Arelith forum
Contents
Last forum wipe
On start of March 2009, the server that hosts the website and the forums had some major hardware problem and old forums were lost. Everyone had their accounts deleted, and the entire forums archives were wiped clean.
Forum rules
Please, note that severe violation of forum rules can cause a full Arelith ban from servers and all parts of Arelith community.
General Etiquette
Please be polite and understanding of your fellow community members. Flaming, personal attacks and name-calling will not be tolerated.
Use the appropriate forums for your posts. Please make note of the topic of your post and place it in the right spot on the forums. Stay on topic. Try to avoid de-railing threads, and keep your responses in theme with the issues addressed.
Spamming is not allowed. Please consider if your post adds or contributes something to the conversation. Spam posts, or posts accusing previous posts of being spam will be deleted.
No posting of illegal content (known as warez). Any links to illegal material (that is, material that you normally need to pay for but through following the link one could download it for free) will be removed, this includes but is not limited to downloads for books, video and software.
Please avoid long quotes. If you are going to quote a long post, please cut it down to the relevant bits. Also, avoid quoting images entirely.
Flame Wars, DM Actions and Privacy. If there is ever a question or complaint regarding player or DM action, the public forums are not the place to address such. Please PM a member of the DM team.
Do not re-open a locked topic by posting a new thread. Topics, when locked, are closed for a reason, and should not be re-opened unless the moderator locking the topic says that re-opening is allowed. If a topic is drifting too far off-topic or none of the posts being made are contributing, that topic may be locked and should not be re-opened. Similarly, if a topic is locked at the request of the original poster (OP), the topic should not be re-opened in a new thread by someone else, instead the OP should PM a moderator asking for the existing topic to be re-opened. If, however, a topic is locked because it has reached 15 pages or more, the moderator locking will normally open a new "part 2" topic which links to the old one, and may be posted in as if it were the same topic. If not, it is perfectly okay to open a "part 2" yourself as long as it hasn't been stated otherwise. This is done to ease strain on the forum database caused by very long threads.
Please do not double-post. If you post twice in a thread in a short space of time, it clutters up the forum and counts as spam. Instead, you should use the Edit button. On a similar line, do not post anything along the lines of "please delete this post" if the Delete button is still available. If you want a post deleted, just do it yourself, or if you can't delete the post, edit it to say something like "Post deleted".
Keep things appropriate. We have a large and varied player base- so we have established a PG-13 guideline for forum and in game conduct and content. This includes the usage or implication of inappropriate language. It is not acceptable to place "***" or similiar to allude to improper language.
If you are ever unsure on if a topic or wording is appropriate, consider the following; Would you be comfortable having someone's younger children viewing the material? If the answer is no, then it doesn't belong here.
Avatars, Signatures and Images
You may select an avatar for use on the forums by accessing your profile (Click the profile link at the top of your screen) and either choosing an image from our avatar gallery, or by linking to an external image on the web.
Avatars may be no larger then 150 pixels wide x 150 pixels tall in size. Any images exceeding the size limit will be removed.
Signature images or banners are not permitted at this time.
Please keep posted images to a reasonable size, and mark all image posting threads with (Image Heavy) or similar notification. Where relevant, please use the thumbnails provided by image hosting services such as Imageshack.
More on Language and Appropriate Content
In game, that guideline is very likely to be somewhat looser then on the boards, where using mild (but still within PG-13 standards) language can be a character trait or used to intensify an extreme situation. On the boards, mild language should not be used heavily, if at all.
This is because all forum users are expected to maintain a polite demeanor at all times. The use of a word in the pejorative creates an atmosphere which isn't pleasant for all visitors, may offend some parents, and can invoke angry or "flame" posts.
This in no way means that someone can't express displeasure at something, but discussions should be coherent and polite. If, at any point, someone is not able to compose a dignified response to something here, then it is the user's sole responsibility to say, 'you know what, I am too angry right now, I'm going to wait until I can respond appropriately.'
As in game, being angry is not justification in any sense for breaking the rules or acting in an offensive or harassing manner. Only the player can gauge how their emotion level is and be accountable for not being able to walk away when they reach that point.
The PG 13 guideline also implies that regardless of language used, the sole purpose of a post should not be to insult, offend or defame any member of the community.
I really would rather there never be a laundry list of "Do not say these words" or "Taboo Subjects and post types". If there is ever any doubt on the acceptability of a post, the DM team and the forum moderators can help you work through it, but I will repeat here- as a general guideline; if you cannot get your message across without the use of foul, inappropriate or insulting language, then your message is not acceptable.
Other miscellaneous stuff
The forums have an integrated PM system, which allows users to send e-mail to each other. Please remember to clean up your PM box regularly, removing un-needed sent and received messages to keep the database running smoothly.
The forums are not for Arelith roleplay. That means, nothing outside the game is allowed to affect anything in-game. There are in-character forums, for posting character stories and journals, and announcements. Announcements must first be backed up in-game (i.e. if an announcement says "posted around Cordor, Wharftown and other major settlements" we expect to be able to go to said settlements and find such an announcement), and in dubious cases the moderators will check that this is indeed the case.
Please avoid "backseat moderating". If you feel that a post is out of order, hit the "Report Post" button and give a few lines to say why. This is very good for the moderators, because it alerts them immediately to a bad post. If you take matters into your own hands, the moderators have to find the offending post among all the others and deal with it, and you will probably annoy the person on the other end. Reporting, on the other hand, is always anonymous.
The correct procedure for contesting a DM's decision or making complaints against another player is outlined in-game, but as a reminder, none of these things are allowed on the forums, and posts of this nature will be deleted. You should direct complaints against players toward the DM team (complete with screenshots and logs if you have them), and you should PM the current admin team if you want to contest a DM's ruling.
The Spirit of the Rules
The rules listed here should be adhered to at all times. However, moderators may still act and even warn on posts that are just generally out of line, even if not covered here. The Arelith forums are primarily here to enhance the community, and so the final rule, known as the Spirit of the Rules, that is, using common sense and posting things with Good Intent, Good Purpose and Good Effect, is the most important rule of all.
[wiki] tags
Arelith forums provide forum BBCode tag that allows direct links to Arelith wiki. These links can be recognized by their green colour and the "W" icon from Arelith Wiki behind them.
- "Since Arelith Wiki has become such an astounding success, and people often post links to articles on the wiki, I thought it would be a good idea to make it a little easier to post said links. Now you can link to any article in the wiki by surrounding the article name with this fancy new tag." Fire Boar
BIG THANKS TO Fire Boar!
There are two ways of using this tag (very similar to the use of URL tags):
- Direct link to Arelith wiki artickle with name of the artickle between tags [wiki] and [/wiki]. For example [wiki]Arelith_Wiki[/wiki] will link to front page.
- Hidden name of link placed in first tag and custom description between the tags. For example like this: [wiki=Arelith_Wiki]Here is a link to the front page.[/wiki]
Note: It is necessary to put underscores between words in name of Wiki articles and sections, the same way they are used in their HTTP address.
More examples:
- [wiki]Category:Deities[/wiki] or [wiki=Category:Deities]List of Gods[/wiki]
- [wiki]Customization#Prismatic_mirror_colours[/wiki] or [wiki=Customization#Prismatic_mirror_colours]Mirror[/wiki] or [wiki]Mirror[/wiki] (using wiki redirect from "Mirror" in the last one)
