Theories are used to describe possible states of reality such as "The earth is flat". At Wiki-O, all theories are welcome and encouraged. However, the following guidelines must be followed for Wiki-O to be effective. We will continue with "The earth is flat" as our running example.

• Title statements should be unique and concise.
• The true statement should capture the theory or state that is being described. True statements should not include the word "not".
• The false title should not make any additional claims such as "The earth is round", instead the statement should be "The earth is not flat".
• Refrain from constructing leading statements such as "The earth is obviously flat".
• The details should not include collaborating or contradictory evidence, instead that should be provided as separate contributions. For example, a picture of the earth would be evidence not a detail of the theory.

Evidence is data that is used to collaborate or contradict the theory. Verifiable evidence, otherwise a fact, is data that anyone with enough resources can verify. For example the following statement is verifiable "One can complete a loop around the earth by travelling in a straight line on the earth's surface." and this one is not "Bill, from Reddit, seen the edge of the earth.". Use the following guidelines to construct well formed evidence.

• Title statements should be unique and concise.
• The details should not include additional claims or biased remarks.
• The verifiable flag is not determined by consensus.
• Non-verifiable evidence may be demoted to a sub-theory if people wish to form an opinion on it.

We understand that not all users will have instincts that match our guidelines, thus we only punish users who persistently go against our guidelines. For each offence, these users will receive a strike, which goes towards demoting there permissions. Although, no user can be banned from forming an opinion.

In general going against our guidelines will result in a strike. The following is a list of possible offences.

• Deleted relevant content.
• Reverted other user's edits.
• Altered text to be leading.
• Provided content that belongs elsewhere.
• Mislabelled evidence data (verifiable or not).

This section describes the tools available to users for creating and changing content, as well as the tools for creating and editing their opinions. Note, not all actions are available to all users.

• Create Theory: Initiate a new root theory (a theory that appears in the home page).
• Edit Theory: Modify title and or details of theory.
• Swap Statements: This action swaps the true and false statements of the theory.
• Convert to Evidence: This action converts the sub-theory to evidence (this action cannot be performed on root theories).
• Add to Home: This action adds the current sub-theory to the home page and thus opens up the possibility of adding the theory to categories.
• Remove from Home: This action removes the sub-theory from the home page (this action cannot be performed on root theories).
• Merge: This action merges the current theory with one or more other theories. Theories that were merged are deleted.
• Backup: Saves a snapshot of the current theory and or its sub-theories/evidence.
• Restore: Reverts the current theory to one of its revisions.
• Add to Theory: Add new evidence or sub-theories to current theory.
• Inherit: Add a selection of theories/evidence to the evidence for this theory.
• Delete Theory: This action has the following two options. Remove deletes the edge connecting this sub-theory to its parent theory. Delete flags this theory and any abandoned sub-theories or evidence for deletion.
• View Activity Log: Brings the user to the activity log.
• Follow: Subscribe to receive notifications when the activity log is changed.
• Un-Follow: Un-Subscribe.
• Report a Violation: Initiates a report that documents the violation, the user who committed the violation, and the user reporting the violation.
• Share: Not yet implemented.

• Create: This action is accessed through Add to Theory.
• Edit Evidence: Modify title and or details of evidence.
• Convert to Sub-Theory: This action converts the evidence to a sub-theory.
• Merge: This action merges the current evidence with one or more other pieces of evidence. Evidence that was merged is deleted.
• Backup: Saves a snapshot of the current evidence.
• Restore: Reverts the current evidence to one of its revisions.
• Delete Evidence: This action has the following two options. Remove deletes the edge connecting this evidence to its parent theory. Delete flags this evidence for deletion.
• View Activity Log: Brings the user to the activity log.
• Follow: Subscribe to receive notifications when the activity log is changed.
• Un-Follow: Un-Subscribe.
• Report a Violation: Initiates a report that documents the violation, the user who committed the violation, and the user reporting the violation.
• Share: Not yet implemented.

• Create: This action is accessed through My Opinion when viewing the theory. There are two editors for creating/editing your opinion, the Opinion Wizard and the Advanced Editor. Switch between the two editors using the link next to the theory title.
• Edit: Modify your opinion.
• Points: The user assign points to evidence and sub-theories to communicate what evidence proves or disproves the theory and how important that evidence is.
• Force: The points awarded to the true and false sides of your opinion are automatically calculated. If you wish to instead force the ratio of true and false points, toggle the force option.
• Delete: This action deletes your opinion. Should you create another opinion it will have the same id as your previous opinion (the id is used in the url for sharing).
• Follow: Subscribe to receive notifications when this opinion changes.
• Un-Follow: Un-Subscribe.
• Share: Not yet implemented.

All users are and always will be able to form opinions. Restrictions only apply to adding and changing content (theories and evidence) and resolving user conflicts.

Currently, there are five user permission levels. The following table provides a brief description of each level.

Permission to change user content is dependent on how many users have formed an opinion on said content or used the content in their opinion. Let N be the number of users (other than the current user) that are utilizing the content in one or more opinions. Then the following table details what content the user may change based on their permission level.

The next table details the remaining user permissions.

This section describes how content violations are resolved. To allow for a quick processing of violations any Level 3 user can resolve the conflict. Any Level 3 user can also reverse the decision or call for a vote. In the event of a vote, Level 3 users and above have 10 days to cast their vote. At the end of the 10 days, the vote is tallied and the decision is fortified. Level 4 users may prematurely end a vote or reverse a decision. Level 3 users cannot reverse a Level 4 decision. The following table documents some of the possible outcomes of a violation:

This section describes the process for user promotions and demotions. Aside from automatic processes, the staff at Wiki-O reserve the right to make broad decisions about a user's access level.

Strikes count against a user for promtions and are the key mechanisim for demotions. To avoid recieving a strike follow the guidelines laid out in this page.

Demotions:

• Only strikes within the last 100 days count against the user. A new strike against the user will trigger an automatic demotion if the user has 3 or more strikes against them (including this strike).
• Stikes don't go away after a demotion, so freshly demoted users will still have 3 stikes against them and another stike will cause another demotion.
• Additionally, If a user gets demoted from a specific access level three times, then they are banned from that level for life.

Promotions: