Post by TALLY on Dec 22, 2009 11:42:05 GMT 10
[/size]RESPECT
this is the first thing on the list because, to be honest, it's by far the most important. this should go without saying, but it's amazing how many unkind and disrespectful people you find out there. if you'll excuse the cliche, treat people how you would like to be treated. if you're racist, sexist, homophobic or anything like that, get out. you are not welcome here. people come online to have fun, not to get slammed because their personal life isn’t exactly how you’d like it to be. now that’s over and done with, the respect thing’s actually really easy. treat people how you’d like to be treated, if you’ll excuse the cliché. if you have a problem with someone for any reason, pm a mod and they’ll sort it out. if someone is outright rude to you, that’s against the rules and we will talk to that member. however, the moment you reply with a rude message, you’ve broken the rules too and won’t be treated any differently to the first person. long story short, keep the drama in character, not out of it - it's more fun that way.RATING
i have no idea what all the american film ratings mean, so how about i just set my own rules? sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll are absolutely fine. swearing’s okay, just so long as you don’t f-bomb the place to hell. romance and violence are fine, just put a warning in the title if it’s gonna go past heavy making out or screaming insults at each other. if you’re not sure whether it’s okay or not, a warning can’t hurt. we don't want to accidentally ruin someone's childhood. readers of these threads, consider yourselves warned. the password is ‘smells like teen spirit’. put it in your application to show you read the rules.ROLEPLAYING
if you're reading this, you probably know a lot about role-playing already. if so, give these rules a glance over to refresh your memory. if not, read on! first off, no godmodding. that means no controlling other people's characters. you can talk to them, for example, but you can't write their replies for them. write in third person, past tense. remember to be realistic.if a character sneaks up behind you and clocks you on the head with a honking great shovel, you aren't about to dodge it, turn around and punch their lights out. your character's chance to shine will come, it just might not be right now. if you see a thread more than three weeks old, don't post in it unless you and the other characters have agreed to pick up where you left off.STAFF
staff are people too! believe it or not, we have lives outside the internet. if you want us to do something like accept your profile, we will not do it if you harass us. if we haven’t checked it a few days after it’s done, you can send a pm to remind us. basically, the more you nag us, the more we hate you. and please, please don’t ask us for staff positions. if we need a new member of staff and you fit the bill, we will ask you in our own sweet time. asking just makes you look desperate and we can guarantee the answer will be ‘no freaking way’. if anyone breaks the rules, pm us. you’re all our spies, okay? but things like ‘not replying to my post’, ‘having a name i want’ and ‘being annoying’ are not against the rules. unless they’re seriously annoying you even after you’ve asked them to stop. our warning system goes like this: you break a rule, you get a warning. three strikes and you're out for a month. if you come back and break a rule again, you're gone for good. if you think you're being warned unfairly, just talk to us calmly. scream and we'll warn you again. basically, we’re reasonable people. we’re more than happy to help you if you ask nicely. we don’t bite… much.SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
this is a moderate to advanced literate site, people. that means anyone who can't pass a grade school spelling test, don't bother. we won’t eat your brains (yum) for making a spelling mistake, but please at least try. the spell-check button is your friend, and it gets upset if no-one pays attention to it. do you want to hurt that poor little button’s feelings? i didn’t think so. even better, copy your post into some sort of word processor (like ms word or pages) and run a spelling and grammar check on it. it’s really not that hard! if you don’t think you can manage that, then this isn’t the site for you. okay, you got me. i lied before. the real password is ‘that’s what you get when you let your heart win’.CHARACTERS
you can have as many characters as you want - all we ask is that you keep them all active, make different accounts for each one and have a little diversity. for example, if you have two female characters the next has to be a male and vice versa. absolutely no mary-sues or gary-stus. that means no perfect characters. your character can't be kind, attractive, talented at everything they do and save the day every day. they also can't be tortured, angsty souls that had a horrific childhood and do nothing but brood about it. oh, and i lied before. the password is 'once a whore you're nothing more." also, there's enough drama here without your character suddenly getting magical powers, 'kay? oh, and claims. make sure you post in all the claims you need right after your character is accepted. it's first come first served, so don't get upset if someone claims what you wanted before you get there.GRAPHICS
sorry, but your character has to have a play-by and a picture in their signature. if you don't know how to make one and want something better than a random image from google, post a request in the graphics board. it's what it's there for. you can make your own judgement on the right size for it, all we ask is that you don't make it so wide it stretches the board or so long it's a chore to scroll past it.ACTIVITY
we don’t have a set amount of posts you have to write per week, but we do expect you to be quite active. we know you have lives offline and people get too busy to do much every now and then, or maybe go on holiday (lucky) or to hospital (not so lucky) or something like that. in that case, please post in the absences board so we know where you are. we’ll have activity checks every now and then, and anyone who doesn’t reply in the time given (usually a few weeks) will have their accounts deleted. if you’ve been inactive for a month and haven’t posted in the absences board, all your claims will free up. oh, and alts. we love alts. seriously, we do. just keep them all active. if you don’t want the alt anymore, make up a story for them leaving or dying or getting abducted by aliens or something then delete the account.CHATBOX
i'm sure you've noticed that shiny little thing down in the sidebar by now. it's a great place for people to chat, socialise and plot with each other. it does, however, have rules. if you bully anyone there, you will be flogged. if you advertise your site there, you will be flogged. if you hold detailed conversations about your out of character life in there, we won't need to flog you because the creepy stalkers will do that for us. if you impersonate any other members, you will be hung. seriously, we'll know. we can check ip's. hey, would you look at that? i lied twice. the real password is 'let's take it from the top.'[/blockquote]