The Nexus Sages: Rules

[varnished_truths]

The Rules

First and foremost, we're all here to have fun, guys. Meet new people, spin out elaborate Personal Storylines, but most important of all, enjoy yourselves. If something isn't working for you, move along to a new thread. We're sure you'll find something that fits.

1. Follow Dreamwidth's TOS, first and foremost. Anyone posting to this community must be fifteen years of age or above. The mods will accept anyone joining the comm as being of age; if it is brought to our attention that you are not, however, you will be immediately removed.
2. Absolutely no flaming or insulting allowed out of character here. Doing so will get you banned. Example: criticizing in a thread or post while OOC someone's style of role playing, their character, or anything that they have done. Constructive criticism is allowed and encouraged of course, but if you have some feedback for a player you should contact them directly instead of calling them out in the community. In character dialogue that is snarky is, of course, allowed. Comments under an original post that violates community rules are allowed, as long as they are kept polite. Journals made with the clear intent to mock, bully, or harass other players in the community will be banned without warning or exception.
3. Photos depicting disturbing subject matter such as human remains or dead animals are not to be posted here. No images of graphic pornography. Images that are rated "R" (i.e., full front nudity) are allowed, but should be placed under a cut, appropriately labeled with a warning as not suitable for minors. This is an all ages community.
4. No questions or content positing rape, bestiality, incest, molestation, animal abuse, animal murder for enjoyment or trivial reasons, child abuse, and child murder as a desirable or proposed outcome of a given situation. If you want to play that sort of thing, no judgement, but take it to your private journals please.
5. Similarly to the rule above, RPing smut is not frowned upon, and these things do happen. Have fun with it, but if your characters are going to start going to town on each other take it to your private journals please.
6. Please hide any large graphics or starting posts over half a page long under a cut. In the case of a post that is too long, you may begin the cut after the first 3-4 sentences so people have a little teaser to hook them.
7. Anyone may join this community, and anyone may post questions or comments at any time. We encourage you to jump in! As many iterations of the same character as you like are allowed, but please be sensitive that some people may not be comfortable playing across duplicates. If you happen to be one of them, please use the community "dupes: no" tag. This does not mean that you get to call dibs on any and all iterations of your character however, it is only to serve as an indication that you are uncomfortable playing them across duplicates of themselves, who are most certainly allowed.
8. The Moderators reserve the right to delete any comments, threads, or posts that in their judgement are deemed to be fostering out of character conflict, violate community rules, or violate Dreamwidth's TOS.
9. Racist, sexist, ableist, etc. language is allowed under no circumstances. Journal names, character concepts, or OOC comments that mock any group of people will lead to an immediate ban. If you're not sure where to draw the line with a legitimate character concept, please contact varnished_truths; she's the resident expert and will be happy to assist you.
10. The Moderators may, at their discretion, warn, suspend or ban players that in their judgement foster out of character conflict, feuding, or who are rude to other players on the community while posting or commenting OOC. We make every effort to have any player disputes resolved amicably and to hear all sides of any conflict that occurs before any action is taken.
11. You may not play a real person, unless that person has been dead for over a hundred years from the journal creation date. Examples: no to playing Lady Gaga, yes to playing Abraham Lincoln. However, if the character is clearly a parody, and contains a disclaimer in its userinfo, it will be allowed.
12. Occasionally links to explicitly sexual material may be posted here. Persons posting such are required to clearly label any links to material that is NC-17 rated, such as porn, or other material inappropriate for certain age groups, as being NC-17 and inappropriate for viewing by minors. This is an all-ages group, and we wish to leave it as such. Underage members should not peruse links labeled with a "NC-17" note; by viewing the user info of this community and/or posting to this community in any capacity, you agree to abide by the above rule. Any post or comment that violates this rule may be immediately deleted by a moderator.
13. Swearing both ICly and OOCly (as long as you aren't swearing at people) are perfectly acceptable. As are sexual discussion and references. Please keep it within reasonable limits though, throwing f-words into every sentence may be a bit much. Unless your character canonly swears that much.
14. Spoilers in comments for currently running TV Shows, Comics, Manga, Anime, or recently released movies are under a no-exceptions 1 week ban. This is to avoid, well, spoiling them for the people who haven't seen/read them yet. Some people really hate spoilers guys, and they shouldn't be afraid to play with us for fear of them. If you absolutely must have your character react to their most recent events, keep it to their private journals. If you're unsure if what you're about to post constitutes a spoiler, feel free to contact the mods.
15. Please be mindful of the IC =/= OOC Barrier at all times. A character reacting negatively to yours does not mean their mun/player is reacting negatively to you as their player. If you feel any animosity, please contact that player in a PM or the Mods who will happily act as mediator to clear things up. Sages is a place for us all to have fun and enjoy playing off each other. Thus we will not tolerate any OOC wank, harassment, stalking, or other such disturbing behaviors. We like to keep our banhammers hung on the wall, but we aren't afraid to bring them down if needed. Play nice, please.

LOLs and events: fun for all!
Running big events for the whole community, be they LOLs or parties or pillow fights, is a lot of fun and something we want to encourage all our players to feel comfortable organizing and taking part in. To facilitate that, please abide by the following rules. We promise it's to make things easier in the long run.

1. All LOLs and events need to be run past the mods first.
   • This lets us make certain they conform with community rules and aren't scheduled to overlap (holidays are likely to see a lot of this if we don't plan ahead).
   • This has to be done before posting in OOC to drum up interest, to avoid confusion if some aspect of the plans needs to be changed.
2. If there are multiple submissions surrounding a holiday or other event, the mods will try to make sure everyone gets a turn.
   • This could mean suggesting people co-host an event.
   • This could also mean changing the posting time slightly so that there's time to play one event out before the next starts.
3. LOLs and events cannot permanently change the landscape or nature of the Nexus on a large scale. Adding a building or small neighborhood-sized area is fine.
4. Events should be left open to new starting tags for as long as possible to give everyone a chance to join in, especially around holidays.
5. LOLs should have clear conditions and/or time limits set to end the effect. This can be negotiated individually for each participating character if the players want something different than the default conditions.
6. All LOLs and events are player opt-in. Do not assume anyone is participating without discussing it with them first.

What To Do When You're New
Ready to join in? Great! Please do a few things to help make the experience fun for everyone.

• Fill out and post IC/OOC Permissions Meme (it's very short and shouldn't take long).
• Make sure your character's name and canon source is somewhere in their profile.
  • If you're playing an AU or OC, please make that clear.
• Make sure other players have a way to contact you, either in a journal post or by private message.
• If your character has an unusual power, make sure you explain it somewhere. A Wiki link is fine for this, so long as the relevant info is easy to find.
  • If your character's power is always on, ask permission before engaging a new character. Make sure the other player understands how the power works and would affect their character.

FINAL NOTES:

• Moderating is a discreet occupation, so we'll be using our discretion as needed.
• Having been banned from other games for truly egregious behavior is ground for being banned here as well.

(Updated 3/7/16)

Comments

[shoulda_toined]

I'm thinking about having Bugs meander his way in around these parts, so: given Bugs' awareness of the Fourth Wall, is he allowed to notice that he's in a journal-based jamjar? He wouldn't do much other than make the occasional snarky remark about it (and maybe make fun of people's usernames), but still, would that be too meta?

[varnished_truths]

I generally prefer a policy of "lean, don't break". I would expect Bugs to know he's stuck in some kind of game, yeah; I'd also expect he's smart enough to not end up like this. If someone asks you not have Bugs do that around their character(s), you can handle that?

ETA: I'm loving the idea of having Looney Tunes running around. This is exactly what the Nexus needs.

[shoulda_toined]

Nah, Bugs won't give people existential angst if they don't want it.