Post by Admin on Jun 23, 2016 6:42:00 GMT -5
These rules are meant to be followed by all members of the forum. I have broken them into sections for grouping purposes.
1. No Bullying of ANY Member
This applies to MEMBERS, not characters. This mainly applies to out-of-character areas, the shoutbox, and private messages. For in-character purposes, there may be bullying in the roleplay, however excessive amounts of this should also be avoided.
Remember, everyone is here to have fun. Personally I don't mind if a character acts like a jerk, if it is a part of his personality. Just do not use this as an excuse to act like a dick. Make sure there is a strong roleplay behind your actions.
2. No Harassment
Harassment can be defined in two ways. Sexual and Non-Sexual. Sexual harassment falls into the realm of your making inappropriate comments to other members on forum. Remember this is a PG-13 place and while you might be 18 years of age, the person you are talking with might not be.
Non-Sexual harassment falls into the category of nagging or pestering someone to look at your thread. Mentioning it once in a PM to get their attention is one thing. Sending them 10 private messages to beg they come to your thread is harassment.
3. Keep it PG-13
Proboards is a PG-13 rated series of forums. We don't need adult content here. Kissing and snuggling between characters is one thing. That is fine. However, any sort of graphic display is off-limits. There are shades to this.
Stating your character gets naked and swims in a lake is one thing. That leaves whatever is visible up to the realm of the imagination. If you instead were to state they got naked, and go into graphic detail describing breasts, genitalia, or buttocks, you are crossing the line.
1. Double Posting
A double post is when you post something, wait awhile, then post again. Generally it's rude in a roleplay, because you are not giving the other participants a chance to respond to your first post. A general rule of thumb I have always employed is to wait 24 hours. If nobody else has posted in your thread in that amount of time, you may post again.
Of course, if someone does post in your thread, you can always post again immediately.
2. Ordered Posting
Ordered Posting refers to the order of posts within a thread. Let's say we have three participants. A, B, and C. A creates the thread, B responds, then C responds. A responds again. Then C, then A. Before long we end up with A and C dominating the thread, when B returns to it and finds the thread has flowed far along and left him behind.
This is mainly a courtesy issue. Some people cannot be online as much as others. In an ideal setting, members of the forum will be checking in at least every day or two. I can fully understand that some people can spend more of their time here.
In Casual RP, this rule does not really matter. In most cases, if A and C are more highly active than B, you can always create a new thread and do something together. While making sure you still interact in the thread with B.
In Intense RP, this is a highly important rule and needs to be followed. This roleplay is more detailed and involved than that of the Casual section.
3. Text Slang
This really has no place in an RP setting. Since social media has become so widespread, a lot of these are becoming ingrained in our mentality. You might laugh, but I've seen it happen. Where you start texting so much, that something funny strikes you, and you automatically go "LOL" in your mind. Because you are used to putting that into a text.
4. Character Actions and Abilities
To keep this simple, pretty much anything seen in the Dynasty Warriors series of games, is viable as an action here. Beyond that, you need to contact the Staff if there is an action you want to use with your character. The more over-the-top it is, the more likely it is that it will need approval.
1. Colored Text
You can use BBCode to alter the color of your text when posting. The main thing here is to make sure the color is appropriate for all themes. There will be a color palette posted that will place the codes for safe colors. These colors will work on all themes.
(Note: Themes are currently a work-in-progress.)
2. Cliques
I've seen this happen before. You get a couple friends on here and you only roleplay with one another. If possible, please don't exclude anyone. Never EVER exclude anyone because you don't like the Member. If you have a problem with someone, bring it to the Staff. Or you can always discuss it with them in private message. Just keep it civil.
One important thing to remember about all of this, is that while on the forum, you are essentially two people. The Member and the Character. Whether you love or hate the member, your character can be the total opposite towards their character. I don't want to hear ANY reports of someone being deliberately excluded from RP.
I'm not saying you can't form a band of friends. And generally the kingdoms are simply large-scale cliques. However, just because you are in one kingdom does not mean you can't RP with someone from another kingdom. Depending on the RP area, there are quite a few possibilities for this.
Those breaking the above rules will be subject to punishment, under the discretion of the staff. This will vary depending on the severity of the crime. Most of these are temporary. However if something permanent is warranted, it may result in a simple ban from the forum entirely.
Roleplay Ban: When placed in the Inactive group, you will lose access to all roleplay boards. You may still post in the OOC areas of the forum, except for those in the War RP.
Full Ban: Your account will be disabled and you will no longer be able to post on the forum.
Event Ban: For this, you will not be allowed to participate in a number of future events.
While the above punishments cover breaking of the rules, this option is more in line with your actions as a character. In general, each of the kingdom rulers will create the laws/rules that officers in the kingdom are meant to follow. A ruler has the option of punishing members of the kingdom, if they act against his wishes.
This is in keeping with the time period, and in general any group of people that fall under the sway of a leader. If you do something the leader doesn't like, you would lose out on things such as rewards, promotions, and other opportunities.
This sort of thing is what separates a benevolent ruler with a tyrant. Rather than restrict it, I'm going to give the kingdom rulers somewhat of a heavier sway in what goes on in their borders. Within the normal forum rules, of course. If it seems like the ruler of a kingdom is deliberately harassing a character within said kingdom, the Staff will step in to moderate.
More information on this can be found in the Kingdoms thread. It will go over all the little details possible within a kingdom.
Major Rules
1. No Bullying of ANY Member
This applies to MEMBERS, not characters. This mainly applies to out-of-character areas, the shoutbox, and private messages. For in-character purposes, there may be bullying in the roleplay, however excessive amounts of this should also be avoided.
Remember, everyone is here to have fun. Personally I don't mind if a character acts like a jerk, if it is a part of his personality. Just do not use this as an excuse to act like a dick. Make sure there is a strong roleplay behind your actions.
2. No Harassment
Harassment can be defined in two ways. Sexual and Non-Sexual. Sexual harassment falls into the realm of your making inappropriate comments to other members on forum. Remember this is a PG-13 place and while you might be 18 years of age, the person you are talking with might not be.
Non-Sexual harassment falls into the category of nagging or pestering someone to look at your thread. Mentioning it once in a PM to get their attention is one thing. Sending them 10 private messages to beg they come to your thread is harassment.
3. Keep it PG-13
Proboards is a PG-13 rated series of forums. We don't need adult content here. Kissing and snuggling between characters is one thing. That is fine. However, any sort of graphic display is off-limits. There are shades to this.
Stating your character gets naked and swims in a lake is one thing. That leaves whatever is visible up to the realm of the imagination. If you instead were to state they got naked, and go into graphic detail describing breasts, genitalia, or buttocks, you are crossing the line.
Roleplay Rules
1. Double Posting
A double post is when you post something, wait awhile, then post again. Generally it's rude in a roleplay, because you are not giving the other participants a chance to respond to your first post. A general rule of thumb I have always employed is to wait 24 hours. If nobody else has posted in your thread in that amount of time, you may post again.
Of course, if someone does post in your thread, you can always post again immediately.
2. Ordered Posting
Ordered Posting refers to the order of posts within a thread. Let's say we have three participants. A, B, and C. A creates the thread, B responds, then C responds. A responds again. Then C, then A. Before long we end up with A and C dominating the thread, when B returns to it and finds the thread has flowed far along and left him behind.
This is mainly a courtesy issue. Some people cannot be online as much as others. In an ideal setting, members of the forum will be checking in at least every day or two. I can fully understand that some people can spend more of their time here.
In Casual RP, this rule does not really matter. In most cases, if A and C are more highly active than B, you can always create a new thread and do something together. While making sure you still interact in the thread with B.
In Intense RP, this is a highly important rule and needs to be followed. This roleplay is more detailed and involved than that of the Casual section.
3. Text Slang
This really has no place in an RP setting. Since social media has become so widespread, a lot of these are becoming ingrained in our mentality. You might laugh, but I've seen it happen. Where you start texting so much, that something funny strikes you, and you automatically go "LOL" in your mind. Because you are used to putting that into a text.
4. Character Actions and Abilities
To keep this simple, pretty much anything seen in the Dynasty Warriors series of games, is viable as an action here. Beyond that, you need to contact the Staff if there is an action you want to use with your character. The more over-the-top it is, the more likely it is that it will need approval.
Courtesy Rules
1. Colored Text
You can use BBCode to alter the color of your text when posting. The main thing here is to make sure the color is appropriate for all themes. There will be a color palette posted that will place the codes for safe colors. These colors will work on all themes.
(Note: Themes are currently a work-in-progress.)
2. Cliques
I've seen this happen before. You get a couple friends on here and you only roleplay with one another. If possible, please don't exclude anyone. Never EVER exclude anyone because you don't like the Member. If you have a problem with someone, bring it to the Staff. Or you can always discuss it with them in private message. Just keep it civil.
One important thing to remember about all of this, is that while on the forum, you are essentially two people. The Member and the Character. Whether you love or hate the member, your character can be the total opposite towards their character. I don't want to hear ANY reports of someone being deliberately excluded from RP.
I'm not saying you can't form a band of friends. And generally the kingdoms are simply large-scale cliques. However, just because you are in one kingdom does not mean you can't RP with someone from another kingdom. Depending on the RP area, there are quite a few possibilities for this.
Punishments
Those breaking the above rules will be subject to punishment, under the discretion of the staff. This will vary depending on the severity of the crime. Most of these are temporary. However if something permanent is warranted, it may result in a simple ban from the forum entirely.
Roleplay Ban: When placed in the Inactive group, you will lose access to all roleplay boards. You may still post in the OOC areas of the forum, except for those in the War RP.
Full Ban: Your account will be disabled and you will no longer be able to post on the forum.
Event Ban: For this, you will not be allowed to participate in a number of future events.
In-Character Punishments
While the above punishments cover breaking of the rules, this option is more in line with your actions as a character. In general, each of the kingdom rulers will create the laws/rules that officers in the kingdom are meant to follow. A ruler has the option of punishing members of the kingdom, if they act against his wishes.
This is in keeping with the time period, and in general any group of people that fall under the sway of a leader. If you do something the leader doesn't like, you would lose out on things such as rewards, promotions, and other opportunities.
This sort of thing is what separates a benevolent ruler with a tyrant. Rather than restrict it, I'm going to give the kingdom rulers somewhat of a heavier sway in what goes on in their borders. Within the normal forum rules, of course. If it seems like the ruler of a kingdom is deliberately harassing a character within said kingdom, the Staff will step in to moderate.
More information on this can be found in the Kingdoms thread. It will go over all the little details possible within a kingdom.