For characters, there's a lot of "Hey guys, I was wondering if I could do X to Y... anyone have plans counter to this?" that floats around. We chat, talk about major arcs, but minor things usually don't matter in the grand scheme of things (You said 2XL has a puppy? But I said he had a cat! You BASTARD!) other than keeping things internally consistant. MAJOR things, like, "Hey, I want to kill off this person. Is that cool?" get vetted and need to go to a higher authority.
I'll take myself as an example. I needed to write up some things about some PersonaFix softs, which also included ActiveSofts for a kind of complete body makeover. You didn't just get a new persona, but you got the skillls you needed to live that persona's life. Casting a glance over the Jackpointers, I didn't see one that was known for having skillsofts as a Thing and there were a few (Turbo Bunny) who'd had issues with BTLs and would be wary about giving that level of control away. So, I invented a new person, Marionette, who was a heavy Activesoft user to step in on a trial basis, just so I could have a mouthpiece for that section. In so doing, I gave her to the community at large, so now anyone else can write about her, or ignore her, as they see fit. I don't have any long term plans with her, but someone else might go, "Oh wow, a 'runner from the Phillipines? Jackpoint didn't have one and I needed one for a story about Masaru. Perfect!" ... and if that's the case, they'd probably drop me a line since I invented her, I'd give my blessing (which isn't at all needed!), and away they'd go.
It turns out that we *did* have a Skillsoft user in Hard Exit, but I'd missed it. Had I asked instead of doing softer levels of research, I would have been able to use her instead. D'oh. Hopefully, my booboo will wind up useful for other people.
If I had a more important storyline (Plan 9 is pregnant with Snopes' baby!), well, THAT, I would have made sure went through all the right channels.
