Terms of Service (and Forum Rules)

Dulrik · **Posted:** Fri Jul 08, 2005 10:14 am

In order to use any of the Shattered Kingdoms (SK) related services (which includes the game and forums), you will be required to agree to our Terms of Service.

TERMS OF SERVICE

I don't expect the contents of it to surprise anyone, as it is a fairly standard example of its type which is used by most all games and internet services. Links to this document will be prominently displayed on the footer of our webpages and in the MOTD of the game.

If you do not or cannot agree with the Terms of Service, you should discontinue the use of SK services immediately.

Viltrax · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:16 pm

Summary
These forums have been in use for many years: we've seen spammers try their hand (nowadays extremely rare), the odd unwanted content (images are now links so we're much more Safe For Work, as they say), but above all there has been a consistently high level of participation of both players and immmortals. All manner of participants join the forums with a view to expressing their opinions, questions and responses on all manner of areas related to the game. These are, after all, the official forums for the Shattered Kingdoms.

It is with a view to keeping the forums respectable and useful that we present the list of rules and etiquette below. They are drawn mostly from common sense and in some cases have regrettably been expanded from the shorter list we had when we first started. As we have limited resources, the forums work best when they require little or no moderation - allowing us to concentrate on improving the game itself rather than cleaning up unwanted posts and threads. The other consideration is cost: although we are grateful for the benevolent hosting assistance of http://www.vividnet.com, there are now more costs than ever - bandwidth usage especially.

Inappropriate Content

Any content that is contrary to our Terms of Service and Rules will be deleted without recourse. Offenders who post links to offensive content or write posts that contain offensive content, especially that of a sexual nature or posts containing racial, religious, gender-based, sexuality or ethnic slurs will be banned.
Content that goes against the standards posted by our advertising (e.g. Google Ads) will also be removed - although this content should be covered by item [2.1] above.
Insulting posts (also known as 'flames') and other inflammatory content will be removed in all forums.
Posts which contain no point (single lines of nothing but profanity) will be deleted. This includes threads that discuss post counts. No post shall be made up of so much profanity that the content is lost in the overwhelming garbage. (If it is, it simply gets deleted.)
No attacks toward any player or staff member or toward groups of players or staff members. See moderation policy below.
Hidden In-Character information should not be posted. There are some areas of the game that are meant to be found out in-game and not explained beforehand in an OOC manner.
Do not repost private communication in full or in part without the consent of the original author.

Inconsiderate Content
These items are generally covered by our explanation of Etiquette, as contained in this forum thread. Bear in mind that violations of these elements is not likely to bring down the punishments listed in section four.

Don't make posts that affect the line-wrap for the entire page. Posts that consist of very long lines of ........... ad nauseum, for example, or applying the CODE instead of the QUOTE when using bbCode tags.
Don't post in all capital letters as most people will take this as you yelling. Paragraphs and punctuation help in being understood, too.
Don't post long logs. They will get deleted due to the drain these cause on the server and the strong likelihood of revealing in-game information.
Don't quote entire posts; just quote the relevant parts to which you are replying.

Enforcement
See moderation policy below, but additional steps may be taken in regards to punishment for violations of the forum rules:

Post removal or where an entire thread is in violation, thread removal.
One or more forum IDs can be suspended for a period. This can range from one week to one month.
Forum IDs can be deleted and banned, and the related email address barred from registering future forum IDs.

Dulrik · **Posted:** Sat Feb 07, 2015 10:39 am

SK Forums Moderation Policy

The rules: No attacks, insinuations against or condescension toward any player or staff member is permitted.

Some helpful definitions for clarity:
- insinuation - an unpleasant hint or suggestion of something bad; a usually bad or insulting remark that is said in an indirect way; the act of saying something bad or insulting in an indirect way
- condescension - disdain; an attitude or behavior of patronizing superiority; the attitude or behavior of people who believe they are more intelligent or better than other people
Posts that break the above guideline will be removed and a warning will be issued. Any subsequent posts that quote the original post will also be removed (but will not receive a warning due to the quotation). The decision, and removal of posts, may be appealed.
On a third offense, the offender will be placed on probationary status. All posts of theirs will require approval before reaching the boards publicly. Probation is a minimum of one month. An appeal may be requested of the rules manager at any time after that, but probation will continue until the appeal is resolved.
Appeals will be heard by a moderation panel consisting of the rules manager and two admins selected by the offender.

This avenue is to foster openness and accountability on the staff's part in conjunction with stricter guidelines. In the event of a successful appeal, the warning will be rescinded and the posts restored. The staff will publicly announce the outcome to appeals.

Shattered Kingdoms

Terms of Service (and Forum Rules)

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