User blog:Explorer 767/OOC Authority

I've been thinking lately about OOC rights and how to determine who and what has authority over the OOC boundaries of an article. So I decided to propose this as official policy on OOC rights.

Please give feedback.

First of all, we need to define our terms before we can lay down any laws.


 * OOC -- OOC means out of character. When an article is "used OOC", it means that it is being used in a way that does not match up with the facts stated explicitly in the article itself or the opinions of whoever has OOC rights to that article.
 * OOC rights -- OOC rights to an article give the holder of said rights total control over the OOC boundaries of that article. They say what goes and what doesn't.
 * OOC boundaries -- The defining characteristics of an article that are used to determine whether it is being used OOC or not.
 * OOC authority -- Like OOC rights, except these belong to another, usually related article. In the case that a redlink article (a non-existent one) has several existing related articles, the content that will be written in the redlinked article must conform to the related articles, which have OOC authority over the redlinked article.
 * Continuity -- The OOC boundaries set by the mainstream content of the wiki in total. Users should try to avoid breaking continuity (i.e., conflicting with several articles) at all costs.
 * Canon Authority -- The OOC boundaries set by the real-world online game, Club Penguin, along with the DS video game. Users should try to avoid breaking these boundaries at all costs EXCEPT loss of an article's core content.

Now the laws.


 * OOC rights to an article, by default, belong to the creator of the IDEA for an article, not the user who actually wrote the article. If the creator wishes to do so, he/she can partially or totally turn over OOC rights to the user who wrote the article.
 * OOC rights may be given up by the holder at any time. OOC rights may be released into the public as Fair Game, or given to another user who adopts the article. The user who adopts the article should, out of respect, continue to follow the previous OOC boundaries set up by the previous holder of OOC rights and continued suggestions made by the previous holder.
 * If OOC rights are given up and remain unheld for a period of time (i.e., no one adopts the article), then the OOC boundaries of the article in question will be defined by related articles through OOC authority. This also goes for Fair Game articles.
 * OOC boundaries can be overruled by the signatures of 6 or more active users on a petition, or through a vote where the side with more than half of the votes wins. In the case of a tie, tiebreakers should be held (repeatedly, if needed) until a final decision is reached.
 * Nothing can overrule canon authority EXCEPT by the following exception:
 * Should a new, unique fact be established in CP canon that conflicts with a PRE-EXISTING fact in fanon, the pre-existing fact in fanon wins by the grandfather clause.
 * Nothing BUT canon authority can overrule continuity.
 * A fanon article about a canon concept CANNOT have a holder of OOC rights -- it must be released as fair game at all times. The said article will be governed by canon authority.
 * Should the holder of rights to an article quit or get banned, the article will be released as fair game for as long as the quit/block lasts.
 * More may come soon!

This corollary (basically a rule of thumb) sums almost everything up: the authors of a page and/or the most updated, accurate related pages are the most reliable sources for OOC information.

Please give me your feedback so that I can improve this rough draft!  Yours Truly,   Explorer 767 ( Neutrinos are stalking you...  )    View this template   02:38, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

UPDATE: Had an idea -- holders to OOC rights of an article should, if possible, post a list of OOC boundaries on a subpage of the article (like "Article/OOC").  Yours Truly,   Explorer 767 ( Neutrinos are stalking you...  )    View this template   23:42, March 3, 2010 (UTC) $$Insert formula here$$