Important REQUIRED READING: Guidelines for participation

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Welcome to our forums!

Thank you so much for choosing to be a part of our community. We appreciate that out of the thousands of groups on the web, you came here. The forum staff would like to invite you to join in on all of the latest discussions regarding our group, Star Trek, and other real-life issues. We have some rules and guidelines that all members must abide by. Please take a few minutes to review the information below.

Where to Post and What to Post

• Please try and keep on topic. We've divided the board into many different categories so as to allow discussions to be held in their appropriate areas. People who go to a forum for a specific guild DON'T want to read three pages worth of banter about what someone simmed yesterday! (Want to participate in silly, free-form chat? Head to the chat room!)
• "General Discussion" is where the "anything else" stuff goes. This is "off topic" conversation or things that don't seem to have a place elsewhere.
• Money, Politics, and Religion are mostly taboo around here. We tried that for a while and it just made for a lot of bad blood, which was no fun at all.

Off-Color Language

• Please don't use profanity. Our forum has an automatic profanity filter which will "mask" your word for you, and we don't like seeing it!
• Also, please don't try and defeat the swear-word censor by inserting spaces or extra characters into your words. You'll earn yourself a stern warning, and repeated infractions may get you banned.
• Entirely masking a word, using _____, is acceptable.
• Language should be kept at or below a PG level. The people who rate movies officially say that PG includes the following: "Explicit sex scenes and scenes of drug use are absent; nudity, if present, is seen only briefly, horror and violence do not exceed moderate levels." We promote an environment which is acceptable for everyone. Please use discretion at all times.

Content

• Advertising other RPGs is not allowed on our forums. You are more than welcome to post links to useful Star Trek sites, but none which are engaged in PBEM, PBF, or Live simming. Why? It's generally considered rude to "poach" members.
• Posting of any material which someone else has written or created without posting a citation is inappropriate and illegal. If you wish to post someone else's work, you must clearly include the author's name and a link back to the source.
• Do not post links to sites which promote or contain any of the following: bigoted language or situations; sexually oriented stories, photographs, or graphics; content deemed violent, horrific, or inappropriate by the vast majority of viewers; or any other sites which a child of 13 or younger should not view.
• Respect your fellow posters. Discrimination in any sense is unacceptable here. Remember the Golden Rule.

Signatures, Avatars, Taglines

• The privilege of being able to define your personality on the boards through your signature, avatar, or tagline is one that CAN be taken away if it is abused.
• You should never post any inappropriate pictures or links in your avatars or signatures.
• Please do not make signatures that "stack" images, making them very "long" or "tall". Instead, put multiple images on one line. We will edit your signature if it is too large.
• Foreign languages contained within signatures must adhere to the normal board rules. No inappropriate language is allowed.
• Signatures should not be an eyesore, inflammatory, or anger-inducing. Global moderators may, at their discretion, request any member to change their signature at any time.

Other Guidelines

• Respect moderators and board administrators. They work tirelessly to ensure that the contents of this board are clean and entertaining. While it is certainly humorous to play in jest with your friendly moderators from time to time, please keep it to a minimum. Those in power can only stand a roast for so long before they start banning people.
• All moderator decisions are final and unarguable.
• Actions which are considered illegal in the United States are not allowed. This includes references to said illegal behavior. Such activity will result in immediate banning and the notification of the proper authorities.
• Impersonation via stealing the identity of or acting as another individual will result in an immediate banning of your user account.
• Multiple accounts are not allowed.
• Posting material which is considered private is not allowed. This could include, but is not limited to instant message conversations, private images, content posted in a private/invisible forum, e-mails intended for a limited audience, or messages received via the forum's native Private Messenger (PM) system.
• All users must be of age 13 or above to register for the forums. We do not accept the consent of a parent or guardian for participation of anyone under this age. All users must meet this age requirement or they will be banned immediately. No exceptions.
• Do not post on behalf of someone who has been banned from the forums or removed from the group. It is not anyone else's responsibility to "get a message across," nor do we permit such activity. Any member found to be posting messages for a banned member will be subject to the same disciplinary measures as the person they are representing. The fact that someone has been banned from these forums means they no longer have a voice here.
• Try as we might, the moderating staff can't be everywhere all the time. As such, you can help to keep the boards clean by reporting those posts which you find offensive. The process is very quick and simple. To report a post, simply click on the "Report" link at the bottom of each post. (You may have to hover your mouse over the post to get it to appear.)
• Keep in mind that the same standards of behavior are expected here, as on a ship. In loose terms, the equivocal Commanding Officer of this area is FltAdml. Wolf. The Command Staff are the Moderators.

Penalties & Discipline

We don't do this often, but please be aware that we will take any of the following action against someone who makes themselves a nuisance on the forums:

• For most routine problems, you will be warned using the software's native warning system. Each incident will be recorded and your warning level will go up.
• Temporary ban.
• Notification of insubordination to the Executive Council.
• Permanent ban.

These rules are subject to change on administrative authority. If you have any questions about these rules, Private Message a Moderator/Admin or post it in the Board Administration Forum.

Edited January 8, 2022 by FltAdml. Wolf
Updated to reflect we no longer have ship-specific forums.

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

The guidelines have been updated.

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Guidelines have been updated a little to reflect new norms and whatnot.