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Community Rules: Executive Summary Edition

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randalls
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« on: April 29, 2008, 09:54:41 am »

RetroRoleplaying.com's message board is not a democracy, at best it is a benevolent dictatorship. RetroRoleplaying.com's site hosts have set the rules below for RetroRoleplaying.com's message board. They also apply to other community areas that do not have their own rules.  Make sure you are familiar with them. Read them daily to remind yourself of them if you have to, because the hosts have given the community's staff and moderators the power to limit or deny access to those who insist on violating them.

EXECUTIVE RULES SUMMARY

Many people complain that our rules and guidelines are very long. Here is an executive summary of our rules that will work for 90% of the people 90% of the time.

  • Obey US Law (and the Terms of Service of our host, SMFforFree) in all activity on RetroRoleplaying.com's community areas.

  • Respect the other members of this message board and their opinions: they are entitled to play and like RPGs that you loathe (and vice-versa) and to discuss those RPGs here so long as they follow our rules. They have the right to respectfully state their opinions just as you have the right to respectfully state yours.

  • Do not be a jackass. Do not behave in a manner the staff or hosts might consider rude or annoying (e.g. making personal attacks, arguing mod calls, advertising without approval, posting the same topic to multiple boards, trying to moderate other members, trying to change the focus of the forum to something other than older tabletop RPGs, engaging in "edition wars," posting copyrighted material with express permission from the copyright owner, etc.).

  • Post in English and post legibly (e.g. use short paragraphs separated by blank lines, don't write in "netspeak", quote a small part of the message you are replying to, etc.).

  • You permanently and irrevocably grant RetroRoleplaying the right to use anything you post (or allow us to use elsewhere on RetroRoleplaying). That is, you may not get mad, leave, and demand that everything you ever posted or allowed to be used on the RetroRoleplaying web site be deleted.

CONSEQUENCES OF COMMUNITY RULE VIOLATIONS

Standard consequences for violating community rules include:

  • Public "Mod Hat On" Warning issued by a Moderator or Staff member
  • Editing or deletion of the offending post
  • Being gagged (unable to post) for a period of time
  • Being banned from community areas for a period of time
  • Loss of privileges to use certain community areas or features
  • Permanent ban

With the approval of a Host, other consequences are possible in specific situations.

If you disagree with a moderation call, you may appeal the ruling (very politely) to the Host in a PM. The decisions of the Hosts are final. Appeals that the Host considers so frivolous as to be a complete waste of his limited time will generally result in additional penalties being applied.

Our detailed rules and guidelines (see the next post) really just expand on these obvious basics. You still need to read the full rules, however -- as those full rules are the rules staff enforces.

« Last Edit: May 01, 2008, 06:11:11 pm by randalls » Report Spam   Logged

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randalls
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« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2008, 10:03:08 am »

RetroRoleplaying.com's community area (message board, gallery, classified ads, etc.) is not a democracy, at best it is a benevolent dictatorship. RetroRoleplaying.com's site hosts have set the rules below for RetroRoleplaying.com's community areas. Make sure you are familiar with them. Read them daily to remind yourself of them if you have to, because the hosts have given the community's staff and moderators the power to limit or deny access to those who insist on violating them.

THE "DO NOT" RULES:

  • DO NOT make personal attacks (name calling, hostile personal remarks, accusations, etc.). In discussion, attack ideas and opinions, not the people who hold them.

  • DO NOT post or attach content that is libelous, defamatory, pornographic, harassing, threatening, hateful (racially, ethnically, or religiously) or violates the copyright of others.

  • DO NOT post advertisements or event announcements (commercial or non-commercial) to the message board without obtaining prior approval for the specific item from a Host or Senior Staff member. Appropriate advertisements are welcome in the Classifieds area which has its own rules.

  • DO NOT post more than a sentence or two of copyrighted material without obtaining specific permission from the current copyright owner to post the material on RetroRoleplaying and posting that permission with the copyrighted material. Link to the material instead.

  • DO NOT argue with, comment on, complain about, criticize, or otherwise discuss moderator/staff decisions on rules issues in public in RetroRoleplaying.com community areas. If you think a moderator decision that directly affects you is incorrect, you may make an appeal a staff member in a private message. You can appeal a Staff member's decision to a Host. Host decisions are final.

  • DO NOT attempt to moderate other members. Leave the moderating to the forum moderators, staff and hosts. If you believe a forum post violates the rules in a major way, you may bring that post to the attention of the forum staff by reporting that message with the "Report to moderator" link. You can bring non-forum problems to the attention of staff by emailing a staff member via their profile.

  • DO NOT tell others members not to post to you. You can put non-staff members on "ignore" if you do not wish to read their posts.

  • DO NOT register multiple accounts without permission from the hosts.

  • DO NOT impersonate other members or otherwise pretend to be someone you are not.

  • DO NOT use community facilities of RetroRoleplaying to violate US criminal or civil law nor to violate the TOS of our host, SMFforFree.


THE "DO" RULES:

  • DO respect the other members of this message board and their opinions: they are entitled to play and like RPGs that you loathe (and vice-versa) and to discuss those RPGs here so long as they follow our rules. They have the right to respectfully state their opinions just as you have the right to respectfully state yours.

  • DO quote the message you are replying to as it helps make the board easier to follow, but please cut quoted material in your replies to the minimum needed.

  • DO feel free to make a separate post for each message you wish to reply to, even if this means you post several times in a row in a single thread. Double posting is NOT against the rules here.

  • DO write in a "normal writing" style. Capitalize the first word of your sentences. Use proper punctuation. Write in short paragraphs and place a blank line between paragraphs (hit the return or enter key twice). Please do not WRITE IN ALL CAPITALS, in eLiTe LeTtErS, or in odd fonts and colors. Please do not use "Netspeak" (e.g. R U a GM?) as our community areas are not a cell phone. See our Message Posting Guidelines for more information.

  • DO be tolerant of opinions that differ from your own. You do not have to agree with them or support them, but you must be tolerant of those who express them. Others have as much right to their views on a game or a position and express those views as you do to hold and express yours.

  • DO keep avatars and signatures small (and non-annoying).

  • DO try to post new topics on the correct board.

  • DO remember that other members of Retroroleplaying.com community areas are real people just like you with rights and feelings -- treat them as real people even when engaged in heated debate.

  • DO realize that some boards have special rules that apply only to that board and follow those rules when posting on that board -- such rules will be in a clearly labeled sticky post on the board they apply to.

  • DO follow instructions/suggestions from staff members and hosts about how to post and/or behave on Retroroleplaying.com community areas. Staff members have no interest in hearing why you would rather not do things the way we want them done here.

  • DO follow the special rules for our Classifieds section if you are posting items for sale or trade.


THE RUDE AND ANNOYING RULE:

Please do not engage in annoying or excessively rude behavior in the community areas. Annoying and rude behavior includes (but is not limited to):

  • Editing your messages to significantly change the content after a message can reasonably be assumed to have been read by others (which is 4 or 5 minutes after posting). This is particularly true if the message has already been replied to and you are changing in a way that would make the reply (or parts of it) look invalid.

  • Posting the same message to multiple topics or boards.

  • Trolling (posting material just to stir up trouble or start flame wars -- especially material designed to start or feed "edition wars".)

  • Discussing current real-world politics and religions (except with respec to using them in RPGs).

  • Demanding that others prove your claims wrong instead of supporting those claims with evidence said claims are correct.

  • Attacking a post based on typos, poor spelling, or poor grammar, instead of debating its content. Our message board is more akin to a spoken conversation with people from many countries than it is to a term paper.

  • Use of gratuitous offensive language (this includes in your username, avatar, signature, etc.). We are a PG-13 forum.

  • Hacking or attempting to hack any part of RetroRoleplaying.com's web site or community areas.


THE "MISCELLANEOUS" RULES:

  • The Hosts reserve the right to act arbitrarily (i.e. without obvious cause or explanation) if they consider it necessary. This includes deleting any topic or post, editing any message, imposing new or special rules, changing any member's membergroup or otherwise limiting/expanding any member's privileges within the community, or banning any member. There is no appeal from a Host decision.

  • The Staff and Hosts reserve the right to moderate discussions even if there are no rules violations to preserve the quality of the discussion -- this includes imposing special rules on the discussion or asking unduly upset (or unruly) members to leave the discussion. Note that Moderators lack this authority.

  • Overlooked rules violations do not set a precedent. The fact that a violation was accidentally overlooked does not mean it is suddenly okay to violate that rule.

  • We do not delete accounts, so please do not ask to have your account deleted. Accounts are never deleted as doing so would completely disrupt every topic the account holder ever participated in. If you wish to leave the board, just go to your profile and turn off all your board and topic subscriptions and set your account to block email from users and announcements.


RIGHTS TO CONTENT POSTED TO COMMUNITY AREAS:

By posting content to RetroRoleplaying's message board or other community areas (or by submitting material directly by email or other means for RetroRoleplaying.com's web site or newsletter), you are irrevocably authorizing the royalty-free use of that content (or edited material taken from that content) in RetroRoleplaying.com's web sites, community areas, newsletters, mailing lists, announcement areas, blogs, and other online venues.


CONSEQUENCES OF COMMUNITY RULE VIOLATIONS

Standard consequences for violating community rules include:

  • Public "Mod Hat On" Warning issued by a Moderator or Staff member
  • Editing or deletion of the offending post
  • Being gagged (unable to post) for a period of time
  • Being banned from community areas for a period of time
  • Loss of privileges to use certain community areas or features
  • Permanent ban

With the approval of a Host, other consequences are possible in specific situations.

If you disagree with a moderation call, you may appeal the ruling (very politely) to the Host in a PM. The decisions of the Hosts are final. Appeals that the Host considers so frivolous as to be a complete waste of his limited time will generally result in additional penalties being applied.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2008, 10:05:09 am by randalls » Report Spam   Logged
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