content guidelines

Guidelines for content published on libcom.org.

Notes on the kind of content we want in different areas of our site, and guidelines on format and layout of that content.

Style guide

The libcom.org style guide is designed to give our website more consistency in our articles across all the different sections. A lot of great material and information in alternative media sources today suffers from simply poor quality production and style, and we aim to try and address that. Compiled with help from Freedom Press, this style guide applies to the News, Thought, Organise and Features parts of the site.

This guide may seem large but please do not be put off! The most important thing is that we want content. If you have an article you think would be good on libcom.org let us have it in whatever form you can. If necessary we can edit it so that it fits our guidelines and any random bits and pieces we can put in our Library. This style guide is included so people know why and how we might be editing any submissions, and for any people who feel they can take these suggestions into account when writing new content.

Tone
Different sites have different ways of conveying information. On libcom.org we decided
that the most effective way for us to get our message across is with a uniform tone and general style of writing across the site. The tone we would like to maintain on all sections of the site should have the following characteristics:

Serious - avoiding rhetoric and overly emotive language

Clear - written using simple English, free from jargon

Concise – trying to keep below 2,000 words per article where possible. Longer articles can go in our Library.

Outward-looking - i.e. aimed at the intelligent layperson, not at people who are anarchists, activists or libertarian communists already. Not talking down to anyone, but explaining all historical references, specialised vocabulary, etc. and in general trying to address general issues of concern to all.

Content
These are the kinds of articles and writing styles we would like for different parts of the site:

News
Primarily we are interested in three main things, in this order of importance:
- Stories about people taking collective direct action to improve their lives. Example: Fighting the Fair Hike in San Francisco
- Libertarian and working class analysis and perspective on current events, such as wars, natural disasters and other big mainstream news stories. Example: Post Office privatisation will be disguised as workers' ownership
- News about the effects of corporate and government policies on people and the environment. Example: 12 million trapped in forced labour worldwide

While these are our priorities we will publish almost any other news stories provided they fit the aims and ethos of the site with the general exception of the following topics:
- “Actions” - there are many websites for “activists” to post stories about “actions” they have taken part in, such as indymedia. We suggest using one of them instead of libcom. Example: Activists blockade Esso station
- The left - Leninist groups are a minor irrelevance in society who do not interest anyone. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, let’s not give them any attention they don’t warrant. Example: The Trotskyist Workers’ Alliance are rubbish
- Events - If you would like to advertise an event please use the appropriate board on our Forums, in our Britain section.

News reporting guidelines

Be concise
Top of the list because it can't be stressed enough. Anything which is not a direct fact useful to the piece should be removed. Try to stick to a low word count, ideally 250-500 for news articles, 600-1,000 for comment, 1,200-2,000 for in-depth pieces.

News is not comment
Try to limit personal opinion in news articles. Unlike the corporate media we don’t pretend to be objective, but we decided to avoid overly emotive and subjective language - for example “the disgusting cop actions left 11 injured” should be “the police actions left 11 injured”. News and comment are two separate things, generally please try to treat them separately.

Be contemporary
You could find a great news story a few weeks old, so to make it sound current there are a few tricks you can use. Couch your language in the present - 'Prince Harry has been wearing a nazi uniform' sounds more up to date than 'Prince Harry wore a nazi uniform two weeks ago'.

Answer six questions
Who, Why, What, Where, When, How. Who and what should be the first questions you answer - assume your audience has no prior knowledge of your subject.

Worth a thousand words...A relevant picture is a great addition to any news story. Our news section automatically resizes pictures to fit, so please add them to each article you can.

Read more about submitting news...

Organise
Any article with tips on various aspects of collective organising and action. Ideally fewer than 2,000 words.

History
Any historical article from a libertarian/working class point of view. Ideally under 2,000 words, they can come from any period in history, right up until last week!

Library
Any libertarian left text, interview, book, account, set of images or article which would not quite fit in any of our other sections.

General notes
In all the sections of the site, please try to take the following suggestions into account:

Use as many sources as possible - The more sources you have, the more reliable, well-rounded and believable your story.

Cross-reference - If you add links in parts of your article to other articles or sections on libcom.org, please do! Further reading and links for more information at the end are very welcome.

Avoid clichés, rhetoric and slang - Clichés are lazy writing and should only be used if you really can't think of anything else. Lefty rhetoric or slang, such as “Bliar” instead of “Blair” say, should be avoided at all costs since they immediately alienate a large audience and make reading uncomfortable for people outside activist culture. They also make a writer seem unprofessional and childish.

Cut down on capitals - Anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, communist etc. as well as government and state should all be done without capital letters. Communist with a capital “c” can and should be used if referring to members of USSR-supporting Communist Parties. Try not to use political labels unnecessarily as they break up the reading flow, and may confuse the issue.

Use shorter words - Never use 'achieve' when you can say 'do'. Make sure you don't use words which people might not understand - 'Precarity' for example - unless you absolutely have to, and make sure you explain what it means if you do. If you can, go through the text afterwards to check and explain any word or reference the average person wouldn’t know.

Kropotwho? - Don't use quotations from people not directly involved. This includes dead theoreticians and living philosophers.

CNwhat? - Do not assume in-depth historical or anarchist knowledge, particularly with respect to libertarian groups and historical events. Don’t mention groups, such as the CNT, without referring first to their full name, acronym and brief description – e.g. instead of “CNT”, first write “the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), a Spanish anarchist trade union”. It can then be referred to simply as “CNT” from then on. Don’t refer to historical events in shorthand, like “Kronstadt”, instead say “the grassroots rebellion of workers and sailors against the Bolshevik Russian Government in 1921”, and/or provide a link to a related page on libcom with more information.

Grammar and abbreviations
To keep a standard look and feel across our site, we try to maintain a consistent use of grammar and abbreviations

Capitals - In article and page titles, only the first word should be capitalised. E.g. “US forces invade China”, not “US Forces Invade China”.

Royalty/Religion - All titles should be capped (big first letter) - the Queen, Prince (Charles/William etc.), the Pope. The Archbishop of Canterbury is Dr. Williams. Clergy should be first the Rev. John Brown, then just Rev. Brown after that. E.g. The Rev John Brown denounced Protestantism today as 'a bit silly'. Rev. Brown, a leading figure...

Everybody else - Start off using their full name. After that if it's someone we like, use their first name. If not, use their second name, with the exception of well-known figures, whose most easily recognisable name should be used - e.g. Chomsky rather than Noam. Don't use any decorations or honours.

Full stops - “USA”, not “U.S.A.”. Use “etc.” “e.g.”, and “i.e.” Don't abbreviate: Place names to St, Rd etc. Don't use Mr, Mrs or Ms at all. Don't abbreviate non-name words - “headquarters” shouldn't become “HQ” because it means unnecessary capitals.

Federations - The UK libertarian federations can be abbreviated to SolFed (Solidarity Federation), AF (Anarchist Federation) IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), EF! (Earth First!) and Class War (Class War Federation). Always explain who they are at the beginning of the piece for sake of new readers.

Money/Numbers - Million shortens to m (£1m), billion to bn. Trillion is written as is because it isn't used often. Per cent becomes %. One to nine are written as words, 10 and above as numbers. If counting in euro it should be Eu120. “Euro” should always be in lower case, and “euro” is both singular and plural. Weights and measures always use the shortened version, except metres and miles. For wars, please use capitalising and numbers as follows: World War I/II, or First/Second World War.

Footnotes - In the body of text, please place the number of the footnote in square brackets like this[1], and at the end please list them:
1. Like this

Apostrophes - Apostrophes indicate possession or abbreviation. “Its” is the possessive form of it, so like “his” and “her” there is no apostrophe. The only time you need an apostrophe in “its” is when it is an abbreviation for “it is” or “it has” – e.g. “it’s cold” or “it’s got big teeth”. Acronyms do not require apostrophes in the plural form – i.e. “CDs and DVDs”, not “CD’s and DVD’s”

Exclamation marks - No, no, no, no, no! Try to avoid wherever possible. They undermine a serious message.

Hyphens - We use hyphenated political labels. For example, anti-fascist, anarcho-syndicalist, anarchist-communist, etc.

Words and phrases
For terms related to political labels and terminology, particularly related to class, please take a quick look at our Glossary and try to apply them as we define them there.

Activists – most “activists” aren’t the full-time professional activists that term implies: they’re just normal people, so try to refer to them as such. If they are professional or full-time drop-out activists then please specify. See also Demonstrators and Protestors.

Anarchists believe – Please do not use, because it isn't 'anarchists', it's the writer.

Anti-capitalist – Whatever anti-capitalist movement there was is now mostly dead, and the term has little resonance with anyone any more. Please avoid (see also Anti-anything else, below)

Anti-globalisation – The anti-globalisation movement was very badly named, and deeply flawed at the root of its politics, please try to avoid (see also Anti-anything else, below)

Anti-anything else – Lefties are often seen as “anti”-everything, so please do not fuel that impression by using “anti” excessively

Basically – Avoid. You are already putting it in layman's English, no need to labour the fact.

Bush's poodle - Possibly the most overused phrase apart from Bliar in the alternative press today. Along with similar lefty clichés please avoid.

Bourgeoisie/Bourgeois – Sounds very old-fashioned, out-dated and complex. We prefer to talk of capital as the enemy of the working class, but if it must be used please use modern equivalents possible, or provide a definition if you really must.

Capital - Try to use this term to describe the entity of capitalism which the working class's interests are opposed to, rather than capitalist class, or bourgeoisie, which are a little muddy in terms of definition.

Class – Due to confusion about class on the left and in the general population we try to maintain a uniform usage across the site:
- Working Class: The working class consists of all the people in society who can not get by without selling our time and energy to a boss - by working. I.e. if we do not make large amounts of money from property holdings or owning a business we have to be wage labourers, or in some places in the world rely on state welfare or crime.
- Capitalist Class: The capitalist class consists of those individuals who do not have to work (though they generally do) since they draw enough income from property such as land, housing or businesses/stocks and shares. However when talking of the entity whose interests are opposed to the working class we prefer to talk of capital.
- Middle class: The middle class does not exist as an economic class. It is a sociological or cultural label, so please be more specific (e.g. “professionals”, “intellectuals”, “home owners” or “more privileged workers” if that’s what you mean) where possible, or alternatively if you really have to use is add the “cultural” or “sociological” qualifier – e.g. “the sociological middle class largely opposed the Bill”.
Please see our Glossary for more information on the definitions of class and classes we use on libcom.org

Deliberate misspellings such as cos, innit etc. - Activists trying to be more street. Ouch. Avoid.

Demonstrators – See activists

Fascism/fascist – Only use when referring to actual ideological fascism. Its usage referring to non-fascist phenomena like liberal democratic governments makes the author sound silly.

Middle class – see class

Obviously – Avoid. It's only obvious to you, not to casual readers.

Proletariat - see bourgeoisie

Propaganda - The word "propaganda" is associated with distortion of fact for political gain, usually by dictatorial regimes. When talking of material designed to persuade people of a political idea, please use a different term, such as "outreach material"

Protestors – see activists

Smash – You can’t really smash an abstract concept, so please don’t encourage people to try.

Swearwords – Avoid in news or information articles as it can make the writer look immature, and put readers off.

Unsurprisingly – There is no such thing if you want to write for a mass audience. Avoid.

Working class – See class

Z - Go easy on the zeds. Please use UK English spellings of words, i.e. "organise" not "organize".

This style guide is designed as an addition to large guides like the Guardian’s (guardian.co.uk/styleguide), rather than as a comprehensive replacement. The Guardian guide contains large numbers of standardised ways of referring to people, places, companies and concepts and is worth checking out if you ever have anything you’re unsure about.

libcom group, with help from Freedom Press
We encourage other groups, websites and publications to use or adapt this guide if they so desire.

Article formatting guide

A guide to laying out and formatting your article to fit with the general look of libcom.org.

For a more detailed guide on how to write articles, please see our News report writing guide.

For tips on categorising your article - adding region, sector and tag information, see our article tagging guide.

Title
Enter article title capitalising only the first word and any proper nouns in the title. e.g.
Janitors in Houston reach deal to end strike

Try to keep article titles as short as possible, while still explaining what the article is about.

For news articles please include the country or city (if major) of the news story . e.g.
Bangladesh: Police open fire on striking workers

For library articles, include the date of that article, or the dates covered, and the author in the title in the following format:
GI opposition the Vietnam War, 1965-1973 - Howard Zinn

Image
Please add an image to any article you post up. Try to include the most relevant picture possible. Google image search is a great way to find photographs, but please do not post up images copyrighted by big companies like the BBC or Associated press.

If you cannot find a photograph of the exact story you are covering, please use one related to the person, company, or city that is mentioned, for example. Ideally the photograph will be a good image, with the bulk of the detail in the centre of the image, so that it will be visible in our site's thumbnails.

Introduction
Always include a short abstract explaining exactly Who, What, and Where your article is about. Ideally it should be about 130 characters, or 1-2 lines of text on the screen.

Article
Please add any extra summarising information in the first paragraph of the main part of your article.

Use short paragraphs.

In your article, if you include subheadings, please use bold text for subheadings, with italics for secondary subheadings. Please do not leave a gap between body text and subheadings. e.g.

The strike begins
Workers downed tools at 4.30pm on April 5...

Timeline
21 December
New employment bill becomes law.

27 December
First street protests held
...

Please credit sources at the end of your article with any relevant information such as author, edits or translations, in italics. e.g.

By Wildcat Germany, taken and slightly edited by libcom from www.prol-position.net

Thank you for reading, and for making libcom.org an easier and more attractive site to use!

BBCode

http://libcom.org/filter/tips/6

This document uses (almost) all BBCode tags supported by Drupal's BBCode module.

Normal text formatting:

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Test subscript text - H₂O
Test superscript text - X³

Font colors:

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Font sizes:

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Text alignment:

Left hand side of the screen

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Centered

This paragraph is justified on both sided on the page. By default most browsers render text with a jagged right edge. If you want all text rendered like in a book with an even right edge you can use the justify tag.

Images:

Normal image:

Float image right:

Re-sized image:

Let's test some URLs:

www.test-url.com
ftp.test-url.com
http://test-url.com/~user/,part,of,url
ftp://test-url.com:8080/
http://test-url.com/
Test URL

Anchor (bookmark you can link to):
URL Anchor

Some URL's within a sentence: http://url1.com; www.url2.com, (www.url3.com) and www.url4.com. And some more: ftp://url5.com/, (ftp.url6.com/) and ftp.url7.com.

Google link: BBCode
Wikipedia link: BBCode

Let's test some E-mail addresses:

Test@Mail.com
drupal.user@server1.drupal.org
joe@example.com
Joe Smith

Test headings:

Level 1 Heading

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Test acronyms and abbreviations:

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API
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WWW

Acronyms:
SQL
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radar

Code blocks:

Normal code block:

x := y + z;
y := a - b;

An inline code block

Color highlighted PHP code block:


&lt;?php
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?&gt;

Test notag:
These BBCode tags are [b]not[/b] converted to HTML!
I'm happy

Quoting

A simple quote:

Quote:

This is a quoted message

Quote with source:

Frank wrote:

This is a quoted message

Nested quotes:

Gabor wrote:

This is a quoted message
Alastair wrote:

This is a nested quote

Lists

A normal list (circular bullets, same as list=c):

List with discs (list=d):

List with squares (list=s):

Numeric list (list=1):

Roman lowercase list (list=i):

Roman uppercase list (list=I):

Alfa lowercase list (list=a):

Alfa uppercase list (list=A):

A nested list:

x
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Table tags

row1col1	row1col2
row2col1	row2col2

Other tags

Test marquee:
[move]Move tag - creates a scrolling display[/move]

Horizontal delimiter:

Force line break:
-->
<--

Force space:
--> <--

Test tag nesting:

large red text
again - large red test with different tag order

Test multi-line tags:

test

Check for cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities

User-entered text with embedded script tags alert(document.cookie); will be encoded.

Some other exploits:
[=expression(alert(document.cookie));]Size tag[/]
[=expression(alert(document.cookie));]Font tag[/]
[float=expression(alert(document.cookie));]Float tag[/float]
[url=javascript:alert(document.cookie)]Click here to see cookie[/url]
[anchor=javascript:alert(document.cookie)]Anchor[/anchor]
[img]javascript grin ocument.location='http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html'[/img]
[img]javascript:al&#x65rt('XSS')[/img]
http://host.com/?act=SR&f='>alert(document.cookie)

Some broken tags

We need to ensure that bad formating will not disrupt your site's HTML.

Broken [b]bold text...

A broken list...

Quote:

A broken quote...

HOWTO: article submissions

How to submit and format articles and images to the library, history and news sections of libcom

A well formatted article is easier and more pleasant to read and should be easier for site users to quickly print off a readable copy. So a little extra work is worth it.

Many articles submitted to the library have been scanned in from hard copies of varying quality; the lower the quality of the original source book or magazine the initial scan comes from, the more errors needing correction in the scanned text. So proofread the scanned text as necessary for mistakes to be corrected.

Submitting and formatting

First, take a look at a formatted article - http://libcom.org/library/reds-green-short-tour-clerkenwell-radicalism. This will give you an idea of what we are talking about below. Also read the formatting guides for news and Library and History.

Submitting text/article
1) Click on 'create content' at top of page.
2) Click on library, history or news. This will take you to the appropriate page.
3) Type in the title of the article in the 1st box. This should use normal sentence case. I.e. "Strike continues at Ford". Rather than "Strike Continues at Ford".
4) Choose the appropriate categories for the article in the 'regions' and 'sectors' list. (If you are unsure on the correct choice, it can be done by an editor after submission.)
5) Enter a brief explanation of the article in the 'Introduction' box. If appropriate, this could be the 1st paragraph of the article. Otherwise, write a short descriptive summary of no more than 2-3 sentences. This will appear at the beginning of the article in bold type in the finished submission.
6) Paste in the article itself to the 'Body' box.

For example:

Title:
The Chinese anarchist movement
Introduction:
A history of the Chinese anarchist movement in France, Japan and China itself from 1900 up to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party.

For formatting text in articles, please see our BBCODE and HTML FAQ.

Some articles in their original format have too many line breaks. to correct this use a site like this one; http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html
- and set max characters to 999999 and Format.

Also ensure that you use (two) full line breaks for paragraphs to ensure readable text. One line break will not get caught by our automatic paragraph formatting.

Footnotes
Footnotes can be automatically generated at the end of articles. Where you would normally put the footnote number like [1] instead, put the text of your footnote wrapped in <fn>Footnote goes here</fn> tags. When you submit the article, Drupal will find all the footnotes and format the superscript numbers and link to them for you.

Submitting images
1. Use jpg or png files only.
2. Give the file a meaningful name.
3. Don't upload files over one MB. If you can only find a large version of a pic, various resizing applications can be found online, or download (http://gimp.org is a good one)
4. Do not use copyright images, and especially not copyright images from news agencies like AP.

Instructions for windows users:
To submit a main image that will appear at the top of the article, use the 'Image' box.
You will need to have the image stored locally on your computer.
Click the 'browse' button to browse your PC to find where you have stored the image. A 'file upload' window will appear.
Browse to the file on your computer, images downloaded from the internet usually default to your "Desktop" folder
Click 'Open' and the file will appear in the 'Image' field on the Libcom submissions page.
Then press 'Upload' to bring the image file from your PC onto the site and into the article.
Then you can add, if you want to, in the "title" field, a caption for your image. This caption will appear when readers hover their mouse over the image.

Finally...
When possible, always provide the source of the article and the date of publication.

Library and history

Information on posting content to the libcom library

Library and History article format guidelines

Information on the layout and format of articles posted to libcom library

Titles
- Please only capitalise the first letter of any article titles (and any other already-capitalised words of course).
E.g. Capital, labour and primitive accumulation, not Capital, Labour and Primitive Accumulation.
- Please add the author's name to the title after a dash.
e.g. Capital, labour and primitive accumulation - Werner Bonefeld

Article
Please try to write an abstract for the introduction field for your article, explaining what it is about. This will appear on indexes like this: http://libcom.org/tags/russian-revolution. Try to keep it to around 150 characters, or 1.5 to 2.5 lines of text in the entry field.

Image
If possible, please add a relevant (non-copyright) image to your article via the upload form, this will also appear in indexes.

Tags
Most tags are added by libcom editors, but you can add the following:

Authors and groups. This applies only for writers and groups you'd expect to find in the library - i.e. alongside Marx, Kropotkin, Wildcat, Situationists etc. if the article mentions trade unions etc. these will be added as tags.

Sector: if the article deals with a particular sector or sectors, you can add that here.
Region: Please add the primary region the article deals with, if it has international scope, best to leave this blank rather than selecting every one.

Since September 2007, all historical articles are now found in our history section (this includes any detailed analysis of recent events that is not suitable for /news). All theoretical articles can now be found in the library.

If you need technical help with posting articles, or are not sure which section they should go in, please post in our feedback forum

Many thanks, and happy posting!

News

Information on posting to libcom news

News content and tone guidelines

Information on the type of news we want

If you've registered on libcom.org, you can post content to our news. There are particular kinds of articles we want most, and some obviously that we don't so much. But don't worry if we can't use something on our news page we will look at any other areas of the site where it might be suitable, or we may edit it to make it fit in.

For a detailed look at the type, style and tone of content we'd like on libcom.org, please take a look at our Style guide.

If you're not sure whether your article is suitable, take a look at our existing news articles for comparison, or consider posting it in the forums first.

For general advice on how to write news articles, see our news report writing guide.

In brief, however, here are a few basic tips and suggestions:

Content
For libcom.org news the main kinds of article we want are as follows, in this order of importance:

1. Stories about people taking collective direct action to improve their lives.
Example: Fighting the Fair Hike in San Francisco
2. Analysis of current events, such as wars, natural disasters and other big mainstream news stories from a class perspective.
Example: Post Office privatisation will be disguised as workers' ownership
3. News about the effects of corporate and government policies on people and the environment.
Example: 12 million trapped in forced labour worldwide

While these are our priorities we will happily publish other news stories provided they fit the aims and ethos of the site with the general exception of the following topics:

Actions:There are many websites for 'activists' to post stories about 'actions' they have taken part in, such as indymedia. We suggest using one of them instead of libcom.
Example: "Activists blockade Esso station"

The left: Leninist groups are a minor irrelevance in society who do not interest anyone. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, let's not give them any attention they don't warrant.
Example: "Trotskyist Workers' Alliance split"

Events: If you would like to advertise an event please use the appropriate board on our Forums.

Tone
To get our message across most effectively, we have decided to try to keep all content with the following tone:

- Serious - avoiding rhetoric and overly emotive language
- Clear - written using simple English, free from jargon
- Concise - try to keep articles below 700 words for news articles, 1,200 for reviews and 2,000 for analysis and features where possible. Longer articles can go in our Library, or if possible split into several news articles.
- Outward-looking - i.e. aimed at the intelligent layperson, not at people who are anarchists, activists or libertarian communists already. Not talking down to anyone, but explaining all historical references, specialised vocabulary, etc. and in general trying to address general issues of concern to all.

Many thanks, and happy posting!

If you need technical help with posting news articles, post in our feedback forum.

News format guidelines

Information on the layout and format of stories posted to libcom news

Titles
- Please only capitalise the first letter of any article titles (and any other already-capitalised words of course). E.g. US forces invade Iraq, not US Forces Invade Iraq.
- Please keep headlines short, to 40 characters or less, but still explaining adequately what the story is about.

Introduction
Please try to write an abstract as the introduction to your article, including the key information of Who, What, Where and When. This will appear on news listing pages like libcom.org/news or libcom.org/news/uk. Try to keep it to around 150 characters, or 1.5 to 2.5 lines of text in the entry field.

Tags
When entering tags for a story, please enter between 2 and 10 keyword tags. Enter them in lower case, unless they are proper nouns, and separate with commas. Important things to include are:
- The country the story is in – try to match the tags already in which will show up as you type. America is "USA" for example. UK stories don't need the country, unless Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.
- The city the story in, if it's a big city or US state
- If it's about a big company, the name of the company, e.g. Asda-Walmart
- If it's about a union or mentions a union a lot, the acronym of the union. E.g. Unison or TGWU
- If it's work related, add the name of the sub-industry the story's about, e.g. rail, local government, call centres, supermarkets or whatever
- If it's a strike add the tags strikes, if wildcat add wildcat strikes (as well as strikes), if general - general strikes as well
- If it's an interview, add interviews, if a review add reviews
- Any other good keywords you can think of, like: demonstrations, environment, climate change, police, etc.

Many thanks, and happy posting!

If you need technical help with posting news articles, please post in our feedback forum.

Tags - tagging your articles guide

A short guide to tagging and categorising your articles.

- Choose region for story, and industrial sector if appropriate (i.e. if about a strike in a particular sector, or a person who worked almost exclusively in that sector and did lots of stuff related to it). You can use multiple choice with CTRL-clicks
- In library or history, select any individuals or groups the article is about in the Authors box.
- Enter tags for the story. Try to enter between 2 and 10 keyword tags. Enter then in lower case, unless they're proper nouns, and separate with commas. Important things to include are:
---- The country the story is in – try to match the tags already in which will show up as you type. America is "USA" for example. UK stories don't need the country, unless Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.
---- The city the story in, if it's a big city or US state
---- If it's about a big company, the name of the company, e.g. Asda-Walmart
---- If it's a history or library historical piece, enter the decade it's about if relevant, e.g. 1950s. Bere 1800 enter the century, e.g. 1600s, or else BC, or 1-1000AD if before that.
---- If it's about a union or mentions a union a lot, the acronym of the union. E.g. Unison or TGWU
---- The name of the sub-industry the story's about, e.g. rail, oil, coal, local government, call centres, supermarkets or whatever
---- If it's a strike add the tags strikes, if wildcat add wildcat strikes, if general general strikes
---- If it's an interview, add interviews, if a review add reviews
---- If the article is related to race or racism add race, women or feminism add women, fascism or anti-fascism add fascism.
---- Any other good keywords you can think of, like: riots, environment, climate change, police, etc. - make it things that will end up with quite a few articles on. And try to match to any tags already used.

Forums - posting guidelines

9 things...
1. Start new threads in the appropriate forum. Give relevant, precise titles, don't capitalise every letter ("LOOK @ TH1S!!" - is not acceptable).
2. Give meaningful post content which gives people something to discuss - relevant? coherent? formatted?
3. Be civil!
4. Don't post up large 'copy and pastes'.
5. No adverts.
6. Have a look at these tools which may come in handy for the forum.
7. No trolling/direct linking.
8. Overview & legal bit.
9. Threads and posts will be deleted.

Be civil!
The internet is not as far removed from real life as you'd like it to be. People are real, have real feelings and thoughts. Do not abuse people because of their ideas and beliefs for no reason. Be aware that not everyone has read as much Bakunin as you. Be nice to new posters and people developing their ideas. ANY KIND of oppressive, sexist, racist, unreasonable personal abuse, discrimination etc. is not allowed and threads will be removed and offenders banned. Please respect people's privacy and refrain from posting up personal details without their permission.

Copy and pastes
Do not post up large chunks of cut and paste text, but make things easier for others by summarising the article and including a link to the unabridged version. If your text is not available elsewhere online you need to find somewhere to host it - perhaps our library or news section if it is relevant, otherwise use one of these sites to paste the article in then use the link to it - http://docs.google.com (free registration), http://writer.zoho.com (free registration) or http://paste.turbogears.org (no registration required). Post a comment on your summary in order to arouse interest in discussion around the article. What is a long piece of text? Think - would anyone be prepared to sit and read it in the context of a discussion forum?

Advertising
Any form of commercial or personal advertisements will be removed and the poster dealt with. Relevant adverts should be posted in the relevant form. This is a discussion forum, not a free advertising resource and offenders will be warned and then banned. Signature files/avatars are disabled and putting in links to your own website with every post isn't permitted either: we want to hear your opinions, not see the same link with every post!

Useful forum tools
All tools are free and nothing to do with libcom.org, where free registration is required look for the [R].
- http://www.box.net - upload any kind of files publicly and link to them from the forum [R].
- http://imageshack.us - upload, resize and link to images.
- http://docs.google.com - upload long text files (articles, pamphlets) here for referencing on the forums [R].
- http://tinyurl.com/ - turn long web addresses into short ones, or just use the URL button above the comment box.

Trolling/direct linking
Do not directly link to 'hostile' websites (leave gaps in the URL if you wish to refer to them or prefix the URL with http://anonym.to?). Anyone found posting up malicious links on other sites and/or trying to stir up 'board wars' will be banned. Persistently disruptive posters will be banned.

Overview & legal bit
Please remember we run these forums out of our own time and money. Please respect the boards and people putting effort into them. This is not a haven of free speech for some wackos with weird ideas, we have clear aims and ideas about what we are trying to encourage with this project and will strive to maintain those ideas. Forum posts represent the views of the respective posters, we do not take any responsibility for the contents of message boards posts and cannot be held responsible for any information in a post or any actions and events resulting from information within posts. All opinions stated on the forums are those of the individual authors and are not the responsibility of libcom.org.

N.B.
If your thread or post goes against any of these guidelines it is likely to end up in the bin or deleted. You have been warned. Old threads may be deleted without warning. PLEASE MAKE COPIES OF THREADS IMPORTANT TO YOU.

And lastly...
Watch this.