Rules
From Tel'Laerad Wiki
This page lists the rules of Tel'Laerad, and all areas within it.
These rules exist to ensure the ability to pleasantly use Tel'Laerad without problems or disruption for all users, in the manner they choose. While they may be altered or added to from time to time, to better suit the needs of the time, you can be sure that they will remain designed to accomplish this goal. Additionally, staff may choose to enforce the spirit rather than the word of rules, where needed to best achieve this goal.
This page does not cover the additional channel-level rules of official IRC channels, which can be found on our Official Channel Rules page, nor our staff guidelines.
Contents |
Summary
This is the short version of all Tel'Laerad rules. For full details on each rule, read on.
Global rules:
- No harassment.
- No account theft or abuse.
- No unethical or major illegal activities.
- No disrupting or damaging Tel'Laerad services.
IRC-specific rules:
- Respect nickname and channel ownership.
- Channels flagged as explicit cannot be advertised.
Forums-specific rules:
- Stay on topic within threads and boards.
- Follow board-specific rules.
Wiki-specific rules:
- No vandalism.
Global Rules
These rules apply globally, across all areas of Tel'Laerad.
1. No harassment.
Harassment is used here as a blanket term for all manner of flaming, trolling, or other actions that, either deliberately or through gross lack of care, cause or attempt to cause substantial annoyance, anger, or irritation to other users.
It does not include disagreement or mild mockery, and does not automatically include anything that causes offence, when the action wasn't deliberately intended to cause substantial irritation or annoyance, and was not exceptionally and unacceptably careless.
It can come in many forms, shapes, and sizes, and is permitted in none of them.
2. No account theft or abuse.
This rule includes all attempts to gain unauthorized access, to perform unauthorized modifications, or to deny the legitimate owner access to an account on Tel'Laerad.
By 'abuse', it also includes 'squatting' accounts; holding an account for the sole purpose of preventing someone else from using its name. This is, unsurprisingly, not permitted on Tel'Laerad at all. Accounts created for the purpose of squatting will be deleted.
3. No unethical or major illegal activities.
Illegal activities are as defined by Canadian, UK, and US law.
No unethical or major illegal activities is a general rule that encompasses a large number of activities which are undesirable, or could cause trouble for both the users and the network. Examples of activities affected by this rule include, but are not limited to:
- Groups, wiki articles, forum threads, or IRC channels dedicated to copyright infringement.
- Preaching of hate speech against any group.
- Fraud and identity theft.
- Child pornography.
4. No disrupting or damaging Tel'Laerad services.
Actions which disrupt or damage Tel'Laerad's services, deny them to other users, or carry substantial risk of doing either, are forbidden. This includes doing so by placing excessive load upon them for purposes other than those they are intended for.
Actions that accidentally do so must be stopped as soon as you are made aware of the problem, and are grounds for punitive action if they were grossly careless or aren't stopped as quickly as possible when asked to halt them. Staff may take action immediately to prevent or minimise the impact of these if they carry an immediate threat to disrupt Tel'Laerad's services, or if they cannot quickly reach the person responsible.
Actions deliberately intended to disrupt or damage Tel'Laerad services will be dealt with extremely harshly and generally carry the highest possible penalty. Our reliability is important to us.
If you want to do something which you are concerned might present issues, don't be worried; just contact the staff, tell them what you want to do, and they will get an answer as to whether you should proceed or not. The last thing we want to do is discourage interesting uses of our services which don't degrade them for other users, and we have a pretty good idea of what is/isn't safe to do.
IRC-Specific Rules
These rules apply specifically on the IRC network to anything you, or any client under your control, including bots and scripts, does, along with those under global rules. They refer to the rules applied to the entire network and all channels upon it, not those additional channel rules applied within official channels.
For channel rules applied to official channels on Tel'Laerad, please read Official Channel Rules. These will not be enforced with any IRC network level powers, leaving the largest available punishment as removal from the relevant channel, with the exception of the #help channel, which is considered part of the network infrastructure, and as such may have channel rules enforced using network-level powers.
1. Respect nickname and channel ownership.
We extend to users the ability to register and 'own' nicknames and channels on the IRC network. Users are given the power to administrate these channels, including transferring ownership, and select who they wish to allow in their channels via modes and bans.
In addition to the no theft, abuse, or squatting rule defined in global rules for all accounts, which applies to both nicknames and channels, users are required to respect the ownership of the channel and the owner's right to bar them from the channel via a ban or restrictive mode.
Knowingly evading a channel ban is a violation of Tel'Laerad rules and risks being banned by Tel'Laerad staff from the IRC network or more. Staff are given an exemption to this rule when and only when on official network business, and with the requirement that they leave as soon as this is concluded.
2. Channels flagged as explicit cannot be advertised.
Channels which generally meet any of the following criteria have special rules:
- Focused on sexually explicit subjects (e.g. pornography) or very frequently discuss such.
- Link or links to pornographic images in the topic.
- Strongly sexually-explicit language and subject in channel name or topic.
- Use of any very strong derrogative terms in the channel topic.
IRC Operators, on seeing a channel they feel meets these conditions, will discuss whether these rules should apply with multiple other staff for anything more than the most clear-cut case before making a decision.
On request from a member of staff, a channel matching these conditions must be mode-locked +s via services, set PRIVATE in ChanServ via "/cs SET #channel PRIVATE on" (removing it from /cs list), and these settings not removed without permission from a member of staff first. If you are in any doubt as to whether a channel is subject to this restriction, you may ask any member of staff, and they can check our list.
Additionally, channels restricted as such are not eligible for any channel advertising events or services provided by the network, such as AnnounceServ or Channel of the Fortnight.
These restrictions are in place for the benefit of those who do not wish to use a location which advertises extremely explicit discussion channels, with minimal hampering of the usage of these channels to discuss their topics.
If you are not asked by a member of staff to mode-lock your channel and told you are subject to these restrictions, these restrictions do not apply to you, and there is no need to be concerned about where your channel lies. Staff will contact you if you need to worry about it.
If you wish to have your channel's restricted status revoked, you may contact any IRC Operator with the name of the channel and an explanation of why you were originally restricted, and what has changed or why you think it doesn't meet these guidelines. If the results of this are not isn't satisfactory, you may appeal it to the owners as you would a ban.
It is of note that any actual preaching of hate speech beyond abusing a derogative term or two, and thus anything significantly worse than the fourth condition for being subject to these restrictions is a violation of global rule #2 and thus not allowed at all.
Forums-Specific Rules
These rules apply to the Tel'Laerad forums, in addition to the global rules.
1. Stay on topic within threads and boards.
Posting completely off-topic posts in a thread which has had a consistent subject to point is annoying and interferes with meaningful conversations; this is not permitted. Additionally, each board has a particular subject or topic. All threads and posts within it should be on that general field.
2. Follow board-specific rules.
Some boards may have special rules in line with their particular purpose. If they do, they will have a "Board Rules" sticky. This must be followed in *addition* to global Tel'Laerad rules and these general forum rules.
Wiki-Specific Rules
These rules apply to the Tel'Laerad wiki, in addition to the global rules.
1. No vandalism.
Editing that either deliberately or through a gross lack of care makes pages worse; deletes good content, adds spam, and so forth, is not permitted under the wiki, as these make it less effective at storing information and allowing constructive collaborative work on the same page. Such actions would fall under the global "No harassment" rule, as defined above, regardless of this rule, but it is a point worth spelling out.
Staff
In addition to the above rules, and in the process of enforcing them, staff follow the Staff Guidelines. This document is intended and designed for staff, but is visible to the general public. Anyone thinking of or offered a position on staff should be familiar with the contents, to know what it requires and entails.