Shifti:Policy
Shifti does not yet have a very well defined set of policies. The only particularly rigid one so far is Shifti:Copyrights, which is pretty much just what's legally mandated.
Social environment
This site will maintain a friendly atmosphere. Critiques should be constructive, and one should not go out of one's way to give them unless explicitly invited. Shifti's sysops may use tools such as temporary edit locks and user bans to enforce this if things get out of control, but please, try not to let it get that far.
Content
This site is intended primarily for publishing shapeshifting-themed fiction. It will also support other activities and archives related to this, including but not limited to
- In-progress works
- Collaborative editing
- Lists of and links to other shapeshifting-related resources
- Commentary, essays, and reviews of other material on this subject.
Hosting is not guaranteed. It is possible that it may prove necessary for sysops to delete some content or pages if they stray too far from Shifti's indented subject area. This will hopefully be a last resort, though. See Shifti:Deletion for more information on the subject of removing material.
"Adult" content
If you post adult content please give some indication at the top of the page. Shifti doesn't yet have specific policies about what constitutes "adult" content so for now please use common sense; it generally means explicit sex scenes, explicit violence, and other such graphic material. There is a template available to mark such pages (Template:XXX) and it should also be placed in the Adult category. Any adult stories found not filed in the Adult category may be moved there by the administrators.
Illegal content such as paedophilia (including euphemisms such as "cub sex") will be removed when discovered and the user posting such content may be banned. We don't pre-screen edits, however, so we can't guarantee that a reader won't find unexpected surprises.
Images
The uploading of images is allowed, with the following general caveats and restrictions:
We are all nifty and OK about you doing the following:
- Putting up pictures that help illustrate a story
- Putting up icons that are relevant to something not story-related (i.e. the TSA logo on a page about the TSA)
- Your own cutesy little horizontal rule replacement images and other such decorative dingbats
- Other images used to decorate one's user pages are fine, so long as it's done in moderation
We may get bothersome if you're doing the following:
- Uploading pictures that you do not have legal right to use (see Shifti:Copyrights). If you're uploading images that are not your own you should include some indication of what permission you got, and ideally some means of verifying it. Images of unclear copyright status may be deleted preemptively until the copyright can be sorted out.
- Uploading very large numbers of pictures (admin's discretion, please exercise restraint)
- Collecting pictures or creating galleries simply for the sake of displaying them in galleries. There are already several other major image hosting sites that are friendly toward or specialize in transformation images, Shifti is focused on fiction. Creating a gallery of images that you've uploaded as illustrations for stories is fine, though.
- Uploading images that might cause other legal problems (certain types of extreme pornography, for example). Shifti is okay with adult content generally speaking, but if you're going to put graphic images on pages please try to give some warning to readers who may wish to avoid them.
Images can be linked to or displayed in various ways, see Help:Images.
