Rules and Guidelines

[Guinivere Marcel]

Rules and Guidelines

Roleplay Rules	Posting Requirements	Member Interactions	Discord	Character Creation
Faceclaims	Instructors and Classes	Mass/Group Threads	Events	Discipline

[Guinivere Marcel]

Roleplay Rules

  I. No God-modding. God-modding is when you take control of someone else’s character and/or state that they have done, said, or thought something that the other writer did not previously mention. If you have permission to god-mod, please state this in your post notes.

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  II. Similarly, no “mind-reading” without permission or a stated, reasonable justification. You may be   able to read the other character’s thoughts, but your character cannot.

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  III. Keep OOC issues out of roleplay. Do not take out issues with another member on their characters.

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  IV. Because this is a ProBoards forum, all posts must be PG-13. No use of real-life drugs, and please moderate mentions of alcohol use. Swords, daggers, and similar medieval weapons are fine in moderation, but no guns. Please use the “black curtain” technique for threads including sex, violence, and similar content; that is, wrap the thread with an implication or allusion to what happens.

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  V. In keeping with the above, no extensive or graphic descriptions of gore.

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  VI. Please keep the swearing to a minimum.

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  VII. All posts should be in English; if another language is used, please provide a translation.

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  VIII. Images will also be held to the PG-13 standard.

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  IX. Be sure to communicate with your RP partners! This is most important when making decisions that will affect them (i.e. deleting or changing a character, ending a ship or plot, or taking an absence), but even discussing small questions or concerns about your threads will make the writing process go much more smoothly.

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  X. You will need admin permission to start a major plot (i.e. attempting to overthrow the High Court). Most ideas will be accepted, but they do need to be reviewed as they will affect everyone.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Posting Requirements

I. Roleplay in third person, past tense. Ex: “Gemini walked down the stairs.” As opposed to: “Gemini walks down the stairs” or “I walked down the stairs.”

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II. No post padding; posts should be a minimum of 100 words. Be sure to give your RP partner enough to work with!

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III. No spamming threads. Do not double post; wait for your RP partner to post in between.

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IV. Activity requirements: Two posts every two months per character. We will be doing activity checks every other month so that members can hold themselves accountable.


EXCEPTIONS:

- Members with a posted absence during the given time period

- Characters created up to two weeks before the activity check

[Guinivere Marcel]

Member Interactions

  I.  If you read or follow one rule, let it be this one: be respectful. No hate speech or slurs. Treat all of your fellow writers equally, regardless of personal differences. Members are welcome to communicate issues and suggestions with one another and the staff, but do not do so in an insulting, bullying, or hostile manner.

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  II. No harassment, stalking, or generally making other members uncomfortable. If someone is making you feel this way, please report it to staff as soon as possible.

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  III. Compliance to the above rules is required on every platform—PMs, public posts, chatbox, Discord, etc.

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  IV. No controversial topics or pushing of personal beliefs (politics, religion, etc).

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  V. Avoid forming cliques. While you may be very invested in your plots with certain members, be sure to interact with everyone—we want all of our members to feel welcome.

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  VI. Do not steal or plagiarize any other members’ content—this includes writing, codes, graphics, etc. Most people will be happy to share their creations with credit and permission.

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 VII. Do not advertise or link to other RP sites outside of the designated advertising boards.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Discord

  I. Please keep all conversations in the proper channels. Staff will give reminders if a conversation starts to get off-topic or clog the wrong channel, but keeping all discussion in the right channels makes everyone’s lives easier.

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  II. The same rules regarding content apply on Discord as they do on-site: that is, keep it PG-13.

All rules regarding member interactions and respect also apply.

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  III.  If a conversation gets heated and shows no sign of de-escalating, take it out of the main Discord; if need be, an admin will make a private channel with those involved and one admin to solve it privately. If this still shows no sign of resolution, the conversation will be shut down until both parties are prepared to approach it calmly and respectfully.

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  IV. If a conversation does get heated enough to be moved to a private DM, it will be deleted from the main Discord so that others don’t escalate or re-hash the situation.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Character Creation

  I. For student characters, we can only accept as many as the Iris dormitories hold, unless your student is a child of the nobility who chooses to live at home. Please check the dorms list before creating a student to see which spots are available.

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  II. All characters must have a first and last name. Middle names are optional.

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III. All characters must have a faceclaim as well.

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  IV. No “Mary-Sues”—that is, characters who are unrealistically perfect. Characters are much more interesting and well-rounded when they have flaws.

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  V. If you take a wanted ad, you must obtain permission from the person who posted that wanted ad in order to kill or make a major change to the character.

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  VI. Conversely, if someone takes one of your wanted ads, you may not force them to change it from what was originally agreed upon or delete the character.

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  VI. If you delete a character, you must wait three weeks before re-applying for that character.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Faceclaims

  I. Because ProBoards is PG-13, all face claims must be at least 13 years old.

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  II. In the interests of respect, do not use the face of anyone who is deceased.

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  III. All face claims must be human. No art or AI generated images.

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  IV. You can provide either the FC’s full name or their social media handle in order to claim them.

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  V. No two members can use the same face, with the exception of identical twins/triplets/etc.

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  VI. All posts should be in English; if another language is used, please provide a translation.

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  VII. You cannot reserve a face claim. Your FC will only be added to the list once your character is accepted.

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  VII. Please note: 

People who do not want to be used as face claims:

Anna Pavaga, Diana Pentovich, Emerald Gordon Wulf, Khloe Jae, Kristina Pimenova, McKenna Grace, Mia Hays, Millie-Belle Diamond, Olivia Culpo, Thylane Blondeau, Alice Cheynet, Alicia Danielle Medina, Anastasiya Tychynska, Ashley Osborn, Baek Sumin, Cameron Ugh / Farrah Moan, Dajana Rads, Erika Altosaar, Feryn Suicide, Freida Rose, Jayden Pierce, Jessica Martin, Johanna Herstedt, Josephine Nicole, Lara Jade, Lauren Peralta, Lisa Gaskarth, Morgan Joyce, Trey DeFranco, TwiggX, Zoe Kimball.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Instructors/Classes

  I. Each member can have up to two instructor characters.

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  II. Instructors must be at least 21 years of age.

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  III. Instructors will be required to post 1-5 class threads per term. These will be roleplay “lectures”, though you can get creative with extra credit—roleplay assignments or short quizzes, for example, although the answers to any Q&A assignment should be easy to find via Google.

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  IV. Instructors will be moderators of their own class boards and must lock class threads a week before the end of term.

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  V. Students are required to post at least 2 class posts per term.

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  VI. Each term lasts 6 months IRL (through IC autumn, winter, and spring.) Current term dates:

- Autumn: Sept-Oct

- Winter: Nov-Dec

- Spring: Jan-Feb

- Classes Lock: Feb. 3d

- Term Ends: Feb. 10th

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  VII. The grading system is a 7.0 system, which is as follows:

1.0-4.2: fail
4.3: pass
4.9: 70%
5.6: 80%
6.3: 90%
7.0: 100%

[Guinivere Marcel]

Mass/Group Threads

  I. Group threads will be defined as 3-5 people; any more than 5 is a mass thread.

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  II. For group threads, keep to a posting order, even if certain members have multiple characters involved—that is, M posts, then SeaJem posts, then Cheshire posts, then Cassie posts, and then it’s M’s turn again, and so on.

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  III. Mass threads do not require members to keep to a posting order, but unless the mass thread has died, do not take them over with back-to-back posts (i.e. Guinivere posts, then Silas posts, then Guinivere again, and they continue going back-and-forth without letting anyone else post in between.)

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  IV. If something dramatic happens in a mass thread, obtain permission from those who own the plot before you get involved. Otherwise, drama should remain between those who would realistically be involved (ex. Gemini and Jin-hwa are arguing in a mass thread; others who are not involved in the plot might notice or remark that they are being loud, but not join the argument themselves.)

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  V. Read all posts before posting in a mass thread. It’s easy to miss important details that then throw off the rest of the thread.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Events

  I. Events on Midsummer are open to everyone; however, some will require sign-ups before characters can participate.

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  II. If you do sign up, you must be an active participant in the event or your spot may be given to someone else. 

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  III. If you want to use an event to advance a personal plot, contact staff first—we’ll be more than happy to work with you!

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  IV. All mass thread rules apply to event threads.

[Guinivere Marcel]

Discipline

  I. Our goal at Midsummer is to create a creative, welcoming, and supportive community, and we want to work with all of our members to achieve that goal. That said, if violation of the rules is damaging that environment, the admins will need to take action. 

The first step in handling any rule-breaking, however, will be communication. We will prioritize conflict resolution and intervention; only after this will reminders and warnings take effect. 

- First offense (Strike One): You will be given a warning.

- Second offense (Strike Two): You will be asked to step away from Midsummer for a set amount of time. This time will be determined by the circumstances.

- Third offense (Strike Three): You will be asked to leave Midsummer permanently, and your IP address will be banned.

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  II. Midsummer operates on a strike system. This is confidential and tracked only by admins, though members will be alerted when they receive a strike. Members are welcome to ask where they stand on the discipline list at any time if there is any concern.

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  III. If you are caught breaking a minor rule, you will be given a reminder before your first strike goes into effect. If you are caught breaking a major rule (hate speech, bullying, making others uncomfortable, purposefully and knowingly stealing content, violating the Proboards ToS), this does not apply.

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  IV. These measures will only be put into effect after staff have exhausted every avenue for conflict resolution or intervention. We would like to use disciplinary measures as a last resort—to help us in that effort, please be considerate of the rule code and your fellow writers.

[Gemini Enigma]

Nymphs

  I. In order to create a nymph, you must have at least three non-nymph characters, OR

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  II. At least 75 posts across all character accounts.

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  III. As long as the character is at least part creature, they must meet these requirements in order to be accepted.