Best practices for contributing
This page outlines some best practices to follow when contributing content to Ace Archive.
Respect creators
Please be respectful of creators, particularly independent creators, when deciding whether to rehost content.
The purpose of rehosting content on Ace Archive is to preserve files which are in danger of becoming lost media. We may remove files from submissions that we feel are included in bad faith.
If you want your content removed from this site, feel free to contact us.
Respect the privacy of individuals
When listing the people associated with an artifact, make sure to respect the privacy of individuals. This means using handles or usernames when a person typically goes by a pseudonym online. Additionally, you must never use a person’s deadname.
If you have any privacy concerns about content on this site, feel free to contact us.
Respect identity labels
The language people and groups use to identify themselves can shift over time, and as part of this process, old labels that fall out of use may come to be considered outdated or offensive. It’s important, however, that we do not attempt to retroactively apply contemporary identity labels to people who did or do not use those labels themselves.
When listing the identities associated with an artifact, prefer the identity labels that appear in the text or that the people described use to identify themselves. However, if it is clear that the text is not attempting to accurately represent the identities of the people described, you do not need to mirror the language it uses.
In the words of the Digital Transgender Archive:
The creation of metadata requires interpretation and labeling and it can be a highly subjective and political act.
This bears keeping in mind.
Make content accessible
If the content is in a format that’s not accessible (such as a photo, a video, or a digital scan of a physical document), include transcripts/subtitles where possible. When adding transcripts as separate files, make sure it’s clear which files are transcripts and what they’re transcripts of.
Plain HTML documents using semantic elements where appropriate are a great choice for creating accessible transcripts of documents and photos. We provide CSS you can use for styling plain HTML which is simple, readable, and will respect the user’s light/dark theme preference.
We provide a template HTML file that links to our CSS to get you started.
Download the transcript template here.
If a transcript was generated by a robot, like OCR transcripts or auto-generated subtitles, make this clear in the name of the file.
Finally, if you find this website difficult to use for any reason, we consider that a high-priority bug. Please contact us however is easiest for you.
Add content warnings where necessary
Archives often include content which doesn’t represent the values of the project. However, we can empower visitors to decide what kind of content they are willing to engage with by attaching content warnings.
If you’re submitting content which is queerphobic, pathologizing, hateful, or could otherwise be distressing to view, add content warnings.
Content warnings are added at the end of the artifact description (not the summary), and are formatted like this:
(CW: warning 1, warning 2, etc.)
Here’s an example:
David Jay, founder of AVEN, is interviewed on ABC’s The View (CW: acephobia, invasive questions toward asexual people)
In addition to attaching content warnings, works that are queerphobic, pathologizing, inaccurate, or otherwise hateful should be properly contextualized. For example, a work that spreads misinformation or doesn’t meet contemporary standards for ethical reporting should be called out as such in the artifact description.
Include citations where applicable
If you’re referencing a published work, include a citation for it as a separate file using a standardized file format like BibTeX. These files can be imported into reference managers like Zotero and help people cite the work or find it on the web.
Include both files and links in your submission
The two ways to include content in your submission are files and links.
If the content is a file like a PDF, image, or video, include it in your submission as a file and also add a link to where it can be found on the web. This ensures that people can always trace where content came from.
When possible, make sure you link to reputable, permanent sites like libraries, journal databases, or archives like the Internet Archive.
Use Wayback Machine links when necessary
When linking to a website like a blog post or a forum thread, use a Wayback Machine link if the website is no longer available on the web or has changed substantially since the version you’re trying to reference.
If you need to archive a page that the Wayback Machine isn’t able to crawl, such as a page behind a confirmation prompt or login page, check out "Archiving web pages" for an alternative approach.
Download videos from sites like YouTube
If you want to contribute a video that’s hosted on a video sharing platform like YouTube, in addition to linking to the source, consider downloading the video directly using a tool like youtube-dl and including it in your submission as a file. Contrary to the name, youtube-dl supports many sites besides YouTube; you can find a full list of supported sites here.
Use existing tags when possible
When listing the people and identities associated with an artifact, prefer using identities and names as they currently appear in the archive. So if “gray-asexual” already exists in the archive, don’t add “grey-asexual” or “gray-ace” unless there’s a good reason (e.g. the author of a work makes a case that they’re distinct identities).
Look to existing artifacts as examples
If you’re not sure about something, look at existing artifacts in the archive as an example!