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  <header>
    <p class="index-link"><a href="/contribute.html#TOP">↑ Go to top</a></p>
    <h1 id="faq">Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
  </header>

<h2 data-number="0.2" id="what-is-a-show"><span class="header-section-number">0.2</span> What is a show?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><p>A show is your <em>audio</em> presentation (which we do not moderate), 
    with an <em>intro</em>, <em>outro</em>, a <em>title</em> and a <em>summary</em>.</p></li>
  <li><p>The <em>audio</em> is the recording you have made and sent in to HPR.</p></li>
  <li><p>The <em>intro</em> (introduction) is a piece of audio introducing the show. The components are:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>a synopsis taken from the details submitted with the show (added automatically)</li>
      <li>acknowledgement of our hosting provider (added automatically)</li>
      <li>HPR introduction music (added automatically)</li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><p>The <em>outro</em> is added automatically. It contains the HPR outro music.</p></li>
    <li><p>Each show needs a <em>title</em> to describe what it is about.</p></li>
    <li><p>Similarly, a <em>summary</em> helps to add more information describing the show so a potential listener 
      can decide whether to listen to it or not.</p></li>
    <li><p>Each show is expected to have certain mandatory attributes listed 
      <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl,'contribute.html#what-are-the-mandatory-elements-of-an-hpr-show') %-->">below</a>.</p></li>
    <li><p>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.</p></li>
    <li><p>Shows are released under a <a href="">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported</a> license. 
      See <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl,'contribute.html#stuff_you_need_to_know') %-->"><em>Stuff you need to know</em></a> 
      for much more detail about this and related issues.</p></li>
    <li><p>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 <a href="<!--% hub_baseurl %-->calendar.php"><em>calendar</em></a> 
      page to do this. You need to have your show ready to upload before you reserve a slot though.</p></li>
</ul>

<h2 data-number="0.4" id="what-defines-a-show-as-being-produced-for-hacker-public-radio"><span class="header-section-number">0.4</span> 
  What defines a show as being "<em>Produced for Hacker Public Radio</em>"?</h2>
<ul>
  <li>If you create material and post it first on HPR then it meets the requirements of "<em>being produced for HPR</em>". 
    That means once you upload it to the HPR server you can publish it anywhere else you like.</li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.5" id="what-are-the-mandatory-elements-of-an-hpr-show"><span class="header-section-number">0.5</span> 
  What are the mandatory elements of an HPR show?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><p>See <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl,'contribute.html#requesting_slot') %-->"><em>Picking a slot for your show</em></a> 
    for the full details of how to submit a show and what information is required.</p></li>
  <li><p>A quick summary of the main components is:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>A show title</li>
      <li>A summary of what the show is about</li>
      <li>The <em>explicit</em>/<em>clean</em> flag</li>
      <li>License</li>
      <li>Show notes</li>
      <li>Tags</li>
      <li>Audio</li>
    </ul></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.6" id="what-are-tags"><span class="header-section-number">0.6</span> What are tags?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><p>We are trying to maintain a collection of tags to allow people to find shows on the same (or similar) topic.</p></li>
  <li><p>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: 
    <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl) %-->tags.html">Tag summary</a></p></li>
  <li><p>Some examples are: <b>android</b>, <b>creative commons</b> and <b>gaming</b>.</p></li>
  <li><p>Are there any tags that are best avoided?</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.7" id="is-it-ok-if-i-dont-include-notes-with-my-show') %-->"><span class="header-section-number">0.7</span> 
  Is it OK if I don't include notes with my show?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><strong>Please don't do that</strong>. It is important to provide good show notes for reasons described on the 
    <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl,'contribute.html#requesting_slot') %-->"><em>Picking a slot for your show</em></a> page:
    <ul>
      <li>They provide the listeners with more information on the topic your show is covering</li>
      <li>They ensure your show gets posted on time (the volunteers don't have to make notes for you)</li>
      <li>They encourage people to download your show</li>
      <li>They allow your show to be indexed by search engines</li>
      <li>They make your show accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing</li>
    </ul></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.8" id="how-do-i-include-photographs-or-other-files-with-my-show"><span class="header-section-number">0.8</span> 
  How do I include photographs or other files with my show?</h2>
<ul>
  <li>TBA</li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.9" id="what-is-and-is-not-edited-in-a-show-after-submission"><span class="header-section-number">0.9</span> 
  What is and is not edited in a show after submission?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><p>We don't listen to the audio before posting a show to the website, so we don't change the content.</p></li>
  <li><p>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 <em>outro</em>. This is not <u>editing</u> since we don't change the content.</p></li>
  <li><p>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.</p></li>
  <li><p>Depending on the form the show notes take we may modify these.</p>
    <ul>
      <li>If what is submitted is plain text we convert it to Markdown in order to generate HTML.</li>
      <li>If the notes are one of the permitted markup formats (mostly Markdown flavours) we may adjust this to ensure 
        that valid HTML is generated.</li>
      <li>If the notes are HTML we run them through an HTML checker and correct any mistakes it highlights.</li>
      <li>We may correct spelling, grammar and punctuation if this clarifies anything which might otherwise be unclear.</li>
      <li>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).</li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><p>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.</p></li>
    <li><p>We may make changes to a show's metadata if the host requests it (see the item on 
      <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl,'contribute.html#if-i-notice-an-error-in-my-shows-details-how-can-it-be-fixed') %-->">
        fixing errors after upload</a>).</p></li>
    <li><p>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 <em>Wayback Machine</em> copy that can be found.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.10" id="what-are-some-common-errors-in-show-notes"><span class="header-section-number">0.10</span> 
  What are some common errors in show notes?</h2>
<p>It depends on the note format to some extent:</p>
<h3 data-number="0.10.1" id="html-notes"><span class="header-section-number">0.10.1</span> HTML notes</h3>
<ul>
  <li><p>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.</p></li>
  <li><p>A common fault is to write <code>&lt;code&gt;&lt;pre&gt;</code> to define a pre-formatted block of text using a fixed-width font. 
    However it's illegal because the <code>&lt;pre&gt;</code> tag can't be enclosed in other tags like 
    <code>&lt;code&gt;</code>. Use <code>&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;</code> instead.</p></li>
</ul>
<h3 data-number="0.10.2" id="markdown-notes"><span class="header-section-number">0.10.2</span> Markdown notes</h3>
<ul>
  <li>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 <em>much</em> harder to spot. The HTML checker can't 
    really help unless it's run on the output from Pandoc.</li>
</ul>
<h3 data-number="0.10.3" id="general-errors"><span class="header-section-number">0.10.3</span> General errors</h3>
<ul>
  <li><p>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.</p></li>
  <li><p>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 <em>comma-spliced</em>) sentences, 
    rationalise the use of capital letters and similar.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.11" id="if-i-notice-an-error-in-my-shows-details-how-can-it-be-fixed"><span class="header-section-number">0.11</span> 
  If I notice an error in my show's details how can it be fixed?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><p>The HPR administrators can make changes to show titles, summaries, notes and so forth. Ideally send an 
    email to <code>admin</code> at <code><!--% make_sfw(is_sfw, "hobby", "hacker") %-->publicradio.org</code> 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.</p></li>
  <li><p>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.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.12" id="does-hobbypublicradio.com-have-anything-to-do-with-hpr"><span class="header-section-number">0.12</span> 
  Does <code>hobbypublicradio.com</code> have anything to do with HPR?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><p>Some environments prevent access to sites which use the word <code>'hacker'</code> or <code>'hackers'</code> 
    in their names (or content in extreme cases). The site names <code>hobbypublicradio.{com,net,org}</code> have been created, 
    which link to the main HPR site, in order to get around this restriction.</p></li>
  <li><p>See the mailing list thread here: 
    <a href="https://lists.hackerpublicradio.com/pipermail/hpr/2015-February/002493.html" class="uri">
      https://lists.hackerpublicradio.com/pipermail/hpr/2015-February/002493.html</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h2 data-number="0.13" id="how-can-i-talk-to-other-hpr-hosts-and-listeners"><span class="header-section-number">0.13</span> 
  How can I talk to other HPR hosts and listeners?</h2>
<ul>
  <li>You have a number of choices:
    <ul>
      <li>The mailing list <a href="mailto:hpr@hackerpublicradio.org" class="email">hpr@hackerpublicradio.org</a> 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 <a href="<!--% absolute_url(baseurl,'/maillist') %-->" ><em>listinfo page</em></a> to sign up.</li>
      <li>You can join the <strong>#oggcastplanet</strong> channel on IRC. 
        Visit the <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=oggcastplanet">freenode.net</a> network to sign up.</li>
      <li>A number of HPR messages may be found on Twitter and 
        <a href="https://infosec.exchange/@hpr">Mastodon</a>.</li>
      <li>There is a <a href="https://t.me/+6fEhQrf5IEc4ZGU8">chat group on Telegram</a></li>
      <li>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.</li>
    </ul></li>
</ul>

