.
Over the last four weeks, we have unveiled Tipster 2.0, a new set of features on VTDigger that give readers more opportunities to share information.
Tip Drop is a short form you can use to give us information and story ideas. The tips go directly to the editors at VTDigger. Submitting your name and contact information is optional if you want to keep your identity under wraps.
With Hot Docs you can upload PDFs of memos, legal documents, letters and other documents to our site. Editors then put the material in our archive on Document Cloud.
Document Cloud is our archive of original source material. This repository includes everything from official government reports to emails, lawsuits and memos. Readers can search the archive and download material.
Report an Error is a form at the bottom of each story that readers can use to tell us about mistakes, errors and clarifications. We want to get the facts right, and we appreciate readers who tell us when we get it wrong. This summer we will be publishing the corrections in a separate news feed. For the time being, corrections appear at the end of stories.
Want to know what’s happening or want to promote your event? Check out our Calendar or post your event on our site.
VTDigger is reaching out to readers through Facebook and Twitter with questions, polls, the backstory on issues and cool links. We are using both platforms as a place for sharing ideas with readers and generating interest in our stories. We hope you’ll follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.
Tipster 2.0 is part II of our Tipster project, which was funded by J-Lab at American University and with matching funds from local donors. We are grateful for the unflagging support of Jan Schaffer, the executive director of J-Lab.
Our first attempt — which was a separate site that included an elaborate forum — failed. The site was hacked repeatedly and we had no way of preventing the intrusions. Eventually, we abandoned the site.
We resurrected the concept with Tipster 2.0 and integrated the best features of the first iteration into VTDigger.
Tipster 2.0 offers a wider array of options for you to get involved in the newsgathering process. We hope you’ll find it useful and as much a part of the VTDigger experience as our successful commenting section.
