FAQ

What is ARNK?

A publication about the travel industry, and a place for the people in it to talk. We publish notes through the day, a brief that rounds up the week, and opinions, ours and readers'. The name is a GDS term for the part of an itinerary the ticket does not record. About has the longer version.

What is the difference between a post, a brief, and an opinion?

A post is a short note: a title, a summary, and usually a link. It is what fills the front page, and what readers submit. A brief is the weekly roundup, composed from the posts and opinions of the week and sent by email on Friday mornings to readers who subscribe. An opinion is a stated point of view, ours or a reader's. Briefs and opinions each have their own archive and their own RSS feed.

How do I sign in?

With a link sent to your email address. There is no password to remember. The first time you sign in you choose a handle, which is your public name on the site and the address of your profile.

How do I submit a post?

Sign in and choose Submit in the header. A post is a title, an optional link, and an optional body; it needs at least one of the link and the body. Say what happened in the title rather than what you think of it.

How do I format a post?

The body is Markdown: a blank line between paragraphs, asterisks for emphasis, square brackets and parentheses for a link, and so on. The formatting guide shows every construct the site renders, with the source and the result side by side. Comments are plain text and take no formatting.

What are the rules?

The guidelines: what to submit, how to comment, and what moderation does. They are short, and they are the whole of it. The terms are the legal version.

Why has my post not appeared yet?

Every submission is read by a person before it is published, and the person decides whether it is a note or an opinion. That review is the point of the site rather than a delay on the way to it, so a post appears once someone has looked at it. A moderator may also edit a title for clarity.

Why has my comment not appeared yet?

A comment is held until it has been reviewed, rather than appearing and being taken down later. It appears once it has been cleared.

How does voting work?

Signed in, the arrow beside a post or a comment casts one vote. One account casts one vote on a thing, and a second click takes it back. The front page ranks posts by their votes with a half-life, so what is voted up stays longer and everything falls off in time. Briefs are not ranked; they are the roundup of what was.

How do I get the brief by email?

Sign in, then press Subscribe on Briefs or in Settings. The brief arrives on Friday mornings with the week's most engaging notes, Friday through Thursday. Every issue carries an unsubscribe link that works without signing in, and Settings turns it off too.

How are notes chosen for the brief?

By what readers did with them, adjusted for how long each has been out: votes, comments, visits, and clicks through to the source, so a note posted on Thursday is not outrun by one that had all week. Early on, when there is little of that to go on, an editor's judgment carries more weight. The selection also leans away from three notes on the same company, so a busy story does not take over the issue. An editor reviews every brief before it goes out.

What are farmed aura points?

The votes on your published posts plus the votes on your visible comments, shown on your profile as Farmed Aura Points. They are computed from the votes as they stand, so they move when the votes do.

What does the $$ after a source mean?

The source charges a subscription to read what the headline links to. The mark is a claim about the publication, not about the one page: a paywalled source that puts something out free still carries it.

Why is a reader's name green?

They joined in the last thirty days. It is the only thing the color means, and it goes away on its own.

Who sponsors the site?

One sponsor a week: a name, a line of copy, a link and a logo. Sponsor has the offer and the rate.

What do you collect about me?

Page views and a short list of named events, with the query you searched for and the text you wrote never among them. Privacy lists all of it.

How do I get in touch?

Tips, corrections and disagreements all go to hello@arnk.net.