FeministWiki:Welcome

Welcome to the FeministWiki! This page will guide you through everything you need to know as a member.

What is the FeministWiki?

The FeministWiki is a website with different components that aims to offer a "digital home" for feminists. These components are:

A wiki, where educational and informational articles on feminist topics can be curated by the community. Like Wikipedia but for feminism. (You're reading a page of the wiki right now.)
A traditional web forum, where members can hold discussions about all sorts of topics. If you're familiar with the British website Mumsnet, this one's a bit like that.
A messaging/chat system that can be used through the website or via smartphone apps. Kinda like WhatsApp, but accessible for FeministWiki members only. (And it doesn't need your mobile number!)
A blog, where members who wish to publish articles can become blog authors.
A file-storage platform where you can upload files you want to save, and optionally share them with others. Just like DropBox.

Everyone who has a FeministWiki membership can automatically use all of these services, by logging in with their FeministWiki username and password.

Further, every member automatically owns an e-mail address like janedoe@feministwiki.org which they can use to send and receive e-mails. This might be useful, for example, if you don't want to use your personal e-mail address for political purposes.

See the services page for a more detailed list of each service.

What sort of feminism is it for?

As explained on the Main Page, the FeministWiki is aimed at classical/radical feminism.

This includes, for instance, anti-prostitution and anti-pornography activism, female reproductive rights, opposition to gender stereotypes, support for female-only spaces, allyship with lesbian feminists and generally support for lesbian rights, and so on.

Genuine intersectual approaches are definitely valued, such as allyship with black feminists, support of women in poverty, etc., whereas faux-intersectionality that denies sex-based oppression is frowned upon.

Though if you're a member, you probably already knew all that.

How are new members added?

All members of the FeministWiki have a right to add further members as they like.

Please be careful in who you add, as communities like this are juicy targets for troll infiltration. The system internally keeps track of who was added by who, so in the absolute worst case the technician is able to find the source of a troll infiltration and issue a sweeping ban to bring back peace, but it would of course be ideal if something like this didn't happen in first place.

That said, please bring in as many of your trusted friends as you can! The FeministWiki only has a purpose so long as there's a community making use of it.

Who runs the site?

The site was set up by a male computer programmer who wanted to do volunteer work for the radical feminist movement (and also train his computer skills). For now, he prefers not to reveal his real-life identity, to deter abuse from anti-feminists. He is well aware of the repeated scandals surrounding "male feminists" and has no expectation of gaining the trust of all members. As such, he tries to create an open and well-documented infrastructure that should be easy to replicate by any other IT specialist in case something goes wrong. Also, the site does not expect members to provide any personal information. This way, members shouldn't need to put trust in whoever is running the site, as they could take things under their own control if needed.

"Trust is good, control is better." -- German proverb

Help topics

What happens if I lose my password?

If you want to have safety against lost passwords, you can set an e-mail address in your user preferences page that can be used to reset your password at any time. This e-mail address should not be your FeministWiki e-mail address, since you need your FeministWiki password to use that one. (Chicken and egg problem!) The e-mail address you set in your user preferences will be invisible to all but the FeministWiki technician.

If it's very important for you to keep your identity private, and if you don't trust the technician or fear data leaks, then you can use an e-mail address that isn't tied to your real identity. Just make sure that you can always access the e-mail that you use for this purpose, as otherwise you will not be able to reset your password.

Alternatively, you can contact the technician and ask for a manual password reset. You can reach the technician by sending an e-mail to admin@feministwiki.org, or by writing to @FeministWiki on Twitter.

How does creating or editing wiki pages work?

For this topic, please see either our wiki editing help page or the bigger MediaWiki help page.

Getting the hang of wiki editing may take some time, but the community will surely be delighted by your contributions!

How do I use the forum?

An internet forum or web forum is a website that allows members to create "topics" (also called "threads") to discuss a certain matter. Once a topic is created, other members can reply (or "post") to the topic to add their insights. There is no limit to what these topics may be about, so the forum usually offers a number of categories (or "sub forums") under which the topics are grouped.

Some examples of other web forums, which you might be familiar with:

For detailed instructions on how to use the FeministWiki forum, visit the forum help page.

How do I use the chat system?

The simplest way to use the chat is by opening the web interface and logging in there with your FeministWiki username and password: https://chat.feministwiki.org/

However, you can also access the chat from dedicated chat programs like Gajim or smartphone apps like Xabber for Android or ChatSecure for iOS.

For detailed instructions on how to set up some of these chat programs/apps, see our chat help page.

How do I publish on the blog?

If you want to publish articles on the FeministWiki blog, ask the technician by sending an e-mail to admin@feministwiki.org, or contacting @FeministWiki on Twitter, and your FeministWiki account will be granted the ability to publish on the blog.

The blog uses a self-hosted installation of the well-known blogging software WordPress. While the WordPress organization controls blogs that are hosted on their own servers, they also release the software behind their blogging system under a free software license, which anyone can install on their own servers. The FeministWiki has such a local installation of that software, meaning that the WordPress organization has no control over what's published on the FeministWiki blog. As such, you don't need to fear censorship.

For further information on how to use the FeministWiki blog, visit the blog help page.

How do I use the file storage?

The FeministWiki file storage lets you upload potentially very large files and save them on the FeministWiki servers. You can then access the files from anywhere, and optionally share some files with others via a link you send them.

To prevent accidental overloading of the server, every member is granted a quota of 1 GB storage by default. If you would like to store more data, just ask the technician to increase your quota.

For detailed information on how to use the file storage, see the file storage help page.

How do I use my FeministWiki e-mail address?

The easiest way to use your FeministWiki e-mail is by visiting the web interface and logging in with your FeministWiki username and password: https://mail.feministwiki.org/

You can also set up any e-mail program/app on your computer or smartphone to use your FeministWiki e-mail address.

For further details, see the mail help page.