The LWN.net FAQ [LWN.net] (2024)

Here is our attempt to answer the questions that come in to LWN; please letus know of questions we should add here.

General topics
LWN Content questions
Subscription topics
Gift certificates
Site code
Advertising
Events calendar
Subscriber links

General topics

What is this LWN thing?

LWN.net aims to be the premier news and information source for the freesoftware community. We provide comprehensive coverage of development, legal, commercial, and security issues. The LWN.net Weekly Edition is our weekly summary of what has happened in the free software world; our frontpage offers up-to-the-minute coverage.

How did LWN get started?

When LWN was initially designed, at the end of 1997, it was intended tobe an attention-getting side project of a new consulting company calledEklektix, Inc. The initial editors (Elizabeth Coolbaugh and JonathanCorbet) wanted to share the results of their efforts to keep up with developments from all over the Linux community. Over the years LWN has grown with Linux and become one of the definitive Linux news sites.

Where does LWN get its information?

We spend an unbelievable amount of time wandering the net in search of interesting developments to cover for our users. We also depend heavilyon tips from our users; see the next section on how to send in somethingyou have seen.

How do we contact LWN?

The most effective means of contacting LWN is via email. The followingaddresses should be used:

For story submissions, questions, typo reports, and general issues, send mail to lwn@lwn.net. In most cases, we request that you use this address rather than contacting individual LWN authors directly - somebody is always watching the lwn@lwn.net address.
Subscription questions should be sent to subs@lwn.net.
Advertising inquiries are welcome; please send them to sales@lwn.net.
Press releases should go to pr@lwn.net; see the next item for details.
Prospective LWN authors should send queries to authors@lwn.net. We have more information for authors on the writing for LWN page.

When in doubt, the lwn@lwn.net address should be used.

The LWN telephone number is +1 720 310 0640. Please do not be surprised ifyou encounter the voice mail system, but rest assured that we will get backto you quickly.

How can we get our press release into LWN?

Note that, for the time being, LWN has discontinued its press releasesection to free time for more interesting news. We are still interestedin press releases, and will cover interesting commercial events. To haveyour press release considered, please send it to pr@lwn.net. A couple of things should bekept in mind when submitting press releases:

If your press release is embargoed until a particular date, please state that prominently at the top of the message.
We are unable to handle press releases in closed, proprietary formats. The preferred format is plain text.

Can we pay you to place an article in LWN?

No. We have never accepted payment for article placement and that is notgoing to change; please do not ask us to do that.

How does LWN make its living?

LWN is primarily supported by its readers, through subscription fees. Wealso bring in a small amount of money through advertising, but that istypically less than 5% of our revenue stream.

Where is LWN's privacy policy?

Over here.

What does LWN stand for, anyway?

LWN, initially, was "Linux Weekly News." That name has been deemphasizedover time as we have moved beyond just the weekly coverage, and as we have looked at the free software community as a whole. We have yet to come upwith a better meaning for LWN, however.

Content questions

How do I find the current Weekly Edition?

The current Weekly Edition is always available via the top navigation bar.You may also use the link lwn.net/current (or lwn.net/current/bigpage for the "one big page"format).

Who writes this stuff?

LWN.net is currently made up of:

Do you have an RSS/RDF headline feed?

Yes, we have a few of them; our headlines page describes the available feeds.

Do you have a microblog feed?

Yes, we are on Mastodon as @LWN@fosstodon.org.

Note that our Twitter/X/whatever feed stopped working in June 2023 and isunlikely to come back.

I prefer the view I get when I'm not logged in. How do I get that viewwhen I am logged in?

That view is available at lwn.net/Articles/FrontPage.

What if I don't like the comment presentation?

Note that the My Account page gives you fouroptions for the presentation of comments on articles. If you do not likecomments at all, you can even make them disappear altogether.

Can I get email when somebody replies to my comments?

If you are subscribed at the "professional hacker" level or above, you mayelect to receive email notifications when replies to your comments areposted. Simply select the options presented next to the "publish" buttonwhen you have completed writing your comment.

The account customization section of the My Accountpage allows you to set the default settings of the comment notificationparameters.

I'd like to see just the new comments!

We're working on making this aspect of the site better. Meanwhile, thereare three options:

There is an RSS feed for newly-posted comments; see the headlines page for more information.
If you go to this page, you'll get a simple list of comments in reverse order of posting.
The recently-posted comments page provides an organized view of comments posted since the last time you viewed the page; this is a subscriber-only feature.

For subscribers at or above the Project Leader level, we are also able to highlightnew comments in the normal article view.

Subscription topics

Why should I subscribe to LWN?

Producing LWN takes a substantial amount of staff time, and that costsmoney. As a way of bringing in that money, the advertising model has beenshown definitively not to work (and not just for LWN). Subscriptions,are the lifeblood of LWN, and the only way that LWN will continue topublish. The main reason to subscribe, thus, is to support LWN and keep iton the net.

What does an LWN subscription get me?

Beyond the knowledge that you are helping keep LWN around, subscriberscurrently have access to the following:

LWN's premium content from the moment it is published; non-subscribers must wait a week to access this content.
The ability to turn off advertisem*nts.
Optional receipt of comments and/or comment replies via email.

Not all features are available at all subscription levels.

What does a subscription cost?

See the LWN subscription information page forcurrent information on subscription pricing and features.

What are the differences between the four subscription levels?

LWN offers four levels of subscription:

The starving hacker level is aimed at readers who are between jobs or who live in those parts of the world where the regular subscription rate is a lot of money. Readers at this level have access to all LWN content, but not to all site features. Due to excessive processing costs, automatic monthly subscriptions are not available at this level.
The professional hacker level is for most readers; in addition to access to LWN content, this level provides the ability to turn off all advertising on the site, filter comments based on author, and receive notifications via email when replies are posted to comments.
The project leader level is for those who wish to support LWN more strongly; in addition to all professional hacker benefits, a project leader subscription allows readers to receive email notifications for comments posted to any article, and it enables the highlighted view for new comments posted when viewing the parent article.
The maniacal supporter level for those whose support for LWN knows few bounds. Subscribers at this level have all the access given to "project leader" subscribers; they are also credited as supporters in their comment postings. LWN staff will happily buy supporters a beer (or other beverage of their choice) at any conference where they may meet.

Subscribing at the highest level possible provides access to the mostfeatures and does the most to help keep LWN going.

How can I pay for an LWN subscription?

We can currently accept payments via credit card (Visa, MasterCard,American Express, and Discover), PayPal, and checks drawn on a U.S. bank.

Why can't I subscribe for more than one year?

Our credit card processor, concerned about their liability should we takethe money and flee the planet, has limited us to selling subscriptions nomore than one year into the future. They have made it clear that this isnot a negotiable point, so LWN subscriptions currently cannot be sold morethan one year ahead.

My credit card is being declined, can you fix that?

Unfortunately, no. Banks will (correctly) not tell us anything about youraccount and will not discuss declined charges with us. Occasionally somebank (usually in Europe) decides that LWN looks suspicious and blockscharges here; when that happens, the only remedy that works is for thecardholder to call the bank and ask them to remove the block. We, too,wish it were easier.

What is your refund policy?

Our official policy is that subscription purchases are final andnonrefundable. We reserve the right to waive that policy on a case-by-casebasis, but we are not obligated to do so.

What is a group subscription?

A group subscription is a set of LWN.net subscriptions purchased in bulk bya company, university, or other interested group. Group subscriptionsoffer a way to provide subscription access to LWN to a number of employees,students, or members at a significant savings in cost. Our basic groupsubscription offerings are described on this page, but feel free tocontact us (at subs@lwn.net) if you would like to discuss other options.

How are group subscriptions managed?

There are two basic mechanisms for controlling access to groupsubscriptions:

One or more manager accounts can be set up; these accounts have the ability to "bless" other LWN accounts with access to a group subscription. The manager account can also track usage of the subscription, and make and track subscription payments.
For larger subscriptions, we can enable subscription access for anybody who logs into LWN.net from one or more IP subnetworks. This method allows for larger numbers of readers without the need to manage them separately.

Note that, in both cases, it is necessary to have an LWN account and loginto it to enjoy subscription access. For subnet-based subscriptions,access will be allowed from anywhere if the account has been used from thecovered subnet(s) over the last month; thus the "working at home" and "at atrade show" cases are handled properly.

Must I subscribe to read the Weekly Edition?

No, the Weekly Edition becomes freely available to all readers one weekafter its publication. If you would like to be notified when subscriptioncontent becomes free, there is a mailing list to which you can subscribe;you'll find it in the "mailing lists" section of the "My Account" page.

Note that the most recent free Weekly Edition can be found at lwn.net/free/.

I'm a Debian developer, how do I access the Debian subscription?

Debian maintains a group subscription for Debian developers. To be includedin the group send an email to lwn-subscription@debian.org requesting accessto the 'Debian developers group'. The email must include your LWN usernameand be signed with your Debian key.

Gift certificates

Can I give LWN as a gift?

Indeed you can. We have gift certificatesavailable. Each "certificate" is really a code that can be redeemed bythe recipient for a subscription to the site.

I have a gift certificate code, how do I redeem it?

You must be logged into the site, then you will find a button on the Subscribe page to redeemyour certificate. Or you can go directly to the redemption page.

Site code questions

What system is the LWN.net site running?

The LWN site code was developed in-house by Jonathan Corbet, Jake Edge, andothers. It is written in Python, and based on the Quixote web framework andthe PostgreSQL relational databasemanagement system.

Why did you write your own site code?

Essentially, the existing content management systems did not meet ourneeds. In particular, none had support for the creation of the LWN WeeklyEdition. And, besides, it's fun to hack on Python code.

Is the LWN site code open source?

Not yet. We do intend to release our code once it gets a bit more "ready,"has had one more security audit, and when we are in a position to supportit as an open source project.

Unfortunately, we spend most of our time creating the content thatmakes up LWN, and trying to bring in enough money to keep food on thetable (servers running, etc.), so it has not, yet, gotten anywhere nearthe top of the priority list. When LWN reaches a level that is trulyself-sustaining, we certainly will spend some time to get that done.Thanks for your patience.

Advertising questions

What happened to text ads?

The text ad facility allowed readers to place simple, text-oriented ads onthe site. Use of this facility had been dropping over time; when werealized that nobody had bought an ad in over six months, we decided toremove the feature.

What about banner ads?

LWN would be happy to run your banner advertisem*nts. Please contact us atsales@lwn.net for more information.

I hate ads, can I disable them?

LWN subscribers at the "professional hacker" level and above can disableads by going into the account management area andselecting "Customization."

The LWN Events Calendar

What kinds of events appear in the LWN calendar?

For now, the calendar is limited to Linux-related conferences andgatherings. We expect to expand the range of event types in the future.

How do I add my event to the calendar?

Go to the event entry screen and tell us aboutit. Before doing so, however, please be sure that (1)the event isnot already present in the calendar, and (2)it is an event which willbe of interest to the wider LWN readership.

Subscriber links

What are subscriber links

A subscriber link is a mechanism by which LWN subscribers may grant freeaccess to specific LWN articles to others. It takes the form of a speciallink which bypasses the subscription gate for that article.

What good are they?

For LWN subscribers, a subscriber link is a way to share useful informationwith co-workers, friends, or other project developers. For LWN, they are away to let outsiders sample LWN subscription content in a controlled way.

How do I create a subscriber link?

Simply bring up the article of interest in your browser, then click on the"Send a free link" button at the bottom of the article.

I don't see that button, why?

If the "Send a free link" button is missing, it will be for one of the followingreasons:

You are not logged into a subscribed LWN account.
The article is not restricted to subscribers only. For freely available content, there is no point in creating subscriber links, so the option is not available.

Where is it appropriate to post a subscriber link?

Almost anywhere. Private mail, messages to project mailing lists, andblog entries are all appropriate. As long as people do not usesubscriber links as a way to defeat our attempts to gain subscribers, weare happy to see them shared.