We're a semi / literate role playing guild that caters to all users. We're a group of friendly RPers, who's experience runs from beginner to experienced. Most of the mods are seasoned RPers who've been on Gaia for almost 4-5 years now.
Now onto the rules.
1. This is the most important rule of them all. Do NOT god mod. I cannot stress how annoying it is when you're in the middle of a battle and your opponent 'suddenly' becomes invincible. When that happens it just ruins the Rp for every one. I'm quite vindictive with this so if I see anyone breaking this rule prepare for me to do a thorough search into every Rp you've ever done in this guild to see how man times you've broken this rule.
2. Harassment is a no no. (This is a general rule applied to any and all OoC talk.)
Wikipedia
Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. The term commonly refers to behavior intended to disturb or upset, and, when the term is used in a legal sense, it refers to behaviors which are found threatening or disturbing. Sexual harassment refers to persistent and unwanted sexual advances, typically in the workplace, where the consequences of refusing are potentially very disadvantageous to the victim.
This can include race, creed, ethnic origins, religious convictions, or sexually based statements which can be construed as a form of sexual harassment. A particular form of harassment is deliberate, known as trolling.
Here's an example.
LarryQuser
Man, Gothe is such a moron. He would not know his a** from his elbow. He should quit the guild.
Why this is wrong:
While you are entitled to your opinions, you are not entitled to make slanderous or libel remarks about another person in a public place where it can cause hurt feelings and a hostile role play environment. This is one case where it would be best to keep your opinions to yourself.
Here's an example.
BarryMoore
Gothe, you ******** moron. You are what's wrong with this guild. You can't role play to save your life and you just make the game miserable for everybody.
Why this is wrong:
Disliking a person's role play style is no reason to insult them and make blind accusations towards them. If they did something wrong, then be nice about it. Point out the rule that was broken or how things are done in the guild. There is no reason to resort to bashing a person because of a personal difference between you two. Once again, it creates unwanted drama and a hostile environment for the entire guild.
3. Cybering, posting anything that is above PG13, or other things that is prohibited by Gaia Online is prohibited by us.
Why this is wrong:
Not only is it breaking the ToS of Gaia Online and exposing the entire guild to the ban hammer via the GGN Mods, it is not taking into consideration the fact that we have members who are as young as 11 or 12 and should not be exposed to things that are above their maturity level. If you must post something that borders on the edge, pm a mod and ask them if it is something that will be of concern.
Wikipedia definition of what constitutes as PG13
Potentially shocking violence, cursing, and mature subject matter that may be inappropriate for children under 13; though weaker than an R rating, PG-13 is the strongest unrestricted rating.
It all has to to with how explicit you are and how much you cuss. More clarification here.
We are not saying, your characters must be celibate, pacifists, or never cuss, but we are asking you to use some self restraint so that we do not break the ToS and end up getting disbanded by the GGN Mods.
4. Spam is annoying, so knock it off.
What is spam?
Spam is by definition from the early days of the internet: Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages. This is often repetitive posts saying the same thing, unwanted advertising, or posting up retarded things like: Copy and paste this messages ten times in the guilds and such and such will happen. Trust me, it is as effective and as wanted as a chain letter. Do everybody a huge favor and don't spam our lovely guild.
But, I have something really funny to show you!
To prevent the OoC from being over flooded by posts of De-motivationals and 'funny' pictures, we have set aside a topic for that express purpose. Please do use it. Though we are not strict on enforcing this, we consider this to be a matter of common courtesy to those of us who do not want our computers to start lagging every time we visit the OoC.
5. 4. Chat speak, 1337 speak, and the likes are kindly asked to be left in the ooc or not even used at all in the guild. However, internet slang and other colloquialisms are ok.
We at RPA (Role Playing Addicts) are a fun loving bunch, for the sakes of keeping this role play literate we must ask that this be observed as much as possible. Possible exceptions to this rule might be that your character is leaving a message and that is how they actually write. Just try to keep it to a minimum since it tends to encourage some people to fill entire posts with internet gibberish. Internet slang like glomp and snog are perfectly acceptable, however, since they are technically words to a certain extent. Words that are not words such as 1337 to say 'leet (elite) are not considered slang and much of that is considered gibberish by many. Besides, typing out your words and posting up in plain English shows that you possess at least a 3rd grade education and therefore are smart enough to be understood. We will understand if you do a typo or misspell a word or two, that shows you are human. Having your character talk with an accent is also OK - for example when you are typing for a little kid and have them speaking with their childish mispronunciations (so cute) or when your character has a foreign accent and you want to underline how they sound when speaking out loud.
