Basilicus:About

From Basilicus

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Basilicus is a free content world building and fiction resource project. The primary function of the project is to provide fictional settings and materials to be used in any variety of products including, but not limited to novels, short stories, role playing games, board games, video games, educational materials, scripts, and interactive media. Because all materials are licensed under the GNU Free Document License, users can not only contribute to these projects but use them for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Contents 1 History of Basilicus 2 Copyright History 3 The Spirit of Basilicus 4 The Basilicus Convention

History of Basilicus

Basilicus was created by Mark Havenner in 2004 as a collection of 15 years worth of material developed for personal purposes. Prior to 2004, the materials were for use in a series of Role Playing Games, however when Mark sat down and became serious about developing them he encountered a problem. It seemed that everyone worth any creative merit had their own perfectly functional set of proprietary worlds. It then became clear that to be more productive in the science fiction and fantasy genre it was necessary to share content rather than compete with one another.

This more "open" approach to world building was the first step in creating an ongoing project where anyone and everyone can publish and use world building content for whatever project was needed.

Copyright History

Basilicus was originally created by as a world-building project utilizing a PHP content management system. At the time, the project's rights were fully reserved and the creator hoped to establish a growing community of world-builders.

As the project progressed, however, it was realized that by transitioning the content into a free license, it would benefit both the developers and the world-building community as a whole. The first license chosen was from Creative Commons.

After about a year, it was decided to convert the licensing to GNU, in order to utilize more integration with other existing projects. Because there were no other contributors at the time, the transition required no consent.

However, it is possible that Basilicus materials can exist under Creative Commons. In that case, the material must be "dual-licensed" to keep the integrity of both licenses. If users choose to use Basilicus under the Creative Commons license, it can only be with materials taken or modified between March 2004 and December 2005. There is no existing archive for these materials and so must have been acquired during that time.

The developers of Basilicus strongly encourage that users utilize current materials under the current license so as to avoid future incompatability with other Basilicus materials.

Additionally and as with any material, users may choose to dual-license downstream modifications of Basilicus as long as the GFDL is maintained.

The Spirit of Basilicus

Basilicans are creative, innovative, risky, and cooperative. They spend their nights dreaming of worlds that don't exist and their days building them. The highest potential is always a Basilican's mark and they proudly journey onward, creating every detail of every world they can imagine.

Being a Basilican means you are not afraid to contribute, edit, adapt, expand, or add to the content. You respect your fellow Basilican. You don't take advantage of the freedom you've been given. You respect and follow the copyright rules. Even though you are not legally bound to it, you respect the Basilicus Convention. It is not in your nature to degrade, harm, or intentionally insult other Basilicans. You are here to create and relish in the reality your hands help craft.

You are a leader and a visionary.

You are a builder.

The Basilicus Convention

The content of Basilicus is restricted to a GFDL license, its contributors are bound by national and international laws, and the users are expected to follow the site's Terms of Service. This site can be a source of creative power, a toolbox for developers and artists of all kinds, an in-depth sociological experiment, a science project, a virtual reality, and collaborative fiction machine. To reach that end, the creators do not wish to restrict contributor's creativity beyond what the law and licensure permits. However, to ensure a certain level of quality, consistency, accuracy, and comprehensibility, the Basilicus Convention was derived. This simple set of statements is designed to keep the community on the same general path and keep a consistent level of quality throughout the site. Although this convention is certainly not mandatory, it is the preferred way to handle contributions.

Please respect the spirit of the community and do your best to uphold these statements.

As a Basilican I will, to the limit of my ability:

• write clearly and accurately in whatever language I choose to use
• keep concepts as accurate with history, geography, science, theory, or mathematics as possible or when applicable
• respect the contributions of others
• use the recommended format and information requested from world-building articles
• not contribute illegal, unethical, offensive, explicit, or profane materials
• keep existing content consistent (don't contribute something that nullifies, contradicts, or ignores existing contributions without changing it to fit the new contribution)
• allow content to evolve (if someone changed your content, consider keeping it before simply changing it back)
• correct errors as they are found
• notify the administrator of any spam, graffiti, etc

Thank you for upholding the Basilicus Convention and we hope to see your high quality, creative, unique and empowered contributions for years to come.