The Magic: Expanded Multiverse (M:EM) project is open to everyone. All M:EMbers of the group are allowed and encouraged to voice their opinions on current and past projects, to vote to accept new works into the archive, and to submit their own works to the M:EM.
What can I find here?
The M:EM has two goals: to create an expanded universe set within the Magic: the Gathering multiverse without contradicting Official material; and to preserve Official material that cannot be found digitally. To that extent, you will find both completely fan-created stories set within the rules of the Magic: the Gathering multiverse, as well as extensions of known material, such as stories based around cards that were never expanded upon in Official materials.
While Works that have already been accepted are posted to the Archives, everything else is stored in this singular forum. As such, we ask politely that anyone looking to make a new thread include a tag or two to clearly communicate its purpose, such as [Voting], [Worldbuilding], or [Story]. This helps keep the project organized when we have multiple projects or business discussions running at once.
As this board is oriented towards creating material, off-topic conversation and general chatting about Magic is probably best taken to one of the other Magic boards or to the Off Topic Room. If you have questions about the art or storyline of Magic, check out Art, Flavor, & Storylines.
Mature content (explicit violence and sex) within stories will not be immediately deleted, but the more explicit it is, the more you will need to justify it artistically. The rules about what material you include are somewhat looser here, but are by no means totally lifted. And, of course, explicit content posted for the sake of baiting or trolling, or posted outside of the context of a work, is going to be treated just as it normally would on any other board.
Who leads this project?
The M:EM is officially lead by the M:EMperor, who is responsible for the maintaining the project as a whole and deciding on its short and long term goals. The M:EMperor also has the power to delegate any of his or her duties to other members of the M:EM by creating new positions for them to fill. If for whatever reason someone is unwilling or incapable of fulfilling the position assigned to them it falls on the M:EMperor to either perform the duties himself thereby abolishing the position or to find someone new for the position. The position of M:EMperor is currently held by M:EMber Yxoque.
As a supplement to the M:EMperor, the Archivist is responsible the compilation, organization, and maintenance of the Archives. This includes adding any newly voted in material to the Archives, adding the appropriate tags, and placing the work in the correct location if applicable. To perform these duties the M:EM Archivist account has been given moderater powers over the M:EM and Art, Flavor & Storylines forums. The M:EM Archivist account information is shared among a select few voting M:EMbers, at the discretion of the Archivist, to ensure the account can be recovered should the current Archivist be unable to perform his/her duties. The position of Archivist is currently held by M:EMber Lord LunaEquie is me (also known as Its_Always_42).
So what are the Archives?
The Archives are everything that the M:EM creates. The index of the Archives should be marked for your ease of understanding. When you submit something to the project, you can determine a lot of the marks applied to the characters, planes, and other bits in the story that become part of the M:EM's Canon.
Symbols used
:chaos: means Open. Marking something Open effectively gives up ownership of it the M:EM. Open things are things that are free for everyone to use.
means Public, the default mark. Marking something Public means you want other people to use it and build on it, even in ways you might not have intended, but you'd like to retain some creative control over where it goes.
means Private. Marking something Private means you consider it entirely yours, and want the last word on its inclusion in other works, or interactions with it: you retain almost total creative control over Private things. Because you can already veto big changes to Public things, though, remember that you don't have to mark a character as Private just to keep them from being killed off by someone else.
means Active. This thing is being worked on, right now, and isn't going to stay in its current form.
means Contested Canon. This thing steps on other things toes or has had its toes stepped on, or has been made problematic by Wizards. It needs to be considered and might be deleted, changed, or kept as is.
means Dead. This thing no longer exists in the present, though it existed in the past. You might be able to resurrect it somehow, but that would be a Major Change, and would need permission from its author if public or private.
means Planeswalker. This character can travel the planes. Occasionally, this might be used for other things that can travel the planes.
Voting Rules
Any poster that has a work in the archive is considered a full M:EMber and has the ability to both vote in and create voting threads for different works and initiatives. Non-voting M:EMbers may request a work be put up for vote in the Vote Request Thread.
Votes pass by simple majority of Yea votes over Nay and Not As Is votes. In the event of a tie the vote passes or fails according to which way the M:EMperor voted.
Not As Is votes are Nay votes that can be changed to Yea votes when the author meets certain criteria, to be listed by the voter.
Authors of works should abstain from voting for their own submissions. However, works created collaboratively by a majority of voting M:EMbers are automatically considered to be endorsed by those M:EMbers, and the piece can be entered in the Archives without a vote if those working on it decide by a majority that the project is finished. While we welcome any voting M:EMbers back from long absences, should a voting M:EMber not be actively a part of the M:EM boards for more than 3 months, they will not be counted when considering majority.
Works submitted for a vote into the Archives are posted on the following Monday, and a reminder pm will be sent out by the M:EM Archivist to voting M:EMbers that a project is up for vote. Voting threads are left open for one week. After 7 days of no activity, it will be reviewed for status; the M:EMperor or M:EM Archivist may decide to extend the voting time if not enough votes have been cast.
A voting thread should include the following information: 1) Title of the project 2) List of authors involved 3) A link to or copy of project 4) Note(s) on status of project, should it be accepted (Public, Private, etc.) 5) A title with the [Voting] tag, as well as at least one other appropriate tag to identify the project. Such tags can be [Plane], [Character], [Planeswalker], [Story], [Poetry], etc., as well as what character or plane a story ties in to.
Note: A work is assumed to be Public ( ) if no other status is specified.
List of Current Voting M:EMbers Aaarrrgh Barinellos jedi8187 (AKA jedi) KeeperofManyNames Lord LunaEquie is me (AKA Its_Always_42) (current M:EM Archivist) RavenoftheBlack Ruwinreborn Tevish_Szat Thrull Champion Yxoque (Current M:EMperor)
As the person who would have to enforce these rules: It looks good. The only thing I would change is giving the ability to extend voting to the M:EMperor as well as the Archivist. Not in some power-grabby way, but rather because it looks odd for the Archivist to have power the M:EMperor hasn't.
I'll also sticky this thread and unless someone objects, I'm also going to lock this thread and remove all discussion about it in about two weeks. I don't think the Rules thread is the place to discuss the rules.
It all looks good to me, but what is the * for in the sentence: "Works submitted for a vote into the Archives are posted on the following Monday*"? Other than that, it all looks good to me.
As the person who would have to enforce these rules: It looks good. The only thing I would change is giving the ability to extend voting to the M:EMperor as well as the Archivist. Not in some power-grabby way, but rather because it looks odd for the Archivist to have power the M:EMperor hasn't.
I'll also sticky this thread and unless someone objects, I'm also going to lock this thread and remove all discussion about it in about two weeks. I don't think the Rules thread is the place to discuss the rules.
Ah, good catch. I'll change that wording, then.
And I had every intention of deleting discussion after a while, once I made sure the rules themselves were phrased well enough.
RavenoftheBlack wrote:
It all looks good to me, but what is the * for in the sentence: "Works submitted for a vote into the Archives are posted on the following Monday*"? Other than that, it all looks good to me.
Oops. I forgot about that. It was in one of the original posts that were compiled to make these rules.
Joined: Sep 22, 2013 Posts: 5700 Location: Inside my own head
Identity: Human
Oh yeah, I should probably ask: Are we going to start enforcing this first thing? Like, should the voting threads be reviewed now? I'm still going to vote on Grasping Phantoms, but I think Raven's pharaoh and story are about as voted as they're going to get.
For implementing the weekly voting now, there are two ways to do this:
1. All votes that are currently up that you deem 'as voted as they're going to get" close tomorrow and all others become part of the weekly vote.
2. All votes that are currently up become part of the weekly vote.
_________________
"I'm all for screwing with the natural order. The natural order objectively is awful. The natural order includes death, disease, pain, and starvation." --Sam Keeper
We might as well (start enforcing it, that is). As for my Pharaoh, the only ones on the list here that haven't voted yet are Barinellos, Tevish_Szat and Thrull Champion. Barinellos never seems to vote, and I haven't seen a ton from Thrull. For the story, it's the same, except jedi and Ruwin haven't voted, either. That one I'm less happy about calling, since it's 4 votes out of a possible 9. So I don't know, maybe a quick PM and a "see what happens?" The Song of Dominia also has four votes...
Yeah, I think current votes could benefit from option 2.
_________________
"I'm all for screwing with the natural order. The natural order objectively is awful. The natural order includes death, disease, pain, and starvation." --Sam Keeper
I literally cannot hear or read "I concur" without thinking about Catch Me If You Can.
_________________
"I'm all for screwing with the natural order. The natural order objectively is awful. The natural order includes death, disease, pain, and starvation." --Sam Keeper
Can we get a list of all the people who will regain their voting powers if they, you know, show up again? Putting it in a spoiler block below the currently active list would probably be enough. I just think it's important to keep that record in case these folks do show up again, and as a record of how many people have been involved in the project over time.
Joined: Sep 22, 2013 Posts: 5700 Location: Inside my own head
Identity: Human
RavenoftheBlack wrote:
We might as well (start enforcing it, that is). As for my Pharaoh, the only ones on the list here that haven't voted yet are Barinellos, Tevish_Szat and Thrull Champion. Barinellos never seems to vote, and I haven't seen a ton from Thrull. For the story, it's the same, except jedi and Ruwin haven't voted, either. That one I'm less happy about calling, since it's 4 votes out of a possible 9. So I don't know, maybe a quick PM and a "see what happens?" The Song of Dominia also has four votes...
Barinellos is technically still our Neguru, I suppose, so he doesn't vote too often. Thrull Champion said he would like to retain his voting privileges, but I haven't gotten around to pestering him to vote yet.
I'd like to collaborate and get our form letter together before I pester anyone, though. It would just make it easier.
KeeperofManyNames wrote:
Can we get a list of all the people who will regain their voting powers if they, you know, show up again? Putting it in a spoiler block below the currently active list would probably be enough. I just think it's important to keep that record in case these folks do show up again, and as a record of how many people have been involved in the project over time.
I can do that. That sounds like an excellent idea, actually.
I'm afraid I'm not quite that STRONG. I keep kleenex handy - not towels. Beast would be STRONG enough.
EDIT: I also almost forgot this:
Quote:
While Works that have already been accepted are posted to the Archives, everything else is stored in this singular forum. As such, we ask politely that anyone looking to make a new thread include a tag or two to clearly communicate its purpose, such as [Voting], [Worldbuilding], or [Story]. This helps keep the project organized when we have multiple projects or business discussions running at once.
@Lord Luna: Send me a pm to remind me of creating a form letter for that.
Edit: @Keeper, you realize that one day, you're going to have to share your shipping wall with all of us?
_________________
"I'm all for screwing with the natural order. The natural order objectively is awful. The natural order includes death, disease, pain, and starvation." --Sam Keeper
Joined: Sep 22, 2013 Posts: 5700 Location: Inside my own head
Identity: Human
I would rather check the form letter's... form with those that will be receiving it. I mean, I'm sure between the two of us we could come up with a smooth-talking letter, but I'd just like to be extra-doubly sure, you know?
So, I'll try to get a form letter started to have a base posted by tonight; but I've got about 45 minutes left, so I'm not sure it'll be ready by then.
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