Meta:Editorial guidelines

These guidelines are open to discussion and change. Please ask questions and make suggestions on the Talk page.

Code of conduct

All contributions to this wiki, including talk pages, are subject to the Geek Feminism Code of Conduct. Everyone who edits this wiki, but particularly administrators, are bound by the code of conduct. Non-administrators who violate the code of conduct may and will be banned on sight.

If you believe an administrator has violated the code of conduct, please contact the Geek Feminism anti-abuse team. If you believe a non-administrator has violated the code of conduct, please alert [[::Category:Administrators|an administrator]] first, and, if you are unsatisfied with the response, the anti-abuse team.

Raison d'être and purpose

The Geek Feminism Wiki is intended to be a resource for women and other marginalized groups in geek communities, as well as a platform for discussion and documentation of the issues they face.

Amongst other things, we aim to:

examine geek culture from a feminist viewpoint
introduce geek women and women interested in geeky topics to feminist tools, analyses, and strategies that can be useful to them
introduce geek women to initiatives and organizations created to support them
improve the visibility of women, women's work and women's organizations in geek culture
detail counter-arguments to anti-feminist viewpoints encountered in geekdom
provide evidence (ranging from anecdotal to research-quality) that sexism in geek culture is endemic and systemic
explore oppressions that intersect with gender in geek culture

Values

feminist
inclusive (in opposition to Geek gatekeeping, we believe anyone who wants to participate in geek communities, and can follow basic behavior standards, belongs.)
intersectional: "[Our] feminism will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit" — Flavia Dzodan.

Point of view and scope

The Geek Feminism Wiki aims to provide a feminist perspective on geekdom and the broader world. Including non-feminist or anti-feminist points of view is outside the scope of this project. Given that the vast majority of the Internet presents a non-feminist perspective on the world, there is little value and much harm in representing non-feminist perspectives in this particular space.

We define geekdom broadly—roughly as "things that participants identify as 'geeky' or 'geek culture'". (For more on this, see the Geek Feminism page.)

In-scope:

introduction to feminism for those coming in good faith, with the audience of women in geek communities -- and all members of geek communities -- in mind
documentation of the lived experiences of women in geek communities, and all structurally marginalized people in geek communities
incident reports about specific sexist and otherwise oppressive incidents in geek communities
tools to help geek women and women interested in geeky topics confront non-feminist viewpoints
strategies to help women survive, engage in self-care, and support other women in geek spaces
personal opinions from people who identify as both geeks and feminists and have experienced structural marginalization in geek communities
summaries of anti-feminist viewpoints accompanied by feminist analysis or critique

Out of scope:

non-feminist or anti-feminist viewpoints (unless they are both explicitly labeled as non-feminist or anti-feminist, and accompanied by feminist critique)
non-feminist or anti-feminist viewpoints stated as if they are the editorial position of the wiki
feminist viewpoints that are actively non-intersectional or anti-intersectional (such as capitalist feminism, white supremacist feminism, and biologically essentialist feminism)
apologia for misogynist, anti-feminist, oppressive, or other harmful actions or ideas, except to the extent they need to be described in order to be debunked
explanations of why any particular person, thing, or incident isn't sexist
men's feelings or opinions about feminism, sexism, relationships, sexuality, or any other topic, except when explicitly in the service of one of the specific in-scope items
debate on the validity of feminist perspectives or the realness of women's experiences, whether taking place in talk pages or articles
persuasion aimed at people who are skeptical about feminism and whose interests are served by the continuation of sexism and misogyny
educational content that can be found elsewhere and is aimed primarily at people who have not directly experienced sexism and misogyny

Specific points of clarification

The Geek Feminism Wiki is not Wikipedia

We do not have a neutral point of view (NPOV) policy. Instead, we explicitly declare that we analyse topics from a feminist perspective.
Further to which: the editorial point of view of the wiki is a feminist one. Framing it as such is not only permitted, but encouraged. Presenting a non-feminist or anti-feminist viewpoint as that of the wiki is verboten.
While citations are preferred wherever possible, we do not require them. Much of our wiki is primary source material, sometimes added anonymously in order to avoid backlash against the whistleblower. Original research is welcome.
Notability is measured against the yardstick of this wiki's goals and values, not against that of Wikipedia or geek culture as a whole.
We can and will ban editors -- whether anonymous (identified by IP addresses) or named -- with no warning and no recourse. Our wiki, our rules.
We strongly recommend that all edits that could conceivably generate disagreement be discussed on the talk page first. We strongly discourage new editors, especially those new to feminism, from being bold.
All decisions by wiki administrators are final.

Our vision of intersectional feminism

As a consequence of the values and purpose described above, we

are aware that disability issues, race issues, trans issues, queer issues, and age issues (not an exhaustive list) are all women's issues as well
are not sympathetic to trans-eliminationist (or trans-exclusionary or trans-exterminationist) radical feminist TERF viewpoints, nor any other position that denies the lived experience of people who are genderqueer, transsexual, transgender, gender-non-conforming, genderfree, genderfluid, agender, trans*, or otherwise are denied the universal acceptance of their sex and gender as valid
are not sympathetic to health or body policing, including but not limited to fat-shaming, fatphobia, sizeism, healthism, or any other form of oppressing, bullying or belittling a person based on their real or perceived physical appearance or health status
especially encourage contributions from women whose needs have not historically been served by feminism, including but not limited to women of color, disabled women, and trans women
emphasize structural rather than individualist analyses of obstacles to women's participation in geek communities
accept each person's self-reporting of their feelings and lived experiences as valid

"But some men too"

Covering men's experiences of rape, childhood sexual abuse, sexual harassment, bullying, online harassment, workplace discrimination, domestic violence, impostor syndrome, objectification, othering, or any other form of oppression is outside the scope of this wiki. We believe that men are capable of helping and supporting each other as regards their survivorship of rape, abuse, or violence, and that it would be condescending for us to assume otherwise (see Nothing about us without us).
We are an intersectional feminist wiki, so discussion of how people who aren't women experience oppression and marginalization in the communities we serve is within scope. This kind of discussion is distinct from discussion of how men may ostensibly be targeted specifically because they are men for rape, harassment, violence, or any other kind of harm.
Giving undue weight to uncommon cases where men experience treatment usually reserved for women is not acceptable on this wiki. Erasing structural violence against women by drawing a false equivalence between random or isolated incidents targeting men and coordinated, systematic oppression of women is also not acceptable and will be reverted with prejudice.

Comprehensiveness

The longstanding contributors to this wiki all have numerous other demands on their time. As such, while we try to cover as many topics, incidents, and events as we can, some will inevitably not be addressed in a timely manner. The absence of an entry on any particular subject should not be construed as a value judgement of any kind. If you do not have time to add an article yourself, we suggest adding any incidents to Timeline of incidents with supporting links, and adding other suggestions to Meta:Brainstorm.

Moderation

Perspective

As one might expect, this wiki is a frequent target for vandalism, attempts to delete content or distort its meaning, generalizations of sexist phenomena that erase structural power imbalances and destroy meaning, and other forms of disruption and repression. While the admins would dearly love to contemplate each contribution at length, writing thoughtful, sensitive and detailed feminist analyses of any contribution that we feared we must decline, we sadly do not have copious amounts of free time to lavish upon the wiki. As such, non-constructive edits tend to be assertively and rather bluntly rejected. Too, accounts and IP addresses that submit such changes are often summarily banned, out of respect for our fellow wiki administrators' time.

Controversial edits: please talk first

Further to the above, if you are about to make a change, please ask yourself whether somebody (perhaps someone whose life experience differs from yours) is likely to interpret it as a bad-faith edit. If so, please discuss it on the article's talk page first. Discussion on the talk page is not strictly required, but is a way for you to communicate your good faith. As such, expressing willingness to participate in a collaborative process markedly lowers the chances that your unimpeachably good intentions will be misconstrued, as well as the chances that you will be tragically and unjustly banned from editing.

Whyyy did you revert my edits?!?

Besides outright vandalism, common reasons include:

hostility towards women, feminists, and/or feminism
equivocation
softening of legitimate criticism
blatant apologia for acts which are rightly condemnable
vacuous generalizations of sexist behavior to "all people"
generalizations of guides to being inclusive of/welcoming to women or oppressed people to "welcoming to everyone"
introduction of irrelevant information
concern trolling or use of the tone argument, including claims for Neutral Point Of View (see the '#The Geek Feminism Wiki is not Wikipedia' section on this page.)
victim-blaming
sheer banality

You may find some of the introductory resources on the wiki helpful in learning about why your changes were rejected. The Feminism 101 and Elementary mistakes in feminist discussion pages are two suggested starting points.

Privacy and accountability

One of the main functions of this wiki is documenting abusive behavior. Abusive behavior happens when people abuse other people. Sometimes, people are not happy about their abusive behavior being documented with their real names attached. But hurting people has consequences, and one of those consequences is having other people know that you deliberately inflicted harm. We think that this cost is relatively minor compared to the harm done to the victims of the types of sexist incidents that we document here. We also center the feelings of victims and survivors; we think that there are plenty of other spaces online that center abusers' feelings.

Some people who are committed to defending abuse call it "outing" or "doxxing" when people are held accountable for their actions. This is a false equivalence between standing up for people who have been hurt, and hurting people. Words have meaning, and context matters.

In other words, as a wiki, we are totally in favor of making the identities of abusers known. Any attempt to equate this form of accountability with putting a marginalized person's life in danger by publishing their home address on the Internet is likely to be grounds for a swift and lengthy ban.

Censorship and freedom of speech

The Geek Feminism Wiki is not a common carrier and is not required to accept all contributions regardless of their content. In addition, the Geek Feminism Wiki is not a branch of the government of any nation. In fact, the wiki is global in scope and not subject to the First Amendment or the specific laws of any other country.

The wiki is not obligated to represent any particular point of view. There are an extremely large number of forums on the Internet that tolerate and embrace views that are sexist, racist, transphobic, homophobic, and so on. It is neither an imposition on individual rights nor does it constitute suppression of any particularly meritorious writing when we request respect for our forum. Such content is broadly and freely available almost everywhere else.

Adding men's rights apologia (for example) to a page on this wiki and citing "free speech" when that edit is reverted is much like spray-painting "YOLO" on your neighbor's car and then complaining that the police are violating your free speech rights while they arrest you.

Style guide

Language/dialect

The Geek Feminism Wiki respects all dialects of English. In new content, you may choose which dialect to use. In an existing article, do not edit solely to change the dialect of English (for example, changing "centre" to "center").

Gender neutral language

When possible, use gender-neutral pronouns when you are referring to a hypothetical person whose gender is irrelevant. A good way to do this is to use singular "they". For example: write "A person with impostor syndrome applies an unfairly high standard to themself" rather than "A person with impostor syndrome applies an unfairly high standard to herself or himself". The primary reason for using gender-neutral language is to include people whose pronouns are un-gendered.
- Do not edit existing articles to make gender-neutral language gender-specific unless the meaning of the existing article is incorrect.

Links

We have a strong preference for linking to a page on this wiki using simple wiki links [[Like this]], even if it doesn't yet exist (eg. is a "redlink"). If you want to refer to something that has, or might have, a page on this wiki, please link to it in that way. This makes it show up on Special:WantedPages and helps us build the wiki.
Use your judgement as to what pages we might want on this wiki. Not everything needs to be a page here, but if something is a notable concept, person, event, or organisation in the field of geeky feminism then it probably ought to be here!
Here are some example ways to include external links alongside wiki links:

   [[Like this]]<ref>http://example.com</ref>

The above will include a link in a references section at the bottom of the page.

   [[Like this]] ([http://example.com website])

The above will make the link more visible inline (this is especially good on pages that are mostly lists of things).

Article names

Use an initial capital, but no capitals within the name unless it's a proper noun (eg. "Anime fandom", not "Anime Fandom"). This makes it easier to link in lower case form, eg. if you're talking about anime fandom in the middle of a sentence.
Use the singular rather than plural form, eg."Computer game" rather than "Computer games". This makes it easy to talk about either one computer game or multiple computer games in wiki markup.
Do not move or rename any article (except for minor style issues) without prior discussion. If you think an article should be renamed, discuss it on the talk page. Unilaterally moving a page is grounds for a ban.

Common sections

The following list of sections are commonly included on pages on this wiki:

Incidents: a list of related Category:Incidents applying to the page
Responses: commentary on an issue or incident, often in the form of a list of blog posts
Legacy and impact: sometimes used to link to other pages inspired by the subject of the first page, see eg. Octavia Butler
See also: links to related resources on this wiki
External links: links to websites outside this wiki, especially official sites, wikipedia pages, etc