Please make yourself familiar with these guidelines before posting an annotation. Everyone will appreciate it! If your annotation doesn't fit within the guidelines (perhaps it's more conversational or isn't relevant to a particular Diary entry or Encyclopedia topic), then you could post it to the discussion group. If you have any comments on the guidelines, feel free to email me at phil@gyford.com.

Keep it brief

2-3 paragraphs is a general guide, although there are often occasions where more is required to get information across.

Keep it relevant

All annotations should be relevant to the Diary entry or Encyclopedia topic they are posted to. Any annotations referring to present-day events should directly help our understanding of the diary.

This isn't a discussion forum.

While personal anecdotes can be illuminating they should be brief, on-topic and contribute to other readers' understanding of the diary.

Check the Encyclopedia

Before posting an annotation to a Diary entry, check whether it would be better in the Encyclopedia section. Annotations there will be easier for readers to find for years to come. You can then post a link to the annotation in the diary entry.

Annotations may be edited or deleted

Annotations that don't fit these guidelines may be edited or deleted immediately or in the future. Also be aware of this site's copyright statement that applies to annotations.

Quoting

When quoting anything, surround the text with quote marks. If quoting from copyrighted sources such as books, keep it brief. A reference to the source, such as the book name, author and page, is invaluable.

Check your links

URLs are automatically turned into links but can be confused by punctuation and other characters next to them. Make sure URLs are immediately preceded and followed only by spaces. You can check your links when previewing your annotation.