On this page you will learn how to write for Activist Handbook. Any contribution is valued, no matter how small. Create a completely new page, add some resources to a page, or correct a typo.
We made using Activist Handbook super simple. Visit our support page to learn more about how to use our website.
These guidelines are a working document that should constantly evolve. Please suggest changes!
There are two ways to do this:
Original content is used to mean anything that is published for the first time on Activist Handbook, which therefore does not exist previously anywhere else.
The primary aim of Activist Handbook is to research, collect, categorise and share information useful to activists, by making it available and easy for consultation all in one place. Material that has already been published through publications, toolkits, on other organisations’ websites etc will therefore be the priority focus of content uploaded on and shared through the Activist Handbook’s website.
However, unlike Wikipedia, Activist Handbook might in the future allow the publication of original research. For example, AH could carry on its own research in the future by running surveys among the activists and organisations with specific targets, and finally publishing the results.
Unlike Wikipedia, for example, we encourage contributors to write about topics they are close to. For example, we believe that people of a particular marginalised identity are the best people to write about making activism accessible for their communities. Also, activists in a particular organisation are the people best placed to write about that organisation.
However, we should also be wary of the effect of being close to a subject we are writing about. For example, members of a particular organisation should be wary of unduly promoting that organisation when writing about them. When you’re writing, ask yourself, would this perspective be controversial in a circle of activists from other progressive organisations? If so, present their perspectives too.
The Activist Handbook values personal experiences of activists and strives to gradually create a space where activists benefit through a peer-to-peer exchange process.
Personal experience is however subjective and anecdotal. This is in clear contrast with information which is objective and factual. The two types of information should therefore be well signaled, and differentiated from one another, on the website. It should be clearly stated what is factual (and what are the sources) and what is anecdotal (and who is sharing that piece of experience). For the latter, a disclaimer could be used to say that this doesn’t necessarily reflect AH’s opinion.
A specific place where to collect personal experience of activists should be created, either at the end of each page of content (if related to a particular topic/tool/method etc.) or in a separate space on the website (could be a blog-style space).
Activist Handbook recognizes the importance of the personal opinions of activists who are and are not a member of the AH to create a dialogue and share their opinions of activism in their region. We recognize that the opinions published on our website and shared throughout our social media that those opinions do not reflect the overall Activist Handbook as a community.
We also recognise that some level of opinion is impossible to avoid when writing. For example, we are all of the opinion that activism is a good way to make change. However, when writing articles which are not explicitly opinion pieces, we should be wary to include a range of opinions from within our community of progressive activists. These can be introduced with examples from organisations who hold these opinions. What we should avoid is writing our own opinion within pieces which are not explicitly opinion pieces, when that opinion may not be shared by the activist community.
Activist Handbook is a diverse group of people involved in all forms of progressive activism that come from all around the world who wish to share their personal opinions about activism. To submit and publish personal opinions on our website is to ensure free speech and to ensure the voice of progressive activists are listened to, heard and acted upon.
The members of the content team decided on the 2020-06-25 that we discussed and agreed that personal opinions of activism should be published on the AH, but that, similar to personal experiences (see above), it should be clearly separate when somebody is talking about their own opinions
When you use a term that is used repeatedly across the website and might need explained, you can hyperlink to a page explaining what it means. For example, this is how it looks for the term anti-oppression practice. You can find term pages that already exist on the page for pages tagged “terms”: https://activisthandbook.org/t/terms
If a page for the term you are using does not exist yet, you can create one by adding a new page a using the tag “terms”.
Separate tags using an identical concept exist for:
Note, all pages explaining a resource should be tagged both with the “resources” tag and the format of resource that they are (e.g. “books”).
Every article should contain the following (in this order):
The first step when writing a new article is to collect resources. Resources can be external articles, books, movies, and more. Here are a few tips when collecting resources:
We use consistent formatting and styling to make it easier for visitors to skim through our website and find the content they were looking for. The examples below show how to format our website.
To subdivide an article with titles, first use the Heading 1. Subsections of particular parts are marked with Heading 2, and so forth.
Make links bold if they are an important part of the page. For example: do not make links to external resources bold, unless the page's main aim is to help people find external resources.
Do not use different font families.
References look like this: