Rules of this forum

[Thales Nestis]

V. 2.1.0.1,
complete revision to acomodate a new era
by

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions (please point out outdated or previously overridden rules), please let an admin know. We're here to make sure your time here is the best it can be!



General



1. Please, please be courteous to one another! Regardless of ranks, you need to treat every other member with respect! Do unto others and all.

2. Okay, so. Homestuck has a lot of swears. However, that's cause some of the characters are foulmouthed, to be frank. So, unless your character is foulmouthed as well... Don't just swear every third word. On a technical level, we operate on a 13+ age base. What this means is that nothing that wouldn't fly in a PG13 movie wouldn't fly here, which is rather vague. So just be frugal and use logic and discrepancy.

3. Do not spam, troll or flame. Unaffiliated with these terms? Look them up, right now. We don’t take a cyber-bully lightly. Adding on to this, if you need to post twice in a row, use the edit button. This applies on any thread in the forums, ever.
Another thing is posting something that’s deliberately absurd and meant purely to confuse. Don’t do it. It seems to be this new sort of fad for people to do and it doesn’t occur to them that it’s inappropriate. Not to say, though, that it isn’t allowed in threads meant for that.

4. If you have a problem with another user, bring it up with a moderator or admin. Don’t talk to the member themself, it can very easily lead to problems.

5. Please never use an account that does not belong to you. This is just very, very confusing to everyone! It doesn’t matter if it belongs to your sibling, significant other or child. If you want to participate, make your own account! It is quick and easy.

6. Following on the same theme as above, you may only have one account. Don’t think you’re clever, we can literally read your IP address off your account. We don’t allow this because it’s just not necessary, and again, causes confusion.

7.  Alright, so life gets busy. I get it, we get it. But please try to log in every so often, maybe once a week, pop in and say ‘Hi,’ we care about you! It shows you care about the site and the time you’ve put in it, and gives us a little more stuff to read ;3

8. Do not try to find loopholes in the rules. If anything, point it out to a moderator or admin!

9. There is no excuse for breaking the Rules. Regardless of whether you had a rough day at school, or got into a fight, or are just not feeling too great, you should still abide by the Rules.
And, hey, we have a venting section for a reason! Ask someone about it.



A side-note, please try not to use a font color that is hard to read. We use a dark-grey background because white on black is easiest on the eyes. If your character types in a darker shade, consider lightening it for this site, and just state that it would be darker in some ((OoC)) notes.


Roleplay Related


1. Right, so there’s three places we RP here. The forums, the Chatbox (CB), and the Pesterchum subforum. RPing between these three is very different. Mainly, this exhibits itself in *actions*.  For example, if I said *cuddles consort* in the Chatbox, it would be totally fine. But this doesn’t fly in the forums! We want you to type in complete sentences, like “Zealon grabbed the adorable frog thing, nuzzling it to his face.”
Of course, the Pesterchum section is like the pester/trolllogs in the comic ;>

2. Use the limits of your literary skills! Don’t be lazy when writing, it exercises your brain and writing skills! Not to say your character or writing style can’t include slang or the like, of course. Along with this, try to read your posts once over again after writing them to check for typos and grammar. It’s no problem if you don’t know how to spell something, or what the difference between it’s and its is, though. Maybe you should ask?

3. We have a minimum of two (2) sentences per RP post. This doesn’t apply to the chatbox or the Pesterlogs, though. If you have trouble reaching that, ask a mod, admin or anyone you think could help! Anyone can at least point you to someone else.

4. Don’t use chat speak in narrative, as a general rule. It sounds weird when someone writes an abbreviation instead of the actual words, it’s just silly. That said, when you’re being silly, it’s fine.

5. No godmodding/power playing. Ever. Don’t know what those mean? Look up the terms, please, right now. Ignorance is not an excuse. Don’t make it so another character is in a situation where they have no choice as to what they do. Do not control another player’s character. Do not go outside your character’s pre-set abilities, as of their OC sheet at most recent approval.

6. Never kill someone else’s character! Nobody likes to have their character stabbed in the chest, now afflicted by perma-death. If you want to kill a character, you must, must MUST request it of the OC’s owner. Once you have their permission, sure! But never, ever otherwise. Along with above, never put someone in a situation where they must die. Would you like that to happen to you?!

7.  You may create as many original characters (OCs) as you want.
But, there’s a sub-rule! You may only use one mutant-blood OC at a time. This isn’t to say you may not make more than one, but if you do, you have to state which one you would like to have active when you make a new one. You can change which one you want active once every month, from the last time you changed it.

8. Make no OC that is a replica of ANY other character, whether another member’s character or a canon character. Not even jokingly. This is a rip-off of someone else’s work, and will be treated as such. We cannot approve these, and will add strikes to your record after repeated infractions. If you refuse to fix a character like this, we will simply delete the thread, problem solved.
Another note, do not use the art or any other work of anyone besides yourself unless you have express permission. This rule does not apply to written works; YOU MAY NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SUBMIT ANOTHER PERSON’S WRITTEN WORK. THIS APPLIES TO ALL AREAS, INCLUDING CLASSES AND ASPECTS. Write your own something. Write it better than theirs, I don’t care. We don’t accept copying.

9. Try to keep all public RP at the appropriate, 13+ level. Not everyone enjoys adult themes. If something is going to escalate into anything NSFW, or even near there, take it into the PM system, emails, private IM, skype, etcetera.
However, there is an increasing number of older people on the site, due to Homestuck being older and all. Because of this, if you would like to petition for an 18+ subforum, contact /Glag, as she had taken responsibility over this one.

10. The “Ask the Characters” section is not officially roleplay. Anyone may make a thread for any canon, or their own OC. We may have multiple threads for multiple canons, that’s OK. You can ask them question in character (IC) or out of character (OoC), but any knowledge obtained there is not automagically lasered into your character’s brain. It is strictly PLAYER (you) knowledge, not CHARACTER (your OC) knowledge.

11. If you edit a character application after it has been submitted, it is officially resubmitted. This means that before you can post as them again, a moderator has to look over this re-vamp and make sure it’s OK. You can only update the same character once a week, but if you would like you can keep logs of your character’s experiences in a particular session in your signature. Please point it out every time you change something, it is easier on application moderators. As well as that, you could point out which sections you changed, or, say, if it was just for spelling and grammar/sentence structure.

12. OCs may be adopted via the Adoption Centre. After adoption, the original creator cannot criticize the way their OC is handled. It is their creation, yes, but not theirs to use anymore. You may adopt as many as you want, and put up as many as you want for adoption.

13. We used to have rules limiting fantrolls away from certain mutations in blood colour, like black or pink. Personally, this is absurd. You can make trolls have any blood colour, as long as it’s a solid colour and not like, rainbow. These rules were removed cause if we told people not to use mutations anyone else has, there wouldn’t be nay colours left.

14. Only an application moderator or an administrator may post constructive criticism on someone’s character application. A newbie wouldn’t know what to do, with four people jumping out ten minutes after they post giving them a point-by-point analysis of exactly why their OC sucks. (This has happened before, I am not joking. Only exaggerating slightly, it was two people, not four.)
However. If you add the tag [Criticism Wanted], [CW] or just [Criticize], you can ASK for people to comment on it. After this point, you cannot say anything about people being mean to you unless a moderator sees it as that too. Haha, whoops! Rights removed, essentially, leaving yourself bare to criticism, ya kinky fucks.

15. You cannot, as a normal member, point out to another member that their character is a bit close to yours. What you need to do is PM a character approval moderator, who will look over the case. And then possible contact me cause every case is different, but usually just use discression, but really. There’s too many OCs ever made for none to overlap. This is mainly about “Oh, your troll is obsessed with anime and papercraft and mine is too. Off my turf, brah!” and “You cannot have a troll original character with neon orange blood because mine is as well shaded in that hue.” Mainly that second one.
It’s just petty.


Chatbox Related


1. The General Rules still apply when in the Chatbox, unless otherwise stated. Regarding roleplaying rules, any exceptions will be listed below.

2. RP in the MSPARP chat is more lenient than on the forums, and many members choose to only ever use this means of writing. As already stated, you may use *actions* and the like, but paragraphs are never frowned upon. Always check with your roleplay partners as to what they would like to see in the literary flavor, weather lax or heavy-duty writing.

3. The ON SITE chatbox is not just there for, though. It’s used to, ah, chat. Out of context. Remember that? If there is an RP going on, all people participating will be asked to move to the MSPARP, which is a whole lot nicer anyways. You can still talk about the RPs, though! Never be afraid to ask to join an RP, and never be afraid to start a conversation when there is none! Along with the chatbox, we have a MSPARP channel and a Skype chat, both listed on the site in official places. In the MSPARP, please use the OoC setting when speaking out of context (things you aren't RPing), and if your colour is hard to see on the chat, please use a darker tone.

4.  Please don’t use the Chatbox to vent your problems T~T… This can be stressful to other members who might be there to forget about their own stuff, this is why we have a venting area! If you would not like to start a thread in the open, or don’t think it would help, you can pop into one of our chats and say you’d like to talk to people about some less happy topics, linking some other place to chat. Then it gives them a choice whether or not to participate.

5. For mods and admins, but actually secretly for normal members. Anyone in a position of authority is not to abuse their position. They should not kick people out of the chatbox, mute or ban them for no reason. If you, a moderator or admin are the person of highest authority at the time and place and feel that double-checking about authoritative action is unnecessary, you may ban or mute an griever for up to 12 hours. However, only do this in extreme circumstances. If you believe you have been unjustly punished, contact: A moderator of higher authority, an Administrator or, if the admin was the perceived problem, one of the other administrators.
A side note, don’t clear the chatbox just to “Save data.” That’s moronic, it isn’t even saving us anything. Only clear it when, and only when, there’s sensitive or personal information up there and people would rather it weren’t. This is so we have logs of both past offences and the shits and giggles of this site. Mostly the former.

6. If you are going to start a fight and cannot avoid it, move it away from the chatbox, to PMs, a separate IM or Skype, whatever. The Chatbox is public, and thus not a boxing ring. Also, everything said there is recorded, you are only incriminating yourself.

7. For the chats, we have a blanket statement of NO TRIGGER TOPICS. Ever. None, even when previously “tagged” in the chat history. Someone could walk in at any moment in a chat environment. We have a list of trigger topics. If you don’t know where that is, search for it using the handy-dandy search function.

8. Okay, so not really a rule, but. If you're online, try to be in the chatbox! If everyone looks at it and says "Oh, there's nobody there, nevermind," then nobody will ever join! Just go inside, and don't log out as soon as you get there, either, it's just sorta rude. Also as a note, the Skype chat is WAAAY more active than the site one!

Ignorance is never, ever an excuse.




Remember, nobody is above the rules- even administrators, even moderators, even you. Even people who bought a funny coloured name because they posted a million times. We’re all essentially the same here, it’s just some of us need to make sure we don’t kill eachother. Please tell us if someone decides to be mean, break a rule, hurt some feelings, but please don’t talk to them about it yourself.


Administrators will give out mutes and long-term bans. A moderator should never do this without permission. A moderator will mostly give use to warnings when you’re getting a bit edgy and un-nice, but they can still perform a Coup de Grace with the banhammer if they must.
If you have a question as to how this place is run, please contact an administrator or moderator.

Thank you!









Previous versions, for posterity; Nothing below this point applies any longer.

Rules Version 1.2.3.4: