04: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-16170023/discussion-author-wills-part-2
Previous discussion: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-16137945/discussion-author-wills
Here is my proposal for author wills
In the event an author leaves the community they may choose a person or persons to leave their articles to. This must be posted either on their author page or the dedicated thread. These wills define a designated user or users who will manage their articles without them. Previously this has been handled on an adhoc basis so formal definitions are required here.
These wills also define a period of inactivity, this will be measured from the last activity or wikidot or any staff controlled space (official discord or IRC). Alternatively if the user has been permanently banned from the wiki that date can be used.
Firstly custodianship of an article means the designated user is the point of contact for staff related questions and edits for a work, see image replacement, wikiwalk edits and technical issues.
Secondly passing control or ownership over means that the designated user in addition to being the custodian is allowed to make major edits to a work. A major edit here is defined as a significant change to the work that does not change the themes or core narrative of a work. All major edits must be approved by rewrite before being applied to ensure that the changes do not rise to being a full rewrite of an article. They are also allowed to make minor edits without consulting rewrite. Minor edits must be constrained to small portions of the text and cannot change the narrative of a work.
An author can state that the designated user with ownership/control cannot make major changes, this will limit them to making minor changes. Alternatively the author can specify that the designated user has full rewrite permissions, this will allow them to totally rewrite the articles transferred.
An author can choose different users for different works. However all co authored works will not be transferred to non coauthored users unless none of the coauthors can be contacted. Transferring ownership, control or custodianship to a coauthor does nothing.
Some users has stated that they want to transfer ownership or control to the community then this means nothing for most of the articles with the following exceptions: Firstly all articles by the author below +10 can be rewritten if they are gone. Secondly staff can rewrite any hubs with significant navigational usage outside of the authors works (see GOI hubs) if control is transfered to the community.
Hubs in general can also be transferred to staff control.
Key questions:
Where should these rules go
Going forward should we require all author wills go into a forum thread
This discussion will go on for one week