General Rules

[Zen]

1. Respect Everyone. You don’t have to like everyone, but you do need to be courteous and treat them like you yourself would like to be treated. Newbies might not know exactly what’s going on, do not make fun of them or make rude comments even if they ask a question that seems obvious to you, simply answer it politely and direct them to where they can find the answer. If you don’t like someone on the site then just avoid contact with them and be polite when you must interact, there is no need for name-calling or arguing. If you have problems with me I am a fairly easy-going and flexible person, tell me (nicely)! I’ll see what I can do, and if I have offended you I’m in some way I’ll surely apologize, I don’t always think before I speak and can be a little blunt at times ^.^; Do not complain or whine to me, I do not tolerate it well, but if you courteously tell me about any problems you’ve been having with anyone (including me!) I will do my best to see the situation remedied.

2. Keep swearing to a minimum (OOC) and IC only Pernese curses can be used. I don’t really mind swearing but other people on the site might, so just try and control yourself a bit on that note and it should be good.

3. Little OOC notes at the bottom of posts are okay, but if you want to have actual OOC conversations then please the OOC boards or the cbox.

4. There is no thread limit, no maximum number of threads you can be in at once, but don’t overextend yourself. If you know you can only keep up with three threads at a time then only be in three threads at a time. But if you can handle 10+ threads at once without forgetting you’re in any or lacking on post quality for being in so many then by all means go ahead.

5. There is a minimum of 150 words that you should reach for it to be considered a post. If you can’t quite reach that now and then that’s perfectly alright, but it’s really not that hard to reach (ESPECIALLY with multiple characters in a single post) and is only really equivalent of a decent paragraph. You can see your post’s word count below the post, preview, spell check, and reset buttons. Also, please USE the spell check before your post and use proper grammar (unless your character is speaking and they have an accent or aren’t very literate themselves, then their speech can be off grammarwise to reflect this). There will be no chat speak IC AT ALL! Posts must also be in third person, NOT first.
Third Person = Good: HE went to the store.
First Person = Bad: I went to the store.

6. Please do not join if you won’t be on once a week under normal circumstances. Vacations, illness, finals, suddenly getting swamped with work, internet/computer loss are all valid reasons for not being on once a week, but if you are too busy in your normal life to make sure you get on the site and post in any threads you’re in at least once a week then please refrain from joining until you have more time in your schedule. It’s very frustrating to wait a week or more for a post, especially if multiple people are waiting on you or you’re in a thread that has multiple people in it and you’ve set a post order so everyone in that thread has to wait on YOU.

Also, if you do not at least have a character STARTED by a week after your joining, I will delete your account, unless you specifically tell me why you are unable to create one. Note that started could simply mean coming up with a name and posting it as a work in progress. Joining and not even starting a character at all ever after a week just tells me you changed your mind and you aren't interested in roleplaying.

If you have been inactive for about a month without telling anyone why I will send you an email and if you have not come back to the site a week after that your account will be deleted and your characters put up for adoption/killed off/made into NPCs depending on what you specified when you made them. This means you haven’t logged in in over a month, not that you haven’t posted in over a month. I understand that sometimes you lose your muse and need to take a roleplaying break, but if you can’t even be bothered to log in once a month or tell us why you can’t log on then you obviously no longer care to roleplay here. If you’re going to be gone for longer than a week, you should probably post the reason or at least post that you will be gone for a while (with the intention of returning and an estimation of when you will be coming back) in the Leaving and Returning board.

7. Double posting in the IC boards is not allowed, there is a modify button for a reason. Double posting in the OOC boards is allowable on some occasions, but try to keep it to a minimum.

8. There will be NO powerplaying/godmodding. Your character cannot be all powerful, you cannot control another person’s character (unless they give you permission, of course.)

9. When it comes to romantic relations, nothing more than kissing will be permissible on the boards and Flights will end in the 'fade to black' method.

10. Signature images must not stretch the page and shouldn’t take up more space than a normal, decent sized post. 500 wide by 300 tall is a good limit to keep in mind, but as long as it doesn’t stretch the board at all to the sides or too far up and down, it shouldn’t be a problem (and I’ll tell you if it is).

11. No begging for a Gold, Bronze, Grey, etc. If you beg or constantly are mentioning to everyone how much you’d want –insert color/creature here- then you will probably just ensure that you won’t get what you want. Mentioning such a thing occasionally is perfectly fine, but don’t whine to everyone who comes on about the things you want on the site. No one wants to hear it, believe me, because most of them probably want the same thing.

12. HAD(Hears All Dragons) characters are allowed here, but only when you reach the Site Rank of Weyrleader. HADs can contact and (obviously) hear all dragons whether the dragon wants them to hear them or not. Here at Western, it requires the HAD to focus on the dragon they want to hear, they don't just hear dragon chatter at all times of the day or night, and can only hear one dragon (other than their own) at a time.

13. Fuzzy-timing is allowed up to a month backwards in time and up to two weeks forward. If you don't know what fuzzy-timing is, its when you RP in a different time than what the current IC date is.

14. Only ONE account per person. All of your characters will be on that one account, otherwise you can exploit the Site Rank system. If you are found to have more than one account you will be asked to delete all but one, if you have a high enough post count you might be allowed to keep any characters you made on other accounts or they may get deleted. If you continue to ignore this rule accounts and characters you have will be deleted without warning or consent.