The Thomas Hapka Tragedy

Met Sentinel Column Submission Policies

Note to Met Sentinel random column contributors:

If you don’t see your column published within 24 hours of filing, your column has been declined. This notice does not pertain to the many Met Sentinel regular columnists.

The Met Sentinel is not obligated to send out notice to columnists who are declined. Random columns sent in but not solicited by Met Sentinel are declined for a number of reasons as follows:

• If you are interested in submitting material to The Met Sentinel, please read the following guidelines before sending the submission to Editor@MetSentinel.com.

• Because of the sheer number of submissions and the time it takes to proof and post articles, your submission may not be published.

• All submissions of material for publication must be sent by email. The Met Sentinel does not promote its mailing address anywhere online.

• The Met Sentinel does not pay for materials submitted.

• Articles intended for Met Sentinel publication should be emailed to Editor@MetSentinel.com.

• Original Material only: The Met Sentinel publishes previously unpublished material only. We only publish articles and columns which have been published by other media outlets by running the first two paragraphs of the article sent before linking back to the site that originally published the work.

• Quotes and research. All quotes from others used in pieces submitted must be contained between quotation marks and the article from which they are taken must be identified and dated in parenthesis following the quotes. Please note that The Met Sentinel does not republish articles which have already been posted.

• The Met Sentinel Archives: Once material has been published by The Met Sentinel and archived, literary rights become the property of the author, who may want to republish elsewhere. The Met Sentinel controls full rights on removal of archived items.

• Proofing: Please run your articles by a family member or friend before submitting to cut down on typos. Please spell check your work.

• Clarification: Should something in a submitted article be unclear, The Met Sentinel will send an email asking for clarification. If the author does not write back with clarification in a timely manner, the article will be bypassed until further notice if evergreen.

• Accuracy: The Met Sentinel relies heavily on the accuracy of its writers. Should an error be made, we will post a correction as soon as we are advised of the error.

• Photos: Met Sentinel accepts copyrighted photos with verification of copyright. If multiple photos are sent, published selections are chosen by our staff.

• Getting back to submitters: Because of the time constraints in running a site the size of The Met Sentinel, it is not always possible to get back to submission authors. Please Note: Sending in an article, which states at the bottom, "Series 2 Next" is no guarantee Series 2 will be posted.

• Nom de plumes; pseudonyms: It is The Met Sentinel policy to publish articles written under nom de plumes and pseudonyms. We understand it is an excellent personal security measure, but we don't agree with other publications that have an issue with this. As long as your “pen name” isn't outrageous, i.e. “Seymour Butts,” then we're all for your personal choice.

• Foul and profane language: The Met Sentinel spikes and will continue to spike all materials where foul and profane language is used. The use of both show a lack of good vocabulary and isn't necessary for educated people to use. However, if profanity is part of a direct quote or statement, we will publish the words as (ED) – expletive deleted.

• Using the Met Sentinel comment section: The Met Sentinel will remove the comments of any columnist attacking a columnist colleague through the Comment Section. If you disagree with a colleague, courtesy demands that you write him/her directly. And while you are entitled to your opinion on various subjects, if you wish to continue submitting random columns, keep your comments as professional as possible.

• Newsworthy vs. commentary: The Met Sentinel abides by a very strict separation of columns that are newsworthy and columns that are commentary. If you are writing as a news reporter, please keep your opinion and personal beliefs out of the column. However, if you have an opinion and are giving the backstory be sure that your comments are not being presented as fact relating directly to the outcome of the story you are basing your views and opinions on.

• No Anti-Anything: We will not accept columns that are directly anti-anything. For example, we won't accept columns referring to anti-Americanism or homophobia or antisemitism just to name a few. If you don't have anything nice to say about someone or a group of people, don't write it into a permanent document. We don't tolerate bullying or bashing or any kind.

• Law Enforcement Cooperation: The Met Sentinel has an obligation to report potential crimes and cooperate fully in investigations of illegal matters. Don't submit anything in writing that might be considered a terrorist action or hate crime towards a person, group of people or political institution.

• Size sort of matters: The Met Sentinel requires a column to contain at least 100 words or more. However, anything that is considered a huge column may be divided into a mini-series only if it is evergreen material. Also consider that columns that are too lengthy probably won't be completely read by someone who has a short attention span. Don't waste your ink or time on ramblings. Get to your point.

• The Inverted Pyramid: We know not everyone submitting columns will be a professional journalist so we are offering advice on how to write an article that will be favored for publishing versus one that isn't organized to our editorial standards. The “Inverted Pyramid” is the standard we use and hopefully you will also as follows.

• Don't give up because of non-published columns: Even if you weren't published after following all of the guidelines, please don't
  give up on submitting more columns. There are times where we may have overlooked a column or the timing of the particular subject
  matter just wasn't right. Keep submitting and eventually you will become published barring any extreme circumstances.'

• Thank you for your consideration: The Met Sentinel thanks you for your time and consideration. While we can't offer you monetary
  gain, being published in our newspaper can lead to greater, money—paying writing gigs in the future at other publications. All published
  columnists will receive a letter or recommendation if they have submitted ten (10) or more columns to The Met Sentinel.

(Updated: Monday, 12 August 2019)