Effective date: July 1, 2026
The goal of The Open Lore Network (OLN) is to build an openly-licensed, community-governed encyclopedia of fictional canon — supporting large communities who want to work together and small groups who want to share their passion with the world. This policy describes what content and communities (organized on OLN as franchises) are welcome, and the rules that keep the encyclopedia open, trustworthy, and safe. It applies in addition to our Terms of Service.
OLN welcomes coverage of almost any fictional franchise or work — large or small, popular or obscure, modern or historical. However, content on OLN must contain no hate, no libel, no pornographic content, and no copyright infringement.
By contributing, you agree:
- to our Terms of Service, including the display of advertising; and
- that your text contributions to the knowledge base will be freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (see our Licensing terms).
Free content
Text contributed to the OLN knowledge base is available under a free-content license, meaning the information you add can be copied and reused by anyone in accordance with our Licensing terms. This is central to our goal of increasing the amount of free knowledge in the world.
Although some fair-use material may appear on OLN, OLN aims to be a repository of free content. Coverage that would consist primarily of fair-use material rather than freely licensed contributions — for example, wholesale reproduction of copyrighted works, screenshots, or scans of comic pages — is not permitted.
Public viewing and editing
The OLN knowledge base is publicly viewable. OLN does not provide private, password-protected encyclopedia content, and contributions are indexed by search engines and may appear prominently in search results.
Contributions are a collaborative effort. OLN entries are not owned by the person who created them, and no contributor's opinion carries more weight in disagreements than any other's. Consensus and cooperation, guided by the OLN Constitution and franchise stewardship, are the primary means of organizing and resolving disputes. Change history is retained for transparency, and contributions may be reviewed, edited, moderated, retired, or reverted by the community and its stewards.
Content guidelines and requirements
Content or communities consisting only of offensive material, personal attacks, discriminatory speech, or any other behavior forbidden by our Terms of Service will be removed. Content that is not being used to build legitimate, encyclopedic coverage — spam, nonsense, or vandalism — will likewise be removed.
In addition, OLN does not permit content or communities that:
- exist mainly to represent a political party, advocate for or against a political ideology, or opine on political issues;
- focus on personal ideologies, particularly those that would incite violence or discrimination;
- exist mainly to create, discuss, or disseminate misinformation that threatens the health, safety, or well-being of users or the public;
- concern sex, fetishes, or other pornographic subjects, even if described non-explicitly;
- provide medical advice or instructions intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent health issues (informative coverage of a condition is fine; guidance is not); or
- are intended for children but fail to maintain an age-appropriate environment free of mature content (see our Child Safety Policy).
Users may not create franchises, pages, or accounts with offensive or abusive titles or URLs. A user who is banned, or who abuses creation tools, may be blocked from creating new content or communities.
Living people
Please do not create pages (even humorous ones) about living people who are not publicly notable, including classmates, teachers, gaming clans, forum members, or social-media personalities. Even positive content about people can cause unnecessary harm and become a target for personal attacks, cyberbullying, or the unwanted exposure of personal information, in violation of our Terms of Service.
Remember that any entry using a person's real name, username, or pseudonym can appear prominently in internet searches long after the original authors have moved on. Real-life individuals may change how they identify themselves, and changes to reflect names, pronouns, and other identifiers of gender are to be respected and accommodated. OLN may remove or alter content that is deemed libelous, offensive, discriminatory, or distressing, and content about real people may be removed at their request.
Duplicate coverage
OLN does not maintain multiple communities covering the same franchise. If a franchise already exists, please contribute to it rather than starting a new one; niche differences within a subject generally do not warrant a separate franchise. Where duplicates arise, they compete for contributors and readers and create divided, inconsistent coverage. OLN stewards may merge duplicates into a single community, and duplicate communities may be closed.
Closing, merging, and altering communities
All franchises and communities are subject to closure or alteration where necessary. OLN staff and stewards may contact a community about changes needed to meet our Terms of Service or to improve the encyclopedia, and may make direct changes to content — including when we receive and validate a request from a relevant intellectual-property holder. Communities that have no content, remain inactive, or substantially overlap another may be merged or closed.