BEARBONES SITE RULES.

[BEARBONES]

OOC RULES
Keep in mind that breaking any of these rules will result in a pm and, if you continue to break these rules, eventually a warning. After multiple warnings, you may be banned from the site.

RATING.

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— Bearbones is a pg-13 site, meaning any form of 18+ media is not allowed, including advertising and/or sexual roleplay. If necessary, use fade-to-black for sexual roleplay, however do not roleplay any form of smut. This is so any minors on the site aren't exposed to something they shouldn't be exposed to in the first place. Cuss words and sexual jokes are fine, so long as they aren't offensive or overly-explicit.

RUDENESS.

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— Rudeness is not tolerated on Bearbones; rudeness includes (but is not limited to): bad-mouthing, bashing/degrading, using slurs offensively (reclaimed or not), and causing drama. While this rule certainly applies to members on this site, bashing other roleplay sites is highly discouraged. If you see a member being rude to another, then please report it to staff.

Keep in mind that Bearbones is not a place to start/engage in drama. It's understandable that people may be upset by warnings or others, but Bearbones is not a site to release such stress.

Not only that, but mixing IC and OOC opinions is prohibited. Mixing IC and OOC opinions may include not promoting a character due to you having a distaste for someone, even if the character is perfectly capable of being in a high position. To put it simply, if you're using IC actions to bully a roleplayer out of playing somewhere/limiting them ICly, or in any way harassing a member via IC actions, you will be warned.

Guilt-tripping is also not allowed on Bearbones. Guilt-tripping is the act of making someone feel guilty in order for them to react or feel a certain way (usually for your own gain). This is unfair to other members, and puts them in an uncomfortable situation where they may be possibly forced to do something they don't want to do. Therefore, it isn't allowed.

MINI-MODDING.

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— Mini-modding is also not allowed. Mini-modding is when you handle a member breaking the rules by themselves, such as telling a member that they aren't allowed to powerplay and that they should fix their post. While the staff team is appreciative of people looking out for the community, all rule-breaks should be reported to staff so they can be handled accordingly.

SLURS AND SITE CENSOR.

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— As of now, staff only put slurs into the site censor that are deemed especially offensive. While people are allowed to use those slurs (so long as they don't break any other rules, for example no ooc rudeness or unwarned ic slurs), slurs must have all or all but one letter starred out. The censor will automatically star out any slurs that are presented as normal words, though any attempts to evade the censor will result in a warning. If anyone would like to know what the full list of slurs is, pm a moderator or admin.

Note that certain slurs that, due to normalization or reclamation, are not censored (such as queer, ho, bitch, etc) and regular cursewords are also uncensored. If there are any words that you don't want to see, you can use your own personal censor by going to profile > modify profile > personal censor.

DRUGS.

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— As per our host's requirements, members are not allowed to oocly state that they take illegal drugs or promote illegal drugs (according to Indiana's drug laws). You are allowed to talk about your medication and make jokes about drugs (provided that's all they are), and this rule does not apply to IC.

VENTS.

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— In order to maintain a positive atmosphere on Bearbones, vents and rants are not allowed, e.g. discussing negativity in your life without asking for suggestions/discussing how to resolve the problem. These create a toxic environment and are potentially triggering. As always, any "vague" posts that allude to issues with another person on the site will not be tolerated and will result in a warning or other staff action.

TRIGGER WARNINGS.

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— Content/trigger warnings are required for any post pertaining to certain subjects (such as abuse of any kind, drug or alcohol use, gore or blood, murder or general death, torture, suicide or suicidal thoughts, self harm/mutilation, disordered eating, mentions of rape or sexual assault [our rules on this remain the same], homophobia/transphobia/sexism/racism/ablism, and rants about politics or religion). They should be bolded at the top of the post, giving a clear warning but not too much or too little detail.

There are certain circumstances when this isn't necessary in every single post, only the first. For example, a raid wouldn't require a warning for violence in every single post, or a bar au would only need the alcohol notice in the first post. Any new triggers (even similar ones) that are introduced later would require a new warning. One example would be that if someone started murdering others in the bar au, that would need a fresh warning. However, posts reacting to the murder wouldn't need a warning.

STAFF INFORMATION.

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— All staff information is to be kept private. Any staff member who leaks info (such as who's breaking what rule, new bans, ectetera) will be demoted from the team and warned. Should this continue, they'll eventually be banned. Members who leak staff information will be asked to stop, but if they continue, they may eventually be banned as well. Staff members are allowed to hint at new concepts coming to Bearbones, but anything other than that is considered leaking private information.

WHAT STAFF WILL/WON'T REMOVE.

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— There are a few things that staff will and will not remove if a member asked us to.

Staff will remove any personal information (where you live, where you were born, etc.; we'll always remove addresses) and anything that breaches a member's trust/confidentiality (such as if a member told another about a difficult time they were going through and the other person posted openly about it), especially if it causes anxiety.

Staff won't remove any quotes of jokes or non-serious things (eg you said something to your friend privately in a joking manner and they posted it) or things that the member can remove themselves (such as if you posted a picture of yourself that you then want taken down).

PLAGIARISM.

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— Any form of plagiarism will not be tolerated. This includes claiming photos/templates as your own when they aren't, stealing others' writing or art, ectetera. When reporting plagiarism, please provide a link to the original source.

SPAM.

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— Basic spamming rules apply: excessive and purposeless posting is not allowed. Double- and triple-posting is allowed of course, but spamming just to spam is not, especially in order to earn bones.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

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— All advertisements must be in the correct board, and PG-13. If you're going to advertise a site, please post it in either first time or link back; any on-site advertisement may be paid for (via bones) in the header advertisement shop. Any faulty advertisement may be removed, and possibly result in a warning.

 VOTING PROCEDURES.

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— Staff cannot give out concrete information about voting progress, and it's up to individual staff members whether or not they are personally comfortable discussing voting. There's no issue with saying that it's close, but we can't say "you need three more votes to be ahead" before voting is closed.

Staff members are allowed to precisely discuss after voting is closed, and the same guidelines on comfort apply. If a staff member is uncomfortable discussing voting, they can direct you to someone who is! Exact results will be shared privately if you PM a staff member.

If we find that someone has cheated, their vote will be removed and they will be warned, but the person they voted for will not be penalized unless there's evidence that they asked the member to do this, or had prior knowledge.

Begging or asking for votes should be reported by members, as this is not allowed. Proof of begging counts as a skewed vote, and may result in staff redoing the vote if necessary. This will be handled on a case by case basis.

In the event of a tie, staff members will PM those involved and ask if there's any way they would prefer to break the tie. They can decide for themselves OOC through discussion, or staff could hold a tiebreaker vote. If you would prefer another option, that can be discussed!

Most votes held by staff will require your BB username or email. This is so staff can ensure that everyone only votes once.

 GROUP DISCORDS

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1) People have to announce who they are, either in an intro channel or their display name has to be their user. Anyone not announcing who they are will be kicked.
2) As they're connected to bb, no nsfw content can be posted or linked, the chats abide by bearbones rules.
3) There has to be a staff member in the discord (they will not be required to moderate, but as an easy access way of reaching a staffer, and for the staff to monitor what happens). The staff member must have an administrator role that can at least kick/delete messages.
4) Discords that are breaking rules will be deleted. Members who are breaking minor rules on discord will be given a three-strike system: 1st strike is a warning, 2nd is a ban from the discord for a week, 3rd will be an on-site cooldown ban for two weeks (if the member hasn’t already had issues with rules in the past). Anyone breaking bigger rules (for example, posting nsfw content) will be immediately kicked from the discord and banned on-site.
5) Discords must be approved by the leader and run by the leader. The discord must have the link set to not expire, and it must be easily accessed on the first post of the group's chat thread.
6) Discords are not a replacement for a chat thread. Discords are an easy way to cause cliques and leave those who cannot stay active off-site out. If we have complaints or notice a distinct clique problem, we reserve the right to remove or delete a discord.

[BEARBONES]

IC RULES
These rules do not reply to the OOC boards, but rather the main game, The New World (TNW). As stated earlier, breaking any of these rules will result in a pm and, if you continue to break these rules, eventually a warning. After multiple warnings, you may be banned from the site.

REALISM.

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— The realism rules governing each section of the site are detailed in their respective guides and are updated as new outlines are discussed. Realism rules for TNW (The New World) can be found here. In the event of changes to these rules, announcements will be made to keep everyone informed.

GODMODDING AND POWERPLAYING.

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— Godmodding and Powerplaying are not allowed. Powerplaying means to make your character overly/unfairly powerful. Godmodding means to have your character control another character or characters within roleplay. These two may be allowed only if you're given permission from the other writer(s).

LEADER INACTIVITY.

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— In TNW (The New World), leaders are permitted four days of inactivity before recieving a warning via PM. If the leader remains inactive for another week and/or their group's activity suffers due to their absence, they will be demoted. Leaders that are aware they will be absent for more than four days must appoint a temporary leader until they return. If there is no second in command in the event of a leader's demotion/stepping down, there will be an IC vote monitored by staff to decide who will be the next leader. Posting meetings and OOC posts do not count toward activity, as the leader must interact with the community. Further, leader activity is not strictly measured by the leader’s writer. Activity is counted when the specific leader character is active in open IC scenarios.

BACKBOARDS.

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— Backboards in TNW must have an established guide and at least three or four people that intend in actually posting and remaining active in the group, including the leader(s). IC threads with three to four people in them can work in place of interest checks (which can be made in the Helping Hub). Once a board is provided, they're given a month's grace period to build activity and a member base; if they're struggling, but there are attempts to revive it, they're given a notice after two weeks of inactivity. Then, if things remain stagnant, the board is removed. To actually get the boards up, we will need a link to the guide and the interest check.

UPDATED GUIDES.

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— Boarded groups' guides should be updated within one week of any changes going into affect, such as promotions and demotions, changes in territory or ranks or traditions or politics, or anything else listed in the guide.

ACTIONS AGAINST ENTIRE GROUP.

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— Any IC actions taken against a TNW group as a whole must have permission from the RPer of the current leader. These actions include raids, takeovers, poisoning of food/water supplies, or anything that negatively effects most or the entirety of a group. This does not apply to single kidnappings, in which case you only need permission from the individual character's RPer.

SEXUAL CONTENT.

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— Sexually explicit images—whether drawings or actual photos—are completely forbidden.

— In images, shirtless men are fine. However, shirtless women must have their nipples covered due to the United States' nudity laws.

— In roleplay, nudity mustn’t be roleplayed out sexually. It’s fine to roleplay a shirtless man or woman, however it cannot be sexualized or in a sexual way.

— Writing smut of any kind is forbidden, which also includes borderline smut. Fade in/out MUST be used but cannot be used excessively.

— In response to several laws, the minimum IC age of consent is 16. However, that does not mean you are allowed to rp sex—as stated earlier, use fade in/fade out. Consent must be given by both characters.

— Rapist characters are forbidden. Rapist-like acts are also forbidden, such as drugging a character to have sex with them, having non-consented sex, an adult having sex with a minor, etcetera.

— Sexual abuse is not allowed to be roleplayed. Characters can have it in their past of course, however it cannot be roleplayed in the present, in a one-shot, or as a flashback. Characters are allowed to refer to it, or have the information written in it about in their bio, so long as it isn’t explicit and detailed.