The Rules (Last Update-17/7/13)

[* JAQI]

OOC/Chat Box Rules

• No impersonation.
  
• No spamming/flooding.
  
• No advertising, unless in appropriate board. This includes links in your signature.
  
• Be kind to everyone.
  
• Keep your personal information to yourself. Via internet kidnappings are for Myspace- not here.
  

Joining/Character Creation Rules

• Your user-name can be anything, but your display name must be your character's first, middle and last name (lowercase), no fancy characters. If it won't all fit you may omit the middle name.
  
• You do not have to post a complete application, simply put "ND" or "WIP" in the title. However, if you post an incomplete application you have two weeks to finish it or it will be deleted.
  
• Please wait until your character is accepted to begin role-playing.
  
• You may have as many characters as you can keep up with, but they must be on separate accounts. With the following restrictions:
  
  • For every two female characters you must have one male character. (Does not apply in reverse, have as many guys as you want)
    
  • If you have two students in year 5, 6, or 7, your next student must be in year 1, 2, 3, or 4.
    
  • If you have multiple students please try and balance your houses. Forums with a million Gryffindors and no Slytherins or Hufflepuffs aren't much fun.
    
  • All your existing characters must be active before you create another.
  
  
• Here we do allow people to chose their houses, but be realistic with your character's personalities and the house you decide for them. For instance, a cheery muggleborn is very unlikely to be a Slytherin, the same way a dim-witted brute isn't apt to be a Ravenclaw.
  
• No Mary-Sues or Gary-Stews. They drive me crazy, and nobody likes to role-play with them. If you're not sure if your character is a Mary-Sue, click HERE to take a quiz for your character's Sue-ness.
  
• Not everyone gets to have super-tragic pasts, this is an über-cliché in the role-play world, let's have some normal, non-traumatized humans.

Graphic Rules

• We would like for everyone to have an avatar and a signature of their chosen play-by, though neither are required.
  
• Icons should be 100 x 100 or a little smaller if the image isn't a perfect square.
  
• Please, have all graphics be easy on the eyes. Flashing neon colours and blinking things are hard to look at and tend to cause headaches. Plus anything that moves is a pain for slower internet connections.
  
• Signatures should neither stretch the page nor require copious amounts of scrolling to get past them. Any signature deemed too large will be removed.
  
• No nudity in pictures. Let's keep our people fully clothed.
  

Role-Play Rules

• No one-liners. Period. Really, I just ask that you match what you're given to the best of your ability. It's not really fair if someone gives you a well-written post and you reply with a few sentences.
  
• Drama is good! To an extent. Deaths and pregnancies must be approved by me, people don't get murdered and knocked up every day (this extends to killing family members of your characters, not everyone here is going to be an orphan).
  
• Swearing is okay, but don't go over-board with it. In other words, every other word shouldn't be "fuck". Even if your character is a potty mouth.
  
• As far as mature content goes, I don't really care. HOWEVER sex scenes and other extreme obscenities are against the ProBoards TOS (Terms of Service) and will not be tolerated. You must fade to black or time warp. So keep it PG-13, okay?
  
  Example: Bob closed the door as Susie unbuttoned her blouse. -15 minutes later-
  
  
• Liquid time applies here, this means that your character(s) can be involved in as many threads as you can keep up with, you do not have to formally exit a thread in order to join another.
  
• We don't stick to a formal posting order in threads with three or more characters, it's always disappointing when someone goes inactive and a thread dies, so feel free to carry on without an inactive party.
  
• No God-moding/power-playing/whatever you want to call it. You control only your own character(s), nobody else's.
  
• Be realistic- your character(s) won't always be able to save the day, or be the ones in need of saving.
  
• Mind your spelling and grammar. There is even a spell check button with the quick-reply box, please use it, spell-check is a life-saver and only takes a moment of your time.
  

Activity Rules

• Three role play posts per character per month minimum, more is great, though.
  
• Activity Checks will be held when the staff notices lower activity than usual for an extended period of time, only the inactive characters listed in the activity check need to respond.