Code of Conduct

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous
November 3, 2007 - 9:30am
CODE OF CONDUCT

All project members and guests are responsible for knowing the information contained in the following Code of Conduct.

Last Updated: November 3rd, 2007

Members and guests of the project agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by these conduct rules to ensure that everyone feels welcome.

Violation of the Code of Conduct rules is grounds banning from the project. The project manager is the final judge of whether a member's behavior qualifies as inappropriate or a disruption.

This Code of Conduct is subject to change at any time at the manager's sole discretion.

1. Screen names that are deemed offensive will not be allowed to post. These include:
  • Names of offensive or notorious persons, controversial political figures, references to cultural tragedies or of significant religious or occult meaning
  • Names containing profanity, obscene slang, graphic anatomical references, racial, ethnic, sexist, or religious slurs
  • Names with word combinations that produce an offensive result
  • Names of or references to illicit substances or drug-related paraphernalia
  • Names with the intent or effect of harming the reputation of another
  • Names including protocol prefixes and domain suffixes (e.g. http://, .org, .com)
  • Names that impersonate the representation of a specific business or website, including any business or website you may operate or represent
Misspellings, phonetic, and alternative spellings of prohibited names are subject to modification or deactivation. Variations of a deactivated screen name, as may be evidenced by your declarations under a new screen name that you are "really" the deactivated name, may also be deactivated and the account holder may have his or her account terminated.

1. Do not hotlink images from other sites unless 1) You own the address or 2) you have permission to use the address.

2. Be polite and do not "flame". Flaming is defined as making personal attacks on another member. General rudeness, arguments, and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

3. Do not bait or "troll". Baiting is defined as "to persecute or exasperate with unjust, malicious, or persistent attacks". It also implies drawing a person into an argument through offensive statements and direct or indirect implications. Trolling is defined as entering a thread for the sole purpose of stirring up trouble through baiting. Do not harass, bully, threaten, harm or cause discomfort for other persons, including any other members. For example:
  • Use hate speech or racial, ethnic, sexist, homophobic or religious slurs
  • Harass a specific person (repeated flaming, personal attacks or posting their private information)
  • Troll or bait the community in general with inflammatory statements, such as ones designed to elicit a negative response from the community
  • Post or otherwise disclose any personal or private information of another person, or any confidential information pertaining to a business, without consent
4. Remain on topic. Discussions often go off topic. If a discussion begins to get off topic, you may start another thread either in this forum or a more appropriate forum on this site to continue the off-topic discussion. Be sure to link to the new thread and make it clear that any further discussion on the off-topic subject must be discussed over in the new thread. In the new thread, please provide a link to the original discussion so that people know the history of the discussion. You may also quote from previous posts in the original thread in the new thread. These things are a courtesy to participants in the discussion, as well as people coming into the discussions later.

5. Do not spam. Spamming is defined as making posts with no relation to the subject, usually involving small phrases or advertising. Advertisers will be immediately banned from the project, their posts deleted, and reported to the site administrator for action.

6. Do not use inappropriate language or behavior. This is a family site and a family project. There are kids viewing these pages. Your words can have an adverse effect on their mental and emotional development. Do not use, post, distribute or link to obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, graphically or gratuitously violent, derogatory, demeaning, malicious, defamatory, abusive, offensive, hateful or discriminatory language or content. This includes "masking" language by using alternative characters/spelling/spacing to get around profanity filters or claims of profanity filter "testing."

7. Do not promote, plan, glorify or engage in any illegal activity or otherwise make available content that would encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense. These topics include crimes relating to drugs, drug paraphernalia, rape, solicitation of a minor, computer hacking, and copyright violation. Again, this is a family site and project. We wish to protect the growth of our youthful members.

8. Do not impersonate other persons, including members or Wizards of the Coast staff, by screen name or self-representation, or attempt to obtain sensitive information from other members. For example:
  • Falsely claim an official title or to hold position relating to the Site
  • Falsely claim the representation of another business or website
  • Fake an existing member’s screen name by using similar-looking characters
  • "Spoof" or "emote" another member’s text in a chat room
  • Falsely claim to be a law enforcement officer
  • Solicit passwords or personal information from other members
The project manager or site admin may issue formal warnings, by post, private message or email when a member has made a Code of Conduct infraction. Depending on the severity of the infraction, the project manager or site admin may issue a warning, timed or permanent banning. This explanation of disciplinary procedure is meant to be a guideline for members to understand what their status may be with regard to the process. It is only a guideline and the project manager or site admin may deviate from this procedure at any time in any manner it deems appropriate without notice.
READ ME: Individual House Rules List ›
Comments:

Will's picture
Will
November 23, 2008 - 12:17pm
In summary: Don't be a moron, and things will be just fine.

"You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so."


—Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation