1. How can you have a FAQ already?
Rockhaq is new but we’ve been testing things for a while and this is a collection of typical questions we’re asked when we visit colleges and schools and speak to teachers.
2. Tell me more.
Rockhaq is a new music reviewing blog for school and college pupils. Your school group joins and your pupils blog to win more exciting music rewards to write about, such as star name interviews, music to review, gig tickets and prizes. This is a new online social business that uses music rewards to provide student media enrichment, improve literacy skills, pupil attendance, engagement and functional skills. We beta tested several versions of the online system for public use during 2010 and after receiving positive feedback, we are now focused on getting the Rockhaq music journalism rewards blog into UK colleges and schools.
3. Who runs Rockhaq?
Rockhaq was set up by me, Michelle Dhillon, a news and music journalist and editor. You can find out more about me and the rest of Team Rockhaq on our About Us page.
4. What are community member schools?
Any school or college that joins Rockhaq becomes a community member and we want all of our members to play a full role in helping to develop the Rockhaq school rewards system by giving us feedback, talking to us in discussions, telling us what new features you’d like to see and spreading the word to more students, teachers, schools and colleges. Each successful referral results in a discount for your school or college.
5. What do community members get?
Obviously you get access to the Rockhaq school rewards system, but we also plan to give something back to all of you. Every time we reach a new milestone, we want to celebrate by adding a major new free media or journalism feature that your college and your students can take advantage of. Rockhaq is based on the principle of giving back to students and teachers at our schools and colleges and we would love to smash each target so that every single member gets as much value as they can out of it.
6. When does Rockhaq start?
We will be launching the first Rockhaq programmes and pilot schemes in September 2011 and the majority of these will operate until June 2012. We are offering a competitively priced limited pilot scheme to a small number of schools to test and feed thoughts back to us.
7. What do I get for joining?
You’ll get your own user profile page on Rockhaq, unlimited access to upload reviews, interviews and can try to win one of our exclusive Rockhaq missions if your work is highly rated. Missions can include gig tickets, interviews, CDs or downloads, access to secret gigs and more. Each week’s highest rated work will be featured on our homepage, and we also have badges and points that can be won for writing reviews, sharing your work on Facebook and Twitter, posting comments and just being active on Rockhaq.
8. What can my students write about?
Absolutely anything that is music related. We welcome all pupil and student music single and album reviews, interviews, live reviews, comments and feature articles and opinions. We see this as a great opportunity for school and college pupils to gain real digital media experience and editorial skills. See our article on What Can We Write About? for more.
9. Do my pupils own copyright over everything that they write, blog or upload?
We’re not interested in owning your work, owning copyright over it or somehow making money out of it. This is a learning experience so you’ll own the copyright over everything you submit, write and upload. Rockhaq is covered with a Creative Commons 2.0 UK Licence. In the case of photopasses, you might be asked to sign a photo release form with a record label to make sure you’re happy to be covered by their own seperate legal terms. Also, if you are given review CDs or downloads, these may be watermarked or you will be asked to confirm that you won’t distribute them or upload any tracks anywhere else. We’ll always tell you if this is part of your Rockhaq mission though. You can find out more about photo release forms in our tips area.
10. Can my students upload reviews they have written for other publications/organisations?
Yes, but If someone else wants you to write a review for their paper or website, it’s up to you to check what the score is before putting it on here as YOU could be fired or sued by them. It’s completely up to you to make sure you own copyright over any work as we’re not legally liable for any work uploaded here that’s not yours. You’ll always be asked to confirm that you own any work before its uploaded to Rockhaq. For more info, check out our User Terms.
11. What does ‘beta’ mean? Is your site broken?
No way! We’ve used this word because we’ll be adding more features to Rockhaq for members over the coming months, this isn’t the final product. We’d really appreciate your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see more of and we’ll do our best to bring it to you. Get in touch here.
12. We love it and we need to think about how to fund it…
As each school is completely unique, we don’t believe in a ‘one size fits all’ policy. Yes we do charge for access to Rockhaq as we cannot run this without human input and, in line with our ambitions, we want to keep offering you more for your money.
13. Are there any free or pilot/trial options?
Yes! We’ve been asked about pilot schemes and we are pleased to say that we are now offering one for £575.00 on a very limited first-come basis. As for a free option, we need to know there is enough interest in an advert-supported version of the system, so please contact us with any questions.
14. How does it work again?
Find out more about how Rockhaq works here.
15. Can I abuse other Rockhaq members?
No, abuse or attacks on other Rockhaq community members isn’t cricket. Any members who ignore this run the risk of having their account suspended or deleted. Check out our Community Guidelines for more.
16. Can you come and give a talk at my school?
We love to talk about music and what we do and we’re inundated with these requests at the moment! To make it fair for everyone we’re happy to try and visit any new Rockhaq community member schools. Get in touch to ask.
17. Why ‘Rockhaq’?
Because almost every other name I could think of was already taken 
I think the word “hack” is suited to the ethos of the site – journalists use it as a derogatory term for members of our profession. Go forth, haqs, and enjoy your bounty! Find out more or join us.