How do I register for the site or sign up for the newsletter?
Just pick your username of choice and fill in the registration form. Requests for new accounts are not approved automatically, but should be approved by a moderator within 24 hours.

I've registered, but my confirmation e-mail hasn't arrived.
It's likely to have been caught up in a junk mail filter somewhere between leaving us and getting to you. This is especially an issue with some of the larger ISPs (Blueyonder, we're talking about you). So check your spam settings, or try a different e-mail address. If you still don't have any luck, get in touch and we'll sort it out.

OK. I'm in. How does this work?
You can now leave comments on other people's posts, or write your own. Click on the 'Create Content' link in the first of the two right-hand columns. From here you can start writing your own blog. Anything you write will appear on your own blog page, and on the main community page at www.wordmagazine.co.uk/blog (alongside everyone else's entries), while the very best will also be promoted to the Word Magazine homepage.

Are there any posting guidelines?
Yes, and we'd be grateful if you adhered to them. "Wordiquette" keeps this website a pleasant environment to inhabit.

People who ignore these guidelines run the risk of having posts removed and, after repeated instances, their accounts blocked.

Can I use my blog to plug my new record/book/podcast/website etc., or to link to a cause or campaign I support?
No. This isn't because we don't like your new record/book/podcast etc., but because we don't want the site to become cluttered with people using it for self-promotion, and it's easiest to have a rule that we can apply across the board rather than judging everything on a case-by-case basis. As for causes and campaigns, there will be far more effective - and therefore appropriate - places to post your message. Thanks for your understanding.

So it's against the rules to link to your own site (including blogs, YouTube accounts, Flickr accounts, etc.) or to a site that you contribute to substantially, or have a financial interest in, or to one owned by a friend or family member. People who do this run the risk of having the posts removed, and in extreme instances, their accounts banned. If you want to advertise on the site, please contact us.

Are there any exceptions to this?
Yes. You're welcome to post a link to your site on your profile page, and it's OK to self-link in response to a post by another Word reader, but only if it's relevant to the original post.

Do I need to know geeky code stuff?
Not at all. Links to websites are turned into clickable things automatically, and you can embed YouTube videos by either using the "embed" code they give you on each video page, or simply by pasting the Youtube video page URL into your post. This latter technique will not work with other video websites, but most will make the embedding code available. Videos should be no more than 590px wide.

How do I add an image to my post?
Ideally, you should first find somewhere to host your own images - it is considered bad etiquette to embed images found on other peoples' websites (this practice is known as "leaching"). Lots of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) give you some web space as part of the deal, so that's worth checking out. The other option is to find somebody on the web willing to host your pictures for free. There are a few options out there, including http://photobucket.com/, http://imgur.com/ and http://www.imageshack.us/ - Imgur is probably the most straightforward.

Once you've uploaded your image to the image-hosting service you've selected, or if you're using an image hosted elsewhere on the web, you need to get the URL (address) of the file. It will look something like http://www.foo.com/image.jpg. Most image-hosting services will automatically generate the code you need to copy to embed the image on another site - look out for an "embed" option - and copy the code they show you into your post on the Word blog. If not, it's easy to generate the code yourself:

PC:

Mac:

Now just add the address of the image into the field where you write your post or comment on the Word site. You will need to surround the address of the image with a little bit of HTML code, like this:

<img src="http://www.foo.com/image.jpg">

Use the preview button to make sure your image has appeared and looks OK.

Remember:

Do you offer RSS feeds?
Yes. We offer feeds for the homepage, the blog, all comments, and for each individual blog entry. Here's a video made by reader VincePacket, which is a guide to using our feeds with Google Reader.

What does 'HJH' stand for?
Why, it's those cheeky mop-tops, the 'Hey Jude Hitmakers' themselves, a.k.a. The Beatles

What are the arrows for?
The arrows are a convenient shorthand for "I like this". Click the arrow if you like an original post, or if you think a comment adds significantly to the debate that follows. The number reflects the number of fellow readers who have done so.

You mean that's it?
Yes. Simple, isn't it? It's likely that we'll be making changes to this page as time passes and we learn more about how things work and what you want, however, so it's worth checking back from time to time.

Hold on a sec, you haven't answered my question!
You can reach us via the contact page if you have another query or have a bug to report.