Find the Why

You know what it is.

The retcon.

The forgotten character.

The fan favorite that won't stay dead.

The 110 year old WW2 vet that hasn't aged a day.

There are a lot of great stories that come out of Marvel and DC, but keeping up with them is tricky. On the other hand, we are blessed with hundreds upon hundreds of these stories.

It is my hope that this may be the answer: a way for long-running series to germinate, beyond death of the author, and allow for both new writers and readers to enter the universe.

Guidelines

Be deliberate with what gets a CC-BY and what gets copyrighted. Generally, ask yourself “would I be OK with someone who hates my guts having the legal right to use this? Make money off this?” Maybe you don't end up sharing anything, and that's OK - it just means I'm not going to link you. Take some time to think about this, and make sure to really look into what creative commons is before picking a license.

Avoid retcons at all costs. When retcon'ing, try to “yes, and” (like with Alan Moore's “Swamp Thing” - the retcon recontextualizes the past, but does not erase it.) It may be hard if you find yourself written in a corner, but try to look forward, not back.

If you want to be careful with copyrighted works, take a wayback machine capture of the page when you publish it, to create timestamped proof that you are the creator.

Will add more guidelines as we learn.

My Rules for Known Canons

On the Known Canons page, I'll link to other canons that I might end up using, or that you might find useful. I have a few rules for what I put on that page.

No nazi or fascist bullshit. No racism, sexism, or any sort of discriminatory -ism in your work. I acknowledge there's a difference between “supporting female character isn't fleshed out” and “actively advocating against womens' right to vote,” so in some narrow cases there may be grace.

You've got to have some creative commons or public domain reference guides... Otherwise, I can't use your canon. I love copyrighted works - the vast majority of what I read isn't in the creative commons. But I'm not going to bother linking something in “Known Canons” if I can't use it.

Rules are subject to change.