Basic:

    Once you've got germ pointed at the right directory, it knows it's own
    name and you've changed the dat directory's permissions to 770 things
    are pretty simple.
    
    To write a post, create a file in your favorite text editor.  The
    first line should be the entry's title, unless you are using tags,
    then defer it to the second line and see below.  Next hit
    return twice to leave a gap between your title and your entry and then
    type away.  Limit your lines to 65 columns.  This way terminal
    based clients like lynx and gopher can view your gopherlog.
    Links can be over 70 columns. 
    
    One tip to help you when posting indented text or source code, be sure
    to convert any tabs your text may contain into spaces. Lines starting
    with <TAB> characters don't get displayed as inline text by the
    gopher server.
    
To use tags:
    
    
    The first line can be a list of comma-separated tags, which get
    parsed and converted to a link that when clicked, will display all
    posts containing that tag. The format looks like this:
    
    #Tags Linux,Sysadmin,Tips
    
    this will also work:
    
    #tags Sysadmin, Tips and Tricks,linux
    
    The space after the '#Tags' and before the list of tags is mandatory.
    Tags are not case-sensitive, so "Linux" and "linux" link to the same tag.
    Spaces around the commas get stripped. Spaces within tags are allowed, 
    but punctuation is not.
    
    Tags are also currently allowed in the second line of the post to 
    maintain compatability with germ 2.0's tag system.  Placing tags on the
    second line is deprecated and may not be supported in future releases.
    Whether you place the tag on the first or second line will not affect 
    the appearance of your gopherlog.  Tags on any other lines will be 
    treated as normal text.
    
To shorten posts:
    
    You can also shorten your post, by adding this text on a line by
    itself somewhere in your post:

    --more--
    
    On the index, archive, and tag pages, anything after this line is not
    displayed. This will cut down on the size of the main index page once
    you fill it with a lot of posts.
    
To use links:

    Germ will do its best to detect lines with gophermap-style links, and
    display them as-is (rather than as inline-text). The server and port
    are required. Here is an example:
    
    0germ.cgi<TAB>/users/slugmax/code/germ-0.2.cgi<TAB>sdf.lonestar.org<TAB>70
    9germ-0.2.tgz<TAB>/users/slugmax/code/germ-0.2.tgz<TAB>sdf.lonestar.org<TAB>70

    Where "<TAB>" is the tab character, not spaces.  It doesn't work with 
    spaces.

To save and publish your post:

    When you're done, save your entry in your dat directory with a format
    like this FILENAME.post.  If it doesn't end in ".post", germ ignores
    it and your post languishes.  Make sure it's readable.  A quick "chmod
    644 FILENAME.post" can do that for you (You can change this extension
    - see the INSTALL document for an explanation, or just change the
    $post_ext variable).
    
    After that, you're done.  Germ handles the dating, displaying, and
    archiving of your posts.  It also handles the creation, maitanence,
    and dating of your comment files, stored in "FILENAME.post.cmt".

To customize:

    To customize your header or divider, simply edit the header.txt or
    div.txt file in your dat directory.
    
    You can also customize the text that goes in the link to your individual
    posts and the text displayed when you shorten a post by editing the 
    variables $permalink_text and $more_text respectively which are in 
    Configurable Variables in the script's header.  These texts are generated 
    dynamically so it will change for all posts, old and new.  
    
    You can also customize the divider between comments, and the divider 
    between posts and tags by editing the variable $cmt_div.  Once you 
    have recieved comments, changing this is inadvisable, as it will
    ruin comment counts.