admin post: image policy, identity protection, editorial procedures

[rbarenblat]

The wiki committee has been working on some additions and clarifications to our FAQ materials and policy pages. We present all three of them below, for your perusal and commentary. We look forward to your feedback; if there are no objections, we'll make these changes within the next few days.



1) Proposed image policy addition

Here's the page in question. Here's our suggested addition:

"I am a fanartist, and I object to some of my work being displayed on Fanlore. What can be done about it?

We’re happy to work with you to preserve fannish history while addressing privacy concerns. We exist based on the principle of fair use and will review fanart disputes with an eye toward accommodating multiple interests. Fair use stipulations for images are outlined in further depth in the answer to Can I upload copyrighted images on Fanlore without the permission of the creator?".

If you are/were active in fandom under your legal name, but don’t want (some or all of) your fanart to be displayed and associated with this name, we can offer you two options (per our identity protection and pre-1995 name policies): we can either edit the artwork's information so that it is associated with whatever pseud you choose, or we can "orphan" the artwork. If a piece of fanart is orphaned, it can still be shown on the wiki (as it is still part of our fannish history), but no name will be attached to it, and we can also blur or remove any signature which appears in the image itself.



2) Proposed addition to the Identity Protection page

Here's a link to the current policy. And here's our proposed additional text:

Identity Protection in Non-outing Situations

This policy is intended to protect fans whose need for pseudonymity has changed, in addition to fans who have never publicly associated their fan name with their legal name. If you had previously used your full legal name in fandom or made a public connection between your legal name and fan name, but for whatever reason you need to lower your online profile, the wiki committee can help you do so.

Sexually Explicit Images

In some cases, a fan who may be otherwise comfortable with the association between their legal name and their fan activities may feel the need to draw a veil between their legal name and their fanworks -- for instance, a fan who created sexually-explicit fanworks under their legal name and who is now concerned about the findability of those fanworks online.

If you fit into this category, contact the wiki committee; we can help you separate your sexually explicit material from your legal name, either through editing the pages which describe your fanworks so that they reflect either your first name and last initial or a pseudonym, or through "orphaning" the fanworks so that they remain on the wiki anonymously.

See also our Image Policy.



3) Proposed changes to Editorial Procedures page

Here's the page in question.

Current text:
In line with our PPOV Policy, Fanlore does not have requirements for notability of material. As administrators of the wiki, we have not set requirements for what material is "worthy" of being housed on the wiki or not. We are not in a position to pass judgement on what material is worthy of documenting for each fan community we hope to serve. In line with the PPOV policy, our "relevance requirement" is that if a contributor believes something is worthy of documenting, then we fully support documenting it.

Proposed revision:
In line with our PPOV Policy, Fanlore does not have requirements for notability of material uploaded or linked to on the wiki. The Wiki Committee has not set requirements for what material is "worthy" of being housed on the wiki; our only concern is that what's on the wiki conform to our policies. We do not police content which conforms to said policies, and are not in a position to pass judgment on what material is worthy of documenting in each fan community we hope to serve. In line with our PPOV policy, our "relevance requirement" is that if a contributor believes something is worthy of documenting, then we fully support documenting it.

Comments

[msilverstar]

These seem to be careful policies, but there's so much going on that it's hard to understand what they mean. I think examples would clarify these policies considerably.

[onceamy]

We can work on getting another post (an addendum of such) with examples up, sure. It just might take a few days ;)

[rbarenblat]

A quick addendum to awils1's response: we can work on coming up with some examples to share here informally, but I don't think that we want to put examples in our actual policy materials. The policies are designed to be flexible enough to work in a variety of different cases; I think that if we included examples in the policy documents themselves, we'd risk limiting the way they would be used and understood in future.

But I'll add this (coming up with some examples for informal clarification) to our agenda for our next committee meeting, and we'll try to come up with those soon!

[frogspace.livejournal.com]

1. I don't see much difference (except for all/some) between "I am a fan artist and I don't want any of my work displayed on Fanlore. Will you take it down?" and "I am a fanartist, and I object to some of my work being displayed on Fanlore. What can be done about it?" but the text under the second header then refers to "some or all of". Is this supposed to be a separate header or should it be combined with the first one? Right now I find it a bit confusing.

2. Maybe instead of describing it as what it's not ("Identity Protection in Non-outing Situations") using something like "Identity Protection in General"? For the second one I would change it "Sexually Explicit Fanworks and Identity Protection". Just saying "Sexually Explicit Images" sounds a bit as if someone would post naked pictures of fans. ^^°

[onceamy]

Hi Frogspace,

The principal difference is the all/some, because we have had issues with both types of requests -- some fans take issue with their explicit art being shown, but are fine with their gen art, and there are others who have had issues with any of their art being used. We are attempting to cover both bases explicitly, although you are correct that the "some or all of" is erroneous.

I think your second ideas are good ones -- I'll make the changes on our internal post :) Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

To the committee: Thank you for all your hard work. I’m impressed by the thoughtfulness that went into coming up with this plan, one which I believe does a good job attempting to balance a number of issues. I think the plan, and the process, shows that we’re all striving to do the best we can, and that we’re all learning as we go! It’s been a quite a journey so far…

Mrs. Potato Head

[rbarenblat]

Thanks, Mrs. Potato Head -- we really appreciate this feedback, and we really appreciate all of your hard work. :-)