Community and SMTRP Rules Overhaul

[Seperallis]

Here is the first draft rewrite of the community rules:

Show ContentThey see me rollin':

. . : :  Foreword  : : . .

We like to keep things easy-going around here, but despite everyone being reasonable and mature disputes will still arise in a diverse community such as ours. This set of rules is meant to see that everyone's on the same page regarding conduct, and leave less room for "interpretation."

As a member of this board, you acknowledge that you have read and are aware of these rules, and that you agree to abide by their terms. If you do not agree to these rules, then you may address your grievance to your community admins and argue your case for a change. Disagreement with the rules is not a license to break them.



. . : :  General Community Rules  : : . .

1. Content and Language
1A) Using the MPAA rating system as a guideline, ALL community content is to be no more explicit than what would earn a “PG-13” rating, with “R” being the exception for roleplays and literature; graphic sexual images or descriptions are additionally and expressly prohibited in all sections of the community.

1B) Try to keep inflamatory and explicit language to a minimum. We realize casual back-and-forth ribbing with such language is common; simply stop if you're asked to stop, and try to keep it from getting out of hand.

1C) Discussions of real-world religion and politics shall be kept exclusively to the Boring and Politically Correct Club and #politics on Discord when not refering to roleplay. The nature of nation role play means we can't preclude talk about such topics through the course of discussing our own nations, but please keep such discussions related to roleplay only, and either end or direct them to the above places when they leave the RP topic or become hostile.

2. Spam & Malicious Content
2A) All accounts created solely for malicious spam, off-site advertising, scamming, soliciting, and any illicit activities will be immediately and irrevocably banned.

2B) Spam is pointless, irrelevant content; this includes "posting games," which shall be contaiend to The Corner. Posts elsewhere shall serve some constructive purpose.

2C) Thread Necromancy is discouraged, but not forbidden; this includes posting within any dormant thread where the topic has either long concluded, or clearly been abandoned for some length of time, usually several months or a year. Try to have some good purpose when/if you post in such places.

3. Harassment & Community Conduct
3A) This community is meant as a nice hangout for people of relatively similar interests. Respect your fellow members as basic human beings, at the very least, and be courteous and mindful of others; please steer hijacked conversations back on topic, and refrain from constant antagonisms and "baiting" over interests and beliefs/lifestyle, etc (including constantly being "woke" in chat).

3B) Harassment is any behavior that disturbs or upsets, is characteristically repetitive, and often intended to be disturbing or threatening. Willful and deliberate harassment of any person will not be tolerated in our community, by any person, or against any person. Harassment of members and nonmembers outside the forum is still subject to you being permanently and irrevocably banned from the community, including the forum, discord, any and all games servers, and anywhere else where the Eternity name is displayed.

3C) If you intend to leave Eternity with little or no intention of returning, do not attempt to delete your posts. Regular members lack the power to do this properly, and any attempts at doing so will be reversed. If you have serious reservations about having certain posts remain after your departure, then ask a staff member for assistance.

4. Signatures & Profiles
4A) Forum signature character limit is set to 9001 characters, to include all text and code. Total dimensions of signatures shall exceed neither 800 pixel width nor 400 pixel height to prevent screen stretching for most people. Changing your screen name is allowed, but be reasonable and don't abuse this policy, to avoid confusion.

4B) Community members may only one forum and one Discord account per live person, with the exception of Community staff (for testing and administrative purposes). If you fail to receive an activation email or have other account login issues a contact a staff member for support.

5. Community Improvement
5A) The community is not perfect, and can always be improved:
- This Thread should be used to suggest improvements to the layout and function of the forums, chat, discord, and other aesthetic or functional improvements.
- This Thread should be used to suggest all other general improvements to the community as a whole.

6. Admin Enforcement & Complaints
6A) The following hierachy of actions will be taken by forum staff in the following order regarding infractions of any rules, unless a specific section calls for some other action to be taken:

1st Infraction: First verbal/written warning

2nd Infraction: Final verbal/written warning

3rd Infraction: 1-day account suspension of posting privileges.

4th Infraction: 1-week account suspension etc.

5th Infraction: 1-month account suspension etc.

6th Infraction: 3-month account suspension etc.

7th Infraction: Permanent account suspension etc.

6B) Any persons banned shall honor the length and terms of the ban, and the ban shall include all aspects of the community (the forum, chat, discord, NS RMB, and any other places that bear the Eternity name) unless otherwise stated. Attempts to circumvent or violate any ban shall see it extended by one week per violation or the terms of the ban moved up one infraction level - up to and including permanent account suspension or deletion - at an annoyed admin's discretion.

6C) Please address complaints and issues about an aspect of the community, the forum, or of another person, via the recommended process below:
- For Role Play Issues: Contact the RP Director, via PM. The Director will get back to you as soon as possible.

- For General Board Issues: Contact the Chief of Public Relations.
- - If he is unavailable, contact the Chief of Staff Support.
- - If neither of the above are available, contact the Root Admininstrator, but understand he is your last resort.

- For Interpersonal Issues & Complaints: Contact the Chief of Public Relations.
- - If he is part of the problem (or otherwise unavailable), contact the Chief of Staff Support.
- - If he is part of the problem too (or otherwise unavailable), contact the Root Admininstrator.
- - Failing all else and as a last resort, contact the Chief of Logical Reason.

6D) The community staff are unpaid volunteers, and their word is law regarding rule enforcement, so try to heed their warnings. They are not, however, above these very rules; if you percieve a staff member is breaking rules or exerting clear bias in his/her enforcement of rules, then please follow the procedures for interpersonal issues above, as lashing out at the world will not get your problems resolved.

6E) If you seriously, seriously have issues with members or aspects of the community that are giving you consideration to leave us for good, please make every effort to speak with an admin so we can try and resolve these issues both for you and other members. The forum and staff will not respond to threats and tantrums.



. . : :  Category Specific Rules  : : . .

7. Modern Tech Role Play
7A) Specific MTRP rules are kept in this thread.

8. Alternative Role Play
8A) Alternative, Non-NationStates or non-nation based role play, or nation-based role play that takes place in a universe outside Siora will be conducted in this section.

8B) Currently, "Alternative Role Play" (henceforth "ARP")  has five subsections, where more can be added as need demands it:
- - Fantasia Design - This is where you can plan and place OOC threads for your non-SMTRP role plays; this exists for your convenience, and you are not required to make a thread here to create/start role play in Fantasia.
- - Fantasia - This is where you can start and reply to non-SMTRP role play threads.
- - Andlosheim - Both OOC and story threads for the Andlosheim magical fantasy role play setting may go here. Andlosheim-specific rules might be found in its OOC section.
- - Alternative Earth - It's Earth, but different. Perform nation and character roleplay in a version of Earth's past where history has been re-written, and can be vastly different to our own.
- - Pokemon Ultimate - Do you wanna be the very best, like no one ever was? Here lives Eternity's Pokemon RP setting.

8C) Thread creators have the authority to create and enforce specific rules for their stories, campaigns, and other such threads in the "ARP" section, and to decline the use of characters or participation by certain parties if those characters/people are deemed unreasonable or in violation of general community rules. Specific rules for specific Fantasia role plays may overrule general forum role play etiquette.

8D) RP thread creators (or GMs) have the authority to perform non-lethal autos for the purpose of preserving or progressing the plot with or without consent. However, creators/GMs MUST give critical warning before terminating a character's life; failing to heed critical warning is the fault of the role-player.

8E) As a general rule, respect common sense reality in our role plays and remain in character. In the absence of specific RP rules, try respecting general SMTRP writing etiquette (section 1) as best you can. Of course, RP creators may give permission or set guidelines that not only bend reality or allow for out-of-character moments, but also disregard normal RP rules and etiquette entirely, at their discretion.

9. Universe's End Restaurant
9A) This section of the forum contains all non-RP community content, and is split into the following sections:
- - The Bulletin Board - Exists for community announcements and news, houses the rules, and displays helpful information. This is not for spam games.
- - The Diner - Exists as the general catch-all chat forum for anything that does not belong in any other forum. This is not for spam games.
- - The Gameroom - Exists as a place primarily for video game stuff, but may also encompass tabletop and others. This is not for spam games.
- - Writer's Bloc - Exists as a forum for all non-RP literature, from sharing your own writings, the writings of others and your thoughts thereof, learning or teaching the principles of good writing, and more. May also include writing competitions. This is not for spam games.
- - The Corner - This is for spam games.

10. The Boring and Politically Correct Club
10A) The Boring and Politically Correct Club exists as our forum for serious discussion, essays and debate, politics, and more. This section is intended for substantial and worthwhile discussion. Do not post here if you intend to "win." There is no "winning" here; This forum exists as an exchange of ideas, to refine your own understanding on subjects through the forging fires of discourse.

10B) In the case of an argument or debate breaking out over a topic...good! Keep the discussion factual, respectful, and focused narrowly on the specific arguments. According to research, the likelihood of changing someone's opinion in an argument drops off dramatically after three back-and-forth exchanges, so if the disagreement has not been reconciled by then either rethink your argument and try a different approach, or concede that the argument is going nowhere and agree to disagree.

11. Oblivion Compound
11A) This section of the forum contains all community administrative areas, and is split into the following sections:
- - Hall of Forever - Come here to discuss community happenings, events, and to participate in improving the community. Community improvement efforts, petitions, and suggestions primarily fall into this area.
- - Twilight Castle - The "public offices" are located within this section. This section exists to view the public release of the Community Administration's behind-the-scenes work.
- - Embassy Square - This space is dedicated to Eternity's external affiliated communities, and exists for other communities to advertise themselves, share their own newsletters and information, and generally co-mingle in hopes of sharing members and minds.
- - Library of Eternity - This is where dead threads worthy of remembrance go, to be displayed before the public.

12. Extras

12A) Discord
i. The official Discord server is to be found here.
ii. All general forum rules also apply to conduct within the Discord server.
iii. Discord admins may include additional rules regarding conduct on the Discord server; check the Discord server's welcome screen for Discord rules and their changes. Where Discord rules are either contradictory or less stringent, the general community rules precede them.
iv. Discord admins may use temporary police actions in Discord chat as they see fit; permanent actions against violators of Discord server rules will be enacted in accordance with the community infraction policy as outlined in section 6A of these rules, and will require community staff approval.
v. Complaints about conduct or abuse by Discord staff shall be levied with the Chief of Public Relations.

12B) Nationstates
i. All above mentioned general forum rules also apply to conduct within NationStates and the Eternity NationStates regional message board.