Please Note: These rules are not up for debate. If you don't like them, then you don't have to join. Most of these rules are common on any message board or are in place for obvious reasons. Please make sure you know these rules. It may seem like a lot, but reading through them for just a few minutes will help to prevent any confusion or mistakes in the future. Thank you.
Universal Rules
- Be respectful and civil.
Respect the staff as well as your fellow members. We expect everyone to portray a nonjudgemental outlook on others in regards to their personal beliefs and aspects, including (but not limited to) their race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and sex. Under no circumstances can members threaten other members or the staff, and doing so will result in an immediate ban.
Don't flame or bash.
Hate posts and personal attacks will not be tolerated on the FOG boards. Treat others on this message board as you would expect them to treat you. Talking trash about another user or posting topics specifically to provoke a negative response from an individual, a group or an entire community is not acceptable on FOG. These posts will be deleted and will result in a warning. Board bashing is also not allowed here. Please respect the various communities on FOG. If another board is not your favorite, there's no need to complain about it. Simply refrain from visiting it. Board bashing posts will be deleted.
The rating of this message board is PG-13.
This means that content is allowed to go up to but not exceed a PG-13 rating. We do not require members be of a certain age to join, but some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Please note that this is a public message board, and anything that you say will be viewable by the world. We must ask that all sensitive or mature subject matter needs to be discussed carefully and delicately, so as not to offend anyone.
Avatars can be up to 150 x 200 pixels. Signatures have a limit of 500 x 200.
This isn't something you have to consciously worry about, since both will automatically be resized down if they're too large. Avatars and signatures may not contain any type of offensive material in them, which includes adult content or themes. Signatures can only contain one image in them, excluding some special exceptions.
Inappropriate usernames are prohibited.
Usernames cannot be offensive, derogatory, or vulgar. If you register with a distasteful username, you will be asked to change it (from your Profile), and if you refuse, one of the staff members will change it for you.
Do not harass anyone.
Harassment in any form is taken seriously. Do not do it. Attacking, badgering, and repeatedly disturbing members is not only rude, but not allowed. Threatening members results in an instant ban.
Warnings, bannings, and disturbances of any sort aren't public matters.
When disagreements occur between the members or the members and staff, communicate with the Administrators privately on a respectful level to settle your disagreement. The staff are not targets for your obscenities, flames, or general insults. If you do not agree with a decision, you are not entitled to start a thread arguing about the verdict or flaming any of the moderators. Any such messages will be removed. This extends to Private Messages and unban requests as well, and you are not entitled to insult moderators via either of these methods. Also note that bans are between the user banned and the moderators, and moderators cannot respond about bans publicly. Any correspondence about ban length and reason will be handled through unban requests.
Do not plagiarize.
Plagiarism in any form will earn you a ban. The theft or imitation of another person's written works, artwork or any other such material, copyrighted or otherwise, is an unlawful act and will not be tolerated.
By becoming a member of SWCL, you agree to our privacy policy.
Any information here is the property of CelestiaLights, and any theft of such property will result in an immediate and permanent ban. Paraphrasing, which is the rewording or rephrasing of something, is also theft without acknowledgement. Just as you would have to in a written paper, if you paraphrase anything from SWCL, you will need to give us credit for the original ideas themselves. We do not have any issues with our community being members of different message boards. We also are okay with it if you would like to create your own message board or are the administrator or moderator somewhere else (so long as the duties there do not keep you from your duties here). The real problem comes into play if ideas, images, aspects, and the like are taken from us here and used elsewhere.
We have final say.
While these rules cover the most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently, we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way. We also reserve the right to ban anyone who willfully violates the forum rules.
General Discussion Rules
- No Spamming or trolling.
"Stupid, pointless, annoying messages" basically sums up what spam is. Blatant spam is not allowed. Do not flood the forums. Do not troll and post things that are not relevant to the topic. Lazy typing is spam. This isn't a chat room or an instant messenger. Communication isn't instant, so take your time and use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. If English isn't your first language, we understand and will keep that fact in mind.
Double-posting is not entirely prohibited.
Double-posting is allowed, so long as your second post is not immediately after the first and does not relate to what you posted before it. (If it does relate, then simply edit your post.) Triple, quadruple, or more posting in immediate succession though is certainly not allowed. Please wait for others to respond to a topic before you reply if you are going to be posting right after yourself. You are not authorized to bump threads.
Role-Playing Rules
- There is a length requirement for role-play posts.
All role-play posts have to be at least two paragraphs and at least five sentences in length. One-word 'sentences' do not count as a sentence for this purpose.
Do not post anything OoC inside of a role-play.
Keep all out-of-character talk to the OOoC thread for your role-play, even if you just need to say something short. Keep your role-plays professional and clean.
Role-plays cannot exceed a PG-13 rating.
Role-plays do not need to be rated in their titles, but no role-play may contain content that would be considered above a PG-13 rating (the highest rating for the Star Wars movies).
Do not powerplay or godmode.
The term godmoding comes from "god mode," found in many video games, allowing a player to activate features such as invincibility, unlimited ammunition or lives, or similar power boosts. Godmoding is almost always frowned upon by other members of the game, because it is regarded as a form of cheating against the game's tacit rules. In role-playing, godmoding refers to a character taking on excessive powers or behaving as if they have no vulnerabilities. This is more of a juvenile thing to do, and it will not be tolerated here. Powerplaying, on the other hand, refers to when a role-player takes control of another person's character that is not their own. The only characters you are allowed to play as, talk as, and control are your own. The only exception to powerplaying, is if you and your partner both agree that you can control one another's character(s).
Conclude a role-play in order to switch planets.
If you are in need of switching your location in a role-play to a different planet, simply consider the one you are in currently concluded, and inform a Role-Playing Mod, Galactic Mod, or Administrator (so they can transfer it to the Concluded forum). Then, start a new role-play inside of the forum for the planet you wish to pick up where the other left off at. If your role-play is constantly switching between planets though, then simply put it inside of the Other Locations forum.
Private Messaging Rules
- Harassment is not allowed.
Just like anywhere else, do not harass a person through PMs. Repeatedly PMing a role-playing partner to ask when they will reply to a role-play is considered harassment. No one enjoys being hounded.
Do not threaten anyone through PMs.
If someone has sent you a threatening PM, please forward it to an Administrator who will handle it immediately. There is no reason for people to feel unsafe at FOG.
Do not send out chain PMs.
In other words, please don’t send out chain letters. Anything that asks you to send it to a certain number of other people in order to achieve or avoid something is considered a chain message.
