Primarily, newsgarbage is a technology-based news site, moderated and controlled by you, the users. In this sense users can post news on the site, and then by 'bagging' or 'binning' specific news articles users have the power to change which news articles fellow users will see first and which articles go in the trash.

Well, "no part" isn't strictly true; after all we are users of the site too. So we get the same voting power as you do, but no more than that.

In extreme cases however, if a user is being a particular pest we reserve the right to take corrective action (see the Misc FAQs) although this will always be a last resort - it's much more fun to publicly heckle him or her directly through comments on the news postings, don't you think?

Not a problem, please contact us, and we'll see if we can sort you out. If it looks like a question lots of people might have, we'll add it to our FAQ's, and you can have the pleasure of knowing you made other peoples life easier! How good are you!

With that said, please read the FAQ's first to ensure you question hasn't already been answered!

You can register here. It's really simple, quick and all the cool kids are doing it.

When you log into the site, you will notice that the login section changes into a mini-user section, displaying your user picture your basic user information. From this section you can access your main profile page where you can add or change your details, see your specific user stats, add friends, and block users.

Certain parts of your profile information can be designated as being only visible to 'friends'. In this case, only those members who you add as your friends will be able to see this information. This can be useful if you want to be able to make your email address, MSN Messenger ID, or other sensitive details available, but want control over who gets to see them. Adding friends also allows others to see who you are friends with.

You can add users to your block users section of your profile page, or by loading up that users profile and clicking on the block user button. Blocking a user isn't permanent (you can just remove them from you block users list).

Only if you allow 'Public' users to view it. You can change certain parts of your profile to visible to everyone ('Public'), people who you are 'Friends' with, or simply keep it private and allow no one at all to see this information.

The Users tab shows all of the users registered on the site and some interesting information regarding their posts and votes. By default these users are listed by highest rank, which is dictated by the points each user has.

When you first register you start with 0 points. By generally being sociable, posting, and voting on the site you can obtain points. As most will know, points mean prizes! Well ok, not in a material sense (we're not millionaires you know!), but you do have the chance of increasing your ranking and gloating to all your envious friends. Point are assigned as follows:


Points are calculated at the end of each day.

We wont go into the details of the ranking levels any further than to say its fairly easy to move up the first few ranks, then get harder.

Yes, if you consistently post rubbish you will find yourself working your way to the bottom of the pile. The ranking currently goes from -1,000 to +5,000.

Apart from your friends throwing rocks at you and poking you with large sticks, you don't have to. But where's the fun in that? ... Who knows, you might like being poked with sticks ... weirdo!

Additionally, we may add some features and benefits to users on the site that are only accessible to the higher level ranks at a later date, so if that kind of temptation floats your boat, pull your finger out!

Other than that it's really the poking that's the main reason...

Yes, otherwise nobody would know who posted it, and we can't be having that now, can we - who would we assign blame to when somebody posts a terrible article! You can register here.

On every page you will see there is a "submit a news story" button. Clicking this will take you to the story submission page, if you are registered, or prompt you to log in.

In the majority of cases, you will want to include the URL to the story you are referring to, a headline, a catagory, and some introductory text briefly explaining what the article's about.

If you are posting a news story that does not have a URL then you can check the unique story checkbox and the story URL field will be greyed out. When posting a unique story, you will need to fill in the introduction box, catagory and the story body box.

Once an article is posted it's automatically put to the News Posting Pool ("Pool" Tab), articles are shown by default here in the order that they were submitted, so yours should be at the top.

No. The registered voting public decide what's good and what's bad, so there are no recounts.

If you like or dislike a posting you can elect to give it your stamp of approval (bag it) or kick it to the curb (bin it). The total number of bins and bags for a posting will determine whether it is promoted to the front page, left in the news pool to fester for eternity, or thrown in the trash.

Yes, you can register here.

You can vote once and once only per posting. i.e. you can't bag it twice or bin and bag it or anything like that. Just one vote per posting.

You can vote on as many articles as you like.

No. Your first and only vote is final, so please make sure you don't just rate articles without reading them properly first!

Usually an offensive posting will never make it to the front page, as the users will bin it into oblivion. However if you feel really strongly against a posting and we feel the same (remember we're human too -- well most of us) we will review and possibly remove the posting. (Please also see the next FAQ)

In general, if a user keeps posting articles that are considered by the majority of the voting public to be spam/rubbish they will be dragged to the bottom of the league by negative votes. If this humiliation isn't punishment enough, we may, in extreme circumstances, intervene and suspend the users account until further notice. (But they would have to have been consistently very, very naughty!).

Although it makes sense that stories in the Trashed section are going to be thought of by the consensus as junk, and probably not worth reading themselves, we thought it would be amusing to see which articles get slated the most. The comments other people post are always good for a giggle too!