OK, so you've made your choice. Once again.
The process for writing a RIG is a bit different from writing an ADF. You are not writing about a certain standalone anomaly, but a specific group that has a connection to ADR in some way. It is entirely up to you to decide what kind of connection this is, and what kind of group you're writing about.
As previously stated, ADR is meant to be a place for ordinary folk to submit their own encounters with the strange, bizarre, and obscure. But, sometimes there is a Related Interest Group attached to these "encounters". If you, as a writer, want to expand on that Interest Group, this is your chance!
You will be tasked with gathering information about your RIG, building lore, creating a flashy logo, fitting all that info into the RIG template, and possibly making a reserved page on ADR for it! This will all be explained thoroughly in a minute. Right now, I need you to take it slow, make sure you have everything about your RIG in mind, and then you may proceed to the next tab! GOOD LUCK!
And of course, before you start writing, make sure you have enough knowledge about ADR. All required information is in the Newbie Guide!
Ok, so the RIG writing process needs to be a little bit more strict, since it is pretty specific and presented in a certain way that is way more impactful to ADR. We've decided that there should be a small list of requirements before you consider publishing your RIG. These will all be explained, so don't worry if you're unsure about some stuff.
List of Required Requirements You Are Required to Follow (Some Optional):
1. You MUST have at least one published ADF article that mentions your RIG in some way.
2. You MUST have an original logo for your rig. No AI, no stealing. Please.
3. You MUST get your idea approved by the ADR Team before you start writing. This is a requirement since a RIG is directly tied to the whole lore of ADR, while an ADF article is more of a standalone thing with much looser rules.
4. You MUST follow the RIG Template.
5. You SHOULD create your own RIG page. While not 100% required, creating a RIG page will give you the creative freedom you deserve, since the RIG Template is not that customizable. Having your own page lets you express your RIG to the fullest.
6. Your main RIG page MUST be on the main site. You are allowed to create an entirely separate site for your RIG, but your main RIG page will need to be on ADR. There, you may include links to external sites and whatnot, just make sure to state that it is part of ADR.
How to Actually Start?
Ok fine, I'll stop beating around the bush. Jeez.
We recommend starting work on your RIG by including it in your ADF. You don't even have to mention it by name. Simply knowing that there is another separate group tied to your ADF is enough to get the cogs in your brain turning! This way, you will be able to build your RIG idea by writing an ADF article, and when you finally publish that article, you will immediately have enough info to start focusing specifically on the RIG.
Building on Your Idea
Now that you have your ADF published, it's time to polish the living hell out of your RIG! Your RIG will go from being a rough, coarse, dirty rock to a beautiful, smooth, floating tungsten sphere.
First of all, decide which RIG Category best fits your RIG. You can see more info on those in the RIG Reading Guide. Now, start asking yourself some questions about your weird group. Is it a big organization, or a small team? Does it fit into the ADR universe? Is it friendly towards ADR, or is it full of complete dicks? Does ADR know about them? Are they even humans? Maybe it's a group of anomalies… or a cult worshipping an anomaly? As you can see, you have a lot of options to choose from, and a lot of questions to ask yourself.
Another important thing is to make sure your RIG has originality. Don't just make it "Evil military organization that kills everyone!!! And they have a gazillion guns and bombs!!!!" since this is boring and overused. What if it's something like "Evil cult that has learned how to make extremely destructive weapons by using the flesh of a dead god they found lying peacefully in the Amazon rainforest"? Now that's more fitting!
Just as with ADF articles, your options are almost endless!
The "ADR BRANCHES" Category
This category is a bit different, since it is directly connected to ADR. You are free to add your own content here, but you will not have AS MUCH writing freedom since you will need to stay relevant to the ADR Organization and have knowledge of it. It's almost required to fully read the General Info page. And, of course, feel free to PM me (
Zenion) for any deeper lore questions and ideas about an ADR Branch RIG in general.
Getting Feedback
Once you're done with your entire idea, feel free to JOIN OUR DISCORD and ask for feedback and post it to the Idea Feedback forum. No need to follow any template or anything, just give some general info on your RIG.
Or, as ADR is currently a very small community, message me (Zenion) directly with your general idea.
You'll likely have to wait a bit while the ADR Team reviews and approves your idea. But don't worry, we're not strict at all :)
The Anomaly Data Sandbox
This is a site mainly used to create your drafts before publishing them and to easily share them with others. You can also use them for anything else, like learning how Wikidot pages work, testing out code, or custom themes, or just messing around.
The RIG Template
This is the official template for your RIG that will show up on the RIGs page! Don't change anything in it, and make sure to edit everything in the "()" brackets to fit your RIG:
[[div class="content-panel standalone series"]]
[[=]]
+ (RIG NAME HERE)
[[/=]]
[[f>image (LINK TO LOGO, minimum 60x60, max 120x120, MUST be square)]]
**Status:** (Active, Inactive, Unknown)
**Traits:** (Local, National, International); (Organization, Corporation, Team, Religion, Cult); (Anomalous, Non-Anomalous); (Helpful, Neutral, Malicious, Unknown);
**Summary:** (Short description of your RIG)
**RIG Page:** (OPTIONAL) [[[*rig:(page-name-here)|(RIG PAGE NAME HERE)]]]
//[/system:page-tags/tag/(rig-name-here) All pages tagged with (rig name here)]//
[[div style="text-align:right"]]
,,[#toc Go to Top],,
[[/div]]
[[/div]]
The above sections are, from top to bottom:
- content-panel standalone series - This is just the "box" in which your RIG will be contained. Very simple.
- (RIG NAME HERE) - The fuck do you think this is, hm?
- Image - This is where you will put the link to your beautiful RIG logo. Make sure it's in the right size parameters and all that.
- Status - The current activity status of the RIG in question. This can either be "Active" if the group is fully operational, "Inactive" if the group is, for some reason, no longer operational, or "Unknown" if the group is so secretive that it's impossible to know whether it's operational or not.
- Traits - Used to give context on what kind of RIG you're writing about. These are divided into categories, separated by a ";". More on these in the RIG Reading Guide!
- Summary - The main part! This is where you will write a summary of your RIG and include all essential information on it. Make it short and sweet!
- RIG Page - Simply paste your RIG page link here if you have it. You can add it later, even after publishing your RIG.
- (rig-name-here) & (rig name here) - This is where you will put your RIG name since it will lead to a repository with all posts tagged with your RIG. Make sure it's all in lowercase and that it matches your RIG tag. Also, make sure to include a "-" between any spaces in the link part.
Formatting
Everything formatting-related you might need can be found on the Wiki Syntax page. Any additional questions can be asked in the Writing Questions forum, or the "#writing-questions" channel in the ADR Discord.
RIG Logo
Ah, the RIG logo. As stated in the template, the logo must have a "square" resolution between 60x60px - 120x120px. It should also be a .png file with a transparent background, and obviously, don't use dumb AI tools or steal other people's stuff. This will probably be the most challenging part for some. You will have two options here:
Option 1: Creating your logo.
If you have the time, knowledge, and skill, you can absolutely create your own logo. Just follow the rules above, and you'll be golden. Some recommended programs for creating logos are Affinity Designer, Canva, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop. Another program I recommend is Adobe Animate. Yep. This might seem like a strange addition, but here's a little fun fact: The ADR logos were made in Adobe Animate lol.
Option 2: Asking for help.
If you don't think you can make your own logo for one reason or another, feel free to ask for help and provide as much detail as possible, either in the Image Help forum, or in the "#media-requesting" channel in our Discord. Just make sure to have the rights to any logos you're using, and state who created the logo if requested.
RIG Page
The RIG page is a page on the main site dedicated to your RIG, where you're free to do whatever you want (as long as it's relevant to your RIG and includes some essential parts). As stated before, this is optional but highly recommended.
In case you would like to create a RIG page, you will need to include a link to its draft page in your forum/Discord post as well. Also, make sure everything important is included in that one single page. The best way to do this is to either have "tabs" (more info at Wiki Syntax) or at least a table of contents for ease of navigation. Having a custom theme on your RIG page is highly encouraged, but not required.
In case you decided to make le page, here is a list of the essential things you must include:
- A [[module Rate]] at the very top of the page.
- In-depth information about your RIG.
- A list of main site pages related to your RIG.
- The RIG logo somewhere on the page.
All other info is optional, and you're free to add whatever other bullshit you want!
18+, NSFW/NSFL Content Warning Box
If your article includes NSFW/NSFL topics or media, please paste the following at the top of your page, just below the "content-panel" line:
[[include component:warning-box]]
█████████ ███████
If you would like to censor any information in your article, feel free to use this:
█
Getting Feedback
All right, now you have finally finished your beautiful draft! You have your related ADF article, you have your logo, you have the info, you have the idk, tags, or something. AWESOME!!! Now it's time to start getting feedback on your final draft!
Simply submit your draft to the ADF Draft Feedback forum, or in a thread in the ADR Discord. Your work will be reviewed, some little fixes might be made, and you can bet your ass it will be ready for publishing IN NO TIME whenever we get around to reviewing it!
When submitting your draft, don't paste the entire draft onto your post; just paste the link(s) to your Sandbox page(s).
Please be patient while waiting for feedback, as this is an extremely small and new community, and we're not available 24/7, but we will definitely get to you eventually! And don't be afraid to speak your mind. If you don't agree with someone reviewing your work, tell them why. GO HAM! But stay respectful.
If you receive negative feedback, please don't feel unmotivated or give up. This is called constructive criticism, and it's not here to piss you off but to help you out. All negative feedback is given for a reason and will, in most cases, end up improving your work. If someone gives you negative feedback and doesn't elaborate on why, then it's their problem, and you should consider doxxing them.
You're also allowed to review others' work as long as you follow the Rules :)
Publishing Your RIG!
After an insane amount of hard work, finally, you're done with your RIG. You're done with your idea, you're done with perfecting that idea, you're done with writing your idea as a draft, maybe you're also done with your RIG page draft, and you're done with getting those drafts reviewed and approved. Now the time has come for your work to be published on the RIGs page!
The process is extremely straightforward. When your draft is finalized and approved, you will be asked if/when you want it published, and when you're ready, an ADR Team member will publish your RIG for you! Yes, your RIG page is also included if you made one. It takes way less time for us to just do it than to explain how to actually do it lol.
After Publishing
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU DAMN WHIPPERSNAPPER!!!
Now it's up to you to manage your RIG, its page, its lore, and anything else related. And don't be afraid, as the ADR Team will also monitor everything. Your main RIG page will start getting star ratings left by other users. Just like ADFs, the star rating on your page determines its overall quality. If it's absolutely bombarded with 1-star ratings, the page will need to be reviewed by the ADR Team, because there's obviously something wrong with it. However, rest assured, as there will be no deletions. Yep. It's unfair to delete a page someone has put so much time and effort into, so we as a community will help those in need with fixing their page and succeeding!!!
Fyi, this doesn't mean that we will leave any and all pages public. If it's obviously not supposed to be on the main site, it will unfortunately have to be removed. But we're gonna do our best so that something like this doesn't happen, aren't we?
IMPORTANT: While all members are allowed to make changes to RIG pages, like correcting grammar or fixing stuff, only the original RIG page creator is allowed to add/delete things. Please make sure to list all the changes you've made on a RIG page in the little text box under the main text box.
GOOD LUCK AND HAVE SO MUCH FUN!
