Hacking Hacker Noon: Your Most Frequently Asked Questions Updated

19 Oct 2021

Heyo 👋 It is I, your friendly half-bot-half-human Hacker Noon Helper! You can find everything that I have to offer at help.hackernoon.com, but I will also be posting some of my most helpful tips here. Hope you enjoy this series, and please tune in every week for more 😊

General

Who Reads Hacker Noon?

Technologiests, software developers, bitcoiners, blockchain enthusiasts, startup founders, students, & generally awesome people.

Who Writes on Hacker Noon?

We have 15k+ writers and counting, contributing a total of 50k+ stories in total in our library.

Additional Resources:

What's Up with All of the Green?

The following is an excerpt from David's story here.

Novelist Maxwell Neely-Cohen called terminal green, “the color of a machine’s soul.” In the first computers, he accredits the use of green to not only be functional (it was easier to read and less blurry than white on black) but also because it solved a problem all creations have, economic restrictions: the green phosphor was cheaper. That’s how computers, and anything else innovative for that matter, gets made: it’s the venn overlap: better and affordable.

Hacker Noon Green: it’s an RGB of Zero Red, 255 Green, and Zero Blue. It’s ugly. It’s noticeable. It’s a work in progress. Like a code name for your coding project, to me, it is forever in iteration. There’s something about color that imprints into the brain what site you are on: Facebook blue is distinct from Twitter blue. But color is not and will not determine our success or failure.

Looking back, there are things that made Hacker Noon grow that I didn’t understand at the time, but I trusted the process and found a way to keep showing up to work, day after day and year after year. Hacker Noon grew because:

It is something that is new that you can say: an original colloquialism. In the media industry, this is a moat.
My background, and my team’s background, was in tech. What followed our pasts and interests was tech content and tech legitimacy.
Our business model, free content on a nonexclusive license, made the most sense for this industry. Tech professionals, unlike manufacturing or retail professionals, understand how to use the keyboard, and the value spending time to tell their own stories.

We as a society are only on the cusp of how the internet will shape our world. So when I think about about the future of the internet, it is the people in this room — the software developers — who will determine it. At Hacker Noon, we are as green as the pixels will allow, and through a process of intuition and iteration, we will work to amplify the stories of developers.

What is Time Reading?

Time reading, in its current form, is the total of all the hours, minutes, and seconds spent on your story pages, according to Google Analytics. We don't do anything fancy yet with regards to measuring engagement, like scrolling behavior, mouse tracking, "active" state detection or anything like that, but this also keeps the number simple and understandable.

Do You Allow Community Editors?

Right now, Hacker Noon runs on Staff Editors. In the future, we hope to create functionality for community editors to help Hacker Noon become an editorial line based on meritocracy. A community editor would be someone who could edit, publish and curate story submissions. For example, if they are an expert in blockchain, they could edit, publish, and curate stories related to blockchain.

P.S. If you'd like to contribute to the conversation about how the community editor functionality should work, start a thread in our community forum.

Why Are There No Followers On Hacker Noon?

“Followers” is a term popularized by social networks and cults. We are not a cult, or a social network. Functionally we are of the opinion that if you can not email your “follower” they are not your “follower.” On social networks like Twitter, users product content and the social network does not supply them the email address of their “follower.” Could you imagine being in a cult where you couldn’t email your leader?

At Hacker Noon, we offer the ability to subscribe to relevant content. By subscribing directly to tags on Hacker Noon, the reader does not rely on the social network to curate its content.

Is society ready for a world without followers? We don’t know. If you think we should have follow functionality/language on Hacker Noon, contact us.

How to Get Up to Date with Hacker Noon

We wrote an entire section about it here. Basically, just type Hacker Noon anywhere and we are probably there.

All About the Podcast

What's the Hacker Noon Podcast?

The Hacker Noon podcast is a new medium for hackers to start their afternoon.

Tune in every week for a discussion with the movers and shakers of the global tech community: industry insiders, executive members from Silicon Valley's hottest companies, and thought leaders on all things emergent in an ever changing tech world.

Where Can I Listen to the Podcast?

The Hacker Noon Podcast is available on:

Podcast.Hackernoon.com
iTunes
Google Podcast
Stitcher
Player.fm
Podcast Republic
PodTail
Podchaser
Castbox
Spotify

How Many People Listen to the Hacker Noon Podcast?

The podcast is growing, and each episode on average has about 1-2k downloads in the first few weeks.

We have 2.2k subscribers on Youtube, 19k fans on Facebook, and 5 star rating on Itunes :) Tune in every week to listen to movers & shakers of the world talking about everything tech!

How do I Sponsor the Podcast?

Thank you for your interest! We have many amazing sponsors on the Hacker Noon podcast, such as DigitalOcean, Indeed, & Datadog.

We are always looking for awesome sponsors who make awesome products/services & employ people worth publishing. Please fill out this form if you are interested.

As a campaign will likely be much more successful if amplified on different channels - why not check out our other sponsorship options besides the podcast here. You will surely be able to find something that works.

How Do I Become a Guest on the Podcast?

Thank you for your interest! We have many amazing guests on the Hacker Noon podcast, such as Christina Warren of Gizmodo, Mashable & currently Microsoft , David Sønstebø of IOTA, or Science Fiction author, and futurist Daniel Jeffries

We are always looking for awesome guests with an array of perspectives and experiences in tech. Please fill out this form if you are interested.

What is a Non-Exclusive License with Hacker Noon?

Contributing writers own their content on Hacker Noon. By submitting stories, contributors grant Hacker Noon the right to edit and distribute their content. Our goal is to publish contributors who need little editing, but after publishing 25k+ stories, we are confident our approach to editing, titling, tagging and publishing can improve the quality and distribution for most quality tech stories.

Additionally, contributors can remove their content at any time. Contributing writers are also welcome to republish their content wherever and whenever they see fit - we appreciate a mention and link back but it is completely optional.

For a more comprehensive answer, please read our full terms of service at hackernoon.com/terms

For Writers

Why Should I Publish on Hacker Noon?

Your stories deserve more distribution, and we are committed to publishing the best s*** for people in tech.

To date, we have helped identifying the best talent in tech journalism.

We live in the beautiful internet space between corporate blogs and the New York Times - providing tech professionals a raw destination for what is actually happening in the tech industry. By having a niche - technology - we will always have more focus than past contributor networks like Medium and the Huffington Post.

How Do I Get Published on Hacker Noon?

All you need to do is to go to hackernoon.com and hit

start writing

. Learn more via our Publish Page.

How Often Can I Submit Stories?

You can submit as many as you one for how as often as you one. We publish based on the quality of its content, not its quantity!

Can I Pay to Get Published?

No. A story will be judged by its own merit only, not by whether or not you pay us.

How Do I Add The Hacker Noon Special Effect to my Image

Take an unsplash or pixabay or one of your own photos, upload it to luna pic.
Select “Adjust” → “replace color” w/ 0,255,0 (rgb) and select area to make green.
Then do “Effect” → “Surreal.”Save.
Upload to Hacker Noon Editor.

How do I Write a Headline?

The truth is no one truly knows why a headline resonates or doesn’t. But we have learned a lot in publishing 25k stories. Everyone knows that the headline will change how a story is seen, summarized, framed and distributed. Here’s what we think matters in writing better headlines:

Language specificity: How does this story fit into the internet as a whole? H1 says that to machines. To humans, we want to be direct about they are clicking into. Specificity serves readers.
Technological significance: Technology is what we publish. Cover the rate of change. The TL;DR of how/what/when/why/who will naturally make a good headline.
Don’t fish: Easier said than done. Essays taught us to write hooks. Fishing. Social media taught to avoid bait. Phishing. When we change the way people click, we want it to be for the sake of tech education (progress matters), tech information (facts matter) and tech entertainment (fun matters).

Can I Send a Post I Have Already Published Elsewhere on Hacker Noon?

You certainly can. Just remember to include the canonical link under the field “first seen at”, so that search engines recognize who published the original story!

Should I Retitle My Republished Posts on Hacker Noon?

A few approaches to better retitling when republishing:

Re: Best phrase in the story. When you finish reading it, what is the phrase that sticks.
Re: Consider the new place. How can you relate to how this community reads, writes and functions?
Re: Have you made a shortlist of alternative titles? Have you considered 3 different options for each word?
Re: Just Cleaner. Can any words be eliminated? Consider capitalization. Perspective. And grammar.

Does Hacker Noon Offer Any Help to Improve my Writing?

We offer every writer editing help & feedback to improve your story from our dedicated Staff Editors. You can also ask for peer feedback in our community forum here.

It's Been 5+ Days Since I Submitted my Story, What Happened?

A lot of the time, our editors are overloaded with stories due to a large number of submissions per day, which is why the review may take longer than usual. You can always give them a little nudge by posting your request here.

How to Check on Status of Story Submission?

Please look out for emails! Within about a week, you will either receive:

some version of STOP EVERYTHING: You just got published on Hacker Noon!; or
Some version of Feedback: Your Latest Hacker Noon Submission

Why Aren't my Stories Published Yet?

There are many potential reasons your stories are not published yet. Before hitting that “angry tweet” mode on, please consider the following:

Did you get an email asking you to improve your story? Search your inbox for it. Review our guideline here as well as common red flags here.
If no email is found, please wait for at least 2 weeks. We aim for a turnaround of 7 days but sometimes, you know, life happens.
For stories that are overdue, contact us here and choose my story is not reviewed

Why Was my Story Rejected?

Your story may not comply with at least one guideline that our editors are using when reviewing.

Stories that are written from tech expertise or rare perspective.
Stories with high quality text and little to no errors.
Stories submitted by the content owner.
Stories that have disclosed vested interest (if there's any)Stories with no nudity, violence or hate (zero tolerance!).
Stories that are kind to your Internet friends

Learn more here.

How Do I Know if my Story Has Been Rejected?

You will receive an email stating why specifically. These are the 10 common reasons why a story was rejected, and their subject titles:

About your Hacker Noon submission: Editor Feedback
About your Hacker Noon submission: Low quality, not informative
Missing information on your BAA profile!
Lack of Readership Fit from Your Hacker Noon Submission
About Your (Branded) Hacker Noon Story
Oops - You are out of brand as author credits!
We Need Sources In your Most Recent Hacker Noon Submission!
Overly Promotional Content In Your Hacker Noon Submission
Grammar Issues with Your HackerNoon Story Submission
Your Hacker Noon submission: Plagiarism issues

Can I Have my Product Reviewed by Hacker Noon?

Yes: Hackernoon.com/contact.

See examples here.

Are Pseudonyms Allowed to Publish on Hacker Noon?

Yes. Pseudonyms have long accompanied writers. We value pseudonyms that publish high quality tech stories.

However, if the pseudonym is also a registered business, it is subject to a brand as author fee.

Above all else, publishing or not publishing on Hacker Noon is determining whether it is a high quality technology story.

Who Owns the Content on Hacker Noon?

By submitting stories, contributors grant Hacker Noon the right to edit and distribute their content. Our goal is to publish contributors who need little editing, but after publishing 25k+ stories, we are confident our approach to editing, titling, tagging and publishing can improve the quality and distribution for most quality tech stories.

For a more comprehensive answer, please read our full terms of service at hackernoon.com/terms

What Are Some of Your Criteria for Putting Stories on the Homepage?

It’s a combination of our editors’ taste and how much we can amplify the stories to the reader. Learn more here.

How Does Hacker Noon Distribute my Story?

We have an entire section for it!

What Can I Do to Get More Views for my Stories?

Write a better headline is always a good idea.

Include a feature image (in our story setting) that’s eye captivating helps too. You can “greenify” the image and make them look super Hacker Noon.

Check out our General Publishing Guideline here.

What Kind of Advertising or Call to Action Do You Allow?

For writers - anything and everything you can think of! Your customisable, prominently placed profile CTA (a nice new Hacker Noon 2.0 feature) can be used to drive your own newsletter subscribers, social media presence, a company/organization you believe in, or anything else. Go to your author profile page, click “writer ad”. You can embed a link, an email, and edit some text of choice. You can also use FontAwesome.com to get a nice icon too :)

How Can I Suggest an Edit to a Post That You Already Published?

No need to email us, just make the edits yourself. However, we do have quite stringent policy on backlinks, so make sure you don't do that!

Do You Publish Only in English? Can I Translate a Post to Another Language?

While it’s true that most of our stories are written in English - we would love to have them translated to other languages as well.

For Readers

Will Hacker Noon Put a Paywall on Any Story?

Never.

What is the Point of an Emoji Reaction?

Dane has a longer answer here. Basically, it's a low-effort way to show writers you like their articles while also providing some context to what specifically you like about it.

How Do I Subscribe to Writers?

Coming soon.

How do I Subscribe to Tags?

Glad you asked! Simply go to subscriptions and choose as many as you need.

How Can I Get the Most Out of Hacker Noon?

Outside of reading & browsing hackernoon.com, here are a few other things you can do:

Subscribe to our newsletters.
Join our community forum. We do really cool stuff like a weekly AMA with movers & shakers of the tech world.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, & any other social media channel by searching “hackernoon”.

Do I Need to Pay to Read Your Site?

No - Hacker Noon will forever be free for readers. We will never put any story behind a paywall.

How Can I Reach Your Authors?

Each writer will put their social bios for you to connect to them on their Hacker Noon author profile. Some might even put their email under their call-to-action too!

How Can I Contact You?

Hackernoon.com/contact

For Sponsors

Can a Company/Brand Publish on Hacker Noon?

Totally. Please refer to https://sponsor.hackernoon.com to learn more. To publish as a writer will always be free. To publish as a brand, you pay a small fee.

What is a "Brand as Author" ?

Originally published on sponsor.hackernoon.com

Overview

Stories are written by humans and the default Hacker Noon author bio is for a human. If you want the story to be authored by your business (accreditation, validation, logo on page), there is a fee for that (although, do take advantage of our 3 free credits to get you started).

There are exceptions to brand as author fees, such as pseudonyms (that are not also registered businesses), media company partners and technology nonprofits (pitch us at partners@hackernoon.com).

Learn more about our Accreditation as Advertisement Philosophy.

Who is a Brand As Author?

Businesses pay to publish on Hacker Noon. The author bio is prime real estate for 140 characters about the company, 5 social profile links and one very prominent call to action linked to anywhere sensical on the interwebs. Who qualifies as a brand:

Companies, organizations, and for profit associations writing about their products or services.
Stories with a Brand logo as profile picture.
Stories with a featured image that has a company logo/watermark.
Profiles that are connected to a Brand’s one or more social media accounts.

Check out full list of all Brands-as-author on Hacker Noon.

How Do You Create a Brand as Author Account?

Such stories need to perform the following steps to be considered for editorial review by our Editors

Create an account with the company name as the account handle
Add company name as the display name.
Add company logo as the profile pictureAdd company tagline as the profile bio.
Utilize the Writer Ad to link to a company asset (homepage, newsletter signup, ebook, software demo, whatever).
Purchase Brand As Author credits at BrandAsAuthor.com.

Once the Above Steps are Completed, the Brand Can:

Create a new draft at app.hackernoon.com/new.
Click on Submit Story for Review.
A tech editor will spend 10-30 minutes reviewing and improving your blog post within 3 business days.
If accepted for publication, you will receive an email with the live story link, and more information about it's curation and readership.
Visit your blogging dashboard to manage your story drafts.
Keep up to date on your content's performance via the stats page.
Purchase more credits at app.hackernoon.com/brand.

Couple #Protips for Improving Your Blog Post:

Choose up to 7 tags (terms to curate and rank the content).
Select or make a memorable featured image.
Write like your speaking to an intelligent colleague.
Tips on how to write headlines.

Closing Notes

Following the above steps is not a guarantee that your story will be published. Each story will go through editorial review and if there are some changes suggested by the editor, the contributing brand shall comply with it and/or provide a clarification. If the story is rejected (common reasons why), the brand will be eligible for a refund.

If the story is published, one credit will be deducted from the Brand's account. If the Brand does not have at least one credit in their account, the Editor will notify the Brand that at least 1 credit needs to be purchased to continue.

Storytelling is an ongoing battle. Consistent publishing will yield better readership. If brands buy 12 credits (monthly publishing), they get 25% discount per post, and if they buy 52 credits (weekly publishing), they get 50% discount per post. All credits last two years from the purchase date.

Additionally, an account manager will provide you will a custom monthly report about your story/stories impressions, engagements, rankings and readership.

Join our Brand as Author Program today.

Read more in Accreditation as Advertisement. You can also speak with us about the Brand as Program by emailing Partners@HackerNoon.com.

Something We Didn't Cover?
Email us at yes-reply@hackernoon.com