Fear Mythos Wiki Rules

Welcome to the Fear Mythos Wiki! It's nice to have you here. Please read on, it'd make me very happy.

What is this place?
We are an editable encyclopedia dedicated to The Fear Mythos, which is a community of media creators who make things (stories, pictures, videos, music) about an abstract pool of open-source monsters. If you want to be a part of this, you can most certainly feel free! I highly recommend checking out our manifesto for more in-depth information on what we are and what we stand for.

This place in particular, though, is intended as an objective database of all the details the manifesto doesn't list. If a story exists that is about Fears, it deserves an article on this Wiki! If a creature exists that a writer says is a Fear or an interpretation of a currently-existing Fear, it deserves an article on this Wiki! If you're a writer, musician, director, or artist who makes Fear things, you deserve an article on this WikI! But there are some things we need to go over first, so please take a seat so we can begin.

The Rules!
These are the things that you can get in trouble for, so listen up!
 * Stay civil. As alliterator puts it: Don't say anything you wouldn't say at a crowded coffee shop. Swearing is only accepted in non-insult contexts. In fact, we don't often take well to insults in general. And as DJay puts it: Treat yourself the way you treat other people. That's civil.
 * This Wiki is ultimately here to serve the works, not the other way around. Only make a page if it is for something that has already been written. Do not add anything to an article that has not appeared in a story yet.
 * Do not vandalize articles. That's when you delete or add content purely for defacing's sake.
 * If the article is for or related to a specific story or work, the author/artist gets final say (well, almost-- Wiki Staff get the really final say).
 * Most of the articles on this Wiki pertain to individual works and canons-- that's most of the Fear pages, every story page, every author page, you get the idea. But there are articles that seek to document our mythos on a larger scale, and we call those general-mythos pages. They include such pages as the lists of blogs and vlogs, the Beginner's Guide, The Fear Mythos page, and even our front page. We do not want just anyone editing these. You can edit the blog/vlog lists to add anything we missed, you are more than welcome to, but in most other cases general-mythos pages are best left up to Wiki Staff and those who have proven themselves to understand this place. Hell, there are Wiki Staff who don't even dare touch these pages. They're risky business, they concern a lot of people. So at the very least,ask permission if you are going to edit one.
 * The only images we want to see on our Wiki are images you have permission to upload. We love seeing original art and media in general. We don't, quite as much, like seeing pictures where the permission is murky.
 * We are an Out-Of-Game Wiki. The Fears are not real, and we don't want any articles or comments suggesting they are. We can make an exception for designated Role-Play threads or for your own User Blog, but those are the exception, not the rule.
 * If the event ever transpires that you are banned, that means you are not allowed to post on the Wiki for the entire duration of the ban. Do not try and work around it. We will find you, and we will extend your ban.

Not Rules, Just Guidelines
We also want to help you find your way!

General Editing

 * If you're not too sure on how to edit to the best of your abilities, check out an article you think was edited really neatly and look for its Source. You can get sweet tips on editing from that; learn by example!
 * See that "Edit Summary" section just above "Publish" while you're editing? It's usually a good idea to put something there so people know why you're editing. Though it's not required, especially not for minor edits.
 * Extending off of that, it's definitely a good idea to check the Edit History of an article to see if previous users gave reasons for their edits. You never know, there might be really good reasons for what they're doing, and if nothing else you can get a better idea of what bases people have for editing.
 * Redlinks are a bit of a no-no. A redlink is a link in an article that goes to an article that doesn't exist. They're kinda ugly, too. They're okay if you put a redlink to remind yourself to make an article for it later, but otherwise we don't recommend it and will probably remove them. And remember: Redlinks are never allowed on List pages or Categories.
 * Just because a creature is not a Fear does not make it a UXP. A UXP (Unexplained Phenomenon) is a very specific thing that has to be intended, by the author, as a UXP in order to classify. That's generally how a lot of things go in our mythos.
 * In order to prevent confusion between words meant to describe VERY specific things in the mythos with words with drastically different meanings in real life (ex. Doors, Runners, Servants) these words should be capitalized.
 * Here's a tip: If a work's article gets big enough to have subsections, the order they're generally agreed to go in is TOP OF PAGE talking about the story itself -> SYNOPSIS giving brief summary of plot (can be longer in proportion to story's length if necessary) -> CHARACTERS in a list, either linked to more detailed pages or not -> ANY OTHER INFORMATION like DEVELOPMENT (talking about the making of the story), ALTERNATE ENDINGS, or anything else that floats your boat -> GALLERY of pictures from story, art or otherwise.
 * Personal comments in articles are kind of allowed (say if one editor wants to suggest a correction to an article that someone else generally edits, or if an editor intends on doing a section of an article later and just wants to remind themselves), but only in the same vein as an editor's comments in a margin: They should be addressed as soon as possible, with any corrections being taken care of. If you want a full-on dialogue, take it to that article's comments section.


 * Images should never take up half of an article. They should at least be big enough to see, though.

Categories

 * Categories are there to organize the Wiki while remaining uncluttered. Say, if an article is for a Fearblog about The Cold Boy, that article is put under the Cold Boy category. But if an article is for a Fearblog about several Fears, try to pick one or two Fears that are the most important if you really have to give it Fear categories. Articles don't need several categories (nor do they need redundant categories!).
 * When creating a page for a character that serves a Fear, do not add the Servants category. Instead add the category of servants they fall into (ex. The Faceless Bastard is a Nest and therefore he should be placed under the Nests category). The only exception is for servants that do not fit the descriptions of said groups or serves multiple Fears, which would lead to a cluttered category section.
 * While Domains are locations, the Locations category should not be added to any pages concerning them in order to prevent redundancy. Add the domains category instead.

Two More Things...
If we can keep these rules and guidelines in mind, we'll have a gorgeous Wiki in no time.
 * We are ultimately a Wiki for information's sake. A work's article should not attempt to sell the story-- don't try and convince people to read the story that's being described. Spoilers are allowed, arguably even expected, unless the spoilers pertain to something that hasn't even happened in the given story yet. Just talk about your story. If it's a really popular story, feel free to say that in the article! But just remain objective, okay?
 * Most importantly, stay civil. Treat others with respect and try to be understanding. If someone acts in a way or does something that offends you, let one of the Staff know and we'll sort things out. Or if you think a member of Staff is behaving irrationally, let a different member of Staff know and we'll see what we can do. Just... stay civil, please.

Who are these "members of Staff?"
There are four of us, and we're all thrilled to meet each and every one of you.
 * alliterator founded this Wiki and was one of the three founders of this big ol' mythos. He also compiled the Anthology that gave so many of us bloggers a chance to see what it's like to be published in a book! And the number of blogs he has written leaves all of us flabbergasted.
 * Finchgeam cares a lot about our mythos and has a lot of stories to show for it. She is extremely helpful and will clear up any problems you might have while keeping the Wiki tidy.
 * DJay32 wrote the manifesto and probably around a million words of fiction for the mythos. He does his best to maintain a constant sense of civility and forgiveness and is pretty pedantic on the Wiki.
 * NearTheEnd pioneered what has now grown into our vlogging community. She's proven herself to be invaluable in moderating, so she's been enlisted to take care of you the beloved people!

Is there anything else to know?
Well, if you don't know about the forum or the Facebook group, those are important places to check out. Other than that, no, you're good to go. Enjoy the Wiki! If you have any questions, just ask!