Validation is described simply as a way for the staff of HPFF to ensure that improper content does not enter our site. Some members, through inexperience or ignorance or even malice try to publish content that is inappropriate or that does not follow our rules, the Terms of Service (ToS). A chapter that is being reviewed by the staff that is not yet viewable to the public is said to be "in validation".
What happens to a new/edited chapter
When you submit a new chapter or when you make changes to an existing one, the chapter immediately enters the "queue". The queue is a holding area viewable only to staff where your chapter waits in a chronological order (in the order it was submitted) until a member of staff (called a "validator") reads and approves it. As soon as your chapter is validated, it will appear on the
archive and be viewable to the public.
Check the status
To check the status of your chapter:
1. Log into your account in the Archive.
2. Click on Your Account
3. Click on Manage Your Stories
All of your stories/chapters will appear. On the far right, a status column will appear, giving the status for each. One of 3 messages will be there:
1. Waiting - this means the chapter is in the queue, waiting for validation. It is not viewable to the public.
2. Validated - this means the chapter has been validated/approved, and is now viewable to the public in the Archive.
3. Not Approved - this means the chapter has been reviewed by the staff and rejected. Click on the words "Not Approved" and you will be given a message from the staff member who rejected your chapter, giving the reasons for its rejection.Â
How long it takes
The time it takes a chapter to be validated can last anywhere from 24 hours to 10
days. This is because our site is a popular one, and we can receive anywhere from 200 to 400 new/edited chapters A DAY. The staff of validators are all volunteers, and will make every attempt to validate your chapter in a timely manner, but certain times of the year are busier than others. Please have patience at this stage.
Occasionally, our queue can get so big that it exceeds the 10 day waiting period. At that time, the administrators of HPFF may decide to close the queue temporarily to allow the staff time to catch up. This only occurs rarely.
Important! If you have a chapter "in the queue" and you further edit it, your chapter will go to the "back" of the queue, meaning it will move to the back of the chronological line. It is very important that you have your chapter finished and checked BEFORE submitting it!
What is checked
The Staff will check your story title, story summary, chapter summary, rating, warnings, chapter title, banner/chapter images, as well as the content of your chapter. All of these will be checked against our ToS, so it is vitally important that you understand and adhere to these rules BEFORE you submit a chapter.
Not Approved/Rejection
If your chapter is not approved or rejected, please remain calm! Read your validator's rejection note carefully to determine the reason for the rejection. The reasons could be quite small (needing an additional warning added to the story) and easily fixed. Reasons why your chapter might be rejected can be found in the Site Rules. If you have questions or do not understand why your chapter was rejected, please contact a member of staff using the Trouble Tickets.
If your chapter is rejected, it will NOT be deleted. Rejected chapters remain in your account, but are only visible to you and members of the staff. Rejected chapters will always have an attached rejection note from the validator who handled your chapter. Usually, your rejection note will include a link to the specific rules in the Terms of Service that your story violates. Please read these notes and revise your chapter accordingly. If you do not understand the rejection note, please contact the staff using the Trouble Tickets, email or message system, and be sure to include your penname and the title and chapter of the story.
Editing a Chapter
Once you have made the necessary changes to your chapter, you will need to re-submit it to our queue. To do this:
1. Log into your account in the Archive.
2. Click on Your Account
3. Click on Manage Your Stories
4. Locate the chapter you wish to edit; click on the word Edit next to that chapter name.
5. Edit your chapter.
6. Locate the checkbox at the bottom of the page, asking if the chapter is ready to be re-submitted to the queue.
Important! Your chapter will not be resubmitted and your changes will not be made unless you check this box! Once you have checked this box and re-submitted your chapter, it returns to the bottom of the Queue and awaits validation.
It is very important to always read the rejection notes and make the appropriate changes to your story before resubmitting. If you continue to resubmit a chapter without making the requested changes, your account may be suspended and your story may be deleted.
After your chapter is published and viewable
After your chapter has been validated, you might want to make edits to correct a typo or change a sub-plot. This is perfectly okay; authors are allowed to make changes to their stories. HOWEVER, edits made to chapters must also go through the queue for approval. But the neat thing is.... while your new and improved chapter sits waiting in the queue, your OLD chapter will still remain viewable to the public. You will not lose readers if you have submitted an edited chapter to the queue.
Also, all of the reviews from the older version of your chapter will automatically transform to your new, improved version. Follow the instructions above for submitting an edited chapter to the queue.