Table of Contents
How to blog with HuffPost UK
HuffPost User Accounts
HuffPost Comment Moderation
HuffPost Social News
HuffPost Badges
If you want to pitch a potential post, you can reach the blog team on ukblogteam@huffpost.com Below are some guidelines to have a look through before submitting a piece.
How to write the best blog
- Bloggers can submit a blog on a topic of your choosing, but we ask and encourage all bloggers to write on subjects they have personal experience of or demonstrable expertise in. Always ask: why does the HuffPost audience needs to hear this from me, and why now?
- We want to offer readers trusted, authoritative voices on the topics that matter to them, so please do consider whether the subject you’re blogging on will be relevant to HuffPost’s audience before you submit.
- If in doubt, we would recommend that you have a scan of huffpost.co.uk/blogs before you submit a post to make sure you’re blogging around a subject we know our readers will care about.
- As a HuffPost blogger, you’ll have the ability to submit blog posts as and when you like. It could be as often as once a week (our recommended max), once a month, or once a year - whenever you feel like you have something important and authoritative to say.
- Our experience shows that blogs that are passionately written, relating to a personal experience or to the news agenda resonate best with our readers. Always ask yourself: why should the HuffPost audience read this now?
- Make sure your language is engaging, persuasive and written for a wide audience. Blogs must be in the first person, and be opinion-led, persuasive and geared toward a UK audience.
- Editorially, bar typos, house style or legal issues, we will not edit your argument or point. We will, with your permission, change your title for SEO or clarity reasons. We recommend pieces are between 500-800 words, and please do bear in mind that we expect you to submit a post as you would be happy to see it live.
- We will aim to publish either within 24 hours of submission or when we feel your post will be most likely to capture our readers, but please bear in mind we do not work evenings and on weekends. With a small team and thousands of bloggers able to contribute to HuffPost, sometimes it can take longer during busy times and news events.
- If you already blog elsewhere, you are more than welcome to cross-post with us at the same time as you publish yours online or a few days later, and you can link straight back to your site at the bottom saying it first appeared there. We will not cross-post pieces that are old or no longer relevant to our readers.
- We encourage bloggers to embed photos and video within your posts but please make sure you have permission from the copyright holder and credit any images, else your post will be declined.
What won’t we publish?
- Anything too niche, too introspective or diary-like or that are airing personal business that won’t be of relevance to wider readers.
- We do not accept interviews, straight travel reviews or reviews of locations, activities, products, films, music or events. We will, however, accept blogs that critique pieces of media and talk about the wider social issues raised.
- We won’t accept anything from bloggers that endorses a product or reads like a publicity post. We will ban bloggers who breach this guideline.
- As bloggers are not employees or representatives of HuffPost, we will ban bloggers who use the HuffPost name to obtain access to events, people or products.
- We retain the right not to publish pieces that fall below our quality expectations or that we, in our experience, know there won’t be an audience for.
Q: Why do I need to create an account on HuffPost UK?
A: In order to post a comment you need to create a username and password and log into the site.
Q: Where is the login page?
A: You can login here: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/users/login
Q: Where can I create an account?
A: At the very top of every page there is a Your Account link next to the date. You can also go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/users/login/
Q: I can't remember my username/password! What can I do?
A: You can retrieve your password by going to: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/users/forgot
Q: Where can I add/edit my biography?
A: On the preferences page: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/users/preferences
Q: Where can I change my screen name?
A: You cannot change your screen name once you have registered. Every email address has to be associated with one screen name. You are welcome to register a new screen name with another email account.
Q: Where can I change my password?
A: On the preferences page: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/users/preferences
Q: Where can I sign up for the Daily Brief?
A: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/signup
Q: What is the HuffPost UK's Comment Policy?
A: Community and Commenting Guiding Principles
The AOL properties have a thriving user community and actively encourages commenting
on news stories and blog posts. We are dedicated to this community and strive to maintain
a respectful, engaging and informative conversation. Towards that end, we have general
guidelines for commenting. If you wish to participate in the community, we ask that you follow the guidelines below and the spirit of the community they seek to create.
(I) If your comments consistently or intentionally make this community a less civil and enjoyable place to be, you and your comments will be excluded from it.
AOL promotes a receptive, transparent and civil atmosphere for comments and
users. Critical, in-depth and intelligent discussions and debates are encouraged and the best of
these are highlighted in various ways.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to voice their opinion regardless of identity, politics,
ideology, religion or agreement with other community members, the author of the post or staff
members as long as those opinions are respectful and constructively add to the conversation.
However, this community does not tolerate direct or indirect attacks, name-calling or insults, defamatory statements, nor does it tolerate intentional attempts to derail, hijack, troll or bait others into an emotional response. These types of comments may be removed from the community where warranted. Individuals who consistently or intentionally post these types of comments will be warned and, if necessary, excluded from the community. By submitting a comment to any of the AOL properties, you shall be the primary publisher and you will remain liable for your comments at all times.
(II) Many comments are pre-moderated.
To maintain a civil atmosphere, our moderation team may read comments before they are
displayed to other users. If this is the case, you may see your comment pending approval.
Approval times can vary depending on the site-wide comment load, so please be patient -- we
will get to all comments as quickly as possible.
(III) The community monitors itself - and you can help!
Every member of this community has the power and responsibility to help elevate the level of
conversation and remove the trolls who would degrade it. On every comment, you can "Fan
and Favorite" (F&F) users who are posting great content, or flag a comment for review by a
moderator. Taking these simple actions helps bring great content to the top and removes bad
content quickly.
(IV) Be yourself, only yourself, and just one of yourself.
Every person's opinion is valuable and unique. Pretending to be someone else removes that
unique value from you or from others. Don't misrepresent yourself or others, spread mis-
information, create multiple accounts or "astroturf". If you do, you will make the community a
less enjoyable and valuable place to be and will be removed when we see it.
(V) This community is a safe space.
We strongly believe that HuffPost UK should be a safe space for individuals, groups
and their ideas. As such, violent and hostile language or calls for violence and hostility are
not welcome here. If you directly or indirectly threaten the physical or mental well being of a
member of this community, or an individual or group who is the subject of an article, you will
be removed immediately. If a credible threat is made against an individual or group, not only
will it be removed but it is likely that it will be reported to law enforcement agencies and we will
cooperate with them to any extent requested.
Personal identifiable information should never be posted to HuffPost UK comments
section. It never turns out well for anyone.
If you see any threats, harassment or personal information trolling please report it quickly.
(VI) If you have comments, we are here and we have real people who read and reply.
If you have complaints, questions, concerns, or just feedback - positive or critical - please get in touch with us here.
Please note if you have a problem opening any of the links in this document, you may send your question, complaint or concern to us via email to: community-support@huffingtonpost.com.
Q: I posted a comment. Why can't I see it on the site?
Your comment violated the policy above. We pride ourselves in providing a medium for engaging and thought-provoking stories and encourage our users to speak their minds freely, provided comments fall within our commenting policy. We must respect our writers and act on reports of comments that are vicious and inflammatory. They too are entitled to share their opinions without being subject to scathing and mean-spirited remarks.
Q: Why am I blocked from commenting on HuffPost?
A: There are a few scenarios under a comment might be blocked:
1. A comment is extremely abusive, off-topic, uses excessive foul language, or includes a personal attack against another person.
2. If a commenter has previously posted comments that are abusive, off-topic, used excessive foul language, or includes a personal attack against another, we may decide to ban the commenter's IP address. This means the abusive commenter is banned from commenting on the site in the future, even if the later comments are not abusive.
Q: Can I include HTML in my comments?
A: We remove all html from comments to preserve formatting consistency.
Q: If you don't allow any HTML, how can I include a link in my comment?
A: If you include a URL in your comment, it will be converted to a link. Please note, comments containing links to personal blogs and other inappropriate sites may be deleted. Only links to relevant news stories or sites are acceptable.
Q: There is a comment that I find insulting and in violation of your policy. What can I do?
A: You can flag the comment that doesn't comply with our policy by pressing the Flag As Abusive link below the comment. This will then flag the comment to our moderators for review.