Post by CHARLES 'CHAR' REGIUS on Jan 11, 2012 18:33:47 GMT
RULES AND GUIDELINES
GENERAL001. Think please. I'm sure you have read threads like this a hundred times. You know what the general rules are. We expect you to treat others as you would want them to treat you. We want you to be friendly and open. Discrimination or prejudice of any kind is prohibited unless it is you character's views and not your own. All of that jazz. Just, basically be nice cheery folks on here okay?
002. Get involved. If you're going to join then go the whole hog! We've got a cBox for chatting with other members on the board and we have many different roleplay boards. We have a gaming board and general chat discussions going on. We try and keep the forum active and fun with competitions, spotlights, events etc, and we are always open to suggestions on how you think we could snag your attention a little more. So please, please, please don't join and then wander off somewhere and forget about us. More information on what happens with regard to inactivity can be found under "registering".
003. When on the boards, no god-moding, power-playing or mini-modding. If you do not know what these are you need to look them up ASAP before you post another single roleplay post on any roleplay forum. Seriously dude.
REGISTERING004. One account per character. I know that some forums don't force this and that it can get really annoying to keep changing which account you are posting in all the time, especially if you are a really active member (which we don't want to discourage here at AB) but our staff have been on forums where people don't change account and it can get insufferably confusing so we are putting this rule in place. There is a login box in the side tables to the left of this message that will help make the account changing as painless as possible.
005. You may join with whatever name/username you like, but after you have decided on your character for that account please change your profile name to your character's name in full capitals.
006. Be active. This is an active forum for those that have a real passion for writing. Please do not join up because the forum sounds like your kind of thing and then post every so often so that you're not deleted. Or worse, sign only the activity checks and that's it. We want to write with you - that is why we're here. So write! Consequences for failing to sign two activity checks in a row will result in your account being deleted. Failure to post an IC post within one month will result in your account being deleted. You're here to roleplay right? So lets make sure that that's what we're doing!
007. Please read all of our default threads carefully. There is a lot of information to take in for this forum as it is not a "based on" idea and more of a convoluted experiment. We don't want to have to explain things to everyone over and over. We are making these threads as clear and as detailed as we can so that there is no confusion so please follow Prince along on his froggy trail in order to see everything you should see, before you start in on an application.
CHARACTER CREATION008. Please read all appropriate threads before posting a character application. We cannot stress this enough. There is nothing more demotivating than working really hard on an application only to have it turned down and we really don't want to demotivate people because they haven't read exactly what they have to do. If you are unsure of anything or have a question to ask about your character then please do so before starting up the application.
009. Depending on how fast you type, the application can take 1-2 hours to complete to perfect standard. We're not asking everyone to be perfect but it is wise to set aside some time to complete the template, rather than starting up on it when you only have ten minutes free. You don't have to complete it in one go and you can just put [WIP] in the title of your thread if your character template is incomplete. But please don't keep coming back to it and doing it little and often because a) they never read amazingly well when you're done if you do them all in chunks, and b) someone might have gotten to your character before you and how depressing would that be?
010. We operate a first come first serve basis. We do not allow reservations of characters. Though we, the staff of AB, believe that reserving characters is a nice way of handling the application process, we have a very interpretation heavy way of handling characters. Therefore and therein it becomes confusing if people want to reserve particularly generic characters when actually we can have two of them anyway. Also, reservations can become incredibly complicated and they can get forgotten leaving things restricted from members when they shouldn't be.
011. Please leave our template in tact. We love creativity and customisation, but we also like our lovely new application template so please don't change it. Your plot pages, thread trackers etc are where you can show us your funky coding skills.
012. Please make sure that the image at the top of your application page is the size it states. There's a reason we have specified that size - it looks awesome and it would be great to have everyone's the same so please don't skim over it thinking "yep they want an image in there, I'll just go find one" but actually pay attention to the dimensions please. The image in the Application Instructions is the correct sizing so, if you need to, simply code and paste that and then put your image over the top - you'll know you have the right size then.
013. Make your character fresh and new. We know the characters on the big screen and in the stories. So we want to see something different and unique. Wanting to take on Austin Ames from A Cinderella Story? Well he doesn't have to be an actual prince as his modern performance proves. So how about his father wanting him to become a knight of the realm, while all he wants to do is write? You can take the Prince Charming character. But then focus on a specific interpretation. And then interpret it yourself into the setting of AB. When it comes to plot lines and the originality of those, there is going to be a certain amount forced upon you, otherwise you are restricted to only the characters within your adaptation, which is silly to restrict yourself to as others may never take up those characters. If and when characters from your adaptation do come about however, you could follow them down to the wording if you really wanted to. We don't mind. But what would be great is to see new ideas clashed with the canon storylines and making something familiar but new. Original characters are accepted here at AB. However, we do like to stress that if too many originals are being created we will place a ban on them until more canons are taken up. We don't want people forced to roleplay characters they don't want, but we also want to stay true to the plot of the board. Thank you.
014. Make sure you have an avatar and signature for your character after your acceptance. If you aren't GFX savvy then please at least make sure that you have an avatar and apply on the Graphics and FanFiction board for someone to make you a signature.
WHEN WRITING015. We cannot stress this enough on here but this is an advanced writing forum. This means you should have a strong grasp of the English language (if not have it as your first language), have a flair for writing and be nearly perfect in your spelling and punctuation. We're not all robots - you will not be penalised for typos or small errors. We're all human. However, it should be obvious when one of these errors is made that it is a typo, by the rest of it being well written. As for length, we're looking at about 3 (large) to 5 (not so large) paragraphs a piece. We don't have a word count or restriction here at AB because we find that forcing people to meet a certain number actually stumps the creativity and we just get a lot of boringly long posts. We're interested in quality over quantity but the more you can write of that quality stuff, the better.
016. We, the AB staff, would like to ask everyone to post their writing posts in size=1 font and in blockquote tags. The reason we ask this is because to do it with a code would mean that everyone would be unable to change the size and style of their texts in all threads - including plot pages which are always the creative coders love/hate aspect of roleplaying. Therefore, instead of limiting your creative possibilities, we ask that you convert your font when roleplaying. It just looks a lot nicer and keeps everything in order. If you find that Tahoma, our default font is hard for you to read in size=1 then Verdana is another good choice - it becomes a lot easier under that font.
017. AB has codes that make us an Enhanced version of Proboards posting features, which means that more complicated tables and style tags can be used. However, we request that people do not use these on the roleplaying boards. Please post all of your writing in an actual post rather than in a table.
018: Graphic customisation above and below your posts is perfectly allowed and encouraged. Feel free to add anything of that sort as you like, just bear in mind the Graphics rules below.
GRAPHICS019. No graphic is allowed to stretch our pages. That means no images over the width of 580px without blockquote. If you use blockquote around an image your image must be smaller or it will squish up the mini-profile and/or stretch the page. We like our mini-profile and page how they are thanks so please be careful in what you are posting and whether it is within blockquote tags or not.
020. All avatars must be images of the original character. For example. If you are taking on the role of Lucifer the cat from Disney's Cinderella, do not post an image of your human play-by. Post an image of the cat. This will make it easier for people to understand and know who it is you are playing. Those who are using the face claims of actors already portraying the characters have this a little easier for them.
021. No inappropriate photos. You know what I mean. Just don't.
SOME LEGAL STUFF022. We do not want to be involved in a court case. No posting of illegal material of any kind. It's as simple as that guys. Anyone who posts anything considered to be pornography or excessively violent will be warned and/or banned from the forum. We don't break the law here.
023. We do not want to be shut down. Therefore we conform for Proboards ToS at all times. This includes a rating PG+13 on all roleplaying/writing material. Fade to black guys, just fade to black. For a full check on Proboards ToS, click here.
In all fairness guys. This could be a lot worse. I've seen some rule guides that go on for hours. Instead, most of this is common sense. Be nice, don't do anything illegal, read everything carefully. There's your basic summary. The only ones you wanna really look at carefully are 005., 016., 019. and 020. as they involve info on graphics, customisation and so forth. So, are we ready to head on? Read all the rules? Hmmm.... I'll have to take your word on that because we are moving on! I have a couple of links below to give you this time. The last one is where we'll see each other again so just have a quick read through the other two - and no skipping ahead! =P |
[/center]
