Last year I revised the donations policy with input from several community members, as well as with the assistance of members of the Disc Team (who were at the time responsible for the policy). This discussion is about the policy as I have revised it, and we can debate who should or should not be responsible for its enforcement at another time.
If you would like to see a version of this policy formatted like it how it would look on the wiki page, it's here on my sandbox, otherwise check the collapsible.
The current policy lives at http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/donations-policy
SCP Wiki Donations Policy
Updated 2022-06-16 by ManyMeats
The purpose of this policy is two-fold:
First, SCP Wiki Staff recognizes that there are charitable causes which serve positive moral purposes, and it is the right of our members to either further these causes directly or by raising awareness about the charity's mission within reason.
Second, SCP Wiki Staff recognizes that those who participate the SCP Wiki have the right to promote themselves and their work as an artist, author, or other contributor within reason.
This policy is intended to reflect these values.
It is incumbent upon any person advertising a donation link to vet the cause being promoted as well as the charity/organization through which they promote acting. SCP Wiki Staff takes no responsibility for the actions of any person or organization who accepts your money and fails to deliver upon any promise, either explicit or implied. We have no means and no obligation to compel recompense. SCP Wiki Staff further reserves the right to manage any donation links as is deemed necessary to protect the spirit of this policy, including measures not covered by the text on this page.
Violations of the letter of this policy are to be judged in context and, absent other compelling information, are to be treated on a "Warn and Correct" basis.
Abuse or breach of the spirit of this policy for any purpose may result in disciplinary action which range in severity from a temporary suspension of donation linking privileges, to a permanent ban from the SCP Wiki.
Charitable Links Policy:
Links to charitable organizations may be added to your own "standard page". For the context of this policy, a "standard page" is defined as an SCP, GOI Format, Tale, or other SCP variant such as a -J. These links may additionally be collected in the author post within the discussion/comments. When amending your own standard page to include a charitable link, you are permitted to make a single announcement in the comments/discussion indicating the change, but that announcement is not to include the link itself.
Links posted to standard pages may be disguised within the context of the article, but should be identified as either a 'plain link' or by a short description if appearing elsewhere.
Links to charitable organizations may also be added to your own art, author, or project page. For the context of this policy, a "project page" is defined as an ongoing non-standard project such as an SCP webcomic, art gallery, podcast page, or game. For further clarification on the use of external site links, please review the current Tech Policy. When amending your own art, author, or project page with a charitable link, you are permitted to make a single announcement in the comments/discussion indicating the change, but that announcement is not to include the link itself.
Links posted to art, author, or project pages are required to be either 'plain links' such that their destination could not be confused, or must include a description as to the nature of the link.
Example of a 'plain link':
https://EXAMPLE-CHARITY.com/donateExample of link with description:
If you would like to support EXAMPLE-CHARITY you can visit them at [https://example.com/donate their homepage] to donate.Personal Links Policy:
You are permitted to advertise SFW (Safe For Work) links to places such as your personal Patreon, Ko-Fi, or other similar services in order to allow for donations or 'tips'. You may link to a personal website or landing page (such as a linktr.ee) which contains collections of your personal social medias, provided the page a person will be directed to is also SFW.
If you provide a personal link to a platform which charges money, you are required to be clear about when a person may be charged; as an example, Patreon has the option to pay creators either monthly or only upon the publication of material and a failure to clarify may cause undue financial problems for members.
If you advertise the promise of content (such as via Patreon membership tier) you must deliver on your promised content to the best of your ability, once paid. Failure to do so may result in staff action in accordance with the spirit of this policy. It is your obligation to inform any of your financial contributors if you are experiencing delays in delivering promised content, and failure to do so may be interpreted as evidence of an attempt to scam.
Should you pay someone via a donation link, SCP Wiki Staff takes no responsibility for a content creator's failure to deliver, and has no means or obligation to recompense you.
In posting a personal donation link you agree that you are doing nothing illegal in either donating, accepting donations, selling content, or purchasing content and that you will adhere to the terms of service of any donations site used.
You are required to follow the license when making any derivative works of SCP Wiki content and also ensure that any content you intend to make money from is allowed to be used commercially. Errors in licensing could result in legal liability for some or all parties involved; The SCP Wiki Licensing Team is a resource available to you if you have questions.
If you observe any suspicious donation links or think something questionable may be going on, we would urge you to report this activity immediately in either #site17 IRC Chat, The #Site19 Discord server, or by contacting a member of the Disciplinary Team via private message.
Prohibited Actions:
Breach of any of the following is likely to result in immediate disciplinary action.
- Under no circumstances may SCP Wiki Staff accept any compensation for the performance of staff duties. Any attempts to bribe staff into performing duties also constitutes a violation of this policy.
- Under no circumstances may you attempt to buy or sell votes on the site. This includes the promise that an article would reach a certain threshold of performance.
- Under no circumstances may you advertise donations for or the sale of content which breaks the site rules.
- Under no circumstances may you advertise the sale of critique services anywhere on the SCP Wiki. Note that this does not prohibit critique services offered by off-site venues such as Patreon.
- Under no circumstances may you advertise donations for or the sale of co-authorship or "vanity publishing". Articles found to have been published in such a way are subject to summary deletion, and may also include action against the donator/purchaser.
- You may not excessively advertise content you produce as a result of donations, including overly bothering people about reading and voting on the work. A reasonable degree of advertisement is allowable as is expected with any user.
- You may not advertise "partial donations", such as a claim that a portion of a donation will also be forwarded on to another cause or organization.
- You may not create or participate in donation-incentivized competitions, such as offering a reward for the "highest rated tale about your author avatar". Anyone wishing to organize an unofficial contest should speak with the Community Outreach Team for approval and assistance.
Clarifications of this policy are to be directed to the Disciplinary Team
CHANGES:
1) I corrected a typo in "incumbent"
2) I clarified the first paragraph under "Personal Links" - see below convo with Cassandra_Prime. Rev history visible on sandbox.