Forum:A Second Look at the Previous Crossover Policy

In an effort to make a lasting impact on the wiki, I wish to make some major changes. While I feel that being a staff member wouldn't do any good, as I can't prove that I'll be active enough to execute such a task, I still feel that doing my part around here is necessary.

Basically, I want to properly lift the ban on crossovers on the wiki. As it has been mentioned before, crossovers are popular and almost mandatory in the fan world. Why else would so many AAA companies make crossover videogames (Marvel vs Capcom), movies (Freddy vs Jason) comic books (X-men and Teen Titans) and even books? It wouldn't be fair to simply ban them for the simple fact that it's not liked in the Bionicle fandom.

Now, we all know that the Bionicle Crossover Wiki is beyond dead. Merging the wikis would require active members on the site to allow it. So why bother? If something is dead, it's best it stay that way. The lifting of the crossover ban is for the benefit this site and this site alone.

Overview
While I was disappointed in the last decision regarding crossovers, I felt somewhat relieved that it didn't go through. In addition to not truly lifting the "ban" in all senses of the term, some of the rules in it were a little restrictive. As some of us may not have been members at the time of this event, it's best that we take a second to look at them. The original "bill" went as follows:
 * 1) All crossover fanfictions must make sense. No nonsensical crossovers where characters are illogically thrown into other situations. This should also be used for the presence of humans in a story. Having humans in the story without a logical reason for them to be there should not be tolerated.
 * 2) Ban on High School AU's. We don't need that.
 * 3) Strict judgement on self-inserts, possibly including a Mary Sue/Marty Stu test to prevent them from getting too out of hand.
 * 4) A voting forum would be established for the community to check crossover fanfics. This would allow us to keep watch on stories and vote out poor ones or make authors improve. This forum would decide all decisions ranging from sensability to levels of "Sue/Stu-ness".
 * 5) A specific set of crossover templates (page infobox and crossover banner), along with possibly a crossover namespace, titling articles "Crossover/StoryTitleHere" rather than just "Story Title Here" in order to further separate them from usual stories.
 * 6) A "Featured Crossover" spotlight on the main page, to promote and help foster creativity and quality among crossovers.
 * 7) To be allowed on this wiki, crossovers should feature at least a 1:1 ratio of Bionicle to other franchise content. Bionicle should be the majority source of content. A story where the Toa Mata meet the Avengers would be acceptable. A story where the Avengers have Tahu as a member is not.

New Bill
Now, based on what we have here, we see that the original "treaty" wasn't in the best tastes. While it was nice to see that there was someone who tried to get rid of it, the rules would have made it worse, and possibly would have scared away potential writers. Because of this, the new bill will still follow on the essence of the original, but with a number of major edits to make it acceptable to the staff and writers alike. To begin…
 * 1) No restrictions on what exactly makes sense in a crossover. When one gets down to the actual science of it, no crossover truly makes sense. Therefore, this rule is not necessary, and could scare away potential writers.
 * 2) All crossovers should have a listing on which fictional storylines appear in the story. For example, if I made a Lego crossover story, I would have to list that the story contained characters from Ninjago, Chima, and Hero Factory. The Bionicle part would be optional, but recommended as it's obvious that Bionicle would be in the story if it's on this wiki.
 * 3) Humans are allowed, and there are no restriction on it except that there must be an explanation as to why they're in it. For example, a time-warping black hole of sorts. They can't simply be there for no reason.
 * 4) High School AU's are okay. The point of a crossover is that it crosses over with another universe related to another storyline. A high school is not another piece of fiction; it's an idea.
 * 5) No Mary Sue test is necessary for the story. We can't be there to make sure that every story doesn't have Mary Sues, can we? The Mary Sue test should be another topic for another time.
 * 6) The voting area should still exist, however, said voting center—which we could call the "Editor's Asylum" for example—would be used to judge all stories that are posted. This way we can effectively review and assist in the editing of all fiction that is posted here.
 * Alternately, however, we could simply use the story's talk page to discuss the content of the story. All criticism, of course, should be constructive. So if you dislike crossovers, you are barred from reviewing them.
 * 1) A crossover template will be made to organize them into a group. This crossover template would include a detailed listing of all storylines that appear in the story. For ease of writing, a story crossing over with a pre-existing "official" crossover should just name the crossover. For example, if I crossed Bionicle with Lego Batman and Ninjago, I could have to list those individually. However, if I did the same with the Lego Movie, I can just state that name itself, as it is a crossover already.
 * 2) The featured page will not have a crossover block. While the point of this reform is to increase activity and creativity, there is no proof that activity will increase. As such, a crossover worthy of featuring could go in the same place a normal story.
 * 3) Any ratio of Bionicle to other story content is allowed, but with a few "rules".
 * First, the story must have Bionicle in the title to be on this wiki, regardless of the composition of characters. A Bionicle and Chima crossover, for example, should be titled with either an ominous tile like normal stories (like Tears of the Deceased and Zero Hour) or have Bionicle in the name like a web-series.
 * The story can have any ratio of Bionicle characters:N characters, but the Bionicle characters should still be the driving force of the fiction. Therefore, having the Bionicle and the Avengers is okay. Having the Tahu join the Avengers is okay as well, as long as Tahu is still the primary character of the story.
 * 1) All fanon characters that appear in the crossover should have their own page on their proper wiki. If I were to crossover Transformers with Bionicle, the fanon TF (i.e. Cybertronians, Quintessons…) characters would have their page on the TF fanon wiki. No non-Toa, -Matoran, -creature, -tool, -Turaga, -Kanohi or –vehicle will be allowed to have a page if it doesn't have anything to do with Bionicle.
 * However, if the object is a multi-universal tool, character, vehicle, or beast of sorts (like Pandora's Box in Street Fighter x Tekken), a page is allowed for the object or character. However, the only part allowed in the article is the backstory related to the Bionicle aspect of storyline, as well as their appearance in the story. All other information related to the other timelines would be written in the same character/object's page on the respective fanon wiki.

I hope that all of this makes sense. I really hope that this goes through this time around. If there is anything that should be changed in the bill, please say so in the comments. Toa  Diablex