1. Introduction

What is The Ziti Project?

As best we can tell, the Ziti Project (ZP) is a gizmo for collaborating (conspiring) with other folks around the Internet to create nonsense. It was inspired by another such gizmo, The Spoonbill Generator.

How does it work?

Someone starts a new work by providing a first line and certain other parameters. Those who want to add to the work do so until it seems "finished". If it's any good, contributors vote to end and archive it; then it persists in the ZP's archive for all to see. If it isn't any good, contributors vote to abandon it, and it persists for a short time, then disappears forever. (Not surprisingly, since the contributors do the voting, they usually think it should be archived...)

Who can contribute to the ZP?

Anyone. However, some works are restricted to a specific group of contributors; see Groups below for details.

What does it cost?

Only your valuable time.

Can I contribute without signing up?

Yes, Virginia. However, your contributions will be attributed to 'Anon' (anonymous). So, if you contribute more than a couple of lines, you'll probably want to sign up so that your contributions will be marked with your user name. (It's more fun if everyone knows who to blame.)  A second advantage of signing up is that you can make corrections from any computer; Anon's can only make corrections from the computer their contribution was made from.

Who owns the resulting works?

The public: see the ZP's Terms of Use.

2. Contributing

How do I start a new work?

Go to the new work page, fill in the blanks, make the selections, and hit "Start New Work". The new work will be given a name formed from its group name and the next serial number.

Who can start a new work?

Anyone. However, to keep things moving along, please don't start too many works at once.

How do I contribute to a work?

•   Go to the active works page and select a work.
•   Type something you'd like to add into the text box.
•   Make selections for Action, Section, and Vote To.
•   Hit Submit.

If all goes well, you will receive a "thank you" message for your contribution.

So what's the Action thing all about?

It lets you select whether you want to:

• Add text. This, of course, lets you add text to the work.
• Correct/delete your text. If the previous line was yours, you can use this to...well...correct or delete your text. To make a correction, enter the corrected text. To make a deletion, leave the text field blank. Note that you can only correct/delete the last line of the work; the ZP currently has no facility for deleting prior lines.
• Change your vote. If you are a contributor to the work, you can change at any time your vote to continue/archive/abandon the work.  (Non-contributors can't change their vote because they don't have a vote to change, silly). The text box must be blank when changing your vote.

OK, what's the Section thing all about?

It lets you specify a section break (for stanza, paragraph, etc.)  You can:

• Continue section: Your text will be appended to the existing text without a break.
• Start new section: Your text will start a new section.
• End section: Your text will end the existing section.  Subsequent text will start a new section.

And the Vote To thing?

It controls how a work is ended. You can vote to:

• Continue work: When you don't think the work is "finished".
• End work and archive: You think the work is finished, and is worth archiving for all to see.
• End work and abandon: Regardless of whether it's finished, you think the work is done for, and should be ditched.

When, exactly, does a work get ended?

A work gets ended when:

1. It's at a section break, and...
2. It accumulates enough votes to be archived or abandoned.

A section break occurs when the last contributor selects Start new section or End section. Note that a work whose last Section choice was Continue section will not be ended, regardless of the votes. Therefore, by selecting Continue section, the last contributor can temporarily prevent the ending of a work.

After a section break, a work will be ended if it has enough votes to archive or abandon: two votes are required to archive, three votes are required to abandon. Each contributor gets credit for a single vote, which is the last choice they made under Vote To.

What sort of material can I contribute?

The ZP is intended for a general audience, so please contribute accordingly. For example, please be kind to other Ziticens, and please do not use any explicit language. Naughty or off-color stuff is OK so long as it has an artistic <tee-hee> purpose, but less is more in this area.

3. Groups

What are groups?

Groups allow Ziticens to control who can contribute to a work. When you start a new work you can specify a group; then, only members of that group can contribute to the work.

How can I tell which group a work belongs to?

The work is named after its group, so just look at the name.

How can I leave a work open for anybody to contribute?

When you start a new work, leave the 'Group' field blank: the group will then be ziti, which is the ZP's public group.  All Ziticens are members of the ziti group, so anyone can contribute to your new work--even Anons.

Even if you are a member of a private group, please start at least some of your works with the ziti group so that new users will be able to collaborate with you.

What are the current groups?

The following table lists the current groups and their members:

Group	Members
boonspill	archaeopteryx, Beefy, Evan, Francine, Grayman, Helen Owly, Kansas Sam, Karin, Nymo, Will H
ziti	All contributors to the Ziti Project

How do I join a group?

Membership in a group is by invitation of its existing members: the Ziti Master will add you to a group if there's a concensus to add you.

How do I start a new group?

The Ziti Master will create a group for you on request. However, this currently is a manual process, so in order to save the poor Ziti Master work, please do not request a group until you and your pals have shown a sustained interest in the ZP. The Ziti Master reserves the right to reject requests for any reason or no reason (more likely the latter.)

Can I start a group consisting of just me, so I can use the ZP to create or publish solo works?

Maybe...but only if you're a veteran Ziticen. Remember, though, that solo works--like all contributions to the ZP--are in the public domain per the ZP's Terms of Use. So, if you think anybody might ever pay you for a solo work, you're better off 'publishing' it somewhere else.