Punknews.org FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

This is the big question.

On some days we have up to and over 100 news articles waiting to be posted. On an average day we only have 30-40 waiting. We try to get the big interest news out first. This includes signings, break-ups, new members, injuries, tour dates, new album announcements etc. Things like links to new websites or mp3s go on the backburner.

We try to get confirmation on big news before we post it, so we’ll hold articles in the queue as we wait for a band or label to confirm it. We also tend to hold smaller news stories (links, mp3s etc) and combine them into larger stories weekly.

Of course we make mistakes and on occasion loose a piece of news that we wanted to keep, but chances are it was one of four things A) a thinly veiled advertisement, B) a moronic rant, C) you did something to piss everyone off or D) we're swamped.

A) Anything along the lines of “The new album from [insert band name here] is out now! Get it at Interpunk for only 7 dollars! Woo!” is not news. Send something in a few months prior to the release about the recording process or the band’s plans. Obviously every mention of a band gets their name out, but we have to draw an editorial line somewhere.

B) Once or twice a week we get a hastily written, barely comprehensible rant. It’s usually something like “Hey Punx whats with all you fuckers and selling out the scene with your black hoodie wearing patriotism that piss all over the memory of the hard working rockers in the streets which is why can’t we all have unity in the sceen and quit listening to the fucking emo pussies.” We can’t post that stuff, mainly because it has no point. By all means get a blog and rant your head off. Better yet, start a band.

C) HEY GUESS WHATS ANNOYING? TYPING IN CAPS. WE WONT POST YOUR SHIT IF IT DOSEN'T MAKE APPROPRIATE USE OF BOTH CASES OF LETTERS, DOUCHEBAG. You better have some damn earth shattering news to motivate us to re-type everything you wrote.

Also, do NOT submit your article every few hours until it gets posted. We did see it the first time. Each subsequent time we see it the urge to kill rises.

D) Sometimes we're just so busy and there are so many news articles waiting that we can't get everything posted. We don't want to post an article than have it pushed into the archives an hour later so noone ever sees it. The physical constraints of the page sometimes make it so that we have to make choices.

If you’ve only wrote a single sentence (and it isn’t a link to your source material, which is cool) then you’ve probably submitted too little information. If you’re reporting on a smaller band, please provide us with a hometown. Provide links to both the band’s website and your source material. Unless your news really intrigues us we won’t waste our time searching every obscure corner of the net for confirmation or more info.

A good indicator is to look at the articles on the front page. If your article doesn’t at least provide as much information, it’ll likely sit in the queue for a while.

That depends. If it’s a slow news day then we’re more likely to do so than on a day with a lot of “important” content. We usually only post links for zines or punk related websites that we actually read and would recommend to our readers. Even then, we only post the links if there is a significant amount of new content on those sites like exclusive interviews or other things that may be of interest.

We tried hosting a database driven links section, but the amount of people who actually read it was very low.

Probably not, it's not news. Your potential street team members will already be fans of your band/label and will in all likelihood visit your website anyways.

See the answer to 2.4. If its a really slow news day or a really amazing contest than perhaps, but I wouldn't rely on us to get it up in time because thats a very low-priority news item.

The best way to get your record added to the release schedule is to send an email to our release schedule maintainer. Drop him a line at hein@punkupdates.com. Be sure to tell him how much he rocks for putting it together each and every month.