Site Rules

Orientation » Site Rules

Rules

Welcome to our Rules Page. Members of the Library are expected to follow the rules layed out therein, and face disciplinary action if they do not. Familiarizing yourself with these rules with lead to a long and happy time on the Wanderer's Library.

The Golden Rule: Don't Be a Dick!

Don't do anything to others you wouldn't want done to yourself.

It ain't that hard, guys. Just be nice!

-I-

General

Basic internet etiquette applies here.
No harassment of other users.
Being harsh with critique is fine, but don't be an asshole, and definitely don't go trolling. (Note: Writing badly will not get you banned. Just keep trying to improve!)
You must be at least 15 to be a site member. No exceptions!
If you disagree with any staff decision, feel free to contact another staff member, but don't just keep trying until you get a different answer. If you feel a user is breaking a rule, please contact staff.
Please refrain from contentless or pointlessly nonsensical posts (i.e. trolling and shitposting). This applies to critique & forum posts as well. Repeated infractions will lead to escalating consequences.
Sockpuppets (multiple accounts) are not permitted on the Library! If you are found to be using a sockpuppet, you face banning of both accounts.
Harassment of other users is grounds for an immediate permanent ban.
Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise prejudiced posting and content will not be allowed. If staff tells you your content falls under one of these categories, do not argue with them.

-II-

Commenting & Voting

You may comment however you like on an entry, as long as you're not trolling, making a personal attack, or posting just to post (see "shitposting," above).
You may vote however you like on any entry, as long as you're voting on the entry. Not on whether you like or dislike the author, or for some other reason not related to the entry's quality.
You may vote on your own entry however you like. However, your vote will not be counted for determining whether a page is in deletion range or not.
Calling for a brigade (or otherwise trying to artificially control votes) of a page is not permitted.
Roleplaying is against the rules.

-III-

Pages

You can edit others' articles for reasons for format, grammar/spelling, or other minor edits. Don't make edits for content without the author's permission. Not even if the content is terrible. This goes for staff too.
Don't post SCP articles to the site. That's what the SCP Wiki is for.
No spam. Spam is defined as continuously or in quick succession posting articles that clearly do not follow the site rules (such as not adding a rating module or posting SCP articles), or continuously posting negatively-received articles without receiving critique. Staff also reserve the right to decide if something is spam if it falls outside of the previous definition.
Don't vandalize people's pages.
Entries should be (at least mostly) in English.
Plagiarism is strictly against the rules. If you are found to have plagiarized an on or offsite work and posted it to our site, it is grounds for an immediate permanent ban and removal of the work in question.
When you post on the site: Please post completed works! (Or, you know, completed chapters or sections. That sort of thing.) Drafts go in the Wanderer's Sandbox. Posting incomplete articles with the intention to work on them later means they can be summarily deleted.
You are permitted to use images in your entries! However, they must comply with our Licensing Policy. Images found to be against the license face removal and possible replacement by staff.
No explicit sexual or pornographic content allowed. Some sexual themes in writing may be allowed at staff discretion, as long as it serves the purpose of the story. As a general rule of thumb, if the primary purpose of the story is portraying sex for the purpose of getting your reader off, it won't be allowed. Sexual content that is thematically purposeful and not purely pornographic may be acceptable, but staff reserves the right to ask you to tone it down.
No AI-generated writing is permitted on the site.

Deletion

When a page rating hits -3 (not counting author vote), the page may be deleted at staff discretion.
Users may delete their own work at any time. You can do this by going to the bottom of the page, clicking "Options," and clicking on "Delete."
Click "delete completely" and confirm your decision. Do not click "Just rename."

Rewrites

When a page is in the deletion range (-3 or lower), the page can be rewritten if the original author has not expressed any desire to fix it in the future, or has become inactive.
To rewrite a page, first find an eligible page, comment in the discussion thread that you want to rewrite it, and wait for staff approval. If the author is still active, or has been active recently, make sure to contact them first and ask permission to rewrite it. Document this with a screenshot or something equivalent.
After receiving approval, you now have the task of "rewriting" the article, or, in other words, revising it so that it can become a successful article. You can change as much as you want: the main focus of rewriting something is to take the original writing with the original concept and execute it better than before.
The next step is to actually rewrite it. There is no time frame in which you must rewrite something, as long as you do it well.
Finally, make the edit to the original page. The majority of the rewrite edit should be at once, as if it were a finished work again (in other words, do not use the dying page as a sandbox page). Promote the rewrite around, in the forums and in the chat, and make a forum posting when you are finished. Call staff over for new tags if needed, and so we can credit you in the Attribution Metadata page.

Author's Pages

These are pages that list the works of an author on-site. Anyone can make these, as long as they have at least 3 positively rated articles on the site (three articles at or above +1). Go to the Members' Pages list and follow the instructions on adding a new entry to create your own Author's Page. It's recommended to look through at least one of these during your time on the site, as you never know if you'll find a new Wikidot mechanic, or a series to use as inspiration for one of your own works!

Co-authored Pages

These are pages written by two or more authors. Co-authored pages must somehow attribute credit to all authors involved, and the article counts as a work by all authors (like for author's pages). As an author, you may not delete or make significant edits to a co-authored page without permission from your co-author(s). All other rules apply the same way.

Collaborative Pages

These are pages that are open to and meant for community contributions. Anyone is free to edit in any text as long as it is appropriate. Note that the article must be able to be entertaining and fulfilling in its own right, and if not, it will be counted as a low-effort post and deleted as such. All other rules apply the same way. A list of collaborative pages can be found here.

Collections

The Collections Hub houses links to our various canons, series, and collaborative pages. Canons can be contributed to by any author while a series is a hub dedicated to a story written by one author. To be added to the Collection Hub and linked in our topbar and sidebar, a canon/series must have five entries on site and have a hub.

Gallery Pages

Gallery pages, also known as art pages, are pages that primarily feature either visual or audio art instead of writing. These can include digital art based pieces, traditional art based pieces, 3D models, music, animation, and more. These are allowed and encouraged to be created, but follow slightly different guidelines than typical written entries.
All gallery pages must have at least three pieces/works. They can be in different mediums, or all in the same medium.
All gallery pages must have some sort of framework that ties the pieces together and tells a story. Some examples of this include captions explaining the art, an intro paragraph explaining where in the Library you might find this collection of art, telling a story through the art in the form of a comic or narrative, or something along those lines - get creative with it! We just want a story to be present, please don't just slap three images on a page and have that be it. Check out other art pages if you need inspiration.
Ideally, all files should be localized to the page itself. That means going down to files and uploading your art to the page directly. Try to resize your files to be under 2mb if you can. See the hosting your images onsite section of this guide written by our sister site if you need further assistance. If your files are very large or you have a lot of them, contact staff for an alternative in regards to hosting them offsite.

Image Use

Images that are compliant with the site's CC BY SA 3.0 license may be used in articles, so long as they are adequately credited and sourced in the page discussion.
If uploading your own images to the site, you need to release them under CC BY SA 3.0 or a compatible license. This can be done by stating you created the images and release them under CC in the author post of your piece.
Images used on the site must be hosted on the site as well.
Additionally, no AI-generated images are permitted on the site.
For further information, see our Licensing and Image Use Guidelines

The Wanderers' Library

Fiction from another world.