Trusted Authorship has been a big question around here since the Holiday Queue Closure began and, since I had a few spare moments, I thought I would take a second to give our members a bit of a crash course in Trusted Authorship.

You can find the subject refered to all over our forums, and the most common place to turn to answers is a section of our Site Rules document - here. Now, there are a lot of answers there, and they shouldn't be overlooked, but here are a few more.

What is A Trusted Author?
A trusted author is an author who has attained something called "trusted status." Approximately 1/10th of the authors on HPFF are trusted** Trusted Author are often refered to as "TA's."

What is Trusted Status?
Trusted status means that your stories no longer have to go through the validation queue. When you wish to update a chapter, a staff member will no longer have to look the chapter over - instead, it will bypass the queue and become immediately visible to passing site members to read and review.

Why aren't all authors Trusted?
Our site has many members and many fewer staff members. It is the job of the staff to verify that the content site members post is appropriate for the site. If it's not, it is the job of the staff to remove it as soon as possible. New authors to the site, authors that don't post to the site often or authors that frequently deal with subject matters and ratings that are on the borderline can be difficult for the staff to assess and, for that reason, their stories need to be managed but the queue validation system.

What do I need to do to become Trusted?
The only way to achieve TA status is to simply keep writing. Keep updating your stories, keep adding those chapters and keep striving to become a better author. If you stay up to date with the Terms of Service and consistently show that you are an author who understands our rules and will abide by them, you'll make it there - we promise.

What about the Points System I've heard about?
Back in April of 2006, the site underwent a major recoding that is still on going today. One of the modifications made was to add a system to help us better manage authors and ensure that people who submit infrequently aren't lost in the cracks. It's the human tendancy to remember names we see a lot or things that were particularly outstanding (good or bad) - often, authors who only submit updates every month might have been missed by the staff because we simply didn't see their names very often.

The points system works thus - when a chapter enters the validation queue, a staff member reviews it as normal. If the chapter is approved, before the staff member goes through the process of validating, they mark a number of designated points from 1 to 15. These points represent how much that staff member feels the author should be bumped to trusted at this moment, based on this chapter alone. What do they take into consideration? First and foremost, the TOS compliance of the chapter - does it comply 100% with no grey areas and no fuzzy lines? Next, they will explore the quality of the story. While a poorly written story won't be rejected here, if the story is very well written, that does mean something to us and if we read something that shows maturity and depth, we're more likely to grant it more points. In cases where the chapter will be rejected, no points are awarded and no points are taken away. In essence, a rejection does nothing to your chances of becoming a TA so far as the points system is concerned.

Now, travel with me, for a moment, to an idle Sunday morning when one of our Archive Admin's is parusing the archive looking for something to do. Sure, they could settle in to read a new piece of fanfiction but, instead, they decide to pop onto the points list for a second and see how our authors are doing. The list prints all authors and the number of points they have recieved for the staff to view. As a guideline, authors with less than 200 points can still be considered "new" and won't necessarily be looked at. Authors with 200+ points, however, are taken into consideration and will go through Archive Admin Evaluation.

What is Archive Admin Evaluation?
AA Evaluations refer to the process that an admin goes through when considering an author for Trusted Status. While an author may have been reccomended by another staff member or achieved a high points level, that still doesn't gaurentee them Trusted Status. Upon recieving a reccomendation - be it from a human or from the software - the Archive Admin's will view the account and account history of this author. Any notes that staff made - be they for violations, hidden stories, minor or major - it's the AA's job to sift through those, as well as the posted chapters, author page bio and story summaries to try to get a feel for whether or not that author can handle TA status.

Most authors make it through this process without a hitch but, on occasion, a bump to TA status may be passed over for authors because the staff member feels that violations are too recent or the content of the stories is too close to the borderline to really be sure that this author won't have a free for all once the prying eyes of the staff are no longer upon them so heavily.

Wait, so if one of my chapters is rejected, I might get passed over for TA Status?
No. Absolutely not. Most authors, myself included, have been rejected at least once and even our staff will often turn to eachother if we want to post a chapter we're a little concerned might be borderline in order to make sure it's OK. One rejection - heck, even six rejections - is not goig to prevent you from reaching TA status. What we look for in future Trusted Authors are people who are willing to work to understand the TOS and to operate within it. Things happen - rules are misunderstood and chapters are rejected. While we may look to see that there has been some time between a past rejection issue and the time your status is bumped, we're not looking for perfect records, here.

So - recap - What all happens between the first time I recieve a chapter and the time I reach Trusted Author Status?

1. The chapter is looked over. If it is rejected, nothing happens to you as an author. The rejection is logged in your validater notes and the chapter is returned to you for edits. If the chapter is approved, the staff member validating it assigns it a TA Point Value.

2. You continue to submit chapters and recieve points until one magical day, either a staff member reccomends you to an Archive Admin or an AA sees your name on the Points List and decides to evaluate your account.

3. An Archive Admin evaluates your account. They look for past TOS violations, current TOS violations, current chapter content, previous chapter content, bio content, story themes and, most importantly, the way you conduct yourself around the site - including the way that you respond to your reviewers. If you are approved for status, it's given to you and you will see a note on your Manage Stories page. If you aren't approved for status right away, your name remains on the points list for an AA to look at again on a later date.

Are there statistics - like a guideline - for how long it takes to reach Trusted Author Status?
In way, yes. However, remember, these are just guidelines, they're not steadfast and, in truth, they don't mean a whole lot. We generally look for authors with 200 points before we evaluate them for Trusted Status. What means is that, for the most part, these authors have usually submitted about 20 chapters. Some people might submit 20 chapters in a month while others might not submit 20 chapters in a year. It all really depends on the author.

There are a lot of other mitigating factors to consider - an author who submits three ten-thousand word chapters might find their status bumped within a few days rather than waiting until they've reached 200 points while an author who submits a lot of short, 550 word chapters, might find that it takes them longer than 20 chapters to achieve Trusted Status. Authors who frequently write stories that are rated M and deal with content that lives on the border line of our TOS - allusions to self-mutilation, suicide, sexually explicit content, etc... might find that it takes a long time to reach TA status, if ever.

What if I mess up after I become a Trusted Author?
If you make a mistake and have a minor run in wtih the TOS - like a banner that is too large or you forget to include a single warning, like Mild Language - your status probably won't be revoked. People make mistakes all of the time and, as long as you deal with the issue in a prompt, respectful manner after it has been brought to your attention, your status isn't going to be changed. If, however, you behave disrespectfully toward members of the site or the staff, have "big" TOS violations or are found frequently flaunting the TOS, your status will be revoked immedietly and you can even find yourself suspended from the site.

Things To Remember:
The term "Trusted Authors" can make people feel a bit defensive, at first, but remember, neither the status or the term are intended to reflect on you as a person. We have a small staff - no more than 20 or so at any given time - and a site that is home to 50,000. While we do have the chance to get to know some of our authors on an individual basis, for the most part, we can only refer to the stories they write as they come through the queue and, on many occasions, we forget those as quickly as they came because the brain can only process so much data at once. If you haven't yet recieved TA status, try not to take it personally, because it certainly isn't intended as a personal affront.

Trusted Authors may also seem to recieve certain perks - and they do, in a way - they don't have to wait for validation and, during staff holidays (like the winter break) Trusted Authors are still permitted to submit to the site. However with those perks really comes a great responsibility. These authors are certifying that they know what they're doing. If they don't and they post TOS violating material, their stories and accounts can be removed without warning, Trusted Status revoked and, in extreme cases, even find themselves banned from the site. They become responsible for managing their own content and, rather than having a staff member always looking over shoulder, have to come to us when they have a question regarding their chapters or content.

** This figure is only an estimate and it should be noted that many of our authors are inactive or have not posted more than one or two chapters.