Commonly Asked Questions
Commonly Asked Questions
1. How do you properly send in a new work to archive? What if I don't have the exact information or that it's already been archived?
We have it linked on our Homepage! But, just in case, here's the link once again to our google form inbox, by which you can submit the work you desire to archive. Once you are in the form, please fill out the information accordingly, following the steps given and read the information posted at the top of the form.
If it is already within the Archive, we will compare both works (the one already archived and your submission) and put your alias as a creditor within the work. If a contributor added it and they authored it, you will not be a creditor. We do not need creditors on works that the contributors made themselves, just to keep the clutter cut to a minimum.
If you do not have the proper information, do not submit a guess or a general summary of said work. To stay accurate, we always ask that you have the original or a copy of the work that we can use. Plus, a guess screws with our logging system, and memories are flawed, no matter how nonhuman we are.
2. I saw that within the About in the homepage the team wanted credible works. Could you be more specific about what this means?
We try to weed out misinformation by asking for works from experienced nonhumans. This usually means 3+ years of experience, (i.e. having tangible and identifiable nonhuman experiences such as shifts or other strong physical manifestations of your nonhumanity) and to be able to upload well-written information that has substance to the Archive.
Note that the works you upload will be viewed in a scholarly or educational sense, which is why we ask for people who are proficient in their nonhumanity and don't have to guess to write informatively. Years of experience, humility, proficient writing, and self-awareness are what we are looking for in works by nonhumans. These garner a collection of acquired wisdom for any level of nonhuman to learn from.
Works we accept also include those from people who are not nonhuman (that we know of) but who have managed accurate information, and which information has been confirmed by experienced and knowledgeable nonhumans.
Overall, we ask for information that is built upon a steady foundation of groundwork, which can usually span a few years or even decades to build. (This entry is for those who want to contribute their own works but are unsure what applies.)
3. How do I become a contributor?
If you wish to become a contributor of the site we have an agreement form that gives the run-down of what is expected of you within this role. Once we have time to speak with you and decide you will be a good fit, we will ask to take a look at some works you want to archive. They must always follow our basic guidelines of them being reputable and accurate, and can be anything related to nonhumanity. If it is a historical account of certain events within the nonhuman community then we ask that you provide your own informed analysis of the legitimacy of the text so we can provide an unbiased form of history to our fellow nonhumans. And finally, once everything looks good, we will accept you.
Contributors are only permitted to work within their folder (dubbed "rooms") while editors and librarians manage the logging and proper categorization of all submitted works. We will be vetting the character and trustworthiness of potential contributors during this acceptance process. You must be able to access google sites to become a contributor. We do not accept individuals with streaks of lying, stealing work, spreading misinformation, bullying, or egoism within this website community. We accept humble, knowledgeable, skilled, passionate, and truthful individuals within this website community. If any of the agreements made for this role are broken, you will be removed with a statement of the rules you broke to earn your removal.
Link to the Contributor's Admission Form HERE. (redirect to google forms)
4. I submitted a work awhile ago; Where is it?
So, there is a chance that we looked at your submission and decided not to archive it. There's a variety of reasons why this can happen, including:
You didn't fill out the whole form/The form was filled out too incorrectly to use. We need the MAJORITY of the form filled out to properly log it, if this information is missing then it cannot be used. If the form is filled out in a way that makes it unable to use, we will toss it. Please follow instructions appropriately and clearly.
It was too small of a submission. We cannot work with one or two sentences, even if the other sections of the form are filled out. We need at least a paragraph (5 sentences) to consider its home within the archive. Maybe in the future we will allow short submissions such as this, but they are simply too little to bother logging them.
It was misinformation. We are very cautious as to what information we will put on the shelves and not. If it seems fishy or made up after careful deliberation, we may just toss it and not log it, just to be safe.
It was from a unreputable source. We are a bit picky about WHERE the information is from. We also do a bit of fact-checking on the work that comes in, and if the author stated is fishy or unreputable, we may deny specifically scholarly or informative works. Experiences or anything else within this scope of opinion (such as theories, discussions, etc.) are exempt from having to be a reputable source.
The author has not given permission for their work to be here. We are proactive as to what information comes on our shelves and that we have permissions from said author (exceptions apply, check how we collect works for the archive). We will always try our best on our end to reach out to the author but ultimately, if we cannot reach the author, then the work may not ever be posted, and ignored within the inbox.
5. How do I contact the Staff about a Copyright or Complaint?
We have a form available within the footer of our website so one can contact us for any reason whatsoever. If you still cannot find it, here is a separate link for you to use <3
Within this form, you can give back any sort of feedback you desire! Found a bug? Let us know. Have an issue with something written? Let us know! Have your content here and you really dont want it here? Let us know.
6. How do Editors/Contributors collect works to archive?
If a collected work is not authored and owned by a contributor of the site (unauthored submissions, whether submitted through the inbox or from), it has been collected via considerate means. If the author is active and able to be contacted, we reach out and directly ask permission to archive their piece, with their permission and full credit given to them.
We do not collect works without being granted permission, unless the situation falls under one of these issues:
The work was published over ten years from the current date and author cannot be reached. From 2015 and before, all works, unless the member is still active, can be freely published within the Archive.
The author cannot be reached because of no available points of contact. Through death, broken links of contact, old websites that have been taken down, etc. A work may be published if we cannot find a way to contact said author.
The author is knowingly dead, or has left the community permanently. Through notices or posts (such as Blaze's farewell), we can find out if an author has left or is dead.
The work is from the 1800's or earlier in which the author is DEFINITELY dead. Need we say more?
This is to avoid copyright issues and most importantly, make authors aware of where their information is going. We always offer a position as a contributor to those who are interested in archiving a lot of their own work or others work. It is vital that we have open communication with authors and make sure that their work is safely added to the archive with their knowledge in advance.
As a contributor regardless, you must reach out to an author about archiving their work, never skip asking the author if you are able to contact them. If you are unsure how to contact someone, ask the team, someone else may know. (Or, feel free to do your own digging to see if you can find a way to contact them.)
Of course, works shift and change all the time, people delete their accounts, posts, and disappear suddenly from the face of the internet without notice. It happens so often that it feels like the last step to being an online nonhuman. Unless one of the four exceptions have been made, a work will not find its way here unless there is permission granted. If you are curious to submit something that is unauthored by you, feel free to contact the author themselves and let them know that you are interested in uploading their work. (We will double check though, please provide us with a way to contact said author.)
7. What does a contributor do for the Archival Library?
As a contributor, you have your own folder to submit your works, you no longer have to work from the google form. You get to choose the name of your folder, and only get to work INSIDE your folder. Editors work on everything else outside of your folder unless you have permission to help us work on other aspects of the Archival Library. This is to ensure there isn't confusion and that things stay orderly.
For each new work you will be submitting, make a new page as a subfolder and upload the work. Then, make sure you identify important information -- such as the author, the year it was made, what type of work this is (a discussion? a forum thread? etc?), and where this work originally came from. Make sure to include tags of other types of important topics mentioned within the work. An archivist may come through and edit the topics when they are logging.
As an official contributor it is also your job to make sure you post the works you find and synthesize accurately to not alter the text intentionally. Your commentary on certain works must be their OWN PAGE, and can be linked at the bottom of said certain works. (If it is your own work you can provide commentary in the context, of course.)
You will also be added to the inbox spreadsheet to add new information that is submitted to the Archive. This information must be stored accurately under the ANON CONTRIBUTOR folder. Make sure to use all information given and, again, accurately store it within the database. You may also need to fact check in case the work may be misinformation. If you don't know, please let another contributor know and we will work together to figure out what's going on with the work that's wrong.
It is our job to make sure we provide accurate but UNBIASED work. We are not gatekeepers, but in fact a group of people providing as much information as possible for shifters and nonhuman species all over. We cannot afford to become gatekeepers, as this would mitigate the main purpose of this website. It is hard to balance between being open enough to accept correct information but weed out misinformation.
8. What is the importance of an ID number for contribution pages?
The use of an ID number is to know when this work was submitted, and is a unique number you can look up to find the work. Just like with a library, each book has their own number so that you can find it within the bookshelf. The first ID is 0001, and the last is 9999. Identification numbers are added after a work is made, by the editors. (It must be logged within the contribution log by contributors to be put away, never forget to add your works to the log.)
We even have a By ID Number Page to look at if you want to see how each work was submitted in order! (Also, helps our poor Editors ID each new work contributed.)
9. How do Author's Shelves work?
Author shelves are made by both contributors and librarians, as a place to provide information on an author and catalog their works. A contributor, if they are also an author, will instead have their room be linked, where you can look at their own page that they made themselves for said works.
If an author is not a contributor then they will have a shelf. Usually these shelves will be pretty bare bones and not have much of a theme to them -- usually being information centers instead of beautiful works. If we have contact with the author for their shelf, we will ask if they want to have input on how the shelf looks, but they will not have access to changing it behind the scenes. Nobody but the author knows the most on them, and the best place to get information on the author is from said author.
Within the shelves we try to share a brief summary of the author, ways to contact them (with their permission that is. The shelf will state if they are unable to be contacted.), and a list of their works. We try our best to provide summaries and important information on all of their works.