Conworlds:Policies and guidelines

 

The Constructed Worlds Wiki is a wiki dedicated to providing an open-space and non-judgmental environment for worldbuilding and speculative fiction, including constructed worlds, alternate history timelines, future history scenarios, map games, roleplaying, fan fiction content, and other forms of creative writing in both encyclopedic and narrative format. The Constructed Worlds Wiki is committed to ensuring that writers are free to create any worlds they desire, whether collaborative or independent, in a professional and respectful manner. In order to maintain such an environment and community, the Constructed Worlds Wiki has a set of policies and guidelines which describe best practices, clarify principles, and resolve disputes between users. The policies and guidelines on the Constructed Worlds Wiki are not meant to be restrictive, but to be conductive towards maintaining a healthy and stable wiki community.

Although it is not necessary to read every policy and guideline, new users are strongly encouraged to read and review them before submitting any content. In addition to policies and guidelines, the Constructed Worlds Wiki follows principles which define the mission and purpose of the wiki and community.

Authorship

Main page: Conworlds:Authorship

The Constructed Worlds Wiki is an encyclopedic wiki that is free for anyone and everyone to edit. Contributors who submit content on the Constructed Worlds Wiki acknowledge that their content may be subject to editing or redistribution by other contributors on the wiki and off-site. Contributors acknowledge that the content they submit shall become freely licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise stated or that the content they are submitting comes from a freely licensed source. The Constructed Worlds Wiki makes it emphatically clear that none of the articles hosted on the wiki are "owned" by anyone, meaning all articles (with certain exceptions) are open for editing.

Due to the nature of worldbuilding and creative writing, the Constructed Worlds Wiki recognizes the authorship of its contributors whenever they submit original works. Original works, usually in the form as a "project", include any works pertaining to constructed worlds, alternate history timelines, future history scenarios, fan fiction, and other forms of creative writing. Within the Constructed Worlds Wiki, authorship refers to the original rights an author has over their submitted work. Authors have full discretion over who may contribute or edit the content of their works (grammatical and formatting edits, administration-related changes, categorization, and other minor edits do not apply) and what may be added onto their works. Any articles created within a project are covered under the authorship.

In the context of community projects, each community project shall be free to self-organize and self-govern themselves, including the rights pertaining to authorship. In the absence of any rules or consensus within a given project, the authorship of all articles submitted within a community project with multiple authors shall be designated to the project's primary or leading author.

In addition to authorship, the Constructed Worlds Wiki also recognizes custodianship within the context of articles. Custodianship refers to the responsibilities and exclusive rights a user has concerning an article or project, similar to those found under authorships. It is possible for an author to voluntarily transfer their rights to another contributor, whether temporarily or permanently. Authors who give up their rights permanently acknowledge that they cannot reassert authorship rights at another time. For all intents and purposes, a custodian has the full rights and privileges to a content under their duty of care as an author. Community projects may create their own rules or clarifications regarding authorship and custodianship.

The Constructed Worlds Wiki encourages all editors to respect the authorship of their fellow editors and to only edit if they have been given permission to do so. Violators of authorship and/or custodianship rights may face disciplinary action by the Constructed Worlds Wiki. Instances of violations can be reported to an administrator and may be enforced on a case-by-case basis.

General policies

Acts such as sockpuppeting (abusing multiple wiki accounts) are prohibited under wiki policy.

The Constructed Worlds Wiki's general policies concern the conduct of its contributors as well as the regulation of content submitted on the wiki. These policies are imposed and enforceable in order to ensure that the wiki remains professional, safe, and enjoyable for both writers and readers on the site. They are based on common sense and civility, created to maximize creative expression and to minimize disruptive or unconducive acts.

The Constructed Worlds Wiki requires all users, regardless of status, seniority, or rights, to comply with its policies at all times. Violators may be subject to administrative warnings, blockings, bannings, or other disciplinary actions as deemed fit by the wiki administration. The following policies shall be enforced by the fullest extent to their definitions, while permitting full liberties in open interpretation of the policies where the application of common sense is deemed necessary and/or equitable.

Behavioral

1. Prohibition of sockpuppeting

• Every registered user is only allowed to have one active account, per platform, at one time. The oldest active account is considered the “original” and any subsequent active accounts are called “alts”. If you have a technical issue with your account and require a new one, please make it aware to a Wiki Administration member, and then your old account will be disabled.
  • Using two active accounts at once: Ban alt account permanently, ban original account for up to one day
  • Attempting to deceive people that an alt is a real user: Ban alt account permanently, ban original account for one week
  • Using multiple accounts to disrupt Wiki processes or systems (i.e. adoptions, deletions, elections, or awards): Ban alt accounts permanently, ban original account for one month
  • Attempting to circumvent a ban with a new account, or continued sockpuppeting: Ban alt accounts permanently, extend ban of original account by at least one month (and then as per the repeated offenses section)

2. Prohibition of doxxing

• You may only acquire, discuss, or share someone's private/personal information with their explicit and unambiguous consent
  • Ban from both the Wiki and Discord for one month minimum, up to permanently; removal of posted personal information

3. Prohibition of sexual harassment

• Private or public offers of sexual favors, unwanted sexual advances, or unwanted sexual comments
• Sexually-explicit public posts/discussion
• Jokes about sexual violence, both in Discord and Wiki discussions
  • Sexually-explicit posts or jokes, in chat or Wiki discussions: Jail on discord 1-24 hours; Ban on both discord and wiki up to one week
  • Sexual favors, or unwanted sexual advancements or comments: Ban for one month minimum, up to permanent ban

4. Prohibition of racism or extremism

• All forms of bigotry and hate speech, including derogatory epithets; targeting others for their group identity
• Serious apologetic behavior for, or denial of, historic racism or crimes against humanity
  • Use in either Discord or Wiki discussions (including memes/images): Warning, then ban of one week minimum; deletion of offensive images or wiki content if applicable; further escalation for unapologetic or continued behavior up to a permanent ban
  • Use of slurs or hate speech in project content for non-academic purposes: Delete content and warn on user Talk Page; ban up to one week

5. Prohibition of excessive graphic content

• No overtly-graphical violent or sexual descriptions
• Overtly-graphical “shock” images are also not permitted
• This applies to project content as well as Wiki discussions and Discord
  • Use in project content: Revert edits, warn on user Talk Page; ban of up to one week
  • In chat or Wiki discussions: Delete messages, ban of one week

6. Prohibition of harassment, bullying, or incivility

• Intentionally instigating or escalating a fight
• Using offensive, insulting, or abusive language toward others; intentionally annoying or provoking others
• Trying to exclude someone or discouraging them from participation
• Insulting or uncritically deriding a project or its author(s), or using project content as gatekeeping
  • Wiki content aimed at insulting or harassing a specific user: Revert edits, warn on user talk page; ban of up to 1 week
  • In Wiki discussion: Warn on user Talk Page; ban of up to one week
  • On Discord: Jail for 1-24 hours

7. Prohibition of the encouragement of illegal activity

• No discussion of encouraging or participating in illegal activity in real-life context within or outside the community
• No posting links to such content or pages that encourage violating national and international laws
  • In Wiki discussions: Strike through/revert edit, warn in the same thread; potential ban of 1 day
  • On Discord: Jail for 1-6 hours

8. Prohibition of willful violation of wiki conventions

• Edits should be in accordance with the principles, policies, and guidelines of this Wiki.
• Repeatedly doing one of the following: editing projects without permission, uploading files without checking for duplicates, ignoring name and category conventions, plagiarizing content or violating copyright
  • Warning on talk page and reverting of edits where applicable
  • 3 warnings for the same infraction, then 1 day ban
  • Deletion of content violating copyright law, or pages containing plagiarized content

9. Prohibition of vandalism

• Intentionally making edits that damage the quality of the wiki or hinder its operations
• Any edits to articles without the article author’s permission, no matter what the reason is, except for simple corrections of spelling and grammar mistakes and minor formatting errors
  • Minor, accidental, or incidental: Revert edits, warn on user talk page; ban up to one day
  • Major or malicious: 1 month to permanent ban

10. Prohibition of trolling

• Intentional provoking of another user, or intentionally causing conflict with others
• Using Wiki processes or systems (e.g. elections, adoptions, deletions, awards, and Wiki Administration requests) in a way that does not follow the stated procedures of those pages, especially for humorous or satirical purposes, or to provoke or cause conflict with others
• On discord this includes the abuse of tags, refusing to follow channel guidelines in Discord, intentionally provoking someone, including through constant messages, ghost-pings (pinging someone then deleting it), or the sending and deleting of messages
  • On the Wiki: Revert edits, warn on user Talk Page, then ban of 1 day to 1 month
  • On Discord: Warning, then jail for 1-24 hours

11. Prohibition of impersonation

• Trying to convince people that you are another user, or some other real or fictional character that is not your actual identity
• On discord this includes changing your name or picture to that of another user for the purpose of impersonating them or trolling
  • In Wiki discussions: Warn on user talk page; ban up to one day or until impersonating material is removed if applicable
  • On Discord: Jail for 1 hour; loss of name changing ability

12. Prohibition of spam and advertising

• Inserting spam or nonsensical information on the wiki
• Advertising or promoting commercial and noncommercial content outside the wiki
• Posting external links to other sites for the purpose of solicitation
• Repeatedly posting the same thing; the use of long or incomprehensible text, repetitive copy-and-pastes (copypastas), or messages disrupting discussions
• Writing articles on the wiki primarily in a language other than English or posting on Discord in languages other than English
  • In Wiki discussions: Warn on user talk page, then 1-7 day ban; deletion of spam pages or content
  • On Discord: Jail for 1 hour

Content

Prohibition of non-standardized infoboxes, navigation boxes, templates, or modules

• Users may not utilize or post infoboxes, navigation boxes, templates, or modules which does not meet the standard established by the latest update of MediaWiki software, as determined by Miraheze. Such is to say that infoboxes, navigation boxes, and templates which detrimentally impact site performance or readability are prohibited. Adjustments to infoboxes or templates for the Constructed Worlds Wiki's specific purposes may still be made only at the administrator's discretion.

Prohibition of unlabelled, grossly incomplete content

• Users may not leave an article or submission incomplete (such as a stub article) without properly labeling the content as a "work-in-progress" or "under construction" or receiving permission from the wiki administration. An appropriate template that might be used is {{Under Construction}} placed at the top of an incomplete article.

The minimum acceptable amount of content on an incomplete article is:

• • An infobox (if relevant)
  • An introductory paragraph
  • A header outline
  • Categorization

You may not leave {{Under Construction}} on an article indefinitely to avoid having to place content on the page. Articles that appear abandoned will be deleted regardless of the template, at the admin's discretion.

Prohibition of sub-standard syntax, grammar, spelling, etc.

• Users must strive to be correct in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and mark-up when submitting or editing an article. While typographical errors are to be expected (and are, further, expected to be corrected by any users who finds them), articles strewn with incorrect syntax, spellings, or errors are prohibited.

Prohibition of article adjectives starting a title

• Users may not start an article with an article adjective (such as "a", "an", or "the") unless the topic is the title of a work of fiction within the in-universe context of a conworld, such as a book, film, or video game. Further, article titles such as "The Republic of Example" are prohibited unless it is an actual part of the entity's "legal name".

Prohibition of incomplete or insufficient categorization

• Users must categorize their articles according to content (see Constructed Worlds:Categorization). For example, if it is a nation, at the very least, it needs to be categorized as Category:Countries. Incomplete or insufficient categorization (pages that are not categorized, insufficiently categorized, or improperly categorized) are prohibited.

Prohibition of "sandbox articles"

• Users may not create or utilize a sandbox outside of their designated name-space, such as User:Example/Sandbox. These pages are meant specifically for experimentation with articles and syntax, and due to their often unstable syntax or incomplete content, they are prohibited from occupying any other space spare name-space.

Prohibition of "orphan pages""

• Users may not submit an article that does not contain links to other articles. An article that has no link to any other page is considered an "orphan page". A page that only links to offsite material is still an "orphan page".

Footnotes

Portions of this page reuse text from the Alternate History Wiki and IIWiki. Credit goes to the aforementioned wikis.