Guild Mods

Reporting Incidents to the Moderators

Reporting Incidents to the Moderators

Don't acknowledge trolls.

- Don't talk about people getting banned.
- Don't say their names.
- Don't post in their threads.
- Don't make threads about them.
- Don't even acknowledge other people that are feeding the trolls.

Instead, just let us know.

@Mahz

If you do see a rules violation and something you want to report, please do not engage the person, but instead report it to us without replying to them. This makes the process of dealing with the problem easier for us.

The process is simple; when you report the problem, we will ask for certain types of information if not already provided in the initial complaint: having these items ahead of time will help the process considerably;

• Links to the offending threads.
• Screenshots of PM communication.
  
  (Link: How to screenshot)

Once we have assessed the problem to see if there is, in fact, a rules violation, we will take action and let the party making the complaint know of the resolution -- in many cases, we will also want both parties in a dispute to stop communicating upon each other, enforceable by a warning or ban if future incidents occur, but we will make sure to actually communicate that situation. We generally require the parties in a dispute to cease communication both ways in these situations, recognizing that if both sides are ignoring each other, it's hard to get into further disputes.

In order to report a post, contact one or more of the moderation staff.

Staff List:

- @Mahz
- @Ruby
- @Hank
- @Stark
- @Byrd Man
- @LegendBegins
- @POOHEAD189
- @NuttsnBolts

Contest Mods:

- @Frizan
- @Jorick

Discord Mods:

- @The Harbinger of Ferocity
- @TheTwistedOne

Moderation Policy for Forum Contests

Our Policy for Forum Contests

Policy boils down to this:

If you cheat, you are blacklisted.

The forum contests are run for the users of the site. When you cheat by stealing the intellectual property of other people, plagiarizing, or voting using multiple accounts, you are not just ruining the contests for the people who run them. You are ruining the contests for everybody who is participating. We are harsh, but if so it is only because by cheating you are effectively griefing every other contestant, as well as the crews who operate each contest.

Prohibitions:

• Plagiarism - stealing, copying, or otherwise using intellectual property/creative material that is not your own without the express permission of its original creator.
• Voting more than once - using multiple user-accounts on the site (where applicable).
• Attempting to influence judges - via persuasion, coercion, bribery, or any other means.

Rules of Conduct:

• Do not bring up personal suspicions or allegations of cheating in any part of the forum. Send a private message to the contest mod, @Frizan. Present them with your evidence and they will conduct a full investigation, and will handle all official announcements regarding offending posters and instances of cheating.
• Always credit the original creator of any works, settings, or characters you make use of that are not yours. When crediting fanfiction, credit both it and any sources credited by the author.
• The burden of proof rests with you to establish that sufficient original effort was employed in any work you submit.
• Do not attack, grief, troll, or otherwise harass any individuals who have been blacklisted. They may be barred from contests but they are still protected by the Fundamental Rules of the Guild.

Moderator Authority:

• We permanently blacklist you for the first offense no matter what, but may enact harsher punishments at our own discretion. Do not give us cause to do so.
• If you attempt to join a forum contest after being blacklisted, you will be banned from the forum. Attempting to enter forum contests under alternate accounts counts. Ban duration and conditions are left entirely to the discretion of the Contest Moderators.
• Mods' word is final. If we clear a user of wrongdoing, they are CLEAR. If we find them guilty, we are certain. We will explain our reasoning, we will present all evidence used to establish that reasoning, but we will not broker negotiation or plea bargains.
• We reserve the right to investigate any and every contestant who submits an entry to a contest, regardless of their being reported or suspected of cheating. If we find evidence to suggest you have cheated, we will directly contact you in order to give you a chance to explain yourself before making any announcements or declarations.

RPGC #2 Plagiarism - Not tolerated.

Due to plagiarism on the part of the contestant who put in the winning submission, the award for RPGC #2 is being rescinded. The Guild does not tolerate the theft of intellectual property or attempts to cheat in the contests. Other people worked very hard on their submissions in good faith. This is not Fonz cool.

Our congratulations for winning go to the people who actually put in the work and created their own material, not someone that just ran a google search.

Just in case anyone else thinks of a cheap and easy way to snake someone out of a custom user title, please bear in mind that one warn, one ban applies to these situations. A formal ruleset for the Contests section will be up soon for perusal.

Moderation Policy in the Off-Topic Sections

Moderation Policy in Off-Topic Discussion Sections

Off-Topic Specific Policy

• Respect the Original Post's Requests – Sometimes in Off-Topic, when a thread is posted, someone requests that an argument not happen or that people behave a certain way. Please respect it-- if you disagree (but see below) feel free to post a thread to discuss what you want to discuss.
• Criticize the idea, not the person – In RP Discussion and Off-Topic where disagreement goes hand in hand with discussion, it's a very good idea to stick to what is being said rather than moving into ad hominem territory. Stick to the topic, not the person. When discussing RP problems in RP discussion, don't name names, such as the offending GM or Player. Describe the behavior, don't identify the person. This also applies to starting a new thread to discuss an issue that was made verboten in another thread by the original poster. Be respectful.
• Don't try to lure people into Spam to continue an argument – While it is encouraged that you go to Spam if you can't be entirely polite, it's also not kosher to try to lure people into Spam just so you can insult and belittle them. Bottom line, you can't draft someone into Spam even if you really hate them and they won't go there. Too bad.
• Don't flamebait – This should be simple and self-evident. We have Spam if you want to be a jerk to people, but Spam also returns the attitude in spades.
• Don't take the disagreement personally – In OldGuild, there was a distressing trend of people trying to bait each other into insults to get them banned. This practice is interpreted as Griefing. (It's also called 'Derpbating' because after a certain point, like repeating yourself more than once, it's become derpy.) See the above rules, please.
• Don't waste our time - Founder's words, but pertinent when if have to keep dealing with an issue over and over again, without any real resolution. This covers any clever ways people might find to disrupt the Guild, particularly as regards to finding ways to get around the above rules.

The point of the off-topic section is to to allow social interaction on the Guild without the fear of insult or bullying or generally dickish behavior. Since we have an outlet area for people to be more crass with each other, we think it's important for everyone to keep it pleasant while in the other parts of the Guild. After all, this is a diverse and large community and we want to keep it growing.

Reporting Problems

In order to report violations, the best possible solution is to report it to us. You can contact the staff member(s) of your choice via PM. In the case of a trolling incident, it's best not to go feeding the trolls by engaging them -- just report. It's faster.

Staff List

Moderation Policy in the Off-Topic Sections

Moderation Policy in Off-Topic Discussion Sections

Off-Topic Specific Policy

• Respect the Original Post's Requests – Sometimes in Off-Topic, when a thread is posted, someone requests that an argument not happen or that people behave a certain way. Please respect it-- if you disagree (but see below) feel free to post a thread to discuss what you want to discuss.
• Criticize the idea, not the person – In RP Discussion and Off-Topic where disagreement goes hand in hand with discussion, it's a very good idea to stick to what is being said rather than moving into ad hominem territory. Stick to the topic, not the person. When discussing RP problems in RP discussion, don't name names, such as the offending GM or Player. Describe the behavior, don't identify the person. This also applies to starting a new thread to discuss an issue that was made verboten in another thread by the original poster. Be respectful.
• Don't try to lure people into Spam to continue an argument – While it is encouraged that you go to Spam if you can't be entirely polite, it's also not kosher to try to lure people into Spam just so you can insult and belittle them. Bottom line, you can't draft someone into Spam even if you really hate them and they won't go there. Too bad.
• Don't flamebait – This should be simple and self-evident. We have Spam if you want to be a jerk to people, but Spam also returns the attitude in spades.
• Don't take the disagreement personally – In OldGuild, there was a distressing trend of people trying to bait each other into insults to get them banned. This practice is interpreted as Griefing. (It's also called 'Derpbating' because after a certain point, like repeating yourself more than once, it's become derpy.) See the above rules, please.
• Don't waste our time - Founder's words, but pertinent when if have to keep dealing with an issue over and over again, without any real resolution. This covers any clever ways people might find to disrupt the Guild, particularly as regards to finding ways to get around the above rules.

The point of the off-topic section is to to allow social interaction on the Guild without the fear of insult or bullying or generally dickish behavior. Since we have an outlet area for people to be more crass with each other, we think it's important for everyone to keep it pleasant while in the other parts of the Guild. After all, this is a diverse and large community and we want to keep it growing.

Reporting Problems

In order to report violations, the best possible solution is to report it to us. You can contact the staff member(s) of your choice via PM. In the case of a trolling incident, it's best not to go feeding the trolls by engaging them -- just report. It's faster.

Staff List