[INFO] The Freddyshouse Code of Conduct!

[rynnor]

The mighty CoC as it is more jocularly known - arm yourself with knowledge friends!

Oh one final point most of the Dark Age of Camelot clauses apply except the grats thread section as we have not determined a suitable level yet.

Welcome to the FreddysHouse Forums Code of Conduct (the CoC)

When posting here please keep the following things in mind, because if you mess up then you'll be out of here faster than TedTheDog can say "Mines a pint!" when it is someone else's round. Note that this is a loose guide, as we are the people who run this place in our spare time we reserve the right to be as relaxed or strict as we happen to feel like on the day in question.

A word of warning, no age restrictions are in place at FreddysHouse so be prepared for some content that may be offensive, rude and indeed unsuitable for minors.

Amendment:

If you have signed up simply to advertise a service or get your message across rather than participate in the community here we will delete your posts, ban your account and possibly publish email and ip addresses. You have been warned.

Your first post signals your agreement to these terms and conditions.

Remember, salespeople, marketing people and anyone with a message to preach are not welcome here. Most other people are, but we can't guarantee it.

We reserve the right to ban anyone for any reason!

FreddysHouse reserves the right to make any changes to this CoC as and when necessary. When this happens, all users are required to re-read and click a button to show acceptance. They cannot access certain functions of the forums until they accept the new CoC. There is no ground to state that you do not know our rules, before you click on the acceptance button make sure you read this CoC (took long enough to type it in so you can at least read it!)

General Conduct

• Respect your fellow forum users. If you want to take issue with what they say then do so by sticking to the point, not by using your well honed skills in 1337 5p34k.
  
  
• Personal attacks will not be tolerated, if you use the forums to wage virtual war you aren't just a very sad individual who probably likes to bash the bishop to streaming goat pr0n but you will also not be welcome here.
  
  
• If you need help ask for it, but search the forums first in case your query has been asked before. Oh and make sure you post your question / plea for help in the right forum, if you don't then you'll get moaned at. A lot.
  
  
• If someone shares a little personal information then please respect this and don't take the piss out of them for doing so. e.g.. Let them come out of the closet with dignity.
  
  
• You may not impersonate another board member or create an account specifically for the purpose of provoking other users. Also, accessing or using someone else's account or attempting to access another poster's account is strictly prohibited. You will be banned and all associated accounts will be banned as well.
  
  
• All board users agree not to post any material that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owners of said copyright, trademark or other proprietary right. Especially portraying such work as your own. This is otherwise known as, "RIPPING". Rippers are not permitted here, and if you are caught stealing others work you will be banned.

Posting Stuff

• Posting should be done in English. Drunken English is also permitted so long as we can make sense of it without having to use a crack team of ex-KGB code breakers.
  
• Strong language is okay, but fucking try not to fucking swear all the fucking time cos it is fucking annoying.
  
• Racism and extreme political views are a no-no. We know Bush is a c**t anyway.
  
• We permit image posting but use your common sense - vulgar, obscene or graphically pornographic images are not okay.
  
• Posts that are generally harassing, offensive, abusive – especially those aimed at sexual orientation, gender, race, colour, religious views, national origin or disability – will not be tolerated.
  
• Spamming is evil because it clogs up our forum with needless messages and eats away at the bandwidth we use to download pr0n. Spam and you will burn in hell, win a nice 2 week ban and/or have your post count edited to 0 which will reset your title. Oh did we not mention, we do NOT display your post count on the forums anywhere and if we find we missed a spot we fix it.
  
• Copyrighted music, film or other similar material is not permitted to be posted on our forums, neither are links to such files or links / details of methods of obtaining such material via online or offline means.
  
• Don't post your or anyone else's email address in the forums. If you want to share your email address make it available in your profile via the User CP by allowing download of your Vcard or ask people to send you a private message. If you DO share it, we will hurt you and the retards will probably arrange for shedloads of spam to arrive in your inbox for years to come.
  
• Nudity in images. To be blunt, Tits and Arse (Male and Female) are ok, Pussy and Dick are not as we don't want to get into the "is it a split beaver shot" or "has he got wood" nonsense. We're too old to be having these debates. Don't forget, you also should be respecting peoples copyright with respect to photographs. And no porn! No pictures of people shagging, even soft porn. Just DON'T! Oh, and if anyone thinks this means they can post that picture of the bloke with his hands up his own arse, think again. This means YOU too Wij!
  
  Amendment:
  
  All Not-Safe-For-Work material must only be posted in clearly labelled threads to avoid unpleasant surprises for readers at work. This means NO rude avatars and nude pictures should only be in threads starting: NSFW
  
  
• Don't tell people to "Die irl" or "Fuck off and Die of Aids" or anything like that. We've been doing forums for years and we've never seen anything so childishly nasty as this trend. Don't say things to people on this forum that you wouldn't say to their face, and that's not a challenge to the macho arseholes out there to prove themselves. Sin and be banned probably for good. If you're nasty and unpleasant, you are not wanted.
  
• Trading - You can sell your mum to a brothel, your father to a rich S&M mistress, your kids into slavery, and your dog to the local Chinese takeaway for all we care, but if you do it via these boards (or any other trading whatsoever) we won't be held responsible for any issues arising from it, howsoever caused. More specifically, try and trade a MMORPG account here and you could well find yourself banned (and your soul sold to Deebs, also known as The Devil). We'll be happy to extend sentences in hell to people who wish to try to trade in things we haven't yet envisaged also, so be it husband or wife, or even mother in law, or anything else you try to trade, we MIGHT slap a ban on your head if we think it's needed. In other words, we don't really want people trading here.

Amendment:

Dark Age of Camelot forum rules.

These rules have been prepared in response to feedback that people were unsure about our modding policies here and hence had difficulty understanding why some people may have been warned or banned, and also unsure about what is acceptable versus what is not. As with anything like this, it is not possible to list every possible situation and the response it will be met with, nor is it possible to guarantee that every moderator will treat situations in exactly the same way. This is why we use an old commodity called common sense when dealing with problems and in general if users do the same thing there won't be problems in the first place

Important note.

We know how smart a lot of you are. We realise that by defining rules we empower some bright sparks to dance between them, flaunt them by not quite breaching them. Users we think are simply provoking the mods or testing the flexibility of the rules will be banned. Yes, that sounds harsh, but it's the policy. Whether that's a permanent ban or temporary is up to us. Put simply, these rules are still guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any user's access at any time.


Flaming.

We understand that people will disagree and arguments with each other will happen. This is only natural where you have a large collection of users from a variety of different backgrounds with a matching variety of different views. We're not here to prevent open speech or discussion, indeed it is encouraged, but always please try to remember that if you launch personal attacks at others you should do so carefully. The old addage is to 'not say anything to someone you wouldn't say in real life, face to face', but reading these boards I sometimes wonder how effective that really is. Therefore, if you choose to 'flame' others then you will draw the attention of the mods. If you draw the attention of the mods then you will be watched more closely than others. Users deemed to be posting in too aggressive or rude a manner may receive a PM from a mod as a warning, but certainly will receive a 3 day temporary ban as a final warning if the behaviour continues. If their behaviour does not change following this 3 day warning they will receive a permanent ban. No ifs, no buts, a permanent ban.

Death threats.

Feedback suggests that some users may not consider people saying 'go and die IRL' to be very offensive. However, we (that is the FreddysHouse owners, admins and mods) do find it to be in direct opposition to the gaming community atmosphere we wish to encourage. There is also a history dating back a long way where this trend first started and, frankly, got pretty damned ugly. Therefore any user engaging in this kind of posting will be banned for a minimum of 1 week. When we set this ban, the moderator in question will review the user's posting history. If, in general, they are a user who posts constructively, does not simply flame or spam, and perhaps was 'having a bad day', then it will be a 1 week ban only. If, however, the user has a history of flaming people, spamming, or generally acting irresponsibly then their ban will be a permanent one.

Please note that other death references will be treated in the same manner. If what you say is tantamount to saying 'die' then you will receive the above treatment. For example, saying 'go and lie on the autobahn' is effectively saying 'go die' and will be treated as such. For obvious reasons we cannot think of every possible comment you imaginative wonders will come up with, so get use your common sense and understand that even a borderline situation will be treated the same way.

Gratz threads.

Realm Rank 5 and over only. No exceptions. Users doing so will receive a 3 day ban and the thread will be closed. Persistent offenders will be subject to a post history review and are likely to receive a 1 week ban as a final warning followed by a permanent ban if their posting does not improve.

Spam.

Hard to define, but bloody annoying nonetheless. Spamming disrupts the boards and makes it difficult for people to follow the thread topic. Determining if a user has been spamming is very subjective which means that it is difficult to moderate, but not impossible. A fast moving thread with the discussion being a meaningful and relevant one is fine. A humorous thread with valid input from each poster passing back and forth rapidly is also good to read and fun to have. What we define as spam is meaningless posting, lack of content to people's comments or silly 1 line responses. Of course, you will on occasion wish to post a simple 'well done' or 'gratz' or 'sign me up' and that's fine. What we look for is people who post several times a day with all similar 1 liners or emote posts offering no meaningful content.

If you are thought to be spamming you will receive a PM warning from a mod first. This is not an opening of a discussion to define what is or isn't spam, it is a warning. If you get to this point then your posting behaviour needs to change. If your warning does not bring about a change in posting behaviour you will receive a 3 day ban as a final warning. If this does not have the desired effect you will be banned permanently. No ifs, no buts, a permanent ban.

Bumping threads.

The only reason for bumping an old thread would be to continue that discussion rather than starting a new thread about the same subject. Any threads bumped without constructive input will be treated in the same was as Spam (see above).

Radar/cheat accusations.

Unwanted. Simple as that. If you have a legitimate reason to think a user may be cheating ingame then your correct cause of action is to log the issue with the RightNow system. Threads containing accusations that should be sent to RightNow will be deleted. No warnings or comments, deletion. Users persistently posting such threads will be treated in the same way as users spamming (see above). Users posting to complain about other users behaviour which is not subject to RightNow relevance (ie playing within the rules but in an unsporting way) can post the details but will also need to watch out for the 'flaming' rules above. It is also worth noting, that if you report someone you suspect of cheating, they are far more likely to be caught doing so by GOA if you don't forewarn them by posting accusations here!

Add on my fight whinage.

Another annoying trend. The rules have nothing whatsoever that says a solo player cannot attack an enemy of his/her realm, so get over it. Threads of this nature will be closed without warning.