Elfwood is the worlds largest SciFi & Fantasy community.
  - 96472 members, 6 online now.
  - 55536 site visitors the last 24 hours.
  - 483412 SciFi & Fantasy Pictures, 36397 Stories.
  - 4171193 comments written.

General Rules

Welcome to the General Rules page for Elfwood. The rules below apply to all areas of Elfwood where applicable. Please note that each area of Elfwood also has its own individual rule page.



  Elfwood requires that all users have a last name, as well as at least the first initial of their first name. You are also allowed a nickname to be featured within your title. Nicknames and UID's can't have inproper words/phrases within (racist, drug abuse, crime-inciting etc.). Pen names are allowed as long as the pen name sounds real, and the real name is given in the "Personal Secret" box, which can be found in "My Account" under "Personal Details". All users are required to have information within their short bio as well as long bio.
  Membership is free.
  Elfwood does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, or ethnicity. Elfwood does not allow shared accounts. All users are solely responsible for their material. You are only allowed one (1) account per area.
  To protect minors and their private information, you must be at least 13 years old to have material published on Elfwood. For more information on the The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).
  Users must be alive when signed up for Elfwood. If needed, please read our section about departed members.
  You are not allowed to embed images, forms, buttons, and other active HTML in your bios or any other description box. Links are allowed, however within reason. Please do not insert smileys from other websites because they are copyrighted and can not be published at Elfwood.


Your Profile Picture may not be explicit (excessive gore/violence or sexual content) or offensive. If the picture you're using as your Profile Picture wasn't created by you or you don't have permission from the original owner, then you will be asked to remove it if we receive any complaints from the original owner.


As a PG-13 website, there are a few things Elfwood will not allow anywhere on the site, including in comments, descriptions, images or stories. Material containing the following will be rejected or removed, and repeated offenses can and will result in action by the ERB (Our staff)

  The Big 3: Elfwood has three words that we will not tolerate beyond this point in any form (partly censored, alternatively spelled, abbreviations etc.): Fuck, Shit, and Cunt. We will not allow excessive use of foul language in submission either.
   Images or text depicting rude gestures, illegal drugs, extreme violence, extreme gore, sexual situations that seem to a point of being pornographic, and sexual situations involving minors, are all prohibited.
   Censoring of any of the things above while making it still obvious what it is you are censoring is not acceptable.
   Nudity is acceptable.
  We do not allow any form of bigotry/racism/hatred among users in relation to the real world. Views held by characters of the fantasy world are to be held by them and not an extension to express one's own hate.
  DO NOT ENGAGE IN FLAME WARS! If a user is bothering you within the comments or you find their material violates the rules, report them to the ERB, but DO NOT strike back.
  Copyrighted Material: Elfwood will not allow users to use copyrighted material, logos or designs without permission from the copyright holder. At the same time, we will not allow users to recreate someone else's work of art, except if it's considered a public domain work. Stock photos are to be used within the means the original artist has given permission for. This means if they allow use of the stock only within that particular site, then it is not to be posted here without stated permission. Stock can be used for referencing or copying, but it must not break the rules set by the original artist. We require that the user provide a link and if permission isn't stated at the link, then it be stated in the description that you have permission to use it in that way.
   Elfwood will not tolerate any activity that is illegal, abusive, use of material containing viruses or corrupt files, or material that inconsistent with the values of the spirit of the Elfwood Project Community.
   Elfwood will NOT allow links in your Elfwood account that promotes any of the above.


Although founded in Sweden, Elfwood is primarily an English speaking website. We will allow non English words but not entire stories in another language. For our users and moderators convenience we ask that you inform us in the description what language it is you are using if it isn't English.

   For all quotations, we require users to cite who and what they are quoting from.

   A special note on Pern artwork. Anne McCaffrey requires that EVERY picture that is from her series must have the Pern trademark ™ in the picture description. If the information is not there, the picture will be declined. Additionally, Ms. McCaffrey has said that no slash pictures what-so-ever are allowed. All Pern artwork should go into your SF/F gallery. http://www.annemccaffrey.net/fan-fiction-rules.html

   Other Works Tab: The Other Works tab is a place for members to post their material that:

  a. Does not have elements of either Science Fiction or Fantasy.
  b. Doesn't hold up to Elfwood's standards of presentation quality.
  c. Breaks any of Elfwood's other rules but nothing that is in the Forbidden Content section of the rules.

Each section of Elfwood will have it's own Other Tab next to the main section. Users that don't have anything published in the main section will be allowed to upload a max amount of 10 items. Normal users with published content in their area, will be allowed a maximum amount of 50 items to upload to their Other Tab, while Patrons will be given a max amount of 75 items.
Items placed in the Other Works tab can be placed there by the user, OR a moderator can select to place the item there rather than delete it from Elfwood, if the moderator finds it unacceptable for the area it is being published.


Photographs: You can use photographs in your art if:

   you took the picture
   you are the person in the picture
   you have permission from the photographer to use it
   you are using a public domain stock photograph

In all cases, you must state you have permission from everyone in the photo, and link to the original photo if available online. This has to be done in every picture description.


Elfwood is a place to display your artwork; given this, make it presentable to be displayed. Before sending the image to be published for the world to see, take a minute to consider cropping, brightness/contrast, saving in a suitable format and compression. Not only will this make your image much less likely to be declined for quality issues, you'll be learning how to give your artwork the full effect of viewing that it deserves.

One requirement for all artwork submitted to the SF&F area are that they follow some clear quality guidelines. The picture below is formatted correctly, and was used by permission from Sarah "Gealflings" Trumpp.

(A) Image quality issues.
1. Cropping issues. If a large amount of white space remains on any side of your work, the picture needs to be cropped to remove a majority of this white space. There is also an issue if the edge of the paper can be seen, or if the back of the scanner can be seen. All of these issues must be corrected before you upload your picture, or it will be declined.
   
   
   
   
   The only exception to the edging rule is when it's required as part of your picture. For example, an ancient map that has burned and torn edges and shows a bit of the background color behind it would be allowable, or in cases where the edges have been cut to match the shapes of the figure in the drawing.
   
   
2. Color issues. If your image is too dark or too light to make out the details of the work, it becomes a color issue. Colored bars along any side of the work also need to be removed, unless the picture is being presented in a matte finish (framed).
   
   
3. Quality irregularities. Holes in your work, creases, and things of this nature will get your work declined. If you assemble two (2) large images together (say, if your work was too large to scan on one try) and it left an extremely visible line down the center of your work, this is considered an irregularity and will get declined.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Background issues. Homework notes in the side of your picture, being able to see images and writing in the background that got scanned along with your image, and lined work that hasn’t been edited will fall under this category.
   
   
5. Timestamps on photos are NOT a quality issue. If you want to edit them out, that's fine, but you don't have to.
   
   
6. Finally, please make sure that your pictures are all saved in RGB mode, not in CMYK mode. CMYK mode images are not allowed, as most browsers are not capable of displaying them at all.

Lined paper will take some work to remove the lines, usually. There's a tutorial in our Tutorial section on how to remove lines A few good programs for this are Gimp and Irfanview as of this writing. Gimp is located at http://www.gimp.org/ and Irfanview is located at http://www.irfanview.com/

Of course, there will always be exceptions to all of these rules. One example of this is when page irregularities, background effects, lines and/or schoolwork notations are used to enhance the actual picture or used specifically for the picture. One good example of this is below. Drawn by Fox Matthew Bruner and used with permission.








The vast majority of us end up having something get declined for one reason or another. Though this is a fact of life, understand this: the moderators of Elfwood do NOT have something against you as a person, or against your artwork/writing, or against any other aspect of your life.

If you have something declined, there is a short process you should follow.


1. Read the decline carefully. All moderators place their decline reasons in the declining email, so if you don't read this email, you'll never know the exact reasoning behind why your story/picture got declined. Match up what the decline reason was against the appropriate part of your story/picture. If you can see what the moderator is talking about, fix this problem and resubmit.
2. If you don't necessarily see what the moderator was talking about, review the rules above. Find the appropriate rule that covers the reason why your item got declined, and compare it to what the moderator said was wrong with your work. If you can now see what the moderator was talking about, fix the problem and resubmit.
3. If you still disagree with the moderator on the rejection, understand this. People DO make mistakes. Go back to the email you received your decline in, and hit "Reply. " Describe in this email what your concerns are, and be SURE to attach the picture in question to the email before you send it.


Moderators do make mistakes, after all. Once you've completed these steps and emailed us, be patient. One of our support moderators will get to your email in time, though it might be a few days. Remember to be nice. A nice email, asking why something was declined and a request for an explanation will get much, much faster response than the email that 's shouting in all caps, calling the moderators every name under the sun and using those words you 're just not supposed to say in front of your mother.

Incidentally, writing nasty emails and calling the volunteer moderators all sorts of neat names not only is a good way to ensure that your email itself is just flat out ignored, but it does have the potential of having your Elfwood account suspended or outright deleted entirely. We're all adults or near-adults here, people. A little bit of nice goes a very, very long way.




 About Elfwood staff and Elfwood's creator...

There are three (3) types of staff that work behind the scenes of Elfwood. All three have specific things that they are responsible for, and the vast majority of them are actually nice people as well. A good portion of them have their own pages within Elfwood.

You have the moderators, who help keep the account queues running. Moderators are entitled to making sure that all submissions fit within the rules and regulations of Elfwood. All material submitted to Elfwood is viewed by them before it's published.

The ERB (Elfwood Review Board) are the people who take care of things after publication. If a submission slips through that goes against the rules, or if someone's swearing profusely in their biography, or a flame war has erupted on your Elfwood comment page, it will be the ERB that contacts you about this matter.

Thomas Abrahamsson is the creator and owner of Elfwood itself. He is unto a god, er, no, wait. That's his cat, Klimpen Thomas is actually a very normal guy who once created Elfwood as a hobby. It is hosted at Elfwood.com. Donations are, of course, happily accepted.


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  ERB Logo created by Devon Cady-Lee