Description Submission Guidelines

  1. Descriptionari does not accept submissions via email, please post directly to the website.

  2. The page title indicates the theme of the content on that page.

  3. The prose you submit must adhere to the theme of the page.

  4. Do not submit single words, partial sentences or single sentences.

  5. Your writing must be in complete sentences that conform to standard punctuation and spelling (American, British or Canadian).

  6. Don't add dictionary definitions - Descriptionari is not a dictionary.

  7. Don't submit thesaurus entries, or lists of synonyms, etc. - Descriptionari is not a thesaurus.

  8. Don't add Wikipedia definitions.

  9. Do not segment/spread a description across multiple entries. Each entry must be self-contained and be judged on its own merits.

  10. Don't write attributions inside the description. Descriptions are automatically signed with your account name. If readers want to find out more about you and your work, they will click on the automatically generated signature.

  11. As of February 1st 2015, Descriptionari no longer accepts lists of descriptive words.

  12. As of September 1st 2015, Descriptionari no longer accepts quotations of a person, or quotations from websites.

Descriptionari has a publication process

  1. Submissions can be saved as a draft by selecting from the 'Save' menu. Content in 'draft state' will not be visible to other users and will not be considered for publication by the editorial team.

  2. When ready for publication, select 'Request publication' from the 'Save' menu. You submission will be tagged with "In Review".

  3. The editorial team will consider all submissions that are tagged with "In Review" for publication to the website.

Under developed vs Developed ideas

  1. Your submission is far more likely to be published if it is a developed idea:

Under developed idea:

We sat in the noisy cafe, the waiter took our order.

Developed idea:

In the gloom of the cafe our knees almost touch under the narrow table. Neither of us want to shout, but the level of background chatter makes ordinary conversation quite impossible. I had a whole conversation planned, today is the day I let Todd know I am leaving. He must know it's coming too, I see the hurt welling in his eyes behind that New Year smile. His usual steady gaze flickers from me to the muck on our table, no ours, it is left from the previous diners. I remove my elbows and sit a little straighter. From the corner of my eye I catch a young woman staring at us, her lank mousey hair falling in ribbons about her colour-drained t-shirt. In her hand is a small writing pad and a biro, she's the waitress. Todd orders for us, after all these years he knows exactly what I want before even I do. Perhaps that's why I have to go.

Descriptionari is a teaching and scholarly web application, and must be used as such.

  1. Do not infringe the copyright of others by copying out large chunks of text from other authors.

  2. If you submit an excerpt from a book, you must accurately provide the legal name (i.e. the real name) of the author and the book title.

  3. Contributors may promote themselves as writers, their literary blogs, and works that they possess copyright of.

  4. Contributors may not use this site to advertise or promote the sale of non-literary material or non-literary services.

  5. You must not plagiarize. For example:

Original sentence:


If you use a sentence from another writer without altering it, it is plagiarism and your work will not be published.

These are also plagiarism:

The level of background chatter made our conversation impossible, but we didn't want to shout.

Neither of us wanted to raise our voices, but the background noise of the other diners made it necessary.

Not plagiarism (this is using the piece as inspiration rather than copying it in any way).

I wanted to whisper to Todd, tell him the bad news gently. He deserved that. But all about us other diners talked ever louder, competing with one another to be heard above their collective din.

Why are descriptions limited to 2000 characters?

  1. The 2000 character limit is there to foster tight writing style.

  2. Usually if you cannot fit a description into 2000 characters, the scope of what you are writing about is too broad. Cut out what is unnecessary.

Comment Guidelines

  1. Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation.

  2. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

  3. Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.

  4. Please don't sign comments, especially with your url. They're already signed with your username. If other users want to learn more about you, they can click on it to see your profile.

  5. Please don't use uppercase for emphasis.

  6. Use comments to critique content. Do not use them to critique other users. Do not use them to critique the site.

PM (Private Messages) Guidelines

Descriptionari has a private messages system to facilitate discussion that would be considered off-topic if it were held in the comments section of a description.


  2. For your safety, DO NOT under any circumstances give out personal information to strangers (such as email, Skype or other PM information).

PMs are only private from non-privileged users of the site.
Privileged users (site moderators and adminstrators) have full access to the content of PM discourse.
PMs fall under the same moderation guidelines as the rest of the site (see below).

Descriptionari is a moderated application

The moderators are here to help make the site enjoyable by all, and to help maintain the standards of the site.
They use the site's guidelines, privacy policies, and terms & conditions in determining their actions.

Moderators have the right, but are not compelled to:

  1. Remove any content from the site that contravenes any or all of the sites: guidelines, privacy policies, terms and conditions.

  2. Remove duplicate content from the site.

  3. Correct minor typographical and grammatical errors in all content.

  4. Remove content from the site that contain multiple typographical and/or grammatical errors.

  5. Change citations, if they determine that the submitted citation is inaccurate or the source is non-authoritative.

  6. Move content to another page if the content does not suite the page it was submitted to.