Post by Wolfbane on Sept 12, 2007 17:47:11 GMT -5
A copy of the mass PM sent to all members on 12 September, 2007, addressing some of the issues among members. Please skim second paragraph and read what you feel you must, accordingly.
"There are a few things which Tor and I have discussed or simply that I have personally noticed and which I believe important to bring to your attention. This is a very long PM and may be a bit scattered, but the truth is that some members just don't know what's right and wrong, what people like and dislike, and what's simply rude. If you feel you do not need to read any of the information included below, don't whine if you do something wrong that was clearly explained here. In this PM, I will try my best to cover the following:
THE FAN-ART BOARD. Banners In The Fan-Art Section - where to post requests and what not to do; Healthy Criticism - what one would consider criticism and what would be widely considered rude; Banner/Signature Size - some of them are huge! We don't like it!
POSTING. Attracting Members To Your Thread - how to always have someone to RP with; Character Development - we're not all the most godly or the baddest of the bad here, is your description of your character's alliance pushing people from replying?; Godmodding - Permission and consent and how NOT to use it; Point Harvesting - it's cheating; RP-Searching In OOC Boards - there's a thread for it; Lyricas - posts mostly made up of lyrics
PRIVATE MESSAGING. Friend Or Foe? - when asking to RP, etc., is alright and what is plain harassment
MEMBER HARASSMENT/OOC BOARDS. Ganging Up - there's been a lot of members all siding with one another against one person. Let's keep that to a minimum; Debates - they go in the debates board, no matter what they are about; People Are Mean - your opinions of a character or their player give you no right to go making belittling remarks about them; Member Respect - there's almost none of it among the newer members
PASSWORDS. Hacking; Logging In Forever - don't do it; Logging Out - safety against another person getting on your computer; Friends - don't always need to know your password to everything
CONSEQUENCES. Why You Should Follow Rules; What Isn't Tolerated - an easy way to get yourself banned
Let the epic begin!
THE FAN-ART BOARD.
Banners In The Art Section- In the past, many members have wanted banners for their signature and have simply created a new thread making a request for someone to make said banner. From now on, all banner requests are to be posted in either a thread offering graphics/banners/avatars OR in my "BANNER REQUESTS/BANNER INFO" thread, all found in the Fan-Art board. Those of you who enjoy making banners, check my thread - there is always someone looking to commission you!
Healthy Criticism- "This looks like crap" or "I've seen this picture before - did you trace it?" are not forms of healthy criticism. When criticising a person's work, first make the observation whether or not they want to be criticised. Members who WISH TO RECEIVE CRITICISM should mention it in their first post, not later along the thread. To give healthy criticism, let them know what parts you do like and tell them they did a good job but perhaps they should try references, they should practice on their paws, etc. Be nice - don't be blunt like Wolfbane.
Banner/Signature Size- A banner that takes up half of a webpage is irritating to members and makes it difficult to read short OOC posts. It is preferred (but not required) that you refrain from making your banner LARGE WITH BIG HUGE or giving yourself a large signature. A good banner size would not exceed the size of this banner in both width and height. Though it's probably pretty big for those of you with one of those old monitors set to 800 x 600, you'll always have to deal with big signatures until you get a new monitor or set your monitor to 1024 x 768. Nocty's banner is a good example of a maximum-sized banner and what yours should not exceed:
height: 215 width: 695
POSTING.
Attracting Members To Your Thread- It's proven that posting in the Play Area or in a packland will attract more members to your thread. Don't post in places, such as in the Woods or by the River, where nobody who checks the board will know you. When posting in places other than the Play Area or a packland, it's probably best that you have a buddy, or put [Anyone] in your title. Ex. Title: Skipping Stones [Anyone]
Character Development- So a devil meets another devil, they both engage in the most epic battle the world's ever seen - meanwhile, the lowly peons who make up the rest of the wolven population roll their eyes and continue to go about their business. That's pretty much what will happen if you try to make your character just the most epic amazing thing to ever grace the earth. Remember, we have over 700 members. We can't have 700 epic beasties or purest pretties. It's reccommended that you give your character more.. personality. Sure, be as evil or good as you want, but give us a reason to be drawn to your character, hypnotised. Not just because we should feel grateful to have that special little bumpkin known as yourself.
Godmodding- The term 'Godmodding' or 'to god mode' means to make another person's character do an action without their writing it. In other words, the character J posts: "J dodges Ko as the great varg made to slash at his throat. With a horrid growl, J turned on his heels, burying his teeth into the other's sensitive underneck. He threw the wolf to the ground, tearing Ko's throat open, murdering him." Three counts of godmodding can be seen here: making another character do an action, auto-hitting a character, and auto-killing a character. Before you make another character do ANYTHING, you must first have PERMISSION. Display that you have acquired the other character's permission before you kill, hurt, or assume a character does an action. Remember - in an RP fight, the other character can ALWAYS dodge.. but if their post doesn't exceed the limit of the attacker's post, they must allow their dodge to fail. PS, if you get bored of your character and want to kill them off, don't hesitate to PM me.
Point Harvesting- Cheating! When you post short, pointless, or OOC posts in threads that allow post point gains, you gain a quick post point, which raises your rank. All OOC posts must be included in IC posts. Packlands, that means no more OOC threads unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. We'd much rather you guys just earn your ranks.
RP-Searching In OOC Boards- There's a thread in the OOC boards for anyone who is looking for RP. Please refrain from posting random threads requesting RP in Out of the Woods or General boards. From now on, please post in trattoblessing.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1170884573
Lyricas- Lyrics make your posts look longer, but they're just plain annoying when they have absolutely nothing to do with your post. If you're going to RP a Lyrica thread, please put [Lyrica] BEFORE your thread title, just so those who enjoy posting lyricas know where to go.
PRIVATE MESSAGING.
Friend Or Foe?- "RP RP RP RP RP how ya doin wanna RP?!111" Come on. Don't do this. Ask once, ask up to three people, don't ask everyone. Politeness and patience are virtues.
MEMBER HARASSMENT/OOC BOARDS.
Ganging Up- People don't always agree on everything, but it is important for everyone to be polite and not jump someone for stating their opinions. This is a community - if a group is arguing against one person, others will probably come to that lone person's aid, which will most likely result in administrator action being taken.
Debates- In OOC threads, debates are more like heated arguments. If you want to argue about something, do so in the Debates thread. The rest of TS do not want to watch members get into a heated dispute about a contest or a poem. C'mon.
People Are Mean- Some people say rude things just because they can and they think they can get away with it or just don't care if they get away with it or not. If anyone seems to have made a mean/rude comment just for the hell of it, please notify an administrator or a board moderator (the pack draggas and drappas, plus a few other members) immediately. Any disrespectful comments or comments which put down others are not and will never be tolerated.
Member Respect- The older the member (especially), or the higher the rank, the more respect the member should receive. We don't want to see anyone badmouthing an older member or a member with an alpha or beta position. We don't want to see anyone badmouthing anyone, period, but it's just a fact of life that the newer members will be seen as peons and ants in some members' eyes until those newer members prove themselves worthy of being respected. To be respected, you must respect. That's the bottom line.
PASSWORDS.
Hacking- It's easy to hack some of your accounts. When we get bored, we try to guess passwords. And sometimes we're right. Make your password difficult for people to guess. Add numbers, spaces, etc. If the wrong someone learns your password, it could mean goodbye to you forever.
Logging In Forever- You've got to have your own computer, live alone, or trust those around you more than we will ever know if you log your character in forever.
Logging Out- ALWAYS log out, unless you are the only person to ever use your computer. Single children, this is easy for you. Those of you with siblings old enough to know anything or who use a family computer, it is probably a good idea for you to log off when you get off of your computer. There are also members who have computer difficulties and who use school or library computers to log on and post here. It's public computers that are the big threat - no matter what you think couldn't happen, be paranoid about logging off if you use a public computer.
Friends- (and family) are a big threat to your status here on trattoblessing. Your best friend knows everything about you, sure, but when you get into an argument, that friend could do all sorts of things to you, including posting stuff about you here or doing something on your account that could get you banned for life.
CONSEQUENCES.
Why You Should Follow The Rules- Because it makes RPing and OOCing here more enjoyable for everyone. Also, a website with a bunch of troublemakers will get a bad reputation going around. We pride ourselves on being a fun and friendly website - we'd appreciate it if you'd try to keep it this way. And you don't want to be banned. You'll go down in history on the Hate List.
What Isn't Tolerated- I can't think of everything a person could possibly be banned for, but here are a few little tidbits: Multiple posts, constant godmodding, disrespect, rudeness, continuing an act when a moderator or administrator has asked it to cease, severe lewdness, cursing that is 'a bit much,' hacking
A copy of this PM can be found in the Admin Messages board.
Thank you,
Wolfbane
PM me if you have any questions, comments, or are having an issue with another member which falls into one of these categories.
You have no idea how long it took me to type this."
"There are a few things which Tor and I have discussed or simply that I have personally noticed and which I believe important to bring to your attention. This is a very long PM and may be a bit scattered, but the truth is that some members just don't know what's right and wrong, what people like and dislike, and what's simply rude. If you feel you do not need to read any of the information included below, don't whine if you do something wrong that was clearly explained here. In this PM, I will try my best to cover the following:
THE FAN-ART BOARD. Banners In The Fan-Art Section - where to post requests and what not to do; Healthy Criticism - what one would consider criticism and what would be widely considered rude; Banner/Signature Size - some of them are huge! We don't like it!
POSTING. Attracting Members To Your Thread - how to always have someone to RP with; Character Development - we're not all the most godly or the baddest of the bad here, is your description of your character's alliance pushing people from replying?; Godmodding - Permission and consent and how NOT to use it; Point Harvesting - it's cheating; RP-Searching In OOC Boards - there's a thread for it; Lyricas - posts mostly made up of lyrics
PRIVATE MESSAGING. Friend Or Foe? - when asking to RP, etc., is alright and what is plain harassment
MEMBER HARASSMENT/OOC BOARDS. Ganging Up - there's been a lot of members all siding with one another against one person. Let's keep that to a minimum; Debates - they go in the debates board, no matter what they are about; People Are Mean - your opinions of a character or their player give you no right to go making belittling remarks about them; Member Respect - there's almost none of it among the newer members
PASSWORDS. Hacking; Logging In Forever - don't do it; Logging Out - safety against another person getting on your computer; Friends - don't always need to know your password to everything
CONSEQUENCES. Why You Should Follow Rules; What Isn't Tolerated - an easy way to get yourself banned
Let the epic begin!
THE FAN-ART BOARD.
Banners In The Art Section- In the past, many members have wanted banners for their signature and have simply created a new thread making a request for someone to make said banner. From now on, all banner requests are to be posted in either a thread offering graphics/banners/avatars OR in my "BANNER REQUESTS/BANNER INFO" thread, all found in the Fan-Art board. Those of you who enjoy making banners, check my thread - there is always someone looking to commission you!
Healthy Criticism- "This looks like crap" or "I've seen this picture before - did you trace it?" are not forms of healthy criticism. When criticising a person's work, first make the observation whether or not they want to be criticised. Members who WISH TO RECEIVE CRITICISM should mention it in their first post, not later along the thread. To give healthy criticism, let them know what parts you do like and tell them they did a good job but perhaps they should try references, they should practice on their paws, etc. Be nice - don't be blunt like Wolfbane.
Banner/Signature Size- A banner that takes up half of a webpage is irritating to members and makes it difficult to read short OOC posts. It is preferred (but not required) that you refrain from making your banner LARGE WITH BIG HUGE or giving yourself a large signature. A good banner size would not exceed the size of this banner in both width and height. Though it's probably pretty big for those of you with one of those old monitors set to 800 x 600, you'll always have to deal with big signatures until you get a new monitor or set your monitor to 1024 x 768. Nocty's banner is a good example of a maximum-sized banner and what yours should not exceed:
height: 215 width: 695
POSTING.
Attracting Members To Your Thread- It's proven that posting in the Play Area or in a packland will attract more members to your thread. Don't post in places, such as in the Woods or by the River, where nobody who checks the board will know you. When posting in places other than the Play Area or a packland, it's probably best that you have a buddy, or put [Anyone] in your title. Ex. Title: Skipping Stones [Anyone]
Character Development- So a devil meets another devil, they both engage in the most epic battle the world's ever seen - meanwhile, the lowly peons who make up the rest of the wolven population roll their eyes and continue to go about their business. That's pretty much what will happen if you try to make your character just the most epic amazing thing to ever grace the earth. Remember, we have over 700 members. We can't have 700 epic beasties or purest pretties. It's reccommended that you give your character more.. personality. Sure, be as evil or good as you want, but give us a reason to be drawn to your character, hypnotised. Not just because we should feel grateful to have that special little bumpkin known as yourself.
Godmodding- The term 'Godmodding' or 'to god mode' means to make another person's character do an action without their writing it. In other words, the character J posts: "J dodges Ko as the great varg made to slash at his throat. With a horrid growl, J turned on his heels, burying his teeth into the other's sensitive underneck. He threw the wolf to the ground, tearing Ko's throat open, murdering him." Three counts of godmodding can be seen here: making another character do an action, auto-hitting a character, and auto-killing a character. Before you make another character do ANYTHING, you must first have PERMISSION. Display that you have acquired the other character's permission before you kill, hurt, or assume a character does an action. Remember - in an RP fight, the other character can ALWAYS dodge.. but if their post doesn't exceed the limit of the attacker's post, they must allow their dodge to fail. PS, if you get bored of your character and want to kill them off, don't hesitate to PM me.
Point Harvesting- Cheating! When you post short, pointless, or OOC posts in threads that allow post point gains, you gain a quick post point, which raises your rank. All OOC posts must be included in IC posts. Packlands, that means no more OOC threads unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. We'd much rather you guys just earn your ranks.
RP-Searching In OOC Boards- There's a thread in the OOC boards for anyone who is looking for RP. Please refrain from posting random threads requesting RP in Out of the Woods or General boards. From now on, please post in trattoblessing.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1170884573
Lyricas- Lyrics make your posts look longer, but they're just plain annoying when they have absolutely nothing to do with your post. If you're going to RP a Lyrica thread, please put [Lyrica] BEFORE your thread title, just so those who enjoy posting lyricas know where to go.
PRIVATE MESSAGING.
Friend Or Foe?- "RP RP RP RP RP how ya doin wanna RP?!111" Come on. Don't do this. Ask once, ask up to three people, don't ask everyone. Politeness and patience are virtues.
MEMBER HARASSMENT/OOC BOARDS.
Ganging Up- People don't always agree on everything, but it is important for everyone to be polite and not jump someone for stating their opinions. This is a community - if a group is arguing against one person, others will probably come to that lone person's aid, which will most likely result in administrator action being taken.
Debates- In OOC threads, debates are more like heated arguments. If you want to argue about something, do so in the Debates thread. The rest of TS do not want to watch members get into a heated dispute about a contest or a poem. C'mon.
People Are Mean- Some people say rude things just because they can and they think they can get away with it or just don't care if they get away with it or not. If anyone seems to have made a mean/rude comment just for the hell of it, please notify an administrator or a board moderator (the pack draggas and drappas, plus a few other members) immediately. Any disrespectful comments or comments which put down others are not and will never be tolerated.
Member Respect- The older the member (especially), or the higher the rank, the more respect the member should receive. We don't want to see anyone badmouthing an older member or a member with an alpha or beta position. We don't want to see anyone badmouthing anyone, period, but it's just a fact of life that the newer members will be seen as peons and ants in some members' eyes until those newer members prove themselves worthy of being respected. To be respected, you must respect. That's the bottom line.
PASSWORDS.
Hacking- It's easy to hack some of your accounts. When we get bored, we try to guess passwords. And sometimes we're right. Make your password difficult for people to guess. Add numbers, spaces, etc. If the wrong someone learns your password, it could mean goodbye to you forever.
Logging In Forever- You've got to have your own computer, live alone, or trust those around you more than we will ever know if you log your character in forever.
Logging Out- ALWAYS log out, unless you are the only person to ever use your computer. Single children, this is easy for you. Those of you with siblings old enough to know anything or who use a family computer, it is probably a good idea for you to log off when you get off of your computer. There are also members who have computer difficulties and who use school or library computers to log on and post here. It's public computers that are the big threat - no matter what you think couldn't happen, be paranoid about logging off if you use a public computer.
Friends- (and family) are a big threat to your status here on trattoblessing. Your best friend knows everything about you, sure, but when you get into an argument, that friend could do all sorts of things to you, including posting stuff about you here or doing something on your account that could get you banned for life.
CONSEQUENCES.
Why You Should Follow The Rules- Because it makes RPing and OOCing here more enjoyable for everyone. Also, a website with a bunch of troublemakers will get a bad reputation going around. We pride ourselves on being a fun and friendly website - we'd appreciate it if you'd try to keep it this way. And you don't want to be banned. You'll go down in history on the Hate List.
What Isn't Tolerated- I can't think of everything a person could possibly be banned for, but here are a few little tidbits: Multiple posts, constant godmodding, disrespect, rudeness, continuing an act when a moderator or administrator has asked it to cease, severe lewdness, cursing that is 'a bit much,' hacking
A copy of this PM can be found in the Admin Messages board.
Thank you,
Wolfbane
PM me if you have any questions, comments, or are having an issue with another member which falls into one of these categories.
You have no idea how long it took me to type this."
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