How Libre works – what to write, how long it takes, what it costs, and what you keep. 28 answers. The guidelines are the rules in full.
Libre is the open half of Debrief by Zak World of Façades. Debrief is the written record of the Zak World of Façades conferences – recaps of talks, transcribed from the sessions themselves. Libre is where anyone with a story, a concept or research on façades writes their own piece: something you have built, specified, tested or argued about.
Anyone may submit. An editor reads everything before it appears. We do not check the facts, and you keep the copyright in your own work.
They do different jobs, and the honest answer is to do both – there is a Share this on LinkedIn button on every published piece for exactly that reason. What this gives you that a LinkedIn post does not:
What LinkedIn does better: it is instant, it has no gatekeeper, and it reaches the people who already know you. Publish here for the record, then share it there for the reach.
No, and we say so on every piece. An editor judges whether a contribution is publishable – whether it is about façades, whether it is writing rather than marketing, whether it is legible. Not whether the figures are right.
That is what the line at the foot of every contribution says, and it is why your name is on it and ours is not.
With your LinkedIn account. You press Continue with LinkedIn, LinkedIn asks whether you agree, and you come back with an account already made – your name and your photograph filled in from your profile. No form and no password to remember.
Two reasons it works this way. It is a check on who you are that we do not have to run ourselves: a byline on a piece about façades ought to belong to somebody the industry can look up. And your name and your face are what appear beside everything you write, so taking them from a profile you already keep up to date is more accurate than asking you to retype them here.
Your job title and your company are the two things you add yourself, on your own page – LinkedIn does not hand those over, and both are switches you control, so a freelancer or somebody writing independently of their employer can show a name alone.
The email address comes across from LinkedIn already confirmed, so there is no verification link to wait for. Everything LinkedIn gives us is yours to change afterwards, the photograph included.
Then write to info@zakgroup.com and we will open an account for you by email instead. You get a link to set your own password, and you fill in your name and your photograph yourself rather than having them brought across. Everything after that is identical – the same desk, the same builder, the same allowance, the same standing on the page.
It is a slower way in, because a person reads the request rather than a machine approving it. That is the trade for there being no profile to look at: what we are checking is that a byline belongs to somebody who works on façades, and LinkedIn is only the quickest way of showing us that. A company email address, a colleague who already writes here, or a line about what you do will all serve.
Nobody is turned away for not being on LinkedIn. Plenty of people who are very good at this are not on it.
Three things, and nothing else: your name, your profile photograph, and your email address. Not your headline, not your employer, not your history – we ask for the sign-in scopes and there is nothing else in them.
We cannot post anything. We cannot see your connections, your messages, your feed, or who has looked at your profile. The Share this on LinkedIn button on a published piece opens LinkedIn's own share window in your browser – you write the post and you press the button.
You can disconnect us from LinkedIn's own settings whenever you like. Your account here and everything you have written stay exactly where they are; ask us and we will send you a link to set a password, and you carry on signing in with that.
The way you joined. A LinkedIn account signs in with the same button; an account we opened by email signs in with an email address and a password.
If you joined through LinkedIn and later want a password as well – because you have left the company whose address is on that profile, say – ask us and we will add one.
Three pieces per account, and they are free. Published ones keep counting; a piece we decline does not.
If you want to write more than that, write to us.
Nothing. Your Three pieces pieces are free, and we do not pay for contributions either.
Between 500 and 1,600 words – about 3 to 8 minutes to read. The builder counts as you write and tells you where you stand.
Shorter than 500 is a comment rather than an article. Longer than 1,600 and people stop finishing it.
Anything in façade design, engineering, specification, testing, procurement or maintenance. You choose at least one topic and up to 3 from a fixed list when you submit – that is how readers find the piece once it is not the newest one.
About a project, yes – how it was detailed, what went wrong, what you would do differently. About a product, no. A piece that reads as marketing for something you sell is the most common reason a submission is declined.
The test an editor applies: would this be useful to somebody who is never going to buy from you?
No. A contribution carries no contact details and no links, in the text or in a caption – the builder checks as you write and tells you before you submit, and a submission with any of them in it comes straight back.
Your own page has boxes for your website and your LinkedIn profile, and those appear with your name on everything you write. That is where they go.
Any of English, Español, Italiano, Português, Türkçe, Русский and ქართული. What you write in is what it is published in – we do not translate contributions.
One cover picture, which is required – it leads the piece and is what readers see wherever it is listed – and up to 6 more in the writing.
Ideal is 1600 × 900 pixels, landscape (16:9), at least 600px on the long edge, under 1 MB each. A 16:9 picture fills the full width of the article; any other shape is shown whole with the page colour either side. The builder has a crop tool, and anything larger than 1400px is scaled down for you – so a photograph straight off a phone is fine.
Only ones you own or have permission to publish, and that permission has to cover publication here. Every picture needs a credit and a description, and you confirm the rights when you submit – with a date, and the address you sent it from, kept on the record.
If somebody complains that a picture is theirs, it is yours to resolve with them directly. Zak World of Façades did not verify the rights and is not liable for the breach.
We do not take a piece down because somebody reported it. We look at it first – a report is not a finding – and we tell you what was said and what we need from you. If it has to come off the site while it is sorted out, we say so and why.
No. A reader can report a problem with any published contribution, and every report is read by an editor – but a report on its own does nothing to your piece. Nobody outside this publication can unpublish your work, and an anonymous objection is not a reason to.
What happens is that we look, and then we tell you: what was said, what we think of it, and what we need from you if anything. You can answer us on your desk. If a piece does have to come off the site while something is resolved – a rights claim we cannot settle any other way – you are told that it has and why, and it can go back up.
We pass on who reported it only if they agreed to be named.
We aim to read everything within 5 days. Your desk shows how many pieces are ahead of yours and how long we have actually been taking lately – measured, not promised, so it goes up when we are slow.
You are told, with the reason. A declined piece does not count against your allowance, so you can write something else.
Yes. Editing a published piece sends it back through the queue, because what changed has to be read before it goes out again.
If you have spotted a mistake and do not want it visible while you fix it, you can take the piece off the site yourself – immediately, without waiting for us. It goes back through the queue when you send it again.
Yes. Hide it and leave it hidden, or delete it outright from your desk.
You do. You are giving us permission to publish it here, not the copyright in it.
Never. It is visible to you and to the editors, and nowhere else on the site.
Yes – both are switches on your own page. A freelancer or somebody writing independently of their employer can show a name alone.
Your name itself stays, because it is the byline on your published work and the address of your contributor page.
Yes, from your account page: one JSON file with your details, the text of every piece, and every rights confirmation you have given; and a zip of your pictures with their captions and credits.
Yes, from your account page, and it needs your password.
If you have never had anything published, everything goes – the account, the drafts and the uploads. If you have, your personal details are wiped and the account is closed for good, but the published pieces stay at the addresses people have linked to, under your name. Removing an author's name from their own work is a worse outcome than keeping it.
The contributor guidelines – the rules in full, including what you confirm when you submit.
Your desk, once you have signed in: everything you have written at every stage, what is waiting on us, and what is waiting on you.
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