Rules
Welcome to Beyond Stone Walls! Here are the general rules to help you around the site.
General Rules
1. Respect ALL members, be it if they are newbies or veterans. Bashing of any sort will not be tolerated on the forums, so if you don’t have anything nice to say, we recommend not saying anything at all.
2. Treat your Prefects and Heads of Houses as if they were Admins. They were chosen for a reason, and are here to help you out if you need assistance, but also to keep you in line when need be. They ask you to jump, the correct answer to them would be “how high?”.
3. This site is targeted for a mature audience. That means that there will be cursing and the occasional explicit post. Please, do not curse just for the sake of it, nor create explicit posts just because you can. Try and keep in line with what your character may or may not do. If you happen to be RPing a cannon like Ginny Weasley, know that she wouldn’t be caught in the broom closet in a compromising position with Draco Malfoy.
4. DO NOT SPAM. It will NOT be tolerated! This means no pointless threads in the OOC sections of the boards! Admins can and will determine what spam is considered, and if it is excessive, you will be banned. The End
5. Harassment is to be reported to admins to ensure the site remains a comfortable environment. A few examples of harassment are: constantly spamming your PM inbox, frequently calling you derogatory names even after being spoken to, sending you negative threats, etc. It is not someone being rude/obnoxious/upset because they disagree with something you say. Please be sure you recognize the difference between a disagreement and actual harassment so admins are not swarmed with PMs about how someone was a little mean to you. Harassing another member is serious and will not be dealt with lightly.
6. Save the drama for your mama and take it off the boards and out of chat should you feel the need to keep it going. No one on the site wants to listen to it.
7. These rules apply to Chat* as well. Consider chat an extension of the forums. This list of rules applies to all aspects of the site.
- No guests in chat, please. Anyone without a registered and active account on BSW will be kicked from chat.
Please note this forum takes place in Harry’s 5th year!
*If you are having any trouble with Chat, please check this Guide/FAQ.
Character Names
Your user name will be your character name, which should consist of a first and last name. IE: Jane Doe. If you register a name such as “DrACoLoVeR4350″, know that your account will be promptly deleted. So make sure your character has both a first and last name, with a space between the two words.
Character Profile
A profile for your character should be written up within a week of signing up on the boards. Your profile must be approved before you can role-play. Make sure that when writing a profile, to include as many details as possible. We want to know what makes your character tick, makes them happy, sad, or perhaps some life changing events that may have happened. Which brings me to the next point.
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First off, we DO allow content of a mature nature.
This includes and is not limited to: written sexual content, verbal profanities (cursing/swearing), graphic descriptions, drug use and violence.
Of course, with this sort of literary freedom comes guidlines and rules that are enforced to ensure emotional safety and civility among members:
-We accept everyone no matter what race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. Anyone caught discriminating against someone will get a serious kick in the ass and a major ban. We have a no tolerance policy when it comes to treating others with disrespect. You’re part of a family here, and anyone caught providing an unsafe environment won’t live to tell about it.
-Just because we allow you to write explicit sex scenes and swear doesn’t mean you need to have a character that will hump anything with a pulse or curse like a sailor. Moderation is key, or we’ll call you on it.
-If your post contains anything that would be considered explicit (sex, graphic violence, gore, more swearing than necessary…) PLEASE, for the love of all things wonderful and amazing, put a warning in your title. Typing [explicit] at the end of your post title will save the admins from giving you a talking to. We ask that you do this because we DO have younger childen at BSW and we DO have some people that just really don’t want to read your smut. So save them the horror of stumbling across it and clearly mark your mature posts.
-We DO NOT allow rape, pedophilia, bestiality or necrophilia at all. For more details, please check this announcement.
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Below are some role playing rules you must abide by, and some little tips to help with your RPing, should you need it!
RPG Rules
1. Posts here at BSW are written in third person (he, she, they). This means that anything written is from a narrative perspective. Unless you’re in the OOC forums, third person perspective is expected.
2. God Modding is, simply put, deciding another character’s action (which is not your own) for them. At no time can you assume you have the right to choose and write out another character’s response.
Examples:
NO: Tanille walked up to Ridley in an angry rage and shoved her, pushing the girl to the ground.
YES: Tanille walked up to Ridley in an angry rage and shoved her. (Whether Ridley falls over or not is the choice of her writer, not Tanille’s.)
Another form of God Modding is assuming your character has power over another, in this case, using a magical object or having an ability that would give your character an impossible advantage. Mind control, invisibility cloaks, unforgivable curses and the like are not permitted in any way. Basically, anything that takes away the other RPers right to a decision is unacceptable.
3. Killing of another character, your own or someone else’s, is forbidden unless there is a solid agreement between both RPers. Characters are not allowed to rise from the dead or come back as ghosts, so make this decision wisely. Once a character is gone, they’re gone for good. For this reason, it’s advised that you don’t kill a character at all. If you do not wish to RP them anymore, simply don’t. If there is a chance you will want to RP them later on, killing them would be a stupid thing to do. This goes for Death Eaters, werewolves and the like –unless there is a solid agreement between all parties involved, no killing will be permitted.
4. Any character with special abilities MUST be approved by an admin. This includes Animagus, mind readers, Metamorphmagus, etc. Don’t be surprised if you get a ‘No’ from an admin, though. Most characters like this aren’t permitted, and if they are, we don’t want thousands of them running around!
Hints:
-Don’t skim read. Doing so may result in missing details or valuable information within the post. Instead, take your time and make sure you fully understand what it written before responding. If you don’t have the time to read it, wait until you do. A quick read makes for a quick response, and that hardly ever goes well.
-Describe. Scenery, emotions, people, scents… anything can be taken to a deeper level by merely adding adjectives. Describing allows the person you’re RPing with to visualize what you see in your mind and it also helps lengthen your posts. A reasonable post is more than a paragraph (5 sentences) –try your best to write the most you can. But do remember: quality over quantity.
-Using proper spelling and grammar will save you a major butt kicking from fellow RPers. Always proof read what you’ve written and spell check your work before posting. That being said, abbreviated or ‘chat’ speak is NOT ALLOWED in ANY forums –in character or out. StIcKy CaPs will also result in pain, so please, for you sake –WRITE PROPERLY!
-Please don’t write profanity for the sake of writing profanity. Though it is allowed, excessive swearing, sexual content, etc. is tacky and there’s no doubt you will be called into question. Just because you can include it, doesn’t mean you have to in every post.
-Respect character relationships. Not everyone is going to be your best friend and not everyone is going to want to pick a fight with you. Just like human beings, it’s impossible for someone to get along with everyone, for example. This mostly goes for Death Eater and student interactions. Death Eaters are supposed to be feared –so don’t get your character acting all friendly with them like they’re fearless. Respect the character relationship between them.