Lexicon/OriginalRules

The Rules of the First Lexicon

These were the rules used by the first round of the Lexicon, back in 2005-06 when the project was first begun. Generally, these rules applied to entries from A to N. After a hiatus of nearly two years, the Lexicon was revived under new rules. See the main page for details.

1. The initial players will write entries for 'A'. Each of these will refer and link to two "phantom", not-yet-written entries. This is the first 'turn'. Half these initial phantoms, ideally, would be for 'B'.
2. On subsequent turns, the players will write entries for the subsequent letters, each letter being done in order. These new entries will be linked to no less than one preexisting, nonblank entry, as well as two phantoms.
3. Ideally, each player will write 26 entries, 1 per letter.
4. All of the phantoms for a letter should be filled (or have dibs called) before any new entries are posed for that letter; this only occurs where there are insufficient phantoms. New entries of this sort still have to link to a preexisting entry.
5. The backlink from an entry need not be to the entry that spawned it as a phantom, and the entry need not refer to its backlink explicitly. There's nothing wrong with the first, though, and a lot of fun to be had with the second.
6. Anyone is welcome (contrary to Neel's original rules) to jump in at any time; you will probably want to jump in at the letter that's being worked on at the moment, and play catchup only if you feel inspired to do so. You're also welcome to play intermittently. If you join late and want to play catchup, you can ask for phantoms in letters that have passed in the Backlink discussion.
7. It's an academic sin to cite yourself, you can never cite an entry you've written. (OOC, this forces the players to intertwingle their entries, so that everybody depends on everyone else's facts.) Incidentally, once you run out of empty slots, obviously you can only cite the phantom slots.
8. Despite the fact that your peers are self-important, narrow-minded dunderheads, they are honest scholars. No matter how strained their interpretations are, their facts are accurate as historical research can make them. So if you cite an entry, you have to treat its factual content as true! (Though you can argue vociferously with the interpretation and introduce new facts that shade the interpretation.)
9. Dibbing, what we call it when an entry is reserved by a poster, is for a very specific purpose: preventing two people from writing the same entry. You may only dib on the letter currently being worked on and you may only dib once per letter.

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