$ cat content-guidelines.md
Content guidelines
What we publish, what we turn down, and how review works. Read it before you submit.
What we publish
Hands-on articles for experienced engineers. Topics we want most:
- Laravel features, packages and upgrades
- Testing with Pest and PHPUnit
- Livewire, Inertia and Filament
- Queues, caching and database performance
- Deploying and running Laravel: Forge, Vapor, Cloud and your own servers
- Security and modern PHP
- How teams build and ship Laravel apps
What we turn down
These are the usual reasons we decline an article:
- Too basic for experienced engineers, unless it has an angle we have not seen
- Mainly promotes a product or service
- Comparisons without hands-on use
- Opinion without technical backing
- Deprecated tools or out-of-date advice
- Missing steps, untested code or technical mistakes
- A topic already well covered, with nothing new to add
Length and structure
Aim for 800 to 2,000 words. Open with the problem, work through the solution in order, and end with what the reader should take away. Break it up with headings and lists.
Accuracy
Test every command and code sample before you send it. Name the versions of the tools you used. If a diagram would help, describe it in the text and we can add it.
Tone
Write for a peer: direct, practical and plain. Explain what is new without talking down. Keep the promotion out; a link to your project at the end is fine.
Formatting
Write the article in Markdown:
- ## and ### for headings
- Fenced code blocks (```) for code, with the language after the fence
- - or 1. for lists
- [text](https://…) for links
Review and publishing
We reply within 5 to 7 business days, either accepting it, asking for changes or declining it. Accepted articles usually go live within 2 to 3 weeks. We choose the category, header image and search description, and we may edit for length and clarity.
The fee
Each submission costs $20. You pay by card on Stripe right after you submit, and we review the article once it is paid. The fee pays for the editorial review, so it is not refunded if we decline the article.
Rights
By submitting, you confirm that:
- You own the content, or have the right to republish it
- Third-party code, quotes and images are credited
- LaraChat may publish and promote the article