Affiliations and Permissions. What do I do?
Affiliations and Permissions. What do I do?
Affiliations and Permissions are an area of creating submissions of Chaos that writers, both old and new often find themselves confused by. They aren't related to balance or to the creation and content of a submission, but rather directly impact who it is who can use the submission once it has been created. This guide will cover both affiliation and permission to help explain it and explain the current stance of Codex and Factory.
Affiliation
“the state or relation of being closely associated or affiliated with a particular person, group, party, company, etc.”
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster
Affiliation on Chaos
On Chaos, affiliation denotes which factions, or groups, a character or submission is associated with. This could be a Major Faction, a Minor Faction or a Group within a faction, it could even be a Company. It all depends on you and the story you want to tell.
How affiliation affects creations
When you create anything on Chaos, be it a character, a factory or a codex submission, you retain control over it. Nothing happens to your character without your say so. The same applies to most factory and codex submissions, no-body gets to use your factory submissions, or your NPCs without your say so.
Important Note
Not all Codex Submissions are treated in the way described above. Planets, Species and Locations are available for anyone to use regardless of affiliation. A Super Star Dreadnought is a faction item, and even if you submit it, the use of an SSD is at the behest of the faction owner and it remains a faction resource even after you leave.
Not all Codex Submissions are treated in the way described above. Planets, Species and Locations are available for anyone to use regardless of affiliation. A Super Star Dreadnought is a faction item, and even if you submit it, the use of an SSD is at the behest of the faction owner and it remains a faction resource even after you leave.
How to use affiliations in a submission
We have several affiliations which we use in submissions on Chaos. The two most basic ones are “Open-Market” and “Closed-Market”.
An Open-Market submission is one which you intend to make available to anyone who wants to use it. This could be a gun, a ship, anything, it doesn’t even need to be a mass-produced submission. As long as it’s not unique, any submission may be marked as “Open-Market”. No permissions are required for their use in RP or in other submissions.
A “Closed-Market” submission is the opposite of this, it is a submission which is not simply available for use. If someone wishes to use a “Closed-Market” submission then they will need to seek out the permissions of the original poster before they do.
How to grant permission for specific people to use a submission
There are several other options for affiliation which you can use to grant pre-existing blanket permissions to an individual or a group of writers.
Individual Character Name(s): This affiliation is permission for an individual character or multiple characters to use the submission without seeking additional permissions.
Company Name(s): As above, this is blanket permission for anyone using a company, or group of companies, to use the submission in question without seeking additional permissions.
Faction Name(s): This is blanket permissions for any member of a faction to use the submission in role-play, or in the creation of their own submissions.
How to let multiple types of people use a submission
A submission may have multiple affiliations if you wish, whatever best describes how you want your submission to be used. However, it is important to remember that the production value of a submission can have an impact on this. After all, a unique submission can only be used by one person at a time, a semi-unique submission can’t be used by the entire roster of a Major Faction. Use your best judgement but if you’re unsure, feel free to ask any member of staff.
Permission
At several points in the above section, I talked about seeking permission to use a submission from the original poster. They may choose to extend blanket permission via the affiliations field, but if you’re not included in that permission, or the submission is set to closed market then you need to approach the original poster to obtain permission to use the submission.
Approaching the Original Poster
There are several ways to obtain permission from the Original Submitter that the judges on Chaos find acceptable that will be detailed below.
Marketplace
Many factory users have a storefront thread in the Market Place forum that they list their submissions on and where you can approach them to request permissions. This normally takes the form of a purchase, as per the example below.
That little interaction is all that it takes to obtain permission to use the submission in question. There is no inherent right to approval though, and the Original Poster may reject your request for any reason they deem fit. Some writers are closely tied to a faction and so won’t sell to that faction’s enemies. Another writer might only sell to the lightside or the darkside.
When it comes to showing your permission to use the submission, all you need to do is to link the post granting you authorization. You do this by selecting the three-circle icon in the top right of the post and copying the link provided there.
This link can be used to hyperlink to the post, allowing you to insert it into any submission or RP text.
Board DM
Some writers don’t have store pages, or you may be unable to find it, but there are other ways for you to get the permissions you need. The simplest way would be to drop the original submitter a board DM asking them for permission to use their submission. I’ve included a sample below.
If you just take a screenshot of this conversation then that can be used as permission to use the submission. You can either include the image in your submission or link to it on an image storage site.
Discord
If you know the original poster’s name on Discord then you can reach out to them there and ask them to provide permission for you to use their submission there. I have included an example of this below.
Again, include a link or the screencap for the judges to see.
In thread contract
This isn't so common now as it used to be when contracts were required to tier up your company, however writing a thread is still an option. The thread needs to set out what is being offered and accept a payment or contract in return. If you have such a thread then you can link it in the permission section.
Permissions: Required or Optional
If you’re using something another writer has created then you need to obtain their permission to include it. There is no room for give and take or discussion on this topic, you NEED permissions for any submission which isn't marked as "Open-Market". The only exception to this rule are super star dreadnaughts, codex species, locations and planets which are created for the community. The only person who doesn’t need permissions of some kind to use a submission is the original poster, who is able to use the submission on any of their accounts.
Using Submissions whose author’s no longer write on Chaos
Without the original poster’s permission, you can’t use their submission unless the affiliations allow you to, there is no statute of limitations on this, no give and take to be had. The ultimate authority concerning a submission is the original author. If you like something written by a writer who is no longer on Chaos the best option is to write your own submission to achieve that.
Using submissions only affiliated with a specific group when you are not part of that group
This is possible but only with the permission of the original poster. Affiliation is a blanket approval, but the original poster is the ultimate arbiter of a submission and is able to give out additional permissions at their discretion. This means they can allow you to use a submission even if you’re not part of faction X.
Permissions vs Sub Mods
A submission modification can be carried out via the codex of factory submission modifications thread and is a way to amend your submission. Anything about a submission can be changed, including affiliations. Sub-modding in an affiliation change is a way to provide blanket approval for a certain group to use the submission, but it isn’t necessary. Permissions act as an effective submission modification, allowing a writer to use the submission even if they’re not included in the original affiliations.
Sub modding after leaving a faction
This is one of the only times site staff will step in to prevent the original poster taking back permissions. Once permission has been extended to a faction to use certain submissions we don’t allow that permission to be taken away because of a falling out.
As always if you have any questions please reach out to the Codex Admin or the Factory Admin for more information
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