N4G Additional Submission Guidelines

The following guidelines involve specific rules for certain types of content on N4G as well as how duplicates, plagiarism, content theft, and similar items are handled.

As always, if you disagree with the failing of a submission for any reason, you may submit a ticket from here: http://n4g.com/tickets/add/... . N4G will no longer handle submissions issues outside of N4G via Twitter, Facebook, or similar external methods other than N4G private messages and tickets.

.: Submission Relevance
Certain submissions may not be deemed relevant as news for N4G. Please use the following examples as a basis for how relevance is determined:

a) general tech news of devices utilized for more than just gaming, such as TVs, non-gaming focused laptops and PCs, VR devices not aimed at just gaming, AR devices not aimed at just gaming, cell phones, and business news about the companies who create such technology are not always relevant to N4G; Submissions of this nature are best suited for our sister site, http://www.techspy.com

b) movie, TV show, or book updates on video game-based material is not generally allowed, though we do allow initial news of such things happening to be submitted as it is 'of interest' but should not be a focus on N4G; Submissions of the movie or TV show nature are best suited for our sister site, http://www.filmwatch.com

c) a generic tweet or single response interview item from an industry professional may not be relevant if it provides no new information, is an opinion about and not news on hardware, or is a generic response without any specifications as to how something may or may not be handled;

d) a submission detailing that a game which is not a limited run version, such as collector's or limited-edition releases, is up for pre-order is not relevant as this is just standard for games shortly after being announced;

e) a submission about a petition on a game is very rarely relevant as petitions can be started by anyone for any reasons;

f) submissions about users taking a poll are only relevant if the poll was made by a developer, publisher, or similar company and not petitions from social network sites, twitter, or gaming news sites (even then, we don't allow direct linking to polls, only news about them);

g) submission that present stats from a storefront, such as Amazon, Steam, or similar sources are not relevant;

h) submissions that roundup or recap news already reported are not relevant and are considered duplicate news, this includes review roundups and Metacritic postings;

.: Spam and Self-Promotion Content
N4G does not allow any content that self-promotes a service or product, such as specific video game apps or gaming gear. We do not allow news about updates to a site, contests sites are running that are not sponsored by a developer or publisher, or similar content. Self-promotion includes having ads or links on other pages of the site that would self-promote a service or product.

N4G does allow game deal submissions but will fail any that are deemed to be less informative, minor in detail or purpose, and more about spamming affiliate links or the like that would generate revenue for the site in question. We also only accept links to official promotions from a platform that links directly to an official store page promoting the sale and not a news site listing each item in the sale.

Sites deemed to be made solely to advertise such things will be banned and prevented from submitting content altogether.

.: Duplicate News
A submission is considered to be duplicate news when the primary topic being reported has been covered by a previous submission. Typically the first submission to be made is considered the first of a submission and following submissions posting the same or very similar content will be failed as a duplicate of the first submission. In some cases, such as placeholders, fast news events like E3, or a submission of notably low quality, a moderator may choose to approve a submission that was posted after the first submission instead and fail the first one.

Having a submission identified as being a duplicate does not mean that N4G believes you have copied content from another source, only that the news being reported has already been provided first by another source or that the additional content you may include does not warrant its own submission. In the instance that a duplicate is failed, an alternative source linking to the source can be added to the first submission of the news.

The identification of what submission is first is determined by the submission ID in the URL of the submission and not the time stamp since time stamps can change.

.: Previously Failed Submissions
No submission should be resubmitted once failed. If you feel a submission was incorrectly failed, then contact the moderator staff about the submission from http://n4g.com/tickets/add/... .

.: Placeholder Submissions
Any submission created before the news is available and updated once made public or updated after the initial submission in a way that would prevent others from posting the same content at the time it was made available is considered a placeholder submission and will be failed when found. Examples of this include updating an old submission still in pending to post breaking news on a whole new topic to make it look like it is first based on the submission ID or adding a trailer that was released after the initial news of a new game release that wasn't originally in the submission to begin with.

As placeholder submissions are a direct attempt to block the ability for others to report news on a topic, it is uncommon that a restriction does not get applied to the contributor who uses a placeholder.

.: Story-Within-a-Story Submissions
At times, certain portions of stories can get overlooked when the original source is of a lengthy nature and covers a lot of material. This is most often seen in interviews. To account for this, N4G allows some leeway by allowing story-within-a-story (SWAS) submissions. The following are the requirements for a SWAS submission:

a) only text-based interviews of a substantial length (more than 1,000 characters of interview text on a single page or spanning multiple pages), video-based interviews lasting more than 5 minutes, or video-based presentations lasting longer than 5 minutes are allowed to have SWAS submissions based upon them, any other type of content is not allowed regardless of length;

b) the original source from which the SWAS is derived must be submitted and approved for at least six hours prior to submitting a SWAS submission;

c) the content of the SWAS submission must highlight something relevant and meaningful to the video game community;

c) the content of the SWAS submission must highlight something that is hidden within the original source, meaning not something highlighted in the title, highlighted by large-text quotes or easily found near the beginning or end of the source (last part not applicable to video content);

d) the content of the SWAS submission must not cherry-pick multiple topic items from the same source as a means to copy a 'good portion' of the original content onto their own site;

e) only one SWAS is allowed per original source content by a single site;

f) the N4G moderation staff may, at any time, declare that multiple SWAS from the same source have run their course and are no longer allowed;

.: Multiple Tweet Submissions
Sometimes a single tweet or post may not be enough to cover the whole topic presented on Twitter (or similar source). In these instances we allow sites to submit the news from their site where they chain together the various posts and add any necessary clarification to them. This is only allowed when the multiple tweets are relevant to one another and can not be utilized to chain multiple tweets from a single source but having no necessary connection to one other.

.: Rumor Submissions
Looking to maintain a balance between allowing rumor news and to prevent the typical rampant spread of false rumors, N4G has the following rules regarding rumors:

a) rumors are not allowed from anonymous sources unless the rumor is based on a photo or image;

b) spoken or written word rumors must come from a credible source with a history of being an insider in the industry or the like and not from any random Internet user;

c) video or image-based rumors that look easily faked are not allowed;

d) speculation is not a rumor and is not allowed, what someone 'thinks' is an opinion and not a statement that something will happen;

.: Click-bait Content
While N4G wants to give people their space to share opinions, sometimes harsh or unpopular ones, it is in the best interest of N4G to attempt to prevent sites from taking advantage of current discussions or sore topics to encourage fanboy arguments and trolling rather than constructive debates among our users.

Content submitted with the intent to mislead, hyperbolize, or otherwise use language or images to rile up discussion between community fans or similar groups may be failed at any time. Click-bait may come in the form of a misleading title, inflammatory summary, or the provocative use of images.

.: Industry Professional vs Non-Industry Professional
For all intents and purposes, N4G defines an industry professional as someone who is a video game developer and/or a video game publisher or similar position in the industry, such as professional analysts. N4G does not consider journalists, streamers, cosplayers or the like as industry professionals when it comes to reporting news for N4G. This means that their personal lives outside of their job as a journalist, streamer, cosplay, or the like is not allowed as news or interviews on N4G. We recognize their position in the industry in which they reside, but the focus on N4G is on the video game industry and not those who generally report on or entertain based on the industry. Furthermore, we do not consider all comments from industry professionals to be relevant to video games. N4G does not need to know the thoughts a developer or publisher has about a movie or the like.

.: Professional Gaming News Site/Channel vs Personal
As the video game news industry itself has grown alongside the video game industry and the Internet has given everyone the ability to have a voice on the latest gaming news, N4G has a need of determining what sources are considered professional and what are considered personal. This designation is only pertinent to the submitting of opinion-based content, such as opinion pieces, reviews, previews, and rumors. Personal sites are still able to post news, interviews, and similar content without any issue.

While we know many would consider their content to be professional in nature, these are some of the items that N4G looks at when determining whether a source is professional or personal:

a) domain ownership/credibility;

b) quality of content provided compared to other sites;

c) age of site/channel and activity of site/channel;

d) type of content provided on a regular basis;

e) number of persons associated with the site/channel and actively participating (prioritizing actual people rather than 'staff' postings);

Social Issue Submissions
N4G recognizes that social issues affect every part of our lives as well as gaming. While we recognize this, it is important that N4G remains about video game news and not a place for social issues to be argued back and forth between journalists or similar persons. In light of this desire, N4G has the following policy about social issue submissions:

a) social issues covers racism, sexism, LGBTQ rights, religious rights, and similar topics;

b) social issue submissions will only be allowed if the submission directly involves a developer or publisher, whether individually or as a company;

c) social issue submissions from an individual developer or publisher must be about how the specified social issue is or has impacted their job directly and is not just a personal opinion on a social issue;

d) submissions about organizations or people associated with an organization that is not directly related to industry professionals and is focused on one or more social Issues are not allowed, even if the individual associated with it is a developer or publisher;

Please note that opinion pieces about the quality and efficacy of gaming journalists and sites as it relates to how they review games or present content is still allowed as long as it is not about a social issue.

.: Plagiarism and/or Content Theft
Any instance of a site copying the content of their submission from another site, utilizing images or videos without proper citation, or even modifying images or videos to remove the watermarks of the original source will face a site ban. Site bans of this nature last for a minimum of 3 months. After that time a site may request a review of their site. If upon review the banned site is found to be free of plagiarized or stolen content, the ban will be lifted. Any further issues with plagiarism or content theft from a single site will result in a permanent ban. Attempts to circumvent the ban will result in a permanent ban.

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This page was last updated on 2/15/2023

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