Who We Are
Honestly, I have no idea how I should classify this board in relation to our writing standards. While we have our advanced moments, we also have our rather base moments. Suffice it to say, we're an advanced board that doesn't take its designation too seriously. People proficient in advanced or intermediate writing/RPing will likely fit in with the most ease, just so long as those people can take a joke and remain flexible.



Regarding Account Names
Please register with a reasonable given name and surname. Trust me, only the person behind "ShadowKingDemonoid" thinks it is super cool. While you're at it, it would be greatly appreciated if you didn't use unique (did I hear a Dumbledore?) Potter surnames.

Examples of "reasonable" account names: Amy Willis; Amisha Singh; Brendon Thompson



Board Setting
An AU Potterverse Ireland. Mainly AU because we've removed the history of Harry Potter, Voldemort, and all of those nifty kids. That means we don't mention them in RPing, because if Voldemort and Death Eaters orphan one more kid, I'm gonna have to choke a witch.



Regarding Posting

• Racism and homophobia will not be tolerated in any OOC conversation. In game anything is fair -- just remember: if you take things overboard and members genuinely feel uncomfortable, you will be warned and potentially reprimanded.
• Cursing: please avoid using it excessively. When you curse here, those words should be used for high rhetorical impact. Or because they're really funny.
• RP posts need to be in the past tense and third person.
• Absolutely NO net/chat/1337 lingo... unless it is in an OOC context and in complete mockery of people who use it as a serious attempt at communication. We like giggles.
• No emoticons in RP threads.
• Do not double post if it can be helped. The edit button is your friend.
• Grammar and punctuation do count, as does proficiency in the English language. Nobody is perfect, just please try and watch your writing.
• Cursing is allowed. Please try and use these colourful words with some discretion. They should supplement your writing rather than having your writing supplement your impressive grasp of swear words.
• Avoid posting content that is sexually explicit, or illicit.

Character Creation

• Nix the Mary Sue and Gary Stu rubbish. All characters MUST have genuine flaws, physical and mental.
• We do allow non-human characters, but those non-human options are slightly altered from the versions found in the Harry Potter series. Vampires have been altered due to lack of information and werewolves have simply been given a boost from other sources. If you're interested in making either type of character, please see the guidelines presented in this forum. As of this time, only vampires and werewolves are available "other" options.
• You may not RP a special ability or a special item without staff approval.

Roleplaying

• Do not roleplay other characters from the forum. This is called god-moding. Without permission god-moding will result in smiting. Or, you know, a PM telling you to knock it off.
• Do not abuse the established NPCs.
• Keep the setting in mind: Ireland isn't exactly a warm, sunshiny place for the majority of the year.
• Avoid needless text alterations in RPing; nobody cares if you think Courier looks prettier, or if you believe colour adds flair to your game.
• While we do not have a word minimum or maximum, we do want quality game play. Give the person you're working with something to go on, please.
• Please check our RP Guide for more examples and information on roleplaying. It will make your RPG life considerably easier and prevent the staff and board members from wanting to impale you with sporks.

Function of Time
This board is real time. The time a thread was started indicates when it happened. The exception would be a thread with an explicit note such as "x happened before y."


Signatures

• Images may not be larger than 500wx2000h pixels.
• Please avoid excessive foul language. Anything deemed inappropriate will be removed.
• Do not add more than 10 lines of text in an imageless signature and 6 lines with an image. Please keep your font size reasonable in relation to your signature graphic as well. It's far too distracting to have an enormous signature.
• Stationary signatures (text and image) only.
• Please do not advertise other RP sites in your signature. There are topsite lists and user profiles for that purpose.

All signatures failing to conform to these rules will be deleted.



Avatars

• Size may not exceed 100x100 pixels
• Stationary avatars only, please.

Multiple Characters
After a month of activity a member may ask permission for a second character. Your grammar, character-development, adherence to the rules, and general attitude will be taken into account in the staff deliberation. More often than not, everybody gets approved for an additional character. If you're not approved initially, try again in another month -- after you have worked to improve whatever issue the moderation team has cited.

Where there is no over-all limit to the amount of characters you are allowed to request, the staff will not approve your request if you have more characters than you can handle, you do nothing but create female characters, or your characters fail to be different from each other. The object of this board is to create diverse characters with different perspectives. Should your characters be essentially the same person in a different skin, you will be asked to work on your existing characters' individuality.



Inactive Accounts
Players who have been inactive -- without warning -- for approximately two months will have their accounts deleted. Even if you do check on the board, if the administration is aware that you have not posted an RP post in two months, the account will be gone. You may certainly register again, but that does not mean former plots will still be available. We will not be deleting character sheets until a year of inactivity has passed, so if you come back in time, definitely feel free to PM a staff member for your character sheets.

New players who fail to start the membership process within a week of joining will have their account deleted. Members who begin and then abandon the membership process will have their accounts deleted two weeks after their last activity.

If you wish to leave the board, please inform a staff member. We will do our best to ensure that you have all of your character sheets before deleting your account.



Legal Concerns
Due to legal requirements, the following guidelines have been put in place:

• Those younger than 13 absolutely may not join. This is not only our rule, it is also against the CJINK terms of service. We are not responsible for any misrepresentations of age, and will immediately terminate any account belonging to any person(s) who are not of the legal age limit.
• People under 16 may not post or link any photos on this site without prior parental permission.
• Links to sites with content over that of a PG-13 rating must contain a warning to younger members. EAA is not responsible for the content of other sites. If you click a link that takes you away from this site, you do so at your own risk.
• Posting your phone number, real life address, or any other personal information along those lines is not allowed due to privacy and security issues.

Moderators and Administration
I presume everybody at this board is human; therefore they aren't above making mistakes. Moderators aren't exceptions. If you feel we have made a mistake, please approach us respectfully rather than flinging insults left and right. In turn, we will attempt to approach corrective action with the same respect.

While our rules are intimidating to some, we won't bend you over our collective knee and beat you with a rusty spade for making a minor mistake. Where we will not sugar coat our correcting of the problem (dishonesty is not something we prize) with lots of emoticons and hugs, we are not out to harshly punish good RPers who, like all members, are not above making the occasional mistake. So, just take a chill pill and try not to get your knickers in a twist over a suggestion or problem, and we will try to do the same. Life goes on. :naughty



Thank you for reading. We hope the rules set forth will allow for a creative space that is comfortable for everybody. :merlin






No portion of this piece of writing may be used without my consent.
© Liz, 2005-2009
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