LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki

Getting started

If you want to enter or edit information, create an account by emailing jonathan@lgbthistoryuk.org with your name, email address, a chosen ‘Username’, for this site, and Jonathan will send you a password. If you have an area of interest or represent an organisation, please include that in your email.

Once you have your password, you can log in and search for a term, using the search field below the login field. Use the correct spelling, upper- and lower-case letters, as appropriate, because, if the article does not exist already, it will ask you to create a page with this exact title. If you’re creating a page that’s the name of an organisation, use the full name (e.g. “The European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation”), then put the initials (e.g. “EGLSF”) in brackets after the name in the body of the article. We recommend missing out the word “The” in the page title, as it makes it easier for people to find the page.

e.g. The European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation (EGLSF) is the umbrella association for LGBT sports clubs in Europe…

If the page already exists, you may edit it using the “edit” tab, if the page does not already exist, it will ask you if you want to create it – click the red title to create the page. Then start writing.
Alternatively, click on the “Special pages” link in the left-hand Toolbox, click onto “All pages” or “Wanted pages” to browse what’s been done, and what links need new pages.
If you edit someone else’s page, it’s always a good idea to describe what you did in the ‘Summary’ field, before you save it.

Guidelines to writing

• use a neutral point of view, avoid articles that read like adverts
• use the third person throughout — avoid “I”, “we”, or “you” (unless you’re writing personal quotation)
• be careful with statements about living people that could be libellous
• don’t mention people’s HIV status unless relevant and publicised
• supply references for any contentious statements
• don’t copy from other websites and books without permission from the copyright owner
• be aware that you don’t own what you’ve written and other people may change it
• don’t hide the URLs of external web sites
• use modern UK spelling and punctuation conventions, for instance "theatre" rather than "theater" and "E M Forster" rather than "E. M. Forster" (but keep the original spelling etc in direct quotations)
• for consistency, we've chosen to use plural for category names

Pictures

The rainbow flag, a picture from Wikimedia Commons

A picture tells a thousand words! Pictures are welcome on all articles, but we need to beware of the law of copyright. Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/ - is a very useful source of illustrations that are free to use, and very easy to incorporate into an article on this Wiki. We also welcome pictures for which you have the copyright (for instance photos you've taken yourself) or where you've got written permission from the copyright owner. You might even consider uploading your pictures to Wikimedia Commons, so that other sites such as Wikipedia can make use of them.

To include a picture in an article use the following code: [[File:Myphoto.jpg|thumb|Caption]], replacing "Myphoto.jpg" with the filename of the picture (on this Wiki or on Wikimedia Commons), and "Caption" with a short caption which will appear under the photo. Take a look at some of our illustrated articles (or the rainbow flag in this section) for examples.

Suggested topics

• Art
• Awards
• Bisexuality
• Black and minority ethnic
• Businesses
• Campaigns
• Crime
• Events
• Health
• History and archives
• Legislation
• Lesbianism
• LGBT culture and lifestyle
• Lists
• Media
• Music
• Online resources
• Organisations
• People
• Politics
• Relationships
• Religion
• Sports
• Trans
• Venues
  

Remember, this is aimed to be UK-only LGBT History. Take a look at our main categories page.

And see also our Articles needed page for a list of subjects that ought to be covered but haven't been yet.