Shows

The goal of a show post is to explain what the show is about, provide factual details and provide information about its queer content. The data in the show will be used to generate the show score and it is fed to the site’s Alexa Skill.

Since you have to add shows before characters, remember you can save the show as draft and work on the other parts before publishing.

Social Posts of Newly Added Shows

When you publish a show it will automatically create a social media post. This is optional! If you don’t want it to, toggle off the social sites under “Share This Post.”

Customize the message to explain the show, and use hashtags (like in the above image, #invincible would be used instead of the show name).

New to the database is #invincible – about a superpowered teen who learns the world is even stranger than he thought. Like his father murdering the lesbian…

Show Content

A show post is broken down into sub-sections.

Title

Please use the official title of the show. For example, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and not CSI. If two shows have the same name, indicate the least popular (or the second one) with a parenthetical. The American version of 24 is simply called that, but the Indian version is called 24 (Indian).

TV Show Image, description and excerpt

The main description, featured image and excerpt for a show is managed in the main content and sidebar area.

  • Post Content: This is the main description for the show and should stay informational without much personal editorializing. Think more like IMDb and less like an opinionated recap.
  • Excerpt: This a 1-2 sentence show description that shows up in lists of shows and is used by our Alexa Skill. This too should stay informational and not flippant or opinionated.
  • Featured Image: Try to find an image that is at least 1200×675. This will be both the header image for the post as well as the thumbnail for the show listing page. If possible, find an image that includes the queer characters.

TV Show Data

This section contains factual show details. It’s all listed below the content

Air Dates & Seasons

  • Air Dates: What years did the show air? Set the second year to ‘Current’ if it’s still airing.
  • Seasons: The number of seasons. If a show is currently airing, don’t worry about this.

TV Stations & Nations

  • TV Stations: ABC, NBC, FOX, BBC 1. You get the idea. If the show airs on YouTube, use that.
  • Nations: What country did the show originate from?

Show Format & IMDB

  • Show Format: A dropdown listing the possible formats (TV Show, TV Movie, Mini Series, or Web Series)
  • IMdB ID: This is freeform text but should be the ID: tt123456

Genres & Primary

  • Genres: What kind of show is this? Anime? Mystery? The values will auto-complete and you can add multiple entries. IMdB is a good source for official genres.
  • Primary Genre: Please choose a primary genre for the show. This is factored into the “You may also like” list at the bottom of a show listing.

Stars & Trigger Warnings

Stars:

  • Gold Star – A show with openly queer creators, majority queer characters, out queer actors and stories made for a queer female, transgender or non-binary audience. Examples are The L Word, Take My Wife and Pose.
  • Silver Star – A show with openly queer creators, queer characters and stories made for a queer female, transgender or non-binary audience, but may have no out queer actors or also has a significant number of stories geared towards a non-queer female audience. Examples are Queer as Folk, RED and Steven Universe.
  • Bronze Star – A show with openly queer creators, some queer characters and plots, made for a general audience. We also use this star for shows focused on a queer main character and their stories but has no out queers involved with production or acting. Examples are Sense8, American Horror Story and Janet King.

Trigger Warnings:

If the show has significant violent, frightening, gory or disturbing content, you can add a Trigger Warning.

  • High: Game of Thrones, American Horror Story
  • Med: Hightown, Euphoria, Veneno
  • Low: Cable Girls, Fargo, The Haunting of Hill House

Intersectionality

Intersectionality should be used if a show has good representation for additional communities. Like One Day at a Time gets one for “PoC-Centric” for a majority Latinx cast and Switched at Birth gets “Disability” Intersectionality tag for having a large Deaf cast.

Trope Plots

Start typing to fill in the content. “Law Enforcement” includes PIs and military.

Worth It, Details & Love

This section does include personal opinion and should be made by someone who has watched the show.

  • Worth It: Yes, Meh, No. If you have not watched the show it, use TDB.
  • Worth It Details: Explain why you think the show is worth watching. Here you can be opinionated but try to stay diplomatic. If a show has really terrible or dangerous representation you can vehemently express that. (Note: If you picked TBD for Worth It, this will not display)
  • Show We Love: A simple checkbox. This is reserved for excellent shows with great queer representation. Some discussion and consensus need to happen in Slack before a show gets the coveted heart.

Ways to Watch is one of the ways we generate affiliate income. It’s not a lot, but every bit counts. You can add in as many watch links as you like.

Paste in a direct link. Amazon, Apple, and CBS links will be auto-converted to affiliate links. Examples:

Similar Shows

This will list shows folks may like if they like the show they are currently on. You can pick up to 6. The site will automatically generate the rest of the list if less than 6 shows are chosen.

Alternative Names

If the show is known by a different name in another language. (i.e. Cable Girls / Las chicas del cable) enter that info.

  • Name: The alternate name
  • Language: The language used for that name

Relativistic Ratings

Ratings are where we review and describe how much the show is good or bad. All of these fields are optional, but it’s nice if we can add details. Ratings are scored 0 to 5, and details are why the score is what it is.

  • Realness: This is a scale of how realistic the queer characters are. 1 means the show is not even close to realistically portraying queer people. Things that don’t exist in real life like supernatural beings, super heroes and aliens do not have to have an impact on the realness rating as long as the characters feel real besides that.
  • Quality: This is a scale of how good the show is for queer folks to watch. Do all the queer characters wind up dead, sad or lonely or are they fully fleshed out characters with the same ups and downs as the straight characters.
  • Screen Time: This is a ballpark scale of how much screentime the queer characters get vs. the straight characters. A show with a random guest queer character would get a 1. The L Word gets a 5.

Plots and Relationships

This is where we break down the details of the show. All of these fields are optional, but it’s nice if we can explain it.

  • Ship Names: Separate multiple ship names with commas
  • Queer Plotline Timeline: Write up an overview of the queer content timelines on the show. For example, let people know what season the queer characters are introduced and if their storylines come to an end before the show ends. If a show has obvious continuous queer content throughout (like The L Word) you can leave this blank.
  • List all the episodes that have significant queer content.
    • Please use the list tag to list out episodes and follow this format:
      Season x Episode x “Title of Episode” – Description.
      i.e.
      Season 2 Episode 6 “Human/Need/Desire” – While Bay and Natalie are selling roses for fundraiser, Natalie reveals that she is interested in a girl.

The sidebar has a lot of duplicated data (featured image, excerpt, etc) but also a special section for tags.

Tagged

Use tags to add more granular keywords about the show (i.e. 1990s, Asian Soap, Literary, Medical Drama, etc.). Tags are not shown publicly on the site and are used to automatically generate the “You May Also Like” similar show list.