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Incorporating member created content into the site lore/wiki


Icewolf
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As I am working on the wiki/site lore portion of my forum, I am wondering what to do over the inclusion of character profiles and other content into the wiki. It would take me forever to write profiles of all the canon characters espeaically if I did this with characters that I am not going to play or have created myself as an npc/adoptable character. What do others feel about the notion of incorporating accepted character profiles into the wiki?

 

Are there any potential problems to consider, for instance, when a member gives up a canon character and someone else takes it on? What would you do with the content of the previous player? What is the etiquette that a site would do if a member leaves? Would you keep their written content in the wiki or remove it? I don't mind leaving the content where it is and giving the member credit, but I am concerned if a former member wants to make an issue of it being there. What are site owners experience with this?

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We had a Wikia system set up for a site once. MY idea was to use it for logging cannon events, location history, (including what characters were involved) and stuff like that. My fellow Staff started putting the profiles of all the "canon" player characters, and other things that I felt were non-Kosher for an outside hosted wiki. We ended up scrapping the idea alltogether. 

 

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Member-submitted content is how my site runs! 😄

 

Before I explain how my lore/content system works, I'd like to approach how 'canon' chars and character info are utilized there. We aren't fandom, so our canons are strictly gods, and we have special pages for certain other plot positions, such as Ethers (balance-keeping world guardians, basically), and Sages and their oracles (guardians of creatures we call Ancient Firsts). Gods are never edited or changed (except to fix typos and add plot things every once in a while), and Ethers/Sages are updated only when they need to be. Doing it this way keeps down on constantly updating things, and while we do some work, it's definitely not a large load at all.

 

Examples!

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(Gods)

 

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(Ethers)

 

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(Sages - which are all NPCs until the next plot xD)

 

On regular characters, we have a very basic directory - it sorts characters by member, and lists the name, the link, what species, what alignment, and what store-bought items that char has. We have members fill those out so it's very easy to add them to the directory and update! 😄

 

image.thumb.png.5a98c4d3c916537b58e8242f105c34b0.png

 

While we don't claim or keep Ethers, Sages, or characters, god info always stays no matter if it was member-created or staff-created. We buy art for these gods (or I spend time drawing them myself), so it's also financial for us as much as it's content we use. We count gods under one of our content-retention rules - and that I'll get to next!

 

So in regards to regular lore, we run a suggestions area and a more private lore-working area where we take member suggestions, and then polish them up and schedule them for release, to be opened for use by the site upon the decided release date (which are always on the first of any month, and usually scheduled many months in advance). This includes species, subspecies, magic lore, space lore, worlds, cities, gods, etc. We also have a rule where if something is submitted to the site and accepted, we retain the rights of use - even if that member leaves. This makes it so that we don't have to make however many members change their personal characters' races and whatnot if someone disappears, and it's an excellent system that has served us time and again ❤️

 

I highly suggest that if you go the route of accepting lore/canons as true to site this-stays-forever content, you have a rule like this. It really helps, and protects you from any nasty former members who want to create lore issues if any arise. Good luck with your site!! ❤️

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I think player contribution to the lore is a great thing, but you enter a sort of grey zone when it's about characters. Even as canons, the portrayal and profile somewhat belong to the person writing it. So, as CYA kind of measure, I would either:

 

1. Have it clearly specified in your rules what belongs to the player and what the site can incorporate to the lore (always with credit);

2. Ask them. So, every time someone picks up a canon character or submits a piece of lore, ask them to explicitly grant you/the site permission to incorporate it to the wiki with credits, having it pretty clear that content authorized by the member for the wiki will not be taken down should they leave the site. It takes more time, and it can results in a 'no, you can't use anything I write for my character' answer, but, if you get their green light, you can at least be at peace with your conscience.

 

I do have to say that people who leave on negative terms will sometimes try to create drama and demand things are taken down anyway, but if you cover it clearly in your rules/documentation (regardless of the choice your site makes), you should be okay.

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Shady McShaderson

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Ark runs a lot on player created lore, but it's more ... fleshing out the lore as opposed to designing the world, if that makes sense. 

 

In other words, we have a religion called "Malachites" -- my coadmin and I have laid out the tenants of the religion as a whole, but we allow player-submitted sects that can be as diverse as the colors of the rainbow. 

We likewise have options of adding language/terms/slang, locations, events, etc. -- but all with the caveat that it has to fit into our preexisting system. (In other words, you can't claim that vampires now exist... because that doesn't make sense. But if you want to say that people use the word 'juggernaut' for 'rottweilers' now... then sure why not!)

 

--

 

Canons are a tricky thing. I agree with @Shades. What I think is the easiest way to do canons (if you're making them skeletons, instead of full application adoptables), is that you say all their actions remain and the skeleton remains, but everything else is variable upon the previous player dropping the character. 

So for instance, if someone adopts "President Justin Lobsterfin -- kind, loving, and honorable".

 

The player adds that he has 15 children and has been in a fight club since he was 7. On board, Justin meets a few other characters, cooks dinner for his family, makes some friends, gets into a car accident that was an assassination attempt, plays bingo with old people on tuesday evening. The player leaves. At this point, I'd say that you'd put up the canon wanted ad:

 

"President Justin Lobsterfin -- Kind, loving, honorable. 
Established Past Events: -Mar 3, 2018: assassination attempt - car accident"

 

That's at least how I do it. That preserves the important history of a character, while still maintaining the respect for the player's character not being given away in any fashion.

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I would honestly just make a note that, by joining the site, you agree to the continued use of any content you publish there by the site and its members, whether you are present or not. Just a simple, blatant disclaimer. Because fuck, if I had to go through and remove anything every time a player/character left, I'd end up tearing my hair out. That's valuable time you don't need to be wasting. Also I'm not gonna explicitly ask everyone for the permission individually. That's tedious and you might forget sometimes, so just make it a rule or something and get it out of the way.

 

I like the idea of keeping canon wiki info bare bones. If anything, give your players the option to link their character profiles in the wiki, that way you're just changing out a link instead of a whole slew of information. 

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translunary.gif.5374a61b67b4df1af4bb898e0c039553.gif

a dark, urban fantasy;

inspired by sailor moon

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I think it is a great thing!! But also, be very very very aware that just because it goes up on your site, does not mean you own it. This I think causes problems later on. Unless you make it aware to the player before hand that "hey if you want this to be part of the site then it stays on the site only" someone can take their original content and run away with it (as they should be able to! They thought it up!)

 

 

Buuuuuut the other side of that too, is that if they leave in a flounce? Doesn't mean their shit goes too. If you took the time to pull this into your lore and built off of it, then it is yours too. I'd be fine with 'ghosting' out the player but maybe keeping their name around.

 

 

 

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"Everyone has been doing so much soul searching during all of this,

and I'm just over here drawing pics of my character's dicks."

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At Sirocco, anyone is welcome to submit content that isn't already established to our Worldbuilding Forum or to me personally. There is gets put up for a time for discussion and so others can add to it. Once it has sat a while, I will then vet and edit the content to match our current structure, tone and maybe even update some of the codings for style and then when I feel it is polished enough, it gets posted officially into our documentation. 

 

It works really well. Basically, anyone that creates something that doesn't break what we already have gets added without much fuss! It works for us - but you really need to be open and honest about how your approval process works. I've received complaints about my editing style on player submitted content before, but that was because the person that submitted their ideas and content didn't understand my general process. Otherwise, it is a great way to grow your game and allows people to feel immersed and lets everyone contribute! I love it.

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