The Rules
Below are the rules that you should consider when interacting with other members of Ab Antiquo Out of Character:
1. Be kind to each other Out of Character
First and foremost, this forum has been created to allow our characters to mingle outside of the Vampires! The Dark Alleyway Grid and Chats. This, in turn, includes an environment where we as players can also interact, get to know each other, and collaborate in creative ways. With that said, Out of Character (OOC) insults and/or inflammatory behavior will not be tolerated on this forum.
Administrators and moderators alike want this website to be an outlet that everyone feels comfortable visiting without concern of being attacked. While debates are welcome, disagreements should be respectful, and personal conflict should be kept off the board. If you have concerns regarding another player's behavior, please inform one of the staff members so that the issue can be looked into.
2. Crossing is not your friend.
For any roleplay to be successful, a player must learn to distinguish between In Character (IC) and Out of Character (OOC) situations. If you are posting within the IC threads, then keep in mind that you are posting as your character and not yourself. By the same token, if you are posting within the OOC threads, then you are posting as yourself and not your character. Information that you have learned OOC must not be brought IC, including IC posting of 'transcripts' of in-character interactions that would not be feasible to access through a digital medium (e.g. a screenshot of narrative roleplay). Your character needs to learn the information on its own. Characters are characters, and their actions are not a reflection of the player.
The board has been separated into sections that are labeled whether they are IC or OOC. Please keep your posts appropriate according to the section you are writing in. Ultimately, it boils down to this: Your life is your life and your character's life is something else entirely. Keep them separate, as they belong. Keep your character's lives separate from each other as well if you choose to play multiples.
If you feel that someone is crossing please contact an admin, so that we can then look into the issue and resolve it fairly.
3. Power-playing, or Godmodding, is unacceptable.
Godmodding entails assuming control of another player’s character during roleplay, as well as writing a character that has an astounding inability to miss their target or receive a hit. It is frowned upon in our community and with good reason. You control your character and your character alone. This does not allow for control of another player’s character.
We are all here to write the stories of our characters, and as stated previously, collaborate creatively. If you want to write something that includes the manipulation or injury of another character, work with that character’s player to make it happen. If that player does not want to participate, do not force them. There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like you have lost control of your character. Do not put someone in that position.
4. Content with a rating of NC-17 or over must be displayed as such.
Mature content is now permitted in the IC sections of this board, provided it is labeled with the tag [MATURE]. We ask that you label accordingly and provide an OOC disclaimer at the top of the page containing trigger warnings, and warnings of other explicit content that may be included (ie. Drug use, Language, Explicit sexual content). This is for the sole purpose that readers be aware what they are getting into before reading.
Players in violation of the aforementioned terms, or who post anything that may be considered too explicit without displaying the proper warnings and rating, will be issued a warning to review and edit their post accordingly. Repeated offences after being warned will result in a banning from the forum. This is non-negotiable.
Ab Antiquo has been created for entertainment purposes, but that does not mean there are not consequences for offenses made. It cannot be stressed enough that unfamiliarity with the rules will not be accepted as a viable excuse for a player’s actions. If changes are made to the rules, a mass message will be sent out to inform you of the change. You will, then, be required to read the rules to get the update.
If you feel you may be treading a thin line in reference to the rules listed above, please contact a staff member before posting.
Policies
1. Usernames
In order to avoid conflict/confusion, we ask that your forum username be uniquely attributed to the registered character - while variations on a character's IGN or a unique first/last name different from an IGN are fine, the IGN will preferentially be given to the person to whom it belongs in-game.
2. Banners/Avatars
For signatures, banners should not exceed 550 x 200 px (width x height), and avatars should not exceed 120 x 200 px. At the moment, we do not have filesize restrictions in place, however we do request that users keep gif banners to a reasonable size and avoid anything that is overly blinking/flashing/etc; this rule is subject to change as needed.
3. Warnings
Warnings are issued to an account if any of the following rules are breached; depending on the severity of the instance, these warnings will range from a gentle reminder to an official warning issued to the account. Official warnings issued will expire in 90 days.
- If 2 warnings are accumulated over a 90 day period, the user will be issued a 7 day ban
- If 3 warnings are accumulated over a 90 day period, the user will be issued a 30 day ban
- If 4 warnings are accumulated over a 90 day period, the length of ban will be determined by the administration team
4. Account Deletion
Accounts with posts will not be deleted. There are multiple reasons for this: it can lead to issues when searching through historical posts, a hassle when reassigning posts once the same account is re-registered, and mainly, because it is not necessary in the least. If you no longer wish to access the forum, we advise you to opt not to access the forum.
5. One account per character
Each character is entitled to one account. Do not create multiple accounts in an attempt to distance a character from past actions/mask a character's identity/whatever other reason. Likewise, if your character is Dead and Buried OR jailed (deleted for cheating) you may not post on this forum IC.
6. Harassment/Message Blocking
Obviously harassment is bad and anything nasty would fall under Rule #1, but if there is someone contacting you and you simply do not want to receive private messages from them, please follow the instructions below:
Go to your private message inbox, then on the left side towards the bottom you are looking for the link "Rules, folders & settings" clicking this will take you to a section where you can create rules, here you can create a rule to automatically delete messages from certain users and thus blocking them.
To delete incoming messages from a specific User, use the following:
select Sender, click [NEXT]
is [NEXT]
then type the username [NEXT]
delete message [NEXT]
This creates a rule whereby If Sender is Username | Delete message. You will still receive a PM notification saying "1 private message was removed due to private message filters," but the message will be automatically deleted and unreadable. Instead of creating multiple rules to block multiple people, you can also opt for If Sender is foe | Delete message.
7. Newly Registered Users
Newly registered users will have the ability to read the entirety of the forum, but in order to post anywhere other than the Gateway, you will need to be manually sorted into a usergroup by an admin. This is to prevent bots from spamming everywhere. Manual sorting usually takes under 24hrs, but sometimes will be longer due to the admins being human.
Please feel free to contact one of the mods/admins if you have specific concerns.
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If you have any questions regarding Ab Antiquo's rules and/or policies, feel free to contact one of our administrators.
Thank you,
- Ab Antiquo Staff