Conworlds:One community, two systems

Top to bottom: Constructed Worlds on Miraheze, Fandom, and Discord

The current Constructed Worlds Wiki administration is informally governed as one community, two systems (abbreviated as OCTS). The Constructed Worlds Wiki, since its inception, can be described as one community which shares the same interests in worldbuilding and alternate history writing. Since 2017, the Constructed Worlds Wiki has been forked between two separate wikis: one on the original Fandom-based wiki and the other on the newer Miraheze-based wiki. Although the wiki administrations on either wiki are separate and independent from each other, there is overlapping administration which has mutual responsibilities to both wikis. In addition, both wikis are linked through a mutual Discord server, which serves as the main communication hub between the community's contributors and the primary alternative to the onsite wiki talk pages, message boards, or chat systems. Since 2019, the OCTS arrangement has also extended to the current relationship between the wikis and the Discord server, replacing the previous unified administration of the CQC, which controlled both wikis and the Discord simultaneously. Under the OCTS system, both the wikis and the Discord server are separate and independent from one another, and therefore, each retain their own administrations and policies, but are bound together as one community.

One community

The Constructed Worlds Wiki, in the broadest sense, is a community of worldbuilders (conworlders) and alternate history writers devoted to the creation of fictitious worlds and timelines. The community primarily exercises its creation through wiki-based article creation. The Constructed Worlds Wiki originated on Wikia, now known as Fandom, and has been a cohesive community since 2005. The community encompasses all contributors on both versions of the Constructed Worlds Wiki (Fandom and Miraheze) and all members of the Constructed Worlds Wiki Discord server. Both wiki contributors and server members are considered full members of the Constructed Worlds Wiki community. The unity and cohesion within the community is reinforced by the use of the Constructed Worlds Wiki name, the close association between the wikis and Discord, and shared, overlapping administrations.

Two systems

The two systems refer to the current governance structure within the Constructed Worlds Wiki community. It can refer to the separation of the Constructed Worlds Wiki into two versions or forks, one on the original Fandom, and the other on the newer Miraheze, or the separation of the Constructed Worlds Wiki community between the wikis and the Discord server. Under the two systems, the three Constructed Worlds Wiki entities are governed and administered separately and independently from one another, but are interdependently bound as one uninterrupted community. The administrative actions and policies for each entity are enforceable only within the respective entity's jurisdiction, and inter-entity administration is enforced insofar as there is overlapping jurisdiction or the discretion of the local administration for the respective jurisdiction.

Relationship between the wikis

The Constructed Worlds Wiki is divided into two separate wikis. From 2005 to 2017, the Constructed Worlds Wiki was located on one singular wiki hosted on Wikia, now known as Fandom. Beginning in the late 2010s, growing dissatisfaction with the direction of Fandom's changes, as well as disagreements between the local Constructed Worlds Wiki administration and the global Fandom staff resulted in talks of wiki migration to another wiki farm. By 2017, an unofficial Constructed Worlds Wiki port mirroring the Fandom wiki was created by CnocBride on Miraheze. The unofficial Constructed Worlds Wiki port was eventually deleted due to inactivity by Miraheze. In the same year, the Constructed Worlds Wiki flagship project Altverse began porting its pages over to the Altverse Miraheze, which would become the official Constructed Worlds Wiki Miraheze.

In 2018, the Constructed Worlds Wiki administration made the official decision to move the wiki from Fandom to Miraheze. Due to Fandom's policies on wiki migration, the Constructed Worlds Wiki administration was extremely limited from executing a complete and full migration. Part of the restrictions included leaving the Constructed Worlds Wiki on Fandom unobstructed and forbidding virtually any links to the Constructed Worlds Wiki on Miraheze on high-traffic pages, including user talk pages (described as "poaching" by a Fandom staff member). As such, it is the official Constructed Worlds Wiki policy (on both wikis) to forbid any attempts to recruit or pressure users on Fandom to join Miraheze on the Fandom wiki. In order to avoid removal from administrative duties, the local Constructed Worlds Wiki administration complied with Fandom's policies and signaled its desire to maintain administrative presence on both Fandom and Miraheze. The one community, two systems principle emerged from this situation, as a form of compromise between Fandom and the Constructed Worlds Wiki community.

Fandom

The Constructed Worlds Wiki Fandom is the original wiki and was created in 2006. It is one of the oldest wikis on the Fandom platform and as of April 2022, is the larger of the two Constructed Worlds Wiki in terms of article count. Its content and rules are subject to Fandom's Terms of Use policies and informal wiki conventions. Its administration includes Centrist16 and Cprhodesact as the primary bureaucrats. There is a substantial number of projects on the Constructed Worlds Wiki Fandom found exclusively there as a result of the migration and fork, either due to not being ported over to Miraheze (yet) or being created by new users on the site following the migration. It is the policy of the Constructed Worlds Wiki on Miraheze to respect the site preferences of Fandom users and to commit to non-interference with the Fandom wiki.

Miraheze

Main article: Constructed Worlds:About

The Constructed Worlds Wiki Miraheze is this wiki. It is hosted on the advertising-free, nonprofit Miraheze wikifarm and was created in 2017. It has been the primary and preferred wiki of choice for a number of Constructed Worlds wiki projects including Altverse II and Project Genesis, as well as a number of Alternate History Wiki-based projects. Its primary administration consists of Centrist16 as its sole bureaucrat and a number of administrators including Vivaporius and Fizzyflapjack. Its administration is governed and organized by policies and guidelines, and guided by written principles.

It was originally a repository meant only for Altverse articles. Since the fork, the scope of the wiki has expanded to encompass all of the Constructed Worlds Wiki content. It has also accepted the inclusion of alternate history timelines, map games, future history scenarios, conlanging projects, and other creative writing. Since the fork, a number of projects have been written exclusively on the Constructed Worlds Wiki, including the majority of Altverse II articles, Vandverse, Makerverse, and Ocean City.

Relationship between the wikis and the Discord

The community is also divided between the wikis and its official Discord server. Since 2017, the Constructed Worlds Wiki has maintained an official Discord server for use by both wiki editors and other users interested in worldbuilding. Up until 2019, the administration of the wikis and Discord were unified under one central administration. Since then, the present-day OCTS system has been in place. Membership in the Constructed Worlds Wiki Discord is completely voluntary and not required for any editor on either wikis. However, some projects are reliant or dependent on Discord communication so it may be advantageous or imperative for interested users to join. In addition, access to the Constructed Worlds Discord is a privilege, not a right. The Constructed Worlds Discord administration reserves the right to ban or kick any user for any reason, with or without documentation, at any time, regardless of the user's standing on the wikis. However, any administrative actions taken on Discord are not necessarily transferable to wiki enforcement. The Constructed Worlds Wiki administrations are under no obligation to honor any administrative or punitive actions on Discord as wiki offenses or violations unless it is reasonably evident that the severity of a user's actions or conduct pose a substantive threat to the wikis' functions and operations.

Links to the Discord server on both wikis are provided as a courtesy by the administrations and may be revoked at any time for any reason with or without due notice. Both wikis shall reserve the right to designate or disavow any Discord servers under the Constructed Worlds community banner as deemed fit by their wiki administrations.