AnOtherWiki:About

Welcome to AnOtherWiki. This project is meant to create a free encyclopedia written by, for, and about the Otherkin community. If there's information about websites or people in the community, gathers, chatrooms, jargon, or anything else we want to see it here. We also take the view that a community is only as good as the collective memory it has, so we're particularly interested in information about our community's history and shared culture.

We've chosen to take a very broad view of the Otherkin community with this project, and so invite information about other related communities such as the Therian community, the Vampire community, the Draconity community, the Faeborn community, the Starseed community and any others which share in the experience of not considering themselves entirely human. We also invite information about communities which historically have had significant overlap with our community, such as the Multiplicity community, the Psionics community, or the Guardians community.

In terms of editing policy, things are relatively relaxed here. We strive mainly to write from an Objective point of view, in the journalistic sense of the word. This means we embrace the principles of fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship. Our goal, like any good reporter, is to get all the truth about the subjects we cover and nothing but. We're not perfect, however, and none of us can know everything about our communities. That's part of why working together is such an important aspect of a project like this. Accordingly, we also have a policy of no personal attacks here on AnOtherWiki, to help promote cooperation between editors. If you feel another user is behaving unreasonably in editing an article, and you can't work it out with them on the article's talk page, please contact an administrator rather than starting a flamewar or edit war with them.

What AnOtherWiki Is Not

AnOtherWiki is not a list of random links

While a handful of external links to supplement an article is fine, the majority of links to other sites appearing on article pages should be used as references in the article itself. That is not, however, meant to suggest that we discourage the use of this site to promote your projects. If you have a website about otherkin, for example, don't add it to the Otherkin article as an External Link. Instead, create a new article about your site and add it to appropriate subcategory under Category:Websites. We want to know all about you and your project, not just a quick mention as a see-also on another article.

AnOtherWiki is not a repository of images or other media files

Files uploaded are meant to support articles, but the purpose of this wiki is not to give users a personal gallery. Please don't upload images unless they are being used to supplement content.

AnOtherWiki is not a website or blog provider

While literally true, this also means that AnOtherWiki is not a site for personal essays or theories about otherkin. If a theory or terminology is widely held, it may be appropriate to have an article documenting that theory (preferably with references and links) but AnOtherWiki is not the place to develop or promote your own theories.

AnOtherWiki is not Wikipedia

Unless explicitly mentioned, such as the No Personal Attacks policy, we do not use the policies of Wikipedia here. And even those we do use, we often have our own take on. Please don't expect editing on AnOtherWiki to be anything like editing on Wikipedia. In particular, our Objective Point of View policy stands in stark contrast to Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View policy. Another point of contrast with Wikipedia is that we welcome what they would consider original research. Also, while we try to work together and cooperate, we do not work on consensus. Journalistic objectivity is our standard, and admins are empowered to step in and determine which version in an edit war better meets that standard.

AnOtherWiki is not a democracy

On that note, AnOtherWiki is not a democracy. Users are expected to respect all rulings by admins, both in matters of conduct and matters of content. If you cannot respect such rulings, you may find yourself banned either temporarily or indefinitely from editing AnOtherWiki

Linking

One of the best ways that you can help AnOtherWiki achieve our goals is by spreading the word about us. Whether that's as simple as linking to some of the articles here in your forum posts and blog entries or by adding us to a list of recommended resources on your website. Or just telling your friends about us and suggesting they might want to check us out or give editing a try. If you'd like, please feel free to use the following banner when linking to us: