Godai's Forum Rules~

[Godai]

Pokémon Godai

Hello dear. Welcome to our wonderful region called Godai. The point of this place is the creation of a community that welcomes everyone of all walks of life to have fun. Originality is always a goal, second only to creating the best roleplay possible.

This thread will hold all the rules and information needed to take part of the site, the things one should know before making a character and diving into our mystical world.

Forum Rules

Unfortunately, for many of you, these rules will sound very familiar. Please don’t skim, just for the sake of clarity, and bear with us.

• Happiness and Fun: Why do we roleplay? There are many reasons, but one of the most simple and common reasons is because it's fun, and it makes us happy. That's the aim, and it's our highest priority. However, there are things that can be done that ruin others' time here. Things like bigotry, needless arguments, bullying and all other forms of conduct that the internet refers to as "Flaming" are prohibited. This doesn't mean that everything has to be sunshine and daisies, but there's a difference between debates and arguments, criticism and heckling, and so on. I'd like to ask that people coming in put on an air of pleasantness and I am more than positive that we will do the same.
  This is probably the most important rule, and almost, if not all of the ones to follow are just specifications of this.
• Don't Godmod or Powerplay: We see these words thrown around and they have lots of definitions depending on whom you ask. On Godai, Godmoding is when a character goes into "God Mode" and wreaks unrealistic havoc, breezing through actions in which they should struggle. I know it's easy to want your character to be powerful and strong, but this makes the experience a lot less fun for those who roleplay with you. For the sake of happiness and fun, I kindly ask you to exercise caution when displaying your character's strength, anything overdone will face staff action.
  Powerplaying on the other hand is when one character takes control of another player's character without their permission. It's really obvious to see how this unfair for the victim. We encourage player interaction, but it has to be equal. If you're working in a pad post then powerplaying has an assumed consent. If not, and we get a complaint, you will be reprimanded.
• Be Careful with Graphic Content: Reality and life are full of gross and yucky things like blood and guts. It's also full of sex, booze, and rock n' roll. However, each person can only handle so much of "life under the red lights." It also puts us at a legal liability to expressly allow such content. So, please don't go beyond what's tasteful in regards to such themes like death, sex, profanity, and other such ideas in your writing. Yes, people and pokemon die, that can make for a really touching story. Describing how you slaughter a pack of poochyena in cold blood is just disturbing. Hinting to an intimate relation is great too, describing a very heated caress should be someplace where there aren't underage readers.
  If you're unsure about some content, it would probably be better to edit it out if you can. If you can't, take it up with a staff member and trust their judgement.
• No One Likes a Cheater: Honestly, sometimes the staff makes a mistake, if it's a big one, we'd like to think that you'll be nice enough to not exploit it. If you think it's a good idea to try and parade around with two different accounts, or even having two at all, so that you can send rewards from one to the other, then you obviously didn't look around to see that we're pretty generous and that's totally unnecessary. Any sort of cheating or abusing of a faulty system will result in, at least, the rewards being retracted, at most, anything up to banning.
• Don't stretch the Page: This includes avatar pictures, signatures, and posted pictures. Zetaboard resizes some things, but large images juxtaposing on a thread can be a pain to read past, especially when they occur a lot.
• Respect the Staff: I won't say that the moderators are always right, but if there's a debate or an argument about something on the site, please remember that the Staff has a more informed opinion about how things are run here. The way we run things will always have a good reason, and sometimes it might come down to an aesthetic decision. Please respect that if the staff is unified on something, it should stay that way.
• Paraphrasing our Systems: This is something we don't necessarily like enforcing, but pragmatism and overall order requires that we must. It can be summed up as follows: If someone is asking about information that is written down, direct them to it, do not explain it for them, and furthermore, do not link them to it. That seems haughty and pompous of us, we know. However, everyone needs to be exposed to the same information. When everyone takes it upon themselves to offer their own interpretation of what's written, it can help someone understand, but it also fosters overall confusion. Even the people that wrote these guides do not remember them verbatim, and even our explanations can be flawed. What isn't flawed is the static words careful drafted and redrafted that are here for everyone. Please do not insult the intelligence of newer members by spoonfeeding them information that the mods may have to clean up later.

[Godai]

Offense System

If any rules are broken, here’s a listing of what can occur, depending in the severity of the offense.

• First Offense: If it is something minor, such as accidental Godmoding, stretching the page, or something similar, you will be informed through a Private Message on the board, or chat box. This will serve as a warning. More severe actions such as posting illegal content on the board will result in a permanent ban from the site. There are plenty of grey areas as well, but except in extreme cases, the first offense is a warning.
• Second Offense: This again will be a warning, and depending on the severity of the action, may result in a temporary ban from twelve to twenty-four hours.
• Third Offense: By this point there will be another temporary ban spanning from twenty-four to seventy-two hours, and a very increased sensitivity on the staff. Meaning that we will be much less tolerant of smaller infringements of the rules.
• Fourth Offense: A ban lasting at least a week, at the mod's discretion. They have the right to make it last for up to a month if they feel that it needs doing.
• Fifth Offense: This is a permanent ban from the site. Any actions to return to the site will be dealt with severely and immediately.

I must say that these are only a vague outline, due to the fact that gauging offenses is largely subjective to many different variables. Having many small infractions may lead to a permaban, but it also might not, depending on the victim and the offender. And sometimes fewer than five larger offences will result in one being removed from the site. Attitude is Everything

It can be summed up rather well by simply remembering the first rule above, and supplementing "Don't be a Jerk".

[Godai]

Site Positions

Godai has several member groups to which people belong. Each group has specific duties that they perform and all function together to keep the site going. This means that everyone is an important cog and has the right to an opinion. Some groups will know more about the site, but all still work together.

There are two Blanket Groups. There are the Players or Users, and the Staff.

Players

The Players group is divided into two groups, Members and and Premier Members

Members are what you are after you register for the site. Your "job" is to have fun~ Write epic stories, fight and catch pokemon, use our systems, meet friends and hang out. Technically everyone is a member, but you have the least amount of responsibility~ If you remain with us for a long time and an opening in the staff appears, it's also possible for you to be promoted!

Premier Members are what we call Retired Staff Members. For whatever reason they choose, if they decide to resign, they'll get this pretty premier ball as a tribute to their experience on our staff. Since we do not Retcon our former mods, they're one of the best people to ask about the runnings of the site, though depending on how long they've been off the staff, you might not want to ask about newer developments.

Staff

The staff has more divisions, four groups. Novice Moderators, Board Moderators, Global Moderators, and Administrators . There isn't a hierarchy on Godai, just different duties designated to different groups, even though many groups can cross duties. All words from all groups are equally as valid until proven otherwise. Some duties that all staff members share are answering questions, helping settle site discussions, helping with events, and welcoming new members as well as keeping a generally positive air about the site.

First is Novice Moderators. These are, essentially, moderators in training. This will be the first step any member takes to becoming a proper staff member. To become a Novice Moderator, members should have a good standing in the community and show outstanding presence on the site. Once promoted, the Novice will be asked to do moderator duties like rolling encounters, evaluating topics, and other creative work as well. Another promotion will come in order when the rest of the staff agrees that a Novice Moderator is ready.

Next is Board Moderators. Their purpose is to handle Character Applications, Modifications, and Necessities like rolling encounters, Evaluations, and PokeMart requests. They handle the daily work that fills up a lot of the responsibility of the site, and need to be creative and enthusiastic to keep the forum running smoothly and elegantly. They are promoted to Global Moderators.

Then we have Support Moderators. This is a special position that we give to someone who wants to help. It's something of a Board Moderator Lite position. They can do much of the same work, the notable exception being Evaluations. This is not a role we often need filling , and is generally there as a safety net for extreme circumstances. This position does not have any specific promotions.

Afterward there are Global Moderators. They're essentially Board Moderators who are so skilled at what they do and have been doing it for so long that they gain more insight into how the site runs, and are able to make much wiser decisions. They have access to every forum on the board and should be able to handle any duty shy of those designated to the Administrators.

And finally, Administrators. These are people who have access to every inch of the site, even the parts you don't see. It's their job to keep things running and are usually responsible for most of the world-building with the input of other members. If you want a really really good answer about something on the site, ask an Admin.

Promotions

Rather rarely, the Staff will hold an event that involves sending in an application to become promoted. When you do the staff will review those and see who we find eligible for a step up. This applies to current staff members as well. There is no guarantee that the promotion will go through, but applying can't hurt and will let us know that you want to help out more on the site.

The more common way that promotions happen is by necessity. If a staff member decides to resign, and/or the current staff is feeling overworked, the staff may get together and discuss the current members' standing in the community. Then, we will approach you and ask if you want to be a part of the staff. Sometimes this is asking for a full and permanent staff position, other times it's not. Sometimes we may only need temporary assistance in handling stuff and will offer a "Temp" position. A Temp position, initially, doesn't result in an eventual promotion, and also asks you to stay most of the way out of staff discussions.

Also, like all sites we generally discourage you from asking directly to be a part of the staff. However, if you notice that the staff is having trouble/falling behind, it doesn't hurt to say, "If you need help, I'm available." See? No question mark, you did not ask to be staff, you just offered your services; totally fine.

As long as you're a good, active member, you've got potential to be a Staff member!