Rules of the site | Everlast: Dark River

Rules of the site Oct 16, 2008 1:10:54 GMT -5

Post by Pinefrost on Oct 16, 2008 1:10:54 GMT -5

These rules are bound to be altered/added to/removed. Please check often.

Please read ALL of the rules before signing up.

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Signing Up! Registration Requirements:

When signing up, please choose a name of one of the characters you are going to be creating on the site. For example, do not put a name like 'iluvwarriors1439'. Instead, put a name like 'Blackfrost' or 'Pinefrost'.
Also, when choosing a name, make sure it is not a character from the books. Such as 'Firestar', 'Graystripe', or 'Brightheart'. Please have your name be appropriate.
To join the site, you must have read at least four books, although, we do prefer you having read the entire first series.
Once joined the site you MUST be active. Meaning, you should be on at least three times a week. Inactive accounts will be deleted.However, if you are going to be gone for a long amount of time, you may post an absence in our specially made absence board so your account does not get deleted.
Each member is allowed ONE account. If a member is found with more than that, the member will be told to choose one account and the other account(s) will be deleted along with the characters. If this rule is broken more than once, the member will be banned.
Literacy is advanced. If you don't think you can do it, please don't join. However, if you join and you still have a few areas you need to work on (such as grammar or spelling) we have a specially made RP School just for you. The RP School can be found in the Community section when the admins decide to release it.

General Rules:

First off, if you wish to be treated kindly and with respect the staff and the other members of the site wish to be treated exactly the same way. Simply put, treat others as you would want to be treated. That's one of the golden rules, you know!
The staff members are here to both RP with the members and keep the site under control. We do not need (nor want ^^ to be worshiped but we do want treated just like any other member! We do, however, command a little more respect. If we ask or tell a member to do something, we expect them to do it. If they fail to comply, punishments will occur. These punishments are to be decided by the staff and may include temporary ban or full ban depending on the severity of their actions.
If you do not wish to be banned there will be no racist or sexist remarks. Our staff here knows full well that if someone is discriminating against one of our members, they do not deserve to be on this site. Race and sexual orientation does not matter on this site. Everyone here will be treated fairly and with respect and anyone who breaks this rule will be banned.
Don't ask for the whole "age, location, male/female" thing. Some people don't want to say. I suppose you can ask but if people don't want to tell you don't pressure them. Do so and you will be warned.
Don't EVER give out numbers and addresses or plan to meet somebody from the site, even if you know this person very well. We try to make this site fun and safe but we cannot guarantee your safety.
Don't swear out of control. Really, we just don't want you swearing. This is a public site and younger kiddies may be drawn to look around.
If you think someone on the site is talking to you in wrong ways, PLEASE REPORT IT. Honestly, if a member isn't treating you properly, we will take action and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Roleplaying (Rping)

First off, in roleplays we allow whoever is leader to decide who they want for Deputy. This is just like the books. We want you guys to feel at ease here. Leaders choose Deputies, Medicine Cats and apprentices for warriors. Medicine Cats choose their apprentices. This will take effect after the current plot takes place.
Please, please, please use correct grammar and punctuation. Also we want full sentences. This is a literate site; we don't want, "Flamefur ran. He ran up the hill. He was trying to find a mouse." Make your sentences flow and read like a story.
Please write in Third Person: Limited P.O.V. If you don't know what that is, please look it up on Wikipedia or something.
We want posts to be at least 200 words. This shouldn't be difficult. If you fall under 200 once in a while (as long as it's not much ;]) we won't send Blackie after you.
No Godmoding. No Power Playing. We do NOT want to see flawless characters that never get hit, sick, hurt etc. Don't play other people's characters. It's annoying to say in the least. Only play them if you have permission. Also, if you are writing a fighting scene, you cannot choose if your partner's character gets hit, it is up to them.
If you are allowed to Role Play another member's character, please have that in your siggy or after you post with that particular character. It makes it easier on everyone.
Do not double post. Plain 'n simple.
If you are playing two of your characters at once, separate their posts somehow. With symbols (ie: XxxX or ~~~~) or colors.
No.Chatspeak.While.You.Roleplay.
Try to keep to things cats will know. They won't know the words, "Hey dawg, whats crackalackin'?" "Fo sho." No. Don't do it. They won't know songs or famous people either.
Sorry.
No graphic mating/birthing scenes. Please. For fighting scenes it's okay to be a bit more graphic.
If you talk out of character please show it somehow. (ie: OOC, ((text)), [[text]])

Character Profiles

Your Character Profiles ((AKA; Cat Profiles or Bios)) are an extremely important part of being a member! You must make one before you RP a cat. This will not only allow staff members to assess your skill level, but it will allow you to Role Play your cat! However, we do have rules for that kind of thing. Please abide by them, and you'll be RPing in no time!
PLEASE use the profile forms to set up your character bios. It can get rather confusing for staff when members use different text layouts and sizes; especially if they add categories that aren't necessary. The profile forms for both clan cats and out-of-clan cats can be found here.
If you mention a cat in your profile that is not already made, please create them a profile; even if they're a part of StarClan! The only time you can talk about family without having to write a profile is while role playing and when making Family Trees.
We would prefer your Appearance and Personality to be fifteen sentences at least. History shouldn't be less than ten sentences and as for your Roleplay Example we would like to see 275 words at the least! This is a literate and above site; 275 shouldn't be too many words. Now don't think you have to go through and count each word, just copy and paste your example in our handy dandy word counting box. Simple, yes?
The Short Description requires only one sentence like in the books. If you REALLY need two sentences, you may do so, but we would rather you stick with one. An example of the short appearance would be:
[[Short Description: Black and white she-cat with yellow eyes.]]
This sentence needs to contain a lot of information, so please be sure to include pelt color, gender, and eye color. If your cat has a noticeable trait that needs mentioning and you don't have enough room to add it without the sentence becoming awkward, you may do so like this:
[[Short Description: Brown tabby she-cat with white paws and underbelly; green eyes. Her back right leg is badly injured.]]
No need to go into details about the ailment or special trait (such as Pinefrost's injured paw). This is the only exception for two sentences.
Please list past names if your cat has had them. Don't make your cats perfect and flawless. It's dull and boring. Also, try to keep some diversity with cats. We don't want a bunch of cats who don't know their past and/or were abused. Give us something original and fresh.
On other sites most our staff have been on, there have been many issues with plagiarism. Now... I shouldn't even need to tell you this but plagiarism is both stupid AND ILLEGAL! Copying other people's profiles/RP's shows me that you have absolutely NO sense of creativity at all and that you're willing to break the law just to look good. I'll have you know that breaking the law does NOT make you cool. The password to the profile boards is BlackMoonPie*. It makes you look like a jerk. If you want to be on this site, we expect you will not plagiarize other profiles from different sites and spend your time coming up with something original.
Please try and not have repetitive prefixes and suffixes. We don't want a million Shadowwhatevers, Flamewhosits, and WhatchamaFeathers.

Character Ranking Rules:

First off, if your character is a kit, you must wait until it is 6 Moons old before it becomes an apprentice. For a guide on how to age your cat, please see the next section.
Once your cat is an apprentice, it does not mean that in 6 Moons it will become a Warrior. No no no. For your apprentice to become a Warrior, it must go through some training. Your cat is required a certain amount of training threads. 7 to be exact. But they are not to be all fight trains. They are listed below:
- 2 Hunting Train threads
- 2 Fighting Train threads
- 1 Boundary/Hunting Patrol Thread (Either will do, but having one of each won't kill you.)
- 1 Final Assesment (Where the apprentice hunts alone while the mentor watches from afar). AND
- 1 Visit to the Moonstone (We prefer this to be the last training thread)
These threads must be completed with both the apprentice AND the mentor. You must keep track because frankly, the staff aren't perfect.
We still prefer your cat to be above 12 Moons before it is made a Warrior. We don't want 7 Moon old apprentices becoming Warriors. ^^
In this RPG, we have Leaders pick their own Deputies. BUT, if you want to increase your chances of becoming a Deputy, your character must have mentored at least 1 apprentice.
If you want your cat to become a Queen, it's actually very simple. You do not need to have them mentor any cats, they just need to be female, have a mate, and must be of the proper age. This age can be found here.
A mate can be found just by simply asking around the site. We do not suggest two of your characters being mates, it just complicates things... If someone does not want their character to be your character's mate, please do not take it personally and just find someone else. A Queen also needs to be carrying kits or nursing them. Once the kits have reached apprenticeship the Queen will either move back to the Warrior Den or stay in the Nursery permenantly.
Warriors are made into Senior Warriors around 90 Moons.
Your character may become an Elder if:
- Your cat has a crippling condition; of which they cannot keep their current position. (Such as blindness or a bad injury)
- Your cat has reached the age of 150 Moons.
If you want your cat to be a Medicine Cat, it must first become a Medicine Cat apprentice. To be this is totally random BECAUSE StarClan will give the Medicine Cat a sign, and the Leader will hold a Ceremony as soon as possible.
(The Medicine Cat's RPer will choose who they want and PM StarClan. StarClan will then send them a vision.)
Medicine Cats are made if:
- Your cat is a Medicine Cat apprentice and the Medicine Cat dies OR they decide to let you become a full medicine cat.
- OR, If the current Medicine Cat dies and they did not have an apprentice, the current Leader at the time will choose whoever he/she wants as a Medicine Cat.
If your cat is a Deputy, and the current Leader loses their final life, That is the only way they can become Leader.
Once they become Leader, they must then chose their Deputy by the end of the day. The choice is completely in their hands.

Passage of Time:

Gatherings will be held every REAL full moon. This can be checked by the Moon Phase Chart on the home page OR you can just look outside xD
Trips to the Moonstone for Medicine Cats and their apprentices will be held every REAL waxing half moon. Every half moon would be a pain to deal with.
To age your cat, this is what we've come up with:
2 real Weeks - 1 Moon
1 real Month - 2 Moons
6 real Months - 12 Moons
1 real Year - 24 Moons

These times do not apply to RPing, but if an RP goes on for, let's say, a month, that's probably too long anyway. We understand that a thread can go on for a few days, and that's okay; don't rush yourselves.
We can't have your cat gain 1 Moon after a REAL month because they would age much too slow and things would get rather boring, especially if you start your character as a kit. I know that none of you want to wait 6 months until your kit becomes an apprentice. Now you only have to wait 3!

C-box Rules

First off, please don't spam. It's very annoying and quite frankly, no one has something to say seven times without others getting a turn to speak. Now if you're alone, go ahead and dance a little ;]
Please no swearing. No profanity either. We don't want to see it. You get one warning. The next time is a suspension from the C-box. Okay, well things like 'hell' can be acceptable ONCE IN A WHILE. We don't want overboard things and if you really must, do it in a PM.
Do.Not.Advertise. This includes having your name be a clickable to another site. Have the clickable go to a profile or something. We have a board for Advertising.
Some chatspeak is acceptable. Examples: Brb, lol, bbs, gtg etc. We do NOT want to see this: he11o i tlk lke dis. It's to hard to read and this is a literate site.
Please continue general rules such as respect and such to other members. We prefer no fighting among our members but if you must please take it to PMs and try to keep it civil.

Choice of Skins:

No, these aren't rules. ^_^
Our site has come up with an array of different colored skins for each member's preference. The skins come in the following colors:
- Default (which is rather boring. CN: "Default")
- Red (CN: "Redriver")
- Orange (CN: "Warmriver")
- Yellow (CN: "Goldenriver")
- Green (CN: "Greenriver")
- Blue (CN: "Darkriver1")
- Purple (CN: "Graperiver")
- Pink (CN: "Pinkriver")
-Black (CN: "Blackriver")
-Winter Themed (CN: "Chillyriver")
The skins were made by Schmoons and myself, Blackie. I made most of the logos ;] Pie helped as well.
The default skin that I have set for all new members to see is "Redriver". If you wish to change this, follow the step-by-step directions below:

Go to the top of the page.
Underneath the logo is a line of links. Click the one that says "Profile"
Once you get to your profile click the link "Modify Profile". That is next to the link "Bookmarks"
Scroll down to the "Account Preferences" section and then find the "Select Skin" options.
Click the scroll-down menu and select whatever color you prefer. The list of CodeNames is above next to their respective colors.
After you have chosen, go to the bottom of the page and click the "Modify Profile" button. PLEASE DON'T GET CONFUSED WITH THE "Delete Profile" BUTTON!!

After that, you're all set.
If you still have problems with doing this, contact a staff member and they can do that for you.