Hi, I'm Gaeel, one of the two founders of void.garden, and the reason we're joining in this jam is to help define our vision for this project

void.garden is about creating space for creativity to happen, notably in the fringes of video games, but also on the bridges in and out of video games, like music, digital art, technology, and writing

One of the things that is very important to us is to hold the door open for, and give a platform to lesser-heard voices, notably people marginalised by bigotry and a society that unfairly give advantages to others
I'm unsure how to best go around baking that notion into our manifesto
I want something we can be held accountable for, I want it to be possible for people to point to our manifesto and demand that we deliver
But I don't want to simply have quotas, that could be gamed and manipulated to just tick a box

I believe that we're have good intent, and that, at least for now, we're able and willing to follow these ideas, but I want to write for a future where I may be blinded by other influences, where someone else holds the keys to this place we are building, and I want to have a framework in place that will ensure that these core ideas follow through

If you have any ideas or references that we can check out, I'd love to hear them

I think that the way to approach it is that you are focused on creating the possibility space for marginalized voices to be heard and you are creating the opportunity for those stories to be told.

If instead of having quotas, you outright say that you give preference to marginalized people, you will absolutely be biased towards hearing their voices, I think that is a perfect center for your manifesto. At the end of the day, if you are creating a platform for marginalized communities, then sometimes you need to marginalize the norm - reverse the script and make the margins the center and push the focus onto the unseen, regardless of what the common voice shouts in complaints. Because they can scream that anywhere, they can express and declare themselves in tons of places.

But void.garden? Void.garden is for the people who can't express themselves wherever they want.