Content-Flagging on the Cyclopedia

This is extremely important. If you read this and digest it, that will make the whole site run much better and be a lot more useful to you and everyone else.

The Concept

As you know, the whole point of wiki's is that anyone can make changes at any time. We chose to use a wiki because we want that to happen here. But there are some peculiarities about how this site works that make it a little complicated.

Shadows in the Fog is very much an historical game, and we want the Cyclopedia to be almost entirely historical as well. But we also want it to incorporate fiction and the inventions people come up with in their games. This means that there are going to be bits of history and fiction and strange game-world things all cheek-by-jowl.

Now because there is a great deal of historical material available, on the web, in texts, and elsewhere, and because a lot of people who play this sort of game are quite good at digging it up, we will eventually have a massive site full of amazing quantities of fine detail of historical London in the late 19th century. As and when that happens, the site is going to become quite useful to people other than gamers, people who don't give a fig about the inventions and fictions but are genuinely interested in the history.

Furthermore, those same people interested solely in the history may find more wonderful stuff that they want to contribute, and want to be able to ignore all the fictional created weirdness that's around.

So what we want is for every page, every entry, and to some extent every link to be flagged. That way every user knows what everything is, and there's no confusion.

The Three Types

History: You, the author of the page or entry, assert that the material is historical, and you have cited sources to demonstrate this. If you don't know the source, mark it history and in place of a source give us the best you have -- others will then edit it. This is the default for all entries in the Cyclopedia.

Fiction: You, the author of the page or entry, assert that the material is drawn from a publicly accessible (e.g. published) work of fiction (or film, or comic, or whatever), and you have cited sources.

Invention: You, the author of the page or entry, assert that the material is entirely made up, and you do not believe it to be historically legitimate in any way.

Flagging Pages

WebForm

Down at the bottom of any page you alter or create, there is a little WebForm. Simply by clicking and selecting the appropriate entries, and typing a headline, you can flag your page quite clearly.

The only Topic Types you need to worry about are Historical, Fictional, and Invented References. Anything else is for administrative purposes of one kind or another.

The Topic Headline should probably be the title of your page. Note that unlike a WikiWord, this can contain things like apostrophes and hyphens.

All this WebForm stuff is just intended to keep clear what you had in mind and to help everyone with their editing.

Flagging Pages: History

When you create a page or reference or whatever that is historical in nature, we ask that you cite your sources. Down at the bottom of the page, just above your name and the date, simply put in a bullet-point (on a new line: three spaces, asterisk, space), then type the reference:

• Charles Dickens, Jr., Dickens's Dictionary of London (London, 1888; reprint Morehamptonstead, Devon: Old House Books, 1993), 15.

In this particular case, you don't need so much, because (a) it's a dictionary, so you don't need page numbers so long as the entry-name is clear, and (b) it's already in the Bibliographies. But that's a side issue.

You do not need any special flagging for historical material beyond the WebForm, as appropriate. The default for everything here is that it is historical unless otherwise indicated.

Flagging Pages: Non-History

When you create a page or reference, or add to an already-existing page, and the material is fictional or invented, you need to make that clear.

Pages

Make sure that the Topic Type is set to Invented or Fictional Reference. If it's fiction, be sure to give a source.

Links

Please add, in boldface, the word "invented" or "fictional" in whatever description you give. Thus

• Lockley, Sir David -- invented: professional assassin working for the Si Fan

Edits and Amendments

This is the tricky one.

If the existing page is Historical, please add your material below a full-length horizontal line (use three or more hyphens to produce this). The first word below the line should be Fiction or Invention, as appropriate.

If the existing page is mixed up, i.e. has some of more than one kind of entry, please put full-length horizontal lines before and after your entry, so it's clear where it begins and ends. Flag your section by putting the word Fiction or Invention in boldface right at the start, after the line.

Questions and Problems

If you don't understand something here, please do not try to fix the page. Email the editors; we'll explain how it works, i.e. answer your question, and probably (if we have time) also fix the page if necessary.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 28 Dec 2004

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