Outlands Wiki Protocol

Cribbed from An Tir's Policies page.

Purpose

The purpose of this wiki is to jointly collect and record Outlands history, traditions, and culture, and to provide a place for newcomers and old hands alike to share and find information. It is also meant as a resource for the scribes and heralds of the Outlands for their art and service.

Scope

Appropriate topics for this Wiki include subjects having to do with (in order of priority)

1. the Outlands
2. the SCA
3. pre-17th century history and skills

with the exception of items which are defined in the #Inappropriate Subjects list.

Appropriate Subjects

• Copyright-free material
• Works to which you own the copyright and want to put in the public domain

(Comment: this list is awfully short -- but taken with the Scope, it pretty much covers everything.)

Examples of appropriate content

• event information (date, branch, autocrat, activities, court news)
• personal event memories and chronicles
• newcomer guides
• jargon definitions (see Glossary)
• contest results/winners and champions
• a personal page describing your SCA life (persona, branch, first event, awards, interests)
• original research results, research articles, research guides (bear in mind that all content on this site becomes part of the Public Domain)
• annotated booklists
• royalty: reigns, progresses, highlights, support staff, pictures
• branch descriptions
• "keepers" postings from an SCA mailing list or other SCA related text-based group with the permission of the author

Inappropriate Subjects

• Copyrighted material
• Material concerning subjects outside the #Scope of the Outlands Wiki
• Officer contact information (privacy issues)
• Official forms (instead provide links to them)
• Official SCA or Outlands Policies (instead provide links to the authority source)
• Closed-door or sensitive conversations and information (such as shared in Circles) (do NOT get us in trouble)
• Spam, profanity, libel, personal attacks, arguments, ...

Examples of Inappropriate Content

• Kingdom Law, Corpora, Officer Handbooks (link to them)
• Event forms and Waivers (link to them)
• Announcements of short duration (e.g. event announcements, lost and found)
• stuff that doesn't have anything to do with the Outlands, the SCA, or pre-17th Century history
• Merchant advertising
• material copied from other websites (link to them)
• anything you don't want edited or changed (post it elsewhere and link here instead)

Photo Uploads

Outlands Online wiki users are welcomed to upload images (photographs or artwork) which they have permission to use. If uploading a portrait of a person or few people, get their permission as well. It is assumed that copyright remains in the hands of the original content creators, unless you are the creator and assign a different license. Once uploaded, it is also assumed that the act of uploading an image grants the right for said image to be published indefinitely, unless the copyright owner requests otherwise.

For information on using photographs, articles, or artwork from this website, please contact the image creators. Please respect the legal rights of our contributors.

If you are one of the main subjects in a photo that you do not wish to be published, please contact the Outlands Wiki Admin Team so we can have the photo removed or have your image disguised.

All external links are not part of the Outlands wiki site. Inclusion of a page or site here is neither implicit nor explicit endorsement of the site. Further, we are not responsible for content outside of the Outlands wiki.

Important Bits

• The SCA and the Outlands are only possible through volunteerism and the Honor of its members. Do not forget either.
  • Wiki Etiquette is based on the same principles of Honor and Assuming Good Faith. Please famialiarize yourself with it.
• Everything posted here becomes subject to it's selected licnese. Do not contribute copyrighted materials without permission.

• Create an account for yourself if you wish to contribute.
  • Use your SCA name
  • Add your signature to discussions or memories with --~~~~ (dash-dash-tilde x 4)

• Another handy template is the Template:Populace which you can use to add picture, device and important 'at-a-glance' information about yourself or others. It is considered polite to ask before posting someone's picture on the Internet, unless it is posted elsewhere (such as the Outlands Kingdom home page).

• A list of all the templates can be found here, under Templates.

• Feel free to create links to pages that don't exist yet. Someone (maybe you in a few days) will come by, see the need, and start it.

• Keep it positive. Don't get bent out of shape if someone edits "your" page. Assume Good Faith.

• Keep it positive. Apart from Event Memories and personal Populace pages, pages should be written neutrally and without personality.

• Keep it positive. Keep personal bias out of articles you edit. If you're writing or editing an article on a controversial subject, include opinions from all sides of the debate. If you don't feel capable of writing from the opposing view, include an invitation for someone else to contribution that part.

• Keep it positive. If an issue hasn't been dealt with fully in your opinion, don't assume your needs are being ignored. Assume instead that we've been waiting for your input.

• Looking for a place to start? Look up the page for an event you attended recently and add a few memories. Look up your branch and add, correct or polish the infomation. Or visit How Can I Help for lists of pages that need attention.

• Other content ideas: Driver's Guide to the Outlands(services by highway exit), Shopper's Guide to the Outlands, "Keeper" postings from Outlands e-mail lists or Facebook groups (with permission)...

On What You Need to Know Before Adding an Entry

The number one top priority (in the Outlands Wiki Team's mind, in any case) is to have history, traditions, and entries added.

This means:

• Don't worry excessively about formatting if you aren't comfortable at it, it can be cleaned up later.
• Don't worry about hyperlinking items if that might stop you from making an entry, they can be added later.
• Don't worry about using a template - well, this one is harder to add later, but don't let it stop you.

However, there are still things to keep in mind:

• Please DO search to make sure you aren't making a duplicate entry. Adding to an existing entry is great, but creating a duplicate can cause big headaches later on.
• Please DO feel free to ask for help with formatting or other wiki questions.
• Please DO add events, and memories to existing events.
• Please DO feel free to "copy" the formatting of an existing page.