Role playing sites rules

Answer 1

This is so important that it's not even funny. The most important thing to remember is to not make rules that you can't follow. Don't cuss out a member for cursing. It just makes you look like a gigantic hypocrite, and no one likes those. Be sure to follow your own rules, it's the only way that your members will respect you.

There are also a lot of people out there (Including myself at one point and time) that don't enjoy having to lay down the rules and stand their ground. People who absolutely dread having to call out a member on breaking the rules shouldn't make a role play site.

Yes, it does take guts to stand up to members. However, you also should never take pleasure in disciplining your members. Remain calm and cool at all times when confronting members. No one likes a person with a short temper. It only makes you look crazy if you have one.

A lot of people become afraid that if they speak up, then they won't be liked by their members anymore. So they end up turning a blind eye to naughty behavior which will continue to disrupt the role play and frustrating them and the other members.

Don't let this happen. Remember: YOU ARE THE BOSS. It's your site, so take control. If you made the rules, then the members should follow them. And if they don't then you have every right to call them on it. They are in the wrong, not you.

So here is the list of rules you can add to your site:

-What is your site rated?:

If your site is PG-13 or R, then list the mature content that will be found at your site.

-G.

-PG.

-PG-13.

-R.

-The reality about ratings: Keep in mind that just because you say that members must be 16+ or 18+ to join your site doesn't mean crap. You're going to get 12-15 years flooding on over and lying about their age. Why? Because a lot of them enjoy doing the opposite just because they can. Remember, a lot of these young kids play M rated games and watch R rated movies, and therefore feel grown. If a 13-year-old girl is a huge fan of Sex and City, then she may feel like she can handle the mature content on your site (LIES!). Her attitude may be 'Eh, ain't nothing on this site I haven't already seen/heard or read before".

So how do you prevent these young kiddies from joining? You can't. And sadly, you can't always tell their age just by the way they post. I've came across a 13-year-old who I thought was 18, and a 25-year-old who I thought was 12. The only thing that you can do is have any posts with mature content locked away with a password so they can't be viewed by just anyone. Remember, your site shouldn't be responsible for hooking up pedophiles with kids, nor should it be responsible for them viewing inappropriate content.

-Rules for user names:

-What kinds of user names are allowed?

-Does it have to be their character name?

- Does it have to be their first and surname?

-What about middle names?

-Or can it be like 'Deathraider91'?

-Does it have to be in all caps? Or all lower cased?

-Do you allow for underscores?

-Must a symbol be added to all member names like #Kathy or *Ryan Kempt?

-Rules for staying in touch:

-Is it important that they give you a valid e-mail address, one that they have to check often?

-Can they sign up and have multiple character accounts on one e-mail address?

-Or must they have one character account per e-mail address?

-Rules for avatars and images and signatures:

-What size do images/avatars/signatures have to be?

-Does their avatar have to be of their character? Or can it be of anything they want?

-What kind of avatars should members have: CGI, anime/drawn, celebrities/real people, animals?

-Do you allow for females avatars to wear revealing clothing?

-What is considered revealing (Fishnet shirt, bikini top, low cleavage outfits, bare waist outfits)?

-Are male avatars allowed to be shirtless?

-Does the avatar face have to be shown? Or can it be half hidden, or fully hidden by a helmet, hat or hood?

-Does the avatar picture have to be shoulders on up? Or waist on up?

-What kind of content is or isn't allowed in avatars/images/signatures? Is violent, sexual, racist, sexist, anti-religious/religious avatars/images/signatures allowed?

-If this content is allowed, what is considered, by your standard, too violent or too sexual?

-Rules for cheating:

If you have a dice roller, battle system, or money system on your site. Then list the things that will not be tolerated.

Such as: Can members edit their money as they please?

-Are they allowed to re-roll over and over again until they roll a high number?

-Can they steal money/items from other members?

-What happens if they never edit their money/items or inventory properly?

-What is considered not editing their money/items or inventory properly?

-What's considered cheating when battling; making spells that they don't have? Bringing out weapons that they don't have? Always dodging attacks?

-Rules for inappropriate behavior:

-Is spamming allowed? What do you consider as spamming?

-Is flaming or trolling allowed?

-Are members allowed to back talk to other members and Admin/Mods?

-Is there a harsher penalty if a member back talks to an Admin/Mod?

-What is considered as disrespectful/rude behavior towards members or Admins/Mods?

-Is double posting okay? If so, in which topics or forums is this allowed?

-Can members skip over other member's turns when it comes time to posting?

-Must a member wait for the other member to post before they can post again?

-Can members use profanity?

-If so, what words are allowed to be used? Is there still a limit on how often they can use a certain word?

-Would you encourage members to make up their own set of cursing words?

-Would you provide a set of made up cursing words?

-Is godmoding allowed? What about Mary Sue or Gary Stu characters?

-What do you consider godmoding is? (http://wiki.answers.com/../What_is_god_modding)

-Can members post in multiple topics at one time with the same character?

-Or do they have to properly travel to another topic, and can only be at one place at a time?

-Is it mandatory for members to post up their absents?

-How often should a member post?

-If they don't post up their absents and just leave out of the blue, what is the penalty for that? Is there one?

-From everything that is listed in the set of rules, would members get banned for not following them? Or just get a warning? Would you have zero tolerance for all these rules if not followed? Or just certain ones? If so, then which rules are under the zero tolerance policy?

-Rules for romance:

-Is kissing allowed?

-Is cybering allowing?

-What about explicit sex scenes? Are they allowed in posts? And what is considered explicit in your opinion?

-If allowed, do members have to label their topic letting people know that mature content is within their topic?

-Or would they have to carry out this scene in a PM?

-Would these PMs have to be shown to you to make sure things don't get out of hand?

-Would you have a separate mature forum that would require a password to gain access to, to prevent just anyone stumbling onto these topics?

-Rules for creating spells/weapons/items/editing bios:

-Can members just add on to their bio sheet? Such as, can they add on a question that wasn't added? Or is this not allowed?

-Can members create spells on their own?

-Can members make weapons on their own?

-Can members make any kind of item on their own?

-Or must they earn/make/create/buy all of these things? Or ask for permission to do any of this?

-Rules for character creation:

-How many characters can a member make?

-Can a member make multiple characters on one account?

-Or do they have to have separate characters for each account?

-Do they have to be original characters that the member has made up?

-Or do they have to play a character that already exists on your site, or from a movie/game/anime/show/book?

-Would you prefer if they made a character from scratch just for your role play site?

-Is there a validating process when making a character? If so, what is it and how long does it take? (Such as: must a Mod/Admin read and approve the bio? Or can members freely post up their bio? Or must members send their bio in a PM to an Admin/Mod for it to be approved?)

-Rules for 'One Liners'/Word count:

-How do you feel about one liners?

-Are their exceptions to one liners? If so, what are they?

-Do you have a word count limit members must have in their post? If so, what is it?

-Are there word limits in certain topics or forums? If so, which ones?

-How important is grammar/spelling to you? Is it even important at all?

-Is spell check important?

-Rules for Advertising:

-Can member advertise in their signature?

-Is advertising even allowed?

-If so, where?

-Is there a limit to how much one can advertise?

-What is considered inappropriate advertising? Such as: Scam sites, adult sites or a link that leads back to a member's role play site?

-Do you mind affiliates?

-Making sure the message got through:

If you'd like to make sure your members actually read your rules, then you can have a secret message within the rules for them to find. They may then have to PM you this secret message or include it in their character bio. Whatever it may be, make sure this secret message is either near the middle of the rules, or near the end of the rules. Make sure it's also subtle, yes it's tricky, but you have to make sure they actually read the rules and didn't just skim through it. If you have a section obviously pointing out the secret word, then the member will find it and then proceed to skip over reading the rest of the rules, and just PM you the secret word or include it in their bio. This will get them into a lot of trouble. Be sure to also switch up the secret word often, and try placing it randomly near the middle or bottom of your rules. You could have it set up like this:

"This part here is where the secret word is. The secret word is to ensure that members have read the rules properly.

Secrete word: Toenail jam.

Now that you have the secret word, please PM it to one of our Admin staff members to ensure them that you truly did read all the rules."