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title: Hacker Public Radio FAQ (draft) [% date.format(date.now,"%F") %]
subtitle: A collection of questions and answers with links to the HPR site
author: HPR Contributors
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[% about = "http://hackerpublicradio.org/about.php" -%]
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# Hacker Public Radio FAQ [% date.format(date.now,"%F") %] {.unnumbered}

## What is Hacker Public Radio?

- Hacker Public Radio (HPR) is an Internet Radio show (podcast) that releases
  shows (episodes) every weekday Monday through Friday.

- What differentiates HPR from other podcasts is that the shows are crowd
  sourced from the community &mdash; fellow listeners like you. There is no
  restriction on how long shows can be, nor on the topic you can cover, as long
  as they are not spam and "are of interest to Hackers".

  If you want to see what topics have been covered so far just have a look at
  our [Archive]([% index %]). We also allow for shows to be grouped into
  [series]([% series %]) so that hosts can go into more detail on a topic.

- Look at the [*About HPR*]([% about %]) page for a full description of *The HPR
  Community*, *Free Culture*, *Governance* and our *Patrons*.

- A question on the mailing list in 2020 asked if HPR is a Content Publication
  Network like YouTube, or is it a Podcast that random people contribute to? Or
  to put it another way, is the host addressing the Internet in general or the
  HPR Audience?
    - The consensus of opinion is that HPR is a Podcast contributed to by the
      community, not a Content Publication Network.

## What is a show?

- A show is your *audio* presentation (which we do not moderate), with an *intro*,
  *outro*, a *title* and a *summary*.

- The *audio* is the recording you have made and sent in to HPR.

- The *intro* (introduction) is a piece of audio introducing the show. See
  [*HPR Theme Music*]([% theme %]) for details. The components are:
    - a synopsis taken from the details submitted with the show (added
      automatically)
    - acknowledgement of our hosting provider (added automatically)
    - HPR introduction music, can be added automatically or by you

- The *outro* is added automatically, but you can add it yourself if you
  want. It must contain the HPR outro music and the text you will find on the
  [*HPR Theme Music*]([% theme %]) page.

- Each show needs a *title* to describe what it is about.

- Similarly, a *summary* helps to add more information describing the show so a
  potential listener can decide whether to listen to it or not.

- Each show is expected to have certain mandatory attributes listed
  [below][What are the mandatory elements of an HPR show?].

- HPR shows are usually expected to be informative or educational, and as such
  some sort of accompanying written material is highly desirable. This might
  consist of brief notes, links to relevant web sites, or possibly longer
  notes and examples. Photographs, diagrams and example files are also welcome
  if the host feels it helps to get the message across.

- Shows are released under a [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
  Unported]([% ccbysa %]) license. See [*Stuff you need to know*]([%
  needtoknow %]) for much more detail about this and related issues.

- As a contributor you can choose when your show will be released. We only
  release one show a day, during week days, but if a slot is free you can claim it.
  Go to the [*calendar*]([% calendar %]) page to do this. You need to have
  your show ready to upload before you reserve a slot though.

## Can I submit a show made for another podcast?

- Strictly, no. Shows are expected to have been made exclusively for HPR.

- However, we support promoting new podcasts and other creative commons
  material. If you record a show of your own in which you introduce the other
  podcast, perhaps explaining why it is important, and giving links to the
  feed, you may include an example episode.

- A series exists [*Podcast recommendations*]([% podrec %]), which can be used
  for such shows.

## What defines a show as being "*Produced for Hacker Public Radio*"?

- If you create material and post it first on HPR then it meets the
  requirements of "*being produced for HPR*". That means once you upload it to
  the HPR server you can publish it anywhere else you like.

## What are the mandatory elements of an HPR show?

- See [*Picking a slot for your show*]([% reqslot %]) for the full details of
  how to submit a show and what information is required.

- A quick summary of the main components is:
    - A show title
    - A summary of what the show is about
    - The *explicit*/*clean* flag
    - License
    - Show notes
    - Tags
    - Audio

## What are tags?

- We are trying to maintain a collection of tags to allow people to find shows
  on the same (or similar) topic.

- Tags are simple words or short phrases describing aspects of a show such as
  what topics are covered in it. To get hints about what tags have already
  been used you can view all the current tags in alphabetical order on this
  page: [Tag summary]([% tags %])

- Some examples are: <b>android</b>, <b>creative commons</b> and
  <b>gaming</b>.

- Are there any tags that are best avoided?

## Is it OK if I don't include notes with my show?

- **Please don't do that**. It is important to provide good show notes for
  reasons described on the [*Picking a slot for your show*]([% reqslot %])
  page:
    - They provide the listeners with more information on the topic your show
      is covering
    - They ensure your show gets posted on time (the volunteers don't have to
      make notes for you)
    - They encourage people to download your show
    - They allow your show to be indexed by search engines
    - They make your show accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing

## How do I include photographs or other files with my show?

- TBA

## What is and is not edited in a show after submission?

- We don't listen to the audio before posting a show to the website, so we
  don't change the content.

- Unless you have done so and told us you have, we add an introduction to the
  audio announcing what it is. Similarly we add an *outro*. This is not
  <u>editing</u> since we don't change the content.

- We may make changes to the show title, summary or tags. Usually these are
  minor changes such as spelling corrections. The intention is not any sort of
  censorship, merely to make these items more understandable or easier to
  index.

- Depending on the form the show notes take we may modify these.
    - If what is submitted is plain text we convert it to Markdown in order to
      generate HTML.
    - If the notes are one of the permitted markup formats (mostly Markdown
      flavours) we may adjust this to ensure that valid HTML is generated.
    - If the notes are HTML we run them through an HTML checker and correct
      any mistakes it highlights.
    - We may correct spelling, grammar and punctuation if this clarifies
      anything which might otherwise be unclear.
    - If despite the request for show notes of some kind, none are provided,
      we may add notes which help to clarify the content of the show. This may
      be done after the show is released (when we have had a chance to listen
      to it).

- We are working on the production of reports about any changes made, which
  will be sent to the host after we have processed the show.

- We may make changes to a show's metadata if the host requests it (see the
  item on [fixing errors after upload][If I notice an error in my show's
  details how can it be fixed?]).

- If a show contains links to resources which disappear after a period of
  time, we may at some future time change the notes to refer to any *Wayback
  Machine* copy that can be found.

## What are some common errors in show notes?

It depends on the note format to some extent:

### HTML notes

- It's very easy to hand-write bad HTML. That's why we use an HTML checker on
  it, and fix the errors it reports.

- A common fault is to write `<code><pre>` to define a pre-formatted block
  of text using a fixed-width font. However it's illegal because the `<pre>`
  tag can't be enclosed in other tags like `<code>`. Use `<pre><code>`
  instead.

### Markdown notes

- This is quite a forgiving format. Some people embed HTML in the Markdown,
  and the HTML used suffers from some of the issues discussed in this
  document. These are *much* harder to spot. The HTML checker can't really
  help unless it's run on the output from Pandoc.

### General errors

- Spelling is often an issue in notes. As the notes are processed they are
  edited in the Vim editor with the spell check option turned on. In most
  cases spelling problems flagged by Vim are corrected.

- Grammar and punctuation can also be issues. We do not have very effective
  grammar checking tools in the note preparation workflow. Modifications may
  be made to split up extra-long (often *comma-spliced*) sentences,
  rationalise the use of capital letters and similar.

## If I notice an error in my show's details how can it be fixed?

- The HPR administrators can make changes to show titles, summaries, notes and
  so forth. Ideally send an email to `admin` at `hackerpublicradio.org`
  explaining what the problem is and we'll fix it for you. We'll also ensure
  that the changes are propagated to the relevant page on archive.org.

- Don't be tempted to send in your corrections as a comment. Comments are not
  propagated to archive.org, so people referring to that copy will not see
  the changes.

## Does `hobbypublicradio.com` have anything to do with HPR?

- Some environments prevent access to sites which use the word `'hacker'` or
  `'hackers'` in their names (or content in extreme cases). The site names
  `hobbypublicradio.{com,net,org}` have been created, which link to the main
  HPR site, in order to get around this restriction.

- See the mailing list thread here:
  <http://hackerpublicradio.org/pipermail/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org/2015-February/013267.html>

## How can I talk to other HPR hosts and listeners?

- You have a number of choices:
    - The mailing list <hpr@hackerpublicradio.org> is where various policy
      matters are discussed and announcements made. You need to be a member of
      the list to post to it. Visit the [*listinfo page*]([% maillist %]) to
      sign up.
    - You can join the **#oggcastplanet** channel on IRC. Visit the
      [freenode.net]([% freenode %]) network to sign up.
    - A number of HPR messages may be found on Twitter (tag **#hpr**) and
      Mastodon (tag **#hpr**).
    - **TBA - Matrix? Telegram?**
    - An HPR tradition exists where we record a 26-hour show at the turn of
      the year celebrating the arrival of the New Year around the world. We
      use Mumble to record the show and anyone can connect to the Mumble
      server and speak to other HPR listeners and hosts. The recording is used
      to make multiple shows which are released when they are ready.

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