Rules of the Site

[Shadow]

General Rules

• First and foremost, be respectful to everyone on the site, regardless of race, gender, culture, rank and so on. So don't start unnecessary fights, and if something comes up that you can't solve, don't feed the fire and inform a member of staff immediately. If you are found breaking this rule, you will be banned for a week. Do it twice, you're permanently kicked.
  
  
• Keep your language somewhat clean. Overusing curse words isn't 'cool', it's annoying and there are much better ways to get your point across . If you're going to use something severe like the f-bomb, then star out at least one of the letters for the comfort of those who more sensitive to foul language.
  
  
• Content shouldn't be rated more than PG-16. That being said, avoid extensive descriptions of nudity and/or blood and gore.
  Definition of PG-16: May contain strong cursing/adult language, violence blood and gore along with the uses of alcohol. Suggestive sexual situations, sexual humor/innuendos and non-sexual nudity/partial nudity.
  
  
• You cannot begin role playing until your character has been approved by a member of staff.
  
  
• No perfect characters/Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus/whatever you'd like to call them. If you're not sure what this means, think of Barbie; she's good at everything, from babysitting to being a surgeon to being a mom, and she can still make everyone happy while getting what she wants. Steer clear of those kinds of characters, as they're never any fun.
  
  
• Don't power play. Power playing is essentially controlling another person's character without their consent, and nobody likes it when people do that. Going along with that, you can't kill another player's character without their consent either.
  
  
• You can have as many OCs (Original Characters) as you'd like, but you may only RP one cannon character.
  
  
• Be active. If you're not on at least three or four times a week, we'll think that you've quit, and your characters will be stripped of their ranks and put in the archives unless you've posted a Temporary Leave. If you come back and no one has claimed your character's former positions you can reclaim them as your own once more.

Consequences:
First Offense: Warning
Second Offense: Day long ban from the chat
Third Offense: Week long ban from the chat, day long ban from the site
Fourth Offense: Permanent ban from the chat, week long ban from the site
Fifth Offense: Permanent ban from the site

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Posting Rules

• Use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation, and don't forget the paragraphs. Remember, you generally start a new paragraph every time your character speaks or if you're introducing a new idea. When dealing with spelling, it's alright to misspell a few words here and there, but please try to spell things correctly. If you have to, open Microsoft Word, Pages, Libre Office or some other document program and use spell check.
  
• No text talk, l33t speak, etc.
  
• Do not post in first person. Third person perspective is encouraged, but second is alright too.

Post Length: We expect you to be at least semi-literate, and that means you have to post at least one paragraph (5-6 detailed sentences) per post. The more the better (as long as it's good, that is. Remember, quality is much better than quantity).

Posting Order: Yes, we have a posting order here. For those who do not know, a posting order is the order in which the people in a topic post, and the order is decided by members, not characters. E.g.:
Mary and Gary are role playing together, and since Mary posted the opening post, Gary goes second in the order. Halfway through the thread, Gary brings in his second character, but still posts after Mary.

If another member joins the thread, the posting order will be moved about a bit to accommodate the new person. For example;
Mary and Gary are role playing together, and since Mary posted the opening post, Gary goes second in the order. Halfway through the thread, Stu wants to join and ends up posting after Mary. Now the posting order switches to Mary-Stu-Gary. If Sue wants to join and she posts after Gary, the order will switch again to be Mary-Stu-Gary-Sue.

See how that works? It keeps threads running nice and smoothly.

If you have any questions, please contact a staff member or post your issue at the Help Desk.

Now, go have fun!