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High level guidance for all writing about DIF, whether in member submissions or otherwise:
- Never forget the prime directive of Nemethi: “DIF should never side with any tech over another unless it's siding with SSI over a non-SSI alternative.”
- Universal statements about technological breakthroughs, best practices, or other blanket pronouncements are to be avoided, particularly in reference to participation in DIF
- scoping claims to a specific set of use cases or market contexts is strongly advised
- Attributing any judgment or opinion to a specific individual or organization is always better than leaving it ambiguous whether that individual speaks on behalf of DIF
- Always speak positively and respectfully of the organizations in the first or second tiers of DIF’s organization tracker
- Always link to the homepage or website of these organizations at least once per article
- Avoid contrasting DIF’s approach to that of other open-source foundations working in the decentralized identity space-- complementary or win-win framings are strongly encouraged to discourage the appearance of antagonism or competition
- For other high-level guidance, see the Brand Guidelines
Authorship
- Original posts should be signed by the DIF generic account unless there is a compelling reason to sign a post individually. Examples include:
- First-hand experience or expertise pertinent to the subject
- Short-term guest editor, contributor, “resident”, etc
- Member contributions should be signed by the contributing organization’s comms account or a member of that organization, preferably with the organization’s name in their bio.
Business Interests
- Collaborations are best framed as some mixture of community endeavor and consortium of organizations pursuing long-term investments in products or services.
- Stay positive and professional when referring to the products and services of competitors or prior art, whether in our outside of the decentralized identity sphere; use the concept of obsolescence sparingly and respectfully
- Taboos: in addition to obvious guardrails around patents and IPR topics, it is generally preferable not to mention mergers and acquisitions, litigation, etc.
Style
- Paragraphing: topical/journalistic paragraphing, 8-10 verbs per paragraph, preferably with a strong statement in first or second position.
- Tone: Professional and skimmable but still personalized tone.
- Bold accent phrases to facilitate skimming, average 1.2 per paragraph.
- Quotations: Pullout quotes use as sidebars, with Medium pullquote formatting to be used sparingly, once or twice per article; inline quotes are preferred for shorter quotes.
- Illustrations are best kept to a minimum: 1 “splash image” (for Medium preview) is plenty, and diagrams should be supplemental to context, not more than one per 5 minutes of reading time. If more than that are necessary, consider publishing a PDF or slide deck instead, or linking to one from the story
- Links: Links are best anchored to the descriptive noun (i.e. “In his 2020 article, Juan writes…”) rather than to the name of the source or the word “link” or “here”
- For multiple links, follow the same convention but one link per word (o.e. “In article after article, Juan rants…”)
Section-specific guidance
- Education section: tone can be a bit more informal and personal; more frequent links are preferable
Style
- Tone should be straightforward and not too frivolous, light, or shilly. Explicit calls to action or boastful claims are to be avoided.
- Tag member orgs and liaison/partner orgs rather than individual accounts wherever possible; when in doubt, don't tag or ask first.
Feed ergonomics
- Tweets should appear at regular intervals, usually no more than once per day
- Tweets announcing blog posts, specs, or the release/ratification of other deliverables should be timed for bi-coastal business hours (i.e., the between 9-3 PT/12-6 ET)
Style:
- Tone should be straightforward and avoid the conventions of recreational, marketing, and commercial video. Educational content should be tagged and toned appropriately.
- Where possible, use an illustrative screengrab as the preview image so that people will pull
- Verbose descriptions naming all speakers and members orgs are essential.
- Where appropriate, include a with "table of contents" breakdown where multiple speakers share one clip or chapter marks,
Settings and Ergonomics
- Always ensure that user subtitles can be uploaded by activist communities-- the appropriate settings are hard to find in the youtube studio interface.
- tags should always include DIF and reflect the conventions used on DIF Medium (see above)
- TBD