1.a.i. Verified Writers

Verified writers have the ability to publish directly to the HackerNoon site without going through our editorial team. They are honored on the HackerNoon platform with a green verified checkmark next to their username.

We give these writers the ability to bypass the second human rule, only because they’ve gone through our editorial process many times and have consistently written publishable and outstanding content. They have effectively gone through our second human rule countless times and have gained the trust of our editorial team.

Verified writers are longtime contributors, writers who have completed our Hackership program, or are alumni of our blogging fellowship.

While verified writers have the option to publish directly to the site, they can of course still take advantage of our free editing service and submit the story to our team of seasoned editors.

Our editorial team also routinely go through the content published by our verified writers to make sure all guidelines are followed.

Editing Protocol Index:

1. Editing Protocol Overview

   1. Second Human Rule

      1. Verified Writers

   2. Time to Review

2. Standards of Quality

   1. Originality Score
   2. 6 Ws Score
   3. Objectivity in ranked listicles
   4. Unranked listicles
   5. Actionable advice

3. Red Flags

   1. Subject Matter

      1. Subject matter saturation

   2. Plagiarism

   3. Sources and Citations

   4. Formatting is bad or broken

   5. Grammar level: gibberish

   6. Story is Too Short

4. Backlink Rules & Guidelines

   1. Backlink Limits

   2. Backlink quality and diversity

      1. Diversity of sources
      2. Internal linking
      3. Changing links

   3. Reposting and Canonical Linking

      1. Canonical links to company domain
      2. Canonical links to blog networks or social networks