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.

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 documening conlangs. All users are welcome and encouraged to contribute to all sections of the wiki.

Contributing

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 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.

Standards of Editing

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.

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

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. Editing under a Wikia account also hides your IP address, which is recorded on pages' edit history when edits are made by a user who is not logged in.

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.

English

Although this wiki is open to speakers of all languages, main aritcles and templates should be written in English. Pages in other languages are acceptable only if the information is:

1. In a widely spoken and understood language
2. Extensive and detailed

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.

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

Community

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.