Rules (READ THIS FIRST)

[Halloween]

Alright. So I am going to start working on officially typing up the site rules, or at least the generalities/ basics for the time being.

The following are bits that I want to include and, yes, they are copied straight from EJ, but I will be retyping this all myself, so there is no plagiarism.

Blood and gore is allowed, and, due to the setting, it is also encouraged.
Moderate cursing is permitted.
Alcohol references allowed.
Explicit sexual content is not permitted.
Multiple accounts are not permitted. One account per member.
Godmodding/Godmoding is not allowed.
Embedded videos are not to be posted anywhere in the main forums. Freedom Corner is okay, but MUST be posted under a spoiler along with a warning to avoid lagging members.
There should be no talk of religion, politics, or other controversial issues in the out-of-character forums or the chatbox.
Each member has a PM box, which can be found in the top menu under "Messages." It turns red when you have a new private message. Only you and anyone else who is involved in the PM can see the message.

Above all, respect others.
Respect is required both in the public forums and chatbox, as well as private messages. If there are any issues that occur between members, please contact an administrator or moderator to resolve the situation.

There are two notes This one I am iffy on, right here.

Only vague reference to heavy illegal substances allowed.

Due to the nature of the forum, as well as thing involving certain characters/ Gods [like Enigma] I am willing to discuss these two points. Mayvbe even only allow these for us Admins/ Gods? Open to suggestion.

Concerning the Chatbox:
The chat has the same rules as our forums do, as in:

There should be no spamming or trolling. Please respect others and do not attack anyone or use inflammatory behavior.
Verbal warnings = a chatban (based on severity).
First chat report: 3 day chatban.
Second chat report: 1 week chatban.
Third chat report: Permanent banning from the chat.

Only thing I changed were the verbal warnings, as they can be as simple as a gentle scolding or having to literally kick someone from chat. We all know the severity level for each, I assume, and if not you can always just ask me or Rhavi.

Signature Rules

Your signature:
Can have text, banners, sprites, and links that link to your characters or your Shop/Sketchbook.
If you choose to link to characters, should contain sprites of only your characters, no one else's unless you have strict permission to do so.
The signature should be kept clean and orderly.

Thoughts on how large they should be allowed, Signatures? Like banners being only 200px tall. I like the thought of having signatures not being obnoxious but I would still like something fair, similar to what Sui has going on EJ. Thoughts? Maybe 200 or 250 px tall siggies max? Members can always just use spoilers anyway.
With sprites, they could be commissioned of their characters, or maybe even use them to signify which God they support? We could have sprited symbols for each major God/ Admin made, I personally like that idea.

Killing Characters Off:

You are permitted to kill off your characters in order to be refunded a character ticket. However, please note that if you character is killed by an Assassin, no ticket will be refunded.
You must post on your team character sheet if you kill one of your characters so we can refund your ticket and take you off the team roster.
You cannot kill another member's character unless both parties explicitly agree. Conversations dealing with killing off another member's character should be dealt with through private messages.
No bullying other members to kill their characters if they decline. Such behavior is not acceptable, and if you are found down such the consequences will consist of your character tickets getting stripped and/or a potential banning.

The Basics:

The characters/players are listed in the order they should post in in the team character sheet of the team that particular character is a member of.
Characters are only to follow the character preceding them, and are not to post out of turn unless the character they normally follow has been listed as away.
It is recommended that each player posts once a day to keep the team's rp flowing at a steady pace, but they should wait no longer than three days to respond.
Please post at least a paragraph each time you respond, but try to avoid going over seven paragraphs if possible.

Make sure you use proper grammar!
A punctuation/grammar reference is available if it is needed. All new members will be screened for grammatical/writing skill. If your writing is not at the level needed to effectively tell a story, you will not be allowed to post in the official RP.

Use out of character (OoC) notes where applicable.
This goes for if you need to make an out of character comment about the roleplay. Also, all members must add an OoC note to the bottom of their posts whenever:
They are granted permission to harm or kill another member's character.
When they give permission for another member to harm or kill their character.


Every official RP thread is member-moderated concerning content.
If a member sees violations of forum rules (be it godmodding, one-sentence posts, or otherwise), they are to notify the member. If the violations persist, it will be reported to one of the admins.

RP Formatting:

When posting in any roleplay threads, you should format the top of your post like so:

[ your character's image here (optional) ]
Location | Time of Day | Post Count

The content of your post can then follow.

Image is not required, but it is encouraged. If you do have an mage for your character, then have it posted at the top.
State your location and time of day in bold.
Post a post count number after the time of day in your header if you wish to participate in the EJ League. Details are given in the linked thread.
Do not change the font size of the text. Resizing of text will be fixed by a moderator or admin.
Any color changes you include in your post must be easily readable.

Imges will not be required due to having no stock images, but they will be encouraged.

Each member's character will be assigned to a single team.
A full team consists of [x] individual members. It will start with one person/leader, and will grow until it reaches its limit.
A team can only be created when all the other RP teams are full in the region you wish for your team to start in.
Teams that are open and available to join can be found in the team character sheets.


The team leader will determine where the team's journey will start.
The leader's only responsibility is to monitor the length of each of their team members' posts. Posts must be between 1-7 paragraphs. Leaders are to warn members if they do not follow this rule.
Other members of the team can report posts that are too short to the designated admin of the region.

I like Teams still keeping six members to make them full but felt I should leave the option open for now. Thoughts? Should we shrink the number?

Floater Characters

Once they choose to leave the team, they must state that they are leaving with their last post. After that, the post sequence will return to normal. This does not mean a character needs to float, it is just an option that is available if you do not wish to stalk the same characters across the region.

There will be a max of one floater per team.
Normal team sheets will not be updated; floaters will always take their turn after the entire regular team sequence. This means the leader has to pay attention to when floaters come and go to avoid missing their turn or skipping them.
There will be an floater character sheet for each region, which shows which character is where. This will be updated with each team when a floater joins.
All floater characters must announce in the team sheet of the location they want that they will be joining that team before they start posting. They will take their turn as the last in the team sequence.

If you want to be a floater, include your request in your character profile.

I am iffy, should we keep floaters? I know Gods will be doing this, like Enigma, but I  kind of want to restrict this with normal users until they have earned it. Maybe have a special ticket, or only allow it after reaching a certain rank?

Dual Character Profiles

Dual character profiles provide an opportunity to roleplay two of your own characters together on the same team (and in one post).

To create a dual profile, you must have two available tickets as the characters are treated as two separate characters even though they are roleplayed together. If both are shiny characters, you must also have two shiny tickets.
Even though dual characters count as two characters and take up two character tickets, they only count for one character slot in team placement.

DUels I have no issue with members having, though only after they have been RPing for an amount of time or rreached a certain rank?

In Closing
As our rules are a bit lengthy and complex, we do not expect you to read through and understand everything in one day. You are free to PM the admins or talk to members in the chat if you need any help. We made these rules to keep the forum at its highest quality possible. Once you make your first character and jump in, it gets much easier from there.

There is a reason this thread is required reading. Do not make the mistake of merely skimming through the rules and agreeing to them without knowing what they consist of.

Once you read this, reply to this thread stating that you accept the terms of our forum.
We reserve the right to ban anyone who does not adhere to these rules.

SPeaking of which, we need some sort of ranking system don't we? Not like how EJ currently is, but I am thinking something like... each member's colour will match the region of their first character. They would start off as lets just call if Rank 1. They have Rank 1 until earning Rank 2, still keeping the region's colour.
But how would they rank? Just by post count is an easily abused system, as shown with early EJ [Enigma, I am sure you remember as I do], but something like the 25 post system seems iffy. THoughts? ANy ideas on this?

EDIT:

The ranking system will work on a system of Administrative Review, with each review occurring with an interval of at least 1 month between them. Members are to post in the designated thread , requesting a review. Upon request, the Big 20 will gather and converse among ourselves, evaluating the members overall performance throughout the month. Criteria evaluated will be as follows:
Post Length- Members are expected to have posts of a decent length to help progress plot. Short posts are fine so long as they convey meaningful information, and long posts are acceptable so long as they do not become rambling.
Post Quality- How skilled is the member as conveying clear, concise thoughts? Posts should be to the point, with enough additional details to hold the attention of the reader. Top quality posters will often have a following, people who read their teams just for the purpose of catching up on that member's character,
Grammar and Spelling- This goes hand and hand with Post Quality; How knowledgeable is the member in terms of the rules of the English Language?

In addition to posts, which will make up the majority of the grading scale, bonus points can be earned for things such as community involvement, attitude, and friendliness. How well liked is the member? How involved and active on the site are they? Do they consistently offer assistance to new members? Points cannot be lost on this category. The score here will be added as bonus to the post scale.

The Rank listing is as follows:

Enlisted Tier:
-Private
-Private First Class
-Corporal/Specialist
-Sergeant
-Staff Sergeant
-Sergeant First Class
-Master Sergeant
-Sergeant Major
-Command Sergeant Major

Commissioned Tier:
-2nd Lieutenant
-1st Lieutenant
-Captain
-Major
-Lieutenant Colonel
-Colonel



In addition to the ranks posted above, there are several special ranks that can be earned based on admin nomination only. These Will be handed out on a case by case basis, either for outstanding skill in writing and storytelling, outstanding service as a moderator/staff member, or other.
-Chaplain (This will be the position/rank of our moderators)
-Divine Oracle (For Outstanding Mods)
-Warrant Officer (For outstanding writing and creativity as an enlisted)
-Distinguished Service Medal (Awarded to Officers/Mods who go above and beyond with helping new members and contributing to the site. The member who receives this is truly the best of the best.)

Refugee Camp

Need to make
• Thread for members to post at
  
• List of members/ characters in Camp
  Rules
  
• Must post link to team(s) both to be placed in and to be removed
  
• Time limit [x] (7, 10, or 14 days?]
  Consequences
  
• Day after deadline characters deactivated
  
• Mod will deactivate character, posting on sheet noting that and taking out character
  

[/quote]
A member leave system. Still iffy on the amount of time on leave we should allow. 7 or 10 days is where I am leaning.

EDITEDIT:

About Moderator Rules

MODERATOR RP:
Mods are allowed to post as Floaters in a team in any region. You must post in a team sheet that you will float in the team you wish to float in before posting.
Any mod who goes over their posting time limit in the RP will have one character ticket stripped from their primary account.
If all tickets are being used, a character will be chosen at random to be killed by an Assassin.
The second time a mod goes over their time in the RP, their character will be killed and their mod powers stripped.



MODERATOR DUTIES:
If the duties given to the moderators are not performed as they should be, there will be one warning sent out. If inaction persists, then the mod account will be deleted and one character ticket from the primary account will be stripped, depending on severity.
Any content or information restricted to the staff threads/subforums are for staff eyes only. Information is NOT to be leaked to non-staff.
Primary account names are NOT to be shared with members. If members hassle you to reveal what your other account name is, PM Halloween with the names of the members. Warnings can be given out for harassment.

CHAT MODERATION:
Mods have the power to ban anyone in chat or in the site. This is not to be abused. Penalties for doing so will result in a possible ban.
Offensive, disrespectful, or depressing talk in the chat is to be punished by verbal warnings and followed by a chatban if it persists. It is up to the discretion of the mod to decide what is disrespectful; especially if it is upsetting others. We want to keep arguments and drama to a minimum.
Certain topics that are needlessly inflammatory should be dropped. Mods have the power to get people to drop the topics if they feel it's necessary.

NOTE: If any of our staff shows misconduct in chatbox in any of their accounts, they are subject to getting their staff rights stripped without warning.

Chatbox Commands:
/clear = Using this command clears the chatbox. Use it to erase any messages that break the rules, or on request as the chatbox occasionally lags for some members, and clearing usually fixes it.
/kick = Using this command will kick a member out of the chatbox, forcibly causing them to log out of the chat. If a member refuses to listen to verbal warnings, then kicking is allowed. If member misbehavior persists, a chatban may have to be issued.
/ban = Using this command will ban a member from the Chatbox. This command must be followed by the username to ban. (ex: /ban username). Once the user is banned, he or she will not see nor have access to the Chatbox.
Once more, this is all under the discretion of the Mod. There will be times when a warning and then swift kick will be necessary.


CHAT WARNINGS:
Always report any number of chat warnings when they are severe enough.
Three warnings are the standard, but they can be any number below that based upon the severity of the situation. Chat reports are screenshots that are to be taken of the conversation in question and submitted to Halloween or Member Misbehavior after the mod has banned/kicked the offending member.
First chat report = 3 day chatban
Second chat report = Week long chatban or perma chat ban, based on severity

MEMBER BAN FROM THE FORUM:
How to ban a member: when a moderator visits a member's profile, under their profile picture, there is the option to ban them.
Once you click that, you'll be given a few boxes to fill out.
Do not fill out the duration, but fill out the reason and hit ok/send.
Afterwards, send a PM notifying an admin of your actions and the reason.

Reasons for allowing moderators to ban members:
There are potential risks when we approve new accounts in finding that they are trolls. They may try to spam random threads, chat, etc and cause as much havoc as they can before they're taken out. We urge everyone to keep a sharp eye out for things like this, to prevent any damage to our site.
Immediate banning can be exercised by mods if this is to occur. If offensive images or words are posted, those posts are to be screen capped and deleted, and the evidence sent to Halloween.

Above all, never hesitate to message an Admin about any and any issue that needs to be dealt with, from banning a troll to a simple chat issue. We are always here to back you up and step in when necessary.

Some Mod rules.

[Halloween]

Need to develop:

• making characters
  
• character 'tickets'
  
• Mod rules
  
• ranking system
  
• Assassin's Guild
  
• Warning system
  
• Member Absence
  
• ???
  

[Halloween]

Refugee Camp

Need to make

• Thread for members to post at
  
• List of members/ characters in Camp
  Rules
  
• Must post link to team(s) both to be placed in and to be removed
  
• Time limit [x] (7, 10, or 14 days?]
  Consequences
  
• Day after deadline characters deactivated
  
• Mod will deactivate character, posting on sheet noting that and taking out character
  

A safe house basic idea, any thoughts on how long they should be allowed in? I personally lean towards 7 or 10 days.

[Rhavi]

The ranking system will work on a system of Administrative Review, with each review occurring with an interval of at least 1 month between them. Members are to post in the designated thread , requesting a review. Upon request, the Big 20 will gather and converse among ourselves, evaluating the members overall performance throughout the month. Criteria evaluated will be as follows:
Post Length- Members are expected to have posts of a decent length to help progress plot. Short posts are fine so long as they convey meaningful information, and long posts are acceptable so long as they do not become rambling.
Post Quality- How skilled is the member as conveying clear, concise thoughts? Posts should be to the point, with enough additional details to hold the attention of the reader. Top quality posters will often have a following, people who read their teams just for the purpose of catching up on that member's character,
Grammar and Spelling- This goes hand and hand with Post Quality; How knowledgeable is the member in terms of the rules of the English Language?

In addition to posts, which will make up the majority of the grading scale, bonus points can be earned for things such as community involvement, attitude, and friendliness. How well liked is the member? How involved and active on the site are they? Do they consistently offer assistance to new members? Points cannot be lost on this category. The score here will be added as bonus to the post scale.

The Rank listing is as follows:

Enlisted Tier:
-Private
-Private First Class
-Corporal/Specialist
-Sergeant
-Staff Sergeant
-Sergeant First Class
-Master Sergeant
-Sergeant Major
-Command Sergeant Major

Commissioned Tier:
-2nd Lieutenant
-1st Lieutenant
-Captain
-Major
-Lieutenant Colonel
-Colonel



In addition to the ranks posted above, there are several special ranks that can be earned based on admin nomination only. These Will be handed out on a case by case basis, either for outstanding skill in writing and storytelling, outstanding service as a moderator/staff member, or other.
-Chaplain (This will be the position/rank of our moderators)
-Divine Oracle (For Outstanding Mods)
-Warrant Officer (For outstanding writing and creativity as an enlisted)
-Distinguished Service Medal (Awarded to Officers/Mods who go above and beyond with helping new members and contributing to the site. The member who receives this is truly the best of the best.)

[Zaiphon]

I of course accept the rules as they currently stand.

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