► → MANDATORY READ: The Rules ← ◄

by **Fate Foretold** on Wed May 13, 2009 10:29 am

Please Note: These rules are not up for debate. If you don't like them, then you don't have to join. Most of these rules are common on any message board or are in place for obvious reasons. Please make sure you know these rules. It may seem like a lot, but reading through them for just a few minutes will help to prevent any confusion or mistakes in the future. Thank you.

Universal Rules

Be respectful and civil. Respect the staff as well as your fellow members. We expect everyone to portray a nonjudgemental outlook on others in regards to their personal beliefs and aspects, including (but not limited to) their race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and sex. Under no circumstances can members threaten other members or the staff, and doing so will result in an immediate ban.
Don't flame or bash.
Hate posts and personal attacks will not be tolerated on the FOG boards. Treat others on this message board as you would expect them to treat you. Talking trash about another user or posting topics specifically to provoke a negative response from an individual, a group or an entire community is not acceptable on FOG. These posts will be deleted and will result in a warning. Board bashing is also not allowed here. Please respect the various communities on FOG. If another board is not your favorite, there's no need to complain about it. Simply refrain from visiting it. Board bashing posts will be deleted.
The rating of the message board is R. This means that content is allowed to go up to but not exceed an R rating. We do not require members be of a certain age to join, but children 17 and under be advised: Role plays and discussions may include strong language, nudity, violence and gore, or drug content. HOWEVER: Please note that this is a public message board, and anything that you say will be viewable by the world. We must ask that all sensitive or mature subject matter needs to be discussed carefully and delicately, so as not to offend anyone. If topics are created to specifically discuss something adult in nature, they need to be serious and without spam or vulgar joking.
Avatars can be up to 150 x 200 pixels. Signatures have a limit of 700 x 200. This isn't something you have to consciously worry about, since both will automatically be resized down if they're too large. Avatars and signatures may not contain any type of offensive material in them, which includes adult content or themes. Alcohol is fine for the most part, but drugs, sex (and all things related), and any obscene cursing is not appropriate to be displayed. Signatures can only contain one image in them, excluding some special exceptions (such as a contest winner badge).
Inappropriate usernames are prohibited. Usernames cannot be offensive, derogatory, or vulgar. If you register with a distasteful username, you will be asked to change it (from your Profile), and if you refuse, one of the staff members will change it for you. While we are rated R, you will come to notice that we do have a strict policy of not displaying unsuitable material so publicly and blatantly. It can be insulting and discourteous to others.
Do not harass anyone. Harassment in any form is taken seriously. Do not do it. Attacking, badgering, and repeatedly disturbing members is not only rude, but not allowed. Threatening members results in an instant ban.
Warnings and bannings aren't public matters.
Moderators are not perfect and are only human. Disagreements occur. If you disagree with them, try to communicate with them first on a respectful level and settle your disagreement. They are not targets for your obscenities, flames or general insults. If you do not agree with a decision, you are not entitled to start a thread arguing about the verdict or flaming any of the moderators. Any such messages will be removed. This extends to Private Messages and unban requests as well, and you are not entitled to insult moderators via either of these methods. Also note that bans are between the user banned and the moderators, and moderators cannot respond about bans publicly. Any correspondence about ban length and reason will be handled through unban requests.
Do not plagiarize. Plagiarism in any form will earn you a ban. The theft or imitation of another person's written works, artwork or any other such material, copyrighted or otherwise, is an unlawful act and will not be tolerated.
By becoming a member of FOG: Footsteps of Ghosts, you agree to our privacy policy. Our privacy policy is this: Any information here on FOG is the property of FOG, and any theft of such property will result in an immediate and permanent ban. Paraphrasing, which is the rewording or rephrasing of something, is also theft without acknowledgement. Just as you would have to in a written paper, if you paraphrase anything from FOG, you will need to give us credit for the original ideas themselves. We do not have any issues with our community being members of different message boards. We also are okay with it if you would like to create your own message board or are the administrator or moderator somewhere else (so long as the duties there do not keep you from your duties here). The real problem comes into play if ideas, images, aspects, and the like are taken from us here and used elsewhere.
We have final say. While these rules cover the most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently, we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way. We also reserve the right to ban anyone who willfully violates the forum rules.

OOC Rules

No Spamming or trolling. "Stupid, pointless, annoying messages" basically sums up what spam is. Blatant spam is not allowed. Do not flood the forums. Do not troll and post things that are not relevant to the topic. Lazy typing is spam. This isn't a chat room or an instant messenger. Communication isn't instant, so take your time and use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. If English isn't your first language, we understand and will keep that fact in mind.
Double-posting is not entirely prohibited. Double-posting is allowed, so long as your second post is not immediately after the first and does not relate to what you posted before it. (If it does relate, then simply edit your post.) Triple, quadruple, or more posting in immediate succession though is certainly not allowed. Please wait for others to respond to a topic before you reply if you are going to be posting right after yourself. You are not authorized to bump threads.
One journal/blog per person. If you decide to keep a journal or a blog here, please only have one thread for all of your posts and updates. Be sure to state in the first post if it's okay for people to leave comments or not.

IC Rules

There is a length requirement for role-play posts. Casual and One-on-One role-playing posts only have to be at least two paragraphs and at least ten sentences in length. Advanced role-playing posts must be at least four paragraphs and at least thirty sentences long. One-word 'sentences' do not count as a sentence for this purpose. Please note that improper grammar can cause a post to fall below our standards. For instance, if there are ten sentences worth of content, but it's formatted badly so that you type it only as eight, then you are falling below standards.

These rules are non-negotiable. These minimum posting limit rules are here to ensure that characters and plots are all well-developed in story-worthy content. It is our belief that anyone can meet these standards, and, if you're here, you can surpass them. We also feel that our members, who are seriously interested in writing and role-playing, either won't need to worry about this rule, as they can exceed it effortlessly, or they will take it as a bit of a challenge to better themselves.
Do not post anything OOC inside of a role-play. Keep all out-of-character talk to the OOC thread for your role-play, even if you just need to say something short. Keep your role-plays professional and clean.
We expect a certain level of quality in our role-plays. All role-play posts, including casual ones, must have near perfect grammar. The plots, characters, setting, and story all are expected to be well developed. Each post must help to advance the plot.
Role-plays cannot exceed an R rating. Role-plays do not need to be rated in their titles, but no role-play may contain content that would be considered above an R rating. (Essentially, sexual scenes and extreme violence are allowed, but straight up smut, porn, etc. are not.) We can't and won't stop you from doing these types of adult role-plays though via PM here, and you are welcome to do so, but please keep it private.
Do not powerplay or godmode. The term godmoding comes from "god mode," found in many video games, allowing a player to activate features such as invincibility, unlimited ammunition or lives, or similar power boosts. Godmoding is almost always frowned upon by other members of the game, because it is regarded as a form of cheating against the game's tacit rules. In role-playing, godmoding refers to a character taking on excessive powers or behaving as if they have no vulnerabilities. This is more of a juvenile thing to do, and it will not be tolerated here. Powerplaying, on the other hand, refers to when a role-player takes control of another person's character that is not their own. The only characters you are allowed to play as, talk as, and control are your own. The only exception to powerplaying, is if you and your partner both agree that you can control one another's character(s).

Private Messaging Rules

Harassment is not allowed. Just like anywhere else, do not harass a person through PMs. Repeatedly PMing a role-playing partner to ask when they will reply to a role-play is considered harassment. No one enjoys being hounded.
Do not threaten anyone through PMs. If someone has sent you a threatening PM, please forward it to an Administrator who will handle it immediately. There is no reason for people to feel unsafe at FOG.
Do not send out chain PMs. In other words, please don’t send out chain letters. Anything that asks you to send it to a certain number of other people in order to achieve or avoid something is considered a chain message.