Contributor terms

These terms apply when you submit an article to Stack & Skill ("we"). They sit alongside the Terms of Use, and the Write for us page explains how publishing works day to day. You agree to them by ticking the box when you submit, and we keep a record of which version you agreed to, and when.

You keep your copyright

Your article stays yours. Submitting or publishing it doesn't transfer ownership to us.

What you allow us to do

When an editor accepts and publishes your article, you give Stack & Skill a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to publish, display, and distribute it:

• on this site
• in the RSS feed and the newsletter
• as Markdown copies (.md), and in /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt
• in search indexes
• in social previews, the card and excerpt shown when someone shares a link

Before publication

Saving a draft or submitting it doesn't grant that licence. While a draft or a submission is pending, we store and process the text only to host it for you and to review it. The licence starts when an editor accepts and publishes the article.

Taking an article down

You can ask us to unpublish your article at any time. We aim to do it within 14 days. Copies already sent or made by then, such as newsletter emails, caches, and archives, may remain.

Publishing elsewhere

The licence is non-exclusive. Before we publish your article, it must not already be published elsewhere. After we publish it, you may republish it anywhere, with a canonical link back to the article here.

Code samples

Code in your article is shared under the MIT License, as in the Terms of Use, unless you name another licence in the article. That licence covers the code only, not your prose.

Editing and decisions

• We may edit for clarity, formatting, and technical accuracy. We agree substantive changes with you.
• We may decline an article, or unpublish one, for quality, legal, or policy reasons.
• Corrections after publication are dated in the article's changelog.

Using AI tools

You may use AI tools for research, drafting, and editing, as long as you:

1. read every sentence and every line of code, and take responsibility for all of it;
2. run the code yourself;
3. say so in a short note in the article;
4. never let a tool invent experience, tests, benchmarks, or sources.

We reject fully AI-generated submissions that no person has reviewed. An editor may ask you to confirm how you used AI.

A note like this one, at the end of the article, is enough:

AI assistance: I used [tool] to [research the topic / draft the outline / tighten the wording]. I checked every sentence and ran every code sample myself.

Companies and links

• Disclose any job or financial tie to a product or company you mention, in a short note in the article.
• Link to your own or your employer's product only where it helps the reader: one such link per article, plus the company link in your author profile. Mark that link as sponsored, so search engines know: [Product](https://example.com "sponsored").
• No undisclosed affiliate links.

What you confirm

By submitting, you confirm that:

• the article is your original work;
• you have the right to submit it;
• it contains no confidential material or employer code, unless you have permission to publish it;
• you credit any third-party material, such as quotes, images, or code.

Changes

If we change these terms, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Questions

Reach out through the links on the About page.