Revisions Tabs

This policy is enforced by staff, and is determined on a case-by-case basis. Should you feel any violations are occurring within this policy, feel free to PM any member on the staff list to report it through wikidot PMs or through Discord.

Whether giving or receiving critique, there is one rule everyone should follow:

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE

It is expected that site members act civilly and politely in order for the critique process to proceed smoothly. Receiving critique can be intimidating for those new to the writing process, and offering critique is done by volunteers who are not paid. Respect and civility need to come from both sides of this process. Should you feel this rule is being broken, report it to staff.

There are other things that should be kept in mind when giving critique.

1. Your critique should be substantial.

Stating things such as "I like this!" and "This isn't good" is not helpful. In order for a page to be posted to the site, critique needs to be at least 500 characters (roughly 100 words). Don't waste the time of the author or your time by providing shallow critique. Explain why you think these things.

Your criticism should tell the author exactly what you found wrong, but more importantly, should tell the author how to improve on the work itself. Good critique is specific, relevant to the page, and to the point.

Don't state that any of the problems are "obvious". If the problems were obvious, the author would have noticed. Instead, state the problems which are allegedly obvious, in order to help the author themself.

Inexperience in critiquing is not a valid excuse for giving poor critique. We have a how to critique guide, an experienced greenlighting team, as well as countless resources on the Internet that explain the critiquing process. However, it's okay to admit you don't know something. Be polite and don't be afraid to ask questions.

You are free to tell your author you are leaving a placeholder. However, please refrain from leaving a large amount, and try to get to those placeholders in a timely manner (24-48 hours is a typical amount). Should someone leave you a placeholder, then not reply within that time period, feel free to PM them reminding them of the placeholder itself.

2. It is more helpful to leave an explanation for why you downvoted something than just downvoting.

While you are not obligated to leave a comment explaining your reasoning, giving your reasoning can help the author improve for the next draft.
Downvotes should only be related to the content of the page. Downvoting for anything else but the content of the page is considered malicious downvoting.

3. Have an open mind when giving critique.

There is no one interpretation of the Backrooms. There is room for all kinds of pages here. Your job as a critic is to make every page the best version it can be. If you consistently offer edits that substantially replace the author's work, reevaluate your critique.

If you are receiving critique, keep these in mind:

1. If you want critique, you must give critique.

As part of a writing community, the system does not work if you do not give back to the community. Experienced authors should lend their hand to newer authors, and newer authors should encourage each other.

2. Be patient.

We all have lives to attend to. If someone is taking long to get to your page, give them some time. However, if after a week or so they have not responded, it is okay to contact someone else.
Additionally, it is good practice to wait until your critic has completely finished with their critique to ask questions or clarify things.

3. Take the critique to heart.

Even if someone has completely misunderstood your page, use that as a learning experience. Where did your vision clash with what they understood? Where were you unclear? Even if the critique isn't immediately helpful, try to think what led them to it.

If you have any questions about the policy itself, leave your point in the forums, or else message us via PM or on Discord!

‡ Licensing / Citation

As our site has grown and evolved with its authors, we have decided that we want a certain level of quality curated by our community. Therefore, pages that are deemed to have an unsatisfactory level of quality are removed from the wiki. However, there are other cases where a page may be deleted.

Articles can get deleted due to four primary reasons:

1.) Author request. The author of an article may, for any reason and at any time, desire to delete one of their written articles.
2.) Coldposting. Pages that have not gone through our posting policy or received a greenlight will be immediately deleted by staff for failing to follow the process of quality control. This process will be summarized later in this guide, but is detailed in this page.
3.) Deletion threshold. Articles require to stay above a certain threshold of community acceptance to remain on the site. This threshold is expressed as a rating of +10 for for all non-translation page types. Pages in the positives that do not have downvotes will not be deleted.
4.) Staff decision. Staff reserves the right to delete articles that break the rules of the site in other ways.

Staff will not delete an article because of personal preference or bias.

The process behind the first three possibilities will be elaborated upon in this guide. Consult the table of contents below to skip ahead.

If you feel your article has been deleted unfairly, be it that you have correctly followed the greenlight process, or that your article was above the deletion threshold at the time of deletion, or any other reason, please reach out to staff.

AUTHOR REQUEST

You, as an author, have the inalienable right to delete your content from the site whenever you want, provided you are the sole author of such content. With content that was made with other authors, the majority of authors must all agree to remove their works from the wiki.

Once you have made a request to staff, staff will delete the pages for you. Non-staff cannot delete their own works. Send a Wikidot or Discord message to any staff member and they will process your request. Please allow for a few days for staff to process your request.

Official pages, guides, and articles created by other users, or in collaboration by other users cannot be deleted like this except with staff approval.

Return to top.

COLDPOSTING

In order to post an article of any kind to the site, you will need to go through a process of quality control. This process involves getting three pieces of critique from 3 different users, each being at least 500 characters (roughly 100 words).

Or you can reach out to a greenlighter, ask them to read your article, and get their approval (greenlight) to post.

This is to ensure a universal bare minimum of quality and make it easier to filter out unacceptably poorly written pages, such as those that feature abundant and blatant grammatical errors, or feature extreme misconceptions regarding the nature of the site and its content. Read more about our posting process [here.

Should your article be deleted this way, you will be informed about it via your Wikidot account, and the text of your article will be preserved. Consult the "MESSAGING AND LOGGING" section for more specifics.

Note that for certain contests and other writing events, this rule may be voided: make sure to consult the rules of the contest before posting. Even in these exceptions, getting critique is strongly recommended.

Return to top.

DELETION THRESHOLD

The Backrooms Wiki has an up/downvote system of rating articles. This is the primary means by which content is accepted or rejected from the site, and thus is a way in which articles may be deleted.

The deletion or downvote threshold of the site is a rating of +10 for non-translations. This does not mean that any article receiving a downvote will be deleted: this will happen if the total sum of up and downvotes on any given article is not above a total rating of +10. In addition, a minimum of three downvotes is required for the threshold to be in effect.

For example, if your article has 6 downvotes and 16 upvotes, the total rating will be displayed as +10, and thus will be safe from deletion. If your article has 6 downvotes and 15 upvotes, the total rating will be +9, and thus will undergo the process of deletion. However, if your page has 9 upvotes and has 2, 1, or 0 downvotes, it will not be deleted.

Additionally, all pages are subject to a grace period. When new articles are posted for the first time¹, they have a grace period of 96 hours(4 days) from the time of posting, which means they will not be deleted should they hit deletion threshold during that time.

When an article stays below the thresholds, the article will then enter a deletion range check, in which it will have 24 hours to go above that rating before it is deleted and receive an 'in-deletion' tag on the article. If the vote goes up during those 24 hours, then the tag will be removed, but if it remains below the threshold, the page will be deleted.

In the time between the start of the counter and the final deletion of the article, any user may request the right to rewrite it from staff or the original author(s). The rewrite will be documented but all articles posted after February 2025 will still be subject to deletion by threshold. You can read more about our rewrite policy here.

Once the counter reaches 0, if there are no requests to rewrite, it will be deleted by staff and logged appropriately (see MESSAGING AND LOGGING section).

Articles that have received a greenlight or critique can still be deleted if they reach the downvote threshold. Greenlighters can approve of your article and consider up to site standards, but community members may still decide it unfit for the site and downvote it.

It is generally good manners to explain the reasons behind a downvote in the forum section of an article. Understanding why a page was downvoted can help the author improve for the next draft. However, this is not a requirement or obligation.

You may reach out to individual users if you would like to know the motives for their downvote, but they are not required to answer or give any explanation. If they do not respond or request that you cease engaging with them, you have to do so.

Downvotes can occur for any number of reasons: misuse of the setting, poor syntax or structure, etc…, but personal bias cannot be one of them. If you think someone is downvoting you for any reason but the contents of your article, please reach out to staff.

If your page is deleted, you are always free to rewrite your article and try again! You can ask for more feedback, ask different people, give yourself some time to think and regroup, etc. — Rome wasn't made in a day, and lots of really successful articles started out with the wrong foot. Don't give up if things didn't go as planned!

Return to top.

MESSAGING AND LOGGING

If your article is deleted for any reason but your own choice, you will be informed via Wikidot private message and the deletion logged in the deletions thread of Backrooms Oversight, the administrative site.

Private messages communicating the deletion of your article will look like this if it was deleted due to coldposting…

… and like this if it was deleted due to reaching the downvote threshold.

Together with these messages you will always receive a copy of the source code of your article.

Additionally, deletion logs look like this:

They will list the original URL, the reason for deletion, the date of the deletion, your Wikidot username, and have a collapsible containing a copy of the source code of your article.

+ Additional Help & FAQ

Return to top.

Footnotes

‡ Licensing / Citation

This page will explain our wiki's critique guidelines and the process of posting a page; please read the entire thing carefully before attempting to contribute to the site. If you have further questions, please take them up with staff, open a ticket on Discord, or raise your questions in the discussion section!

Greenlight Policy

There has been a major change to the greenlighting system. Due to the removal of posting restrictions, the greenlight system has been revamped to only affect new authors and how they interact with our critique ecosystem. While posting may be open to with a successful article, it is still highly recommended that you use our critique system to its fullest before posting to the site!

So what's a greenlight?

If a new author would like to use our draft critique resources², then they must receive two greenlights on their concept in the Idea Forum on Discord. These greenlights are a stamp of approval on the concept, showing that the author has put sufficient thought into the structure, theme, and literary value of the piece—thus allowing them to move on to the next phase of writing/critique: drafting.

How do I get a greenlight?

The first step is to come up with a concept for your page, then make a thread on the Idea Forum with the tag "Seeking Greenlight". When making your thread, please use the pinned thread format while keeping the information succinct and relevant. Reviewers will likely ask follow-up questions to better understand your concept; this will allow you to fill in any extra information that may be pertinent to the concept. If you need help with the ideation process, check out the Guide Hub.

+ Idea Thread Format

Who can greenlight my concept?

Currently, three types of members may greenlight your concept.

Greenlighters & Greenflame Trialees: These members of the GLMP³ have the ability to "double greenlight" a concept, allowing the author to move directly to the drafting phase without the need for a second greenlight.

Star Critics: Any member of the Crit Crew who has received the star critic role may greenlight ideas; they can easily be identified by their "Star Critic" role on Discord.

Authors: Any author that has written and posted three successful pages may greenlight a concept thread; they will have the "author" role on Discord.⁴

Once a new author has received the required greenlights, they will receive the "Forum Access" role, which will allow them to use the Draft Forum on Discord.

Role of Critics:

The Crit Crew is a non-staff team of critics that are a core part of the page posting process, and it's important for aspiring authors to understand that. Although not all of them can greenlight your idea, it is almost always recommended to run your writing through them before you contact a Greenlighter.

Role of Greenlighters:

The GLMP is the official non-staff team responsible for critique, as well as other site quality related matters. They work directly with the Crit Crew in order to ensure as many authors are helped as possible. Additionally, they have the ability to "double greenlight" your idea so that you may move to the drafting forums without a second greenlight.

For a list of our current Greenlighters, check out the "Meet the Greenlighters" page.

Role of Authors:

The role of authors both new and experienced, is to not only write entries, but to actively engage in the critique process, reading of newly posted pages, and voting on those pages. Our critique ecosystem is reliant on those aspects just as fully as the writing, put simply, our site cannot maintain a healthy critique environment and a good level of site quality without your participation.

Page Posting

This section will explain the basic process for posting a new article to the wiki. When posted, your article will subject to peer review and will be at the mercy of our Deletion Policy. Once again, it is highly recommended that you use our critique system to its fullest prior to posting a page—while it may not guarantee a successful page, it will greatly increase the possibility of having one.

If you are posting a rewrite please contact staff before posting, the old page will need to be archived before you post your page.

My idea was greenlit and I finished my draft, can I post my page?

That depends, if you have not posted a sucessful page before then you have one more step—if you have you may want to skip to the next section.

Important Info for New Authors:

If you are a new author you must have your draft "cleared" before you may post to the wiki proper. What's a clear? A clear is an affirmation by a member of Staff/GLMP that you have received three critiques of at least ~100 words on your draft. Once confirmed, you will be given the password to post your page.

This is by no means a recommendation that this is the total amount of critique you should receive, this should be thought of as the bare minimum.

I've gotten critique/cleared and I'm ready to post. What's next?

First you will need to find where your page will be posted; you can do this in two ways:

Go to the Level/Entity/Object/Phenomenon list and find your corresponding slot.

Directly type the slug into your URL.⁵ For unnumbered, GOI hubs, tales, and other specialty pages, this is the method you will need to use.

That will bring you to a page that looks like this:

Scroll down until you find this section:

Now you will need to input the posting password; this can be found in the "Info" channel on the wiki's Discord. The password may change unexpectedly, so refer to this channel if the one you know doesn't work.

It will then give you a second input bar in the same space:

Here you will input the URL slug for your page; if you need help or are unsure of what your slug should be, please ask staff or a greenlighter for help.

Then you just paste your draft and update the title⁶ and save your submission. Any images you'd like to use must be saved directly to the wiki using the "File" option at the bottom of your page; further details on image use can be found in the Image Use Policy. Then double-check your submission using the format check found at the bottom of this page, and don't forget to add your tags.⁷

Is that it? Is my page on the wiki now?

While it is on the wiki, it is currently in the "submission" category; staff still needs to review and move your page to the wiki proper. Before staff moves your pages a few things will be checked:

The final format check (found below), which includes any formatting requirements.

Ai check: Ai use in writing or images is strictly forbidden, any suspected use will be reviewed by the Disciplinary Team, and those guilty of using it will be banned.

Tech Check: Any new or extensive technical work will need to be reviewed by the Techlighters to ensure they comply with the site's Tech Policy

Once these have been addressed, the page will be moved out of submission and onto the wiki proper, where others will be able to interact with your work.

And that's it!

We hope you're enjoying your time creating new entries and having a positive experience on the site. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our staff—we’re here to help. Thank you for being a part of our community!

Final Format Check

Part 1 - Final Format Check

Ai Check

Use either Copyleaks or GPTzero when checking. Other AI checkers are too unreliable and should be avoided. Don't copy the page formatting, however, as it can create false positive.

Images should also be glanced at if possible in case one of them looks AI-generated.

Rating Module

Pages should not directly use [[module rate]]. They should instead use component:rate or derivatives of this component (for example, component:open/close), as this allows Technical Team and Maintenance Team to change things about all the rating modules at once.

All pages need a rating component somewhere, but it can be put anywhere in it.

Image Blocks

Moving forward, pages should not use the [[image]] base wikidot module, but instead using the wiki image block component (the image block guide can be found here)

Most [[image]] wikidot modules can be replaced using the following parameters:

All images should also have an alt text so that they can be read by screenreaders. Alt texts are one or two sentences explaining what the image looks like. This is NOT an in-universe explanation of its context.

For example, Level 0 original image would have the following alt text "Yellow segmented hallways, with fluorescent lighting."

Backlinks

No hardcoded wiki link (ex: https://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/level-0) should be used outside of offset links.

This also include links to pages that aren't translated yet, or haven't been written yet. For example, a Level 200-FR link should still be Level 200-FR and not Level 200-FR.

Footer Format

First of all, the license box has to be present even if there are no other pieces of media used in the page, as it shows users how to cite the page. It should be at the VERY BOTTOM OF THE PAGE, since it's meant to look as if it's a part of the UI, below the page content.

It should be laid out like:

FOOTNOTE BLOCK (use component:footnotecol if more than 7 footnotes)
---- (horizontal rule)
WIKIWALK NAV (If applicable. Necessary for numbered pages)
LICENSE BOX

An author collapsible could be placed between the horizontal rule and the wikiwalk nav, though the info button on the rating module should be recommended instead.

Check that the license box only has a ===== sign on the top and bottom, NOT between each blockquote and also that there is nothing other than blockquotes within the ==== part.

Licensing Checkup

Two things should be checked in the licensebox:

The licensebox format
The licensing itself

Licensebox Format

The licensebox follow the following format. It has the ===== even if it has no images.

"Filename:" is specifically for the name of the file as it is uploaded on the wiki
"Name:" is the specifically for the name of the image as it appears on the source. If the source is discord, or a sandbox site, it should be the name of the file.

This is the correct format:

[[include :backrooms-wiki:component:license-box]]
=====
> **Filename: (Optional)**
> **Name:**
> **Author:**
> **License:**
> **Source Link:**
> **Derivative of:** (If applicable)
> **Additional Notes:** (Optional)

> **Filename: (Optional)**
> **Name:**
> **Author:**
> **License:**
> **Source Link:**
> **Derivative of:** (If applicable)
> **Additional Notes:** (Optional)
=====
[[include :backrooms-wiki:component:license-box-end]]

If images have been edited to add something on them (a black box on a face, a collage…) it should be handled as a derivative: the new image is licensed, with the original licensed in "Derivative of:" using this format:

> **Derivative of:** [link of the original Title of the Original] by Author of the original licensed under License of the original

For example:

> **Derivative of:** [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Noun-handshake-3720225.png Noun-handshake-3720225.png] by Vectorstall licensed under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en CC BY-SA 4.0], [https://backrooms-sandbox-2.wdfiles.com/local--files/trailmixncocoa-meg-theme/IMG_3130.PNG M.E.G. Logo] by Kosef Sturre licensed under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CC BY-SA 3.0]

If the image has been edited but nothing was added, the changes are listed under "Additional notes:"

For more information, please refer to the Licensebox component page.

File Licensing

All images should be creative commons compliant. Usable licenses are all listed in the Image use guide

Remember that the Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash licenses are all NOT ALLOWED on the wiki.

Unsplash images uploaded after 5 June 2017 CC compliant and are unable to be used due to license changes.
Pixabay images uploaded after January 2019 are not CC compliant and are unable to be used due to license changes.
Pexels images uploaded after July 2018 CC compliant and are unable to be used due to license changes.

In addition to this, the only allowed AI image generator is thisperondoesnotexist. Images generated by it fall under public domain.

Miscellaneous

All pages with offsets should link its fragments pages as follows on the base page:

[!--
Fragment pages:
https://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/fragment:pagelink-0
https://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/fragment:pagelink-1
https://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/fragment:pagelink-2
--]

No link should be shortened using external tools, for clarity purposes
The listuser component should be used instead of the listuser wikidot module
If components or themes are hard-coded in the page, they should be reviewed by a techlighter before posting to ensure accessibility and workability

Part 2 - Moving Pages out of Submissions

Before checking anything, make sure the page has been cleared or greenlit! You can check in the #greenlights discord channel.

Warning! The submission moving should be done by a different person than the one who greenlit/cleared to ensure at least two people checked the parameters.

For translations, check the Backrooms INT staff server in the translation greenlights channel.

AI Check

Use either Copyleaks or GPTzero when checking. Other AI checkers are too unreliable and should be avoided.

Quick Format Check

To make sure the format check has been followed, check the following parameters again (you can see how to do so in part 1 above)

Rate module block
Image module block
Backlinks
Footer format
Licensing

Verify Title Format

For numbered categories (levels, entities, objects and phenomena, including sub-pages and unnumbered pages), the format should be Category XXX - "Title". An example can be found in the table below:

Right	Level 184 - "Field of Forgotten Forts"
Wrong	Level 184
Wrong	Field of Forgotten Forts
Wrong	Level 184: "Field of Forgotten Forts"
Wrong	Level 184 — "Field of Forgotten Forts"

Instead of Category XXX, unnumbered pages use "Unnumbered Category", for example:

Unnumbered Level - "The Frontrooms"

If a page has an in-canon reason for why the title should look different, you can use a meta title:

[[div class="meta-title"]]
Displayed Page Title
[[/div]]

The actual page title can be hidden using the following code:

[[module css]]
/* Every page technically needs a title! This hides it. */
#page-title { display: none !important; }
[[/module]]

Image Links

All images/files should be uploaded on the page, and these links should be used on the page (no discord, imgur or other places' image links). Additionally, image file size cannot exceed 1mb. If an image is too big, you can use the Image Resize Widget to bring it below the size limit.

Add Title to the Main List

If the page is a numbered article, put the title of the page in its designated spot.

In the case of a group without a tag/canon without a tag, put in in the "other" list of its respective hub (the list is in alphabetical order)

In the case of a POI/group with a tag/canon with a tag, ask the author to add it on its respective hubs with the needed blurbs.

Then move the page out of submissions and let the author know so that they can make an announcement in the page-announcements channel.

‡ Licensing / Citation

page revision: 4, last edited: 15 Mar 2024 11:52

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scutoid's studio

oops i sumatran ground cuckoo again!

AUTHOR REQUEST

COLDPOSTING

DELETION THRESHOLD

MESSAGING AND LOGGING

Greenlight Policy

So what's a greenlight?

How do I get a greenlight?

Who can greenlight my concept?

Role of Critics:

Role of Greenlighters:

Role of Authors:

Page Posting

My idea was greenlit and I finished my draft, can I post my page?

I've gotten critique/cleared and I'm ready to post. What's next?

Is that it? Is my page on the wiki now?

And that's it!

Final Format Check

Ai Check

Rating Module

Image Blocks

Backlinks

Footer Format

Licensing Checkup

Licensebox Format

File Licensing

Miscellaneous

AI Check

Quick Format Check

Verify Title Format

Image Links

Tags

Add Title to the Main List

Then move the page out of submissions and let the author know so that they can make an announcement in the page-announcements channel.