Post by Trimmien on Apr 11, 2023 6:04:03 GMT
1. Treat everyone with respect.
Please be respectful with everyone, from guests to staff. This applies on the boards, in PMs, and in the Discord. If you have a problem with someone, please either calmly call their attention to it and let them know what would make you more comfortable, or talk to a member of staff. If someone makes a polite request, please try to be accommodating or come to staff if you feel the request is unreasonable. We can all be civil.
If your issue is with staff, either in terms of behavior or a staff decision, please voice it calmly and directly. We do our best to make this a fun and fair experience for everyone, and we care what you have to say. We will always do our best to ensure as many people feel accommodated as we can manage. At the same time, if a ruling or change was made you don't personally care for, we are interested in hearing your alternative suggestions, but we may not always take them right away if at all. Please respect that we will always try to make what we feel is the best choice for the board as a whole, even if sometimes-- such as when balancing a mechanic that has gotten out of control-- that may not always be the most popular decision shortterm.
2. Try to avoid drama, and keep IC and OOC drama separate.
The discord is not a vent community, nor are OOC areas made for vents or callouts. If you are upset, please talk to someone in DM or elsewhere, or ask if someone would mind talking. Some minor venting about off-site things is fine (i.e. recapping a rough day at school or work, etc), but try not to make a habit of it and do not dominate conversation with it. Offline stress, intoxication, or other factors do not excuse excessive venting or drama-stirring, either; if you think you might say things you'll regret, it's probably best to walk away for a while and come back later. If your issues are with on-site things or other members, a calm discussion is fine, but avoid outright venting.
As one potential exception: if venting OOC feelings into IC posts can be done mutually as a healthy outlet to work through tension, or channeling your frustration into a solo RP thread will help you calm down and avoid other means of lashing out, by all means have at it. Otherwise, please keep things civil. Don't hold IC events against a player, and don't let OOC tension ruin what might otherwise be a fun RP thread. If you feel another player is harassing you IC or OOC, be certain to voice that the behavior is bothering you, and if they don't stop don't hesitate to report it to staff.
3. Keep it PG-13.
Both IC and OOC, on the board and in the discord, please be mindful of the rating. Cursing is fine, but keep it casual and do not aim insults at others. Slurs of any kind will not be tolerated. Innuendo and suggestive topics are fine, but things too overtly sexual in nature should be taken off-site. Violence is treated similarly; a little detail is fine, but don't make it too gory or gruesome. If someone expresses discomfort toward a topic, please be respectful. If there is mutual, clashing discomfort, please take it up with staff.
4. No advertising outside of the Ads & Affs board.
Whether it's another board or something else, please do not advertise. Do not PM members soliciting a board or service. If someone in the cbox expresses interest in something, you may link it: for instance, if you mention working on something for your own forum and someone wants to see it, that's fine. But do not solicit or beg.
Basic RP Rules
1. No godmodding, powerplaying, or metagaming.
Do not control someone else's character. Do not treat your own character as invincible. Do not use knowledge that you have OOC to your character's advantage if that knowledge would not be available to the character. Do not assume an attack or other actions connects with its intended target unless you know the other writer is okay with it. Do not give your characters such spot-on "intuition" that they always know the intent of other characters, such as always seeing through efforts to trick them or always recognizing a villain as such. Do not act excessively within a post to a point of assuming long-standing inaction from an RP partner without their consent, as this can also control a character and force them to act (or rather not-act) against their nature; give others the chance to react, or talk to your RP partner to make sure a post idea is okay.
2. Write literately, and give your RP partner enough to work with.
Conversational grammar is fine, but please use a standard third person narrative format and avoid chatspeak or the like in IC posts, unless of course the character is texting themself, or would say something like "lol" out loud in dialogue. Posts have np word count but be mindful of context. Posts that earn a mechanical benefit, such as catching a Pokémon or earning evo points for battle, generally ask for 50-100 minimum: greater effort in exchange for earning that reward. Basic interactions, starter posts for solo threads, and the like can be as short as 30, though.
Just be mindful that you give your RP partner enough to work with in interaction threads. If your character is not being very engaging, for instance, maybe a Pokémon or NPC could be, or you could use the environment to your advantage, etc. Of course, it's okay to have a few awkward posts; just be sure your partner is fine with it.
3. Do your best to keep your characters active, and don't make more than you can handle.
Ideally, we'd like you to aim for 1 IC post per month per character, or 5 for League positions. Activity checks are every few months and activity does not have to be maintained consistently; it's fine to get swamped for a bit and then make it up right before an AC if you need to, etc. We all get overwhelmed by offline life and other obligations from time to time. Just do your best.
To start, each member is allowed 2 characters. They can make another character after a month, and another a month after the third is approved, and so-forth. There is no upper limit, but please try to make sure your other characters are active before making more. If you feel a new character might kickstart your muse, you can try it, but if you find yourself unable to pick up active characters it may be best to archive them until muse returns. After all, archiving is easily undone in most cases; it only marks a character as inactive so others know they are unavailable for RP, and potentially frees up limited positions for people who might make more use of them. Please do not hoard limited slots witch characters you aren't using.
Similar to the wait time above on making new characters, if you have multiple characters archived due to inactivity in an AC, please only take out one or two at a time until you get back on your feet.
Please be respectful with everyone, from guests to staff. This applies on the boards, in PMs, and in the Discord. If you have a problem with someone, please either calmly call their attention to it and let them know what would make you more comfortable, or talk to a member of staff. If someone makes a polite request, please try to be accommodating or come to staff if you feel the request is unreasonable. We can all be civil.
If your issue is with staff, either in terms of behavior or a staff decision, please voice it calmly and directly. We do our best to make this a fun and fair experience for everyone, and we care what you have to say. We will always do our best to ensure as many people feel accommodated as we can manage. At the same time, if a ruling or change was made you don't personally care for, we are interested in hearing your alternative suggestions, but we may not always take them right away if at all. Please respect that we will always try to make what we feel is the best choice for the board as a whole, even if sometimes-- such as when balancing a mechanic that has gotten out of control-- that may not always be the most popular decision shortterm.
2. Try to avoid drama, and keep IC and OOC drama separate.
The discord is not a vent community, nor are OOC areas made for vents or callouts. If you are upset, please talk to someone in DM or elsewhere, or ask if someone would mind talking. Some minor venting about off-site things is fine (i.e. recapping a rough day at school or work, etc), but try not to make a habit of it and do not dominate conversation with it. Offline stress, intoxication, or other factors do not excuse excessive venting or drama-stirring, either; if you think you might say things you'll regret, it's probably best to walk away for a while and come back later. If your issues are with on-site things or other members, a calm discussion is fine, but avoid outright venting.
As one potential exception: if venting OOC feelings into IC posts can be done mutually as a healthy outlet to work through tension, or channeling your frustration into a solo RP thread will help you calm down and avoid other means of lashing out, by all means have at it. Otherwise, please keep things civil. Don't hold IC events against a player, and don't let OOC tension ruin what might otherwise be a fun RP thread. If you feel another player is harassing you IC or OOC, be certain to voice that the behavior is bothering you, and if they don't stop don't hesitate to report it to staff.
3. Keep it PG-13.
Both IC and OOC, on the board and in the discord, please be mindful of the rating. Cursing is fine, but keep it casual and do not aim insults at others. Slurs of any kind will not be tolerated. Innuendo and suggestive topics are fine, but things too overtly sexual in nature should be taken off-site. Violence is treated similarly; a little detail is fine, but don't make it too gory or gruesome. If someone expresses discomfort toward a topic, please be respectful. If there is mutual, clashing discomfort, please take it up with staff.
4. No advertising outside of the Ads & Affs board.
Whether it's another board or something else, please do not advertise. Do not PM members soliciting a board or service. If someone in the cbox expresses interest in something, you may link it: for instance, if you mention working on something for your own forum and someone wants to see it, that's fine. But do not solicit or beg.
Basic RP Rules
1. No godmodding, powerplaying, or metagaming.
Do not control someone else's character. Do not treat your own character as invincible. Do not use knowledge that you have OOC to your character's advantage if that knowledge would not be available to the character. Do not assume an attack or other actions connects with its intended target unless you know the other writer is okay with it. Do not give your characters such spot-on "intuition" that they always know the intent of other characters, such as always seeing through efforts to trick them or always recognizing a villain as such. Do not act excessively within a post to a point of assuming long-standing inaction from an RP partner without their consent, as this can also control a character and force them to act (or rather not-act) against their nature; give others the chance to react, or talk to your RP partner to make sure a post idea is okay.
2. Write literately, and give your RP partner enough to work with.
Conversational grammar is fine, but please use a standard third person narrative format and avoid chatspeak or the like in IC posts, unless of course the character is texting themself, or would say something like "lol" out loud in dialogue. Posts have np word count but be mindful of context. Posts that earn a mechanical benefit, such as catching a Pokémon or earning evo points for battle, generally ask for 50-100 minimum: greater effort in exchange for earning that reward. Basic interactions, starter posts for solo threads, and the like can be as short as 30, though.
Just be mindful that you give your RP partner enough to work with in interaction threads. If your character is not being very engaging, for instance, maybe a Pokémon or NPC could be, or you could use the environment to your advantage, etc. Of course, it's okay to have a few awkward posts; just be sure your partner is fine with it.
3. Do your best to keep your characters active, and don't make more than you can handle.
Ideally, we'd like you to aim for 1 IC post per month per character, or 5 for League positions. Activity checks are every few months and activity does not have to be maintained consistently; it's fine to get swamped for a bit and then make it up right before an AC if you need to, etc. We all get overwhelmed by offline life and other obligations from time to time. Just do your best.
To start, each member is allowed 2 characters. They can make another character after a month, and another a month after the third is approved, and so-forth. There is no upper limit, but please try to make sure your other characters are active before making more. If you feel a new character might kickstart your muse, you can try it, but if you find yourself unable to pick up active characters it may be best to archive them until muse returns. After all, archiving is easily undone in most cases; it only marks a character as inactive so others know they are unavailable for RP, and potentially frees up limited positions for people who might make more use of them. Please do not hoard limited slots witch characters you aren't using.
Similar to the wait time above on making new characters, if you have multiple characters archived due to inactivity in an AC, please only take out one or two at a time until you get back on your feet.
