Conlang:Policies

Conlang Wikia is a community dedicated to conlangers, to educate those new to the craft, to allow advanced conlangers to showcase their creations, and to give intermediate conlangers a platform to receive criticism and feedback. To keep our community civilized and our information reliable, the guidelines and rules described on this page will need to be followed as closely as possible.

Any matters not covered on this page explicitly may be inquired about by contacting an administrator, either via the chatroom or one of their personal talk pages.

Purpose of the Conlang Wikia
The Conlang Wikia is meant to provide a community for conlangers of all skill levels to gather and discuss the craft. The wiki will be composed of three main sections: pages documenting linguistic topics (such as grammar and phonology), pages describing natlangs (natural languages), and pages documenting conlangs. All users are welcome and encouraged to contribute to all sections of the wiki.

Conlang Pages
When creating a page to describe your own conlang, please begin by using the "Creating a Language!" box on the main page. Using this box will create a page with a premade template, which will help you organize your page as you begin writing. Using this template will also help provide the wiki with a consistent appearance.

Please do not create pages describing conlangs created by other people, such as Esperanto, Ithkuil, Lojban, Klingon, Dothraki, or Quenya.

Natlang Pages
We ask that users do not create pages for natlangs, or natural (real-life) languages, on their own. If you would like a page on a particular natlang to be created, bring it to the attention of an administrator. If a page on a natlang has already been created, however, all users on the wiki are welcome to edit it. Please fact-check before editing.

Linguistics Pages
Similar rules apply to linguistics pages as natlang pages.

Civility
Editors should always remain civil while editing. Refrain from edit warring, abusive language, and harassment. If any disputes arise, get in touch with an administrator rather than letting them get out hand. As this is a wiki the vast majority of pages can be edited by anyone and so please assume good faith.

English
Although this wiki is open to speakers of all languages, main articles and templates should be written in English. Pages in other languages are acceptable only if the information is: Otherwise, the page may be subject to deletion for purposes of housekeeping. Exceptions to this rule are the very oldest of pages we have on the wiki, and pages which also have English translations on the wiki.
 * 1) in a widely spoken and understood language
 * 2) extensive and detailed

We ask that users not write their pages in their conlangs, unless an English translation is also provided. The purpose of this wiki is to share information on your conlang, which is only possible when other users can understand the information recorded.

Language Usage
We ask that editors employ respectable language while editing on the wiki's mainspace. This means that articles describing conlangs, natlangs, or linguistic concepts should use the standard conventions of written language and be free from inappropriate language such as expletives and ad hominem attacks. Use of language is less regulated on users' namespaces (pages beginning with User:, which includes users' sandboxes); so long as it otherwise falls within Wikia's general guidelines, it is acceptable.

IPA​
Though English is more or less the dominant language on the Internet, pronunciation can vary quite considerably (even among native speakers). There are numerous native English dialects and non-native speakers of English may speak with one of countless accents depending on their native language, degree of knowledge of native English pronunciation and the dialect they try to imitate. Because of this, the Internation Phonetic Alphabet should be used to specify the pronunciation of the sounds of your conlang rather than phonetic analogies to other languages' pronunciation, such as "a as in father." Such phonetic comparisons may be added for reference, but only alongside a standard IPA transcription.

For those unfamiliar with IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet), a detailed article can be found here and to listen to the sounds of IPA go see here.

Page Ownership
Pages related to conlangs are regarded as owned by the creator of the conlangs. It is expected that users will not edit other conlangers' pages unless first granted permission, or the edit is minor (such as correcting a typo) and a reason is provided in the edit summary.

Vandalism and Spam
Both vandalism and spam are unacceptable offenses. The punishments for both range from one year in length to ninety nine years. The spammer always receives the full punishment, while vandals' punishment may vary depending on severity of offense.

Special mention goes to forking. Putting a link to a fork of this wiki will, at first, earn you a warning, followed by bans in increasing length for each subsequent offense.

Circumvention of bans is cause for an IP-ban and doubling of punishment.

Identity
Contributors do not need to have an account, but it is advised to have one, as anonymous contribution will display your IP address. The advantages of having an account include having a profile and a fixed place for people to contact you, and being able to easily keep track of your previous edits. Additonally, on the Conlang Wiki, we recognize that pages describing conlangs are owned by the creator of the conlang. To ensure that your ownership of your conlang is recognized, we encourage all users to register a Wikia account and log in while editing. If you forget to log in while editing, it is okay; just log in next time you edit. The ownership of a page is not determined by who created the page, but by who created the conlang; therefore we recognize your ownership even if you created the page anonymously.

Sock-puppetry, the use of multiple accounts for purposes of deception, is prohibited. All alternate accounts ought to be identifiable with regards to the main account. Sockpuppet accounts will be banned indefinitely, while the main account of their owner will get progressively larger bans for each offense.

Deletion
Pages on the wiki may be deleted for a variety of reasons, with or without warning. The most common reasons that may result in a page being deleted are: If a page is deleted for spam, it will be deleted without warning. Pages deleted for the second or third reasons will be deleted without warning if 1) the page has not been edited in over six months, and 2) the contributor of the page was anonymous. Pages edited within six months or with registered contributors will typically be placed in a category of pages pending deletion for an unspecified length of time. However this is at administrator discretion and may not occur in all cases. If a page is deleted and you wish it to be undeleted, contact an administrator and they can undelete it for you.
 * 1) the page consists solely of spam
 * 2) the page is empty or nearly empty (including if it consists of a barely-modified template)
 * 3) the conlang described on the page is of exceptionally poor quality
 * 4) owner request

The Chatroom
All members of the wiki are encouraged to participate in the chatroom. Chat-specific rules can be found here.

Organizing Activities
Members of the community are welcome to organize activities such as challenges and relays; we just ask that before doing so, members consult the admins beforehand. This way any conflicts with other activities can be avoided, and the admins can ensure that fair rules are instated.