Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-03-31/Special report

Wiki Loves Pride 2019 prepares to commemorate 50 years of LGBT+ activism
The Wikimedia community invites friendly people everywhere to participate in Wiki Loves Pride, the annual campaign to improve the scope and quality of our LGBT+ content. Edit articles, share photos, recruit your friends, and help your local LGBT community centre to organize a wiki editing party! Even though Pride Month is in June, the Wikimedia community starts celebrating early to publish content, prepare events, and to be ready to have discussions in 2 months when the celebration month starts.

2019 is special as the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the inciting event for the first Pride march. Pride marches now happen every year in many cities around the world. This anniversary is an occasion to reflect on what LGBT+ activism has done and what is still left to do. Older retellings of the Stonewall protest understated the contributions of trans people of color in being the first to speak out against oppression and the demographic which carried the burden of some of the worst discrimination. It is still true that in many places transgender and nonbinary people experience discrimination more often and more harshly than other demographics. For this 50th anniversary, consider that every city and every demographic has its own history of LGBT+ culture and activism, and edit Wikipedia to bring forward more of these stories and narratives.

The Signpost invites diversity
The Signpost published a misguided humor column in the February 2019 issue. The people involved in writing and publishing the article had good intentions and reputations for being advocates for the LGBT+ community. Because of this, the answer is not to discourage anyone from being bold in making news submissions, but rather to encourage our diverse contributor base to better respect all parts of our community. For people who want to discuss that column more, and how The Signpost can do better, there are channels for this. But another way to make your voice heard is to contribute to The Signpost. It always seeks contributors who will write journalism, interviews, and opinions on topics of interest to Wikipedia's community of editors. If you understand some segment of Wikipedia which is less known to others, then uncover the process in journalism to educate and entertain your fellow editors. Anyone who knows nothing about Wikipedia but who is willing and able to conduct and write an interview may contact editors in the usual channels, ask a few questions, and report their stories. Share the kinds of stories which you would want to read! Start by proposing your idea in the Signpost newsroom.

Anyone can edit!
Participate in Wiki Loves Pride by editing Wikipedia, submitting photos of your local pride parade, or improving the scope and quality of Wikipedia's LGBT+ coverage in whatever way is most interesting to you.

Discuss articles at WikiProject LGBT Studies
Anyone with questions about editing Wikipedia's LGBT+ articles can find peer to peer assistance at WikiProject LGBT Studies, which is the primary forum for curating LGBT+ content on English Wikipedia. Anyone who has ideas for better ways to present articles can do so there. If you are new to Wikipedia and you write some content, you can join the WikiProject by participating in conversations and sharing your edits on the talk page.

Anyone can organize your own outreach!
Consider organizing a wiki editing event at your local LGBT community centre or other queer-friendly space. At a typical event, a group of people meet for 1-2 hours in a place with computers and Internet access. The event host chooses a topic, such as "LGBT history in this community", and everyone in attendance shares information on that topic in Wikipedia. See WP:Meetup for some instructions. Consider replicating the outreach model of the Art + Feminism project, which set its 2019 Wikipedia editing theme as "Gender + The Non Binary". Consider using the instructions that Art+Feminism uses for their events, and if you organize an event, leave a notice of it on the Wiki Loves Pride 2019 page.

Anyone can join wiki governance and policy writing!!
Aside from being an encyclopedia which people read, Wikipedia is also a place where writers, researchers, experts, and readers meet to collaborate in producing that encyclopedia. Part of making the encyclopedia is establishing the culture and guidelines that enable everyone to enjoy creating articles together. Just as anyone can edit Wikipedia articles, anyone can also participate in community organization and edit Wikipedia's rules and guidelines. Consider joining a Wikimedia community organization for developing outreach plans, strategies, writing guidelines, and policies of interest to the LGBT+ community!

Our major challenge is not countering abuse, but rather providing better educational resources and guidance to people for constructive collaboration on Wikipedia. One part of making things better is showcasing projects in the theme of the gender nonbinary through Wiki Loves Pride and other community groups that have positive things to offer. But just as everyone is invited to write Wikipedia's articles, so is everyone able to write policies which teach a culture through which we show respect to each other and foster diversity and inclusion. If you do not see yourself represented, then please speak up and represent yourself.

Community conduct
Everyone agrees that Wikipedia should be a place for friendly collaboration. On occasion, the great diversity of Wikipedia matches together people of different understanding and culture. Although they mean well, the conduct and interaction policies we establish either resolve or prevent anyone from causing or feeling offense or attack. Some people have behavior which is incompatible with community collaboration and Wikipedia best serves this demographic by encouraging them off-wiki and where they can find outlets where their contributions are a better fit.

Many projects have a non-discrimination policy or a code of conduct. English Wikipedia has neither of these. Should it? Share your thoughts on these experimental proposals which could use your feedback.
 * Develop the proposal for an English Wikipedia non-discrimination policy
 * Develop the Wikimedia Code of Conduct
 * Comment on Wikmedia New York City Code of Conduct, just published in January 2019!
 * Respond to the Wikimedia Foundation call for comments in the Community health initiative's prototype system for reporting user misconduct.

Manual of style
The Manual of Style is a collection of guidelines which the Guild of Copy Editors and other editors use to support uniform clarity and respect in Wikipedia's articles.

Develop English Wikipedia's gender identity guideline at MOS:GENDERID or review related discussion at "Manual of Style/Gender identity".

Increasingly, Wikipedia relies on structured data to categorize and report its content. Off-wiki devices, including personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google products, use Wikipedia and Wikidata content as the foundation of the general reference information which they provide in response to user requests. Learn about the issue and share your opinion with others in developing the Wikidata policy for gender tagging with structured data.

Join Wikimedia LGBT+
You are invited to join Wikimedia LGBT+, a Wikimedia community organization, to organize and promote LGBT+ wiki programs and events! Like many wiki organizations, this one is scrappy and volunteer run with no budget or particular administration. Anyone who wishes to join may, and anyone can organize LGBT+ wiki programs. There's more! The Wikimedia Foundation is currently organizing the conversation around the movement-wide strategy. If anyone wishes to represent Wikimedia LGBT+ in the Strategy Liaisons Organized Group, then please volunteer to be the individual who represents all LGBT+ people who use or feel the influence of Wikimedia projects. Such representative opportunities in global conversations regularly occur both in Wikimedia and other international organized calls for comment, so join the group if you want to be heard.