Content that is successfully ingested will automatically be published if it complies with MSN content publishing guidelines.
The below list provides a summary of the auto-publishing rules applied to documents when ingested. Any document that fails one or more of these rules will not be eligible for auto-publishing but can still be manually reviewed and published.
Some additional rules are being added and the boundaries may change in future. There might also be some market specific rules and exceptions, so publishers are advised to consult their MSN contacts on the specific set of applicable rules.
Auto-Flagged Content
Posts that are detected to have any of these elements will be flagged and will not be ingested automatically. It must be manually reviewed and approved before being published.
Profanity
Profanity may not appear in any text fields, including titles, body, and captions. If profanity is required, such as a quote, use asterisks to omit all but the first letter of the profane term.
Adult and Racy Images
Images that depict nudity/sexual acts or are sexually suggestive.
Gore
Images that are gruesome or disturbing.
Substance Abuse
Images that glamorize the use or consumption of tobacco, drugs, or alcohol.
Suicide
Mentions or descriptions of an act of suicide or self-harm.
Duplicates
Content that has already been posted will be rejected even if the publication date has been changed.
Formatting
Posts that do not meet formatting requirements will not be auto-published and must be amended before ingestion.
Document File Size
May not exceed 524 kilobytes
Document Character Count
Maximum of 500,000 characters
Classifier Character Count
Minimum of 200 characters in title, body, or abstract combined
Article Body Character Count
Minimum of 450 characters in the body, except:
- Japan (JA) minimum 100 characters
- Korea (KO) minimum 200 characters
- China (ZH) minimum 300 characters
- Horoscope articles have a minimum of 200 characters
Slideshows
Slideshows (also known as Galleries) have a minimum of 4 slides (2 for embedded gallery) and a maximum of 200. Each slide must be composed of an image object.
Image Size
Minimum image size is 10 kilobytes/600 px, except:
- Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and China minimum 2kb/120 px
- Thumbnails and related images minimum 2 kb/120 px
Promo Image
Posts must have a promo image
Syndication Rights
All images must have syndication rights
Video Thumbnails
Video posts must have a video thumbnail image
Video Format
Videos must be provided in a supported format
Hyperlinks
All links within posts must be valid
Canonical URLs
All canonical URLs must be valid
HTML Encoding
HTML must be valid
Language
The text in all displayable fields of a post must match the language configured for that post's feed.
Dates
Posts may not be future-dated, with a published or updated date on or before the present day.
Posts may not be dated more than 365 days in the past.
Control List
Feeds that show persistent errors may be put on a control list and blocked from auto-publishing.