Post by Headmaster on Sept 11, 2004 22:37:07 GMT -5
The Our Hogwarts site agreement is basically simple and based on common sense. I know that this only a fantasy RPG board, so try and base your character on how you would behave in real life. We won't start out with many listed agreement terms, but we'll see how things go as we get up and running and will add and make changes as needed.
We have constructed the board to a Hogwarts style format, but we encourage originality, and we are only vaguely basing the site on the Harry potter Series...so everything need not be by the books or movies. You can base your character as one from the books or use your imagination and create your own original one.
We are going to start with this and see how things progress, and we will add and change the agreement if needed depending on how things happen in the future.
If you have any questions or problems about anything listed here or if you think we need to add new agreements and regulations, please feel free to contact the Our Hogwarts administration anytime. We will be on everyday and extremely active and hope that each member is active also. So never hesitate to contact us.
Please note that upon registering for the site you are saying that you have read and agreed to the stated agreement and policies by this site and the site provider (ProBoards�).
Thank you,
Abba & Arri
________________________________________________________
You must be 13 years or older to register for this site. You are required to be at least 13 years of age upon the day you register for the site. This is not our rule, but a rule of ProBoards and a LAW. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was created so that the private information (IP address, email, etc) of children under 13 years of age would not be given out. To find out more information about COPPA, click here.
You must have a proper name for your character. Upon creating your account here, you must give yourself a proper name. First and last is preferred but you need to have at least a first name (ex: Mary, John, Harry, Peter Calliway, etc). We will not accept any names such as HarryPotter46346, dracosbabe, iloveharrypotter, etc. You are required to change your screenname after registration so that you can be sorted. This also includes changing from colindingleberry to Colin Dingleberry. Failure to not follow this rule will result in you not getting sorted. This rule also applies to transfers, and job positions. Once you have an established name you MUST gain approval before changing it to a different one. Approval must be granted by the Our Hogwarts Administration (Abba, Arri, and Emma) thru PM. Once granted you must take it upon yourself to inform ALL Professors, staff, etc of this change immediately to keep from causing confusion and so that you can get credit for all work you did under your previous name. You also cannot have any types of symbols within your name or anything else besides your proper name. This includes but is not limited to the heart symbol, < or >, *, ~, ( or ), %, #, @, $, etc. It must be a proper name, like Samantha, Taylor Thomas, etc. No celebrity names or names that are characters in other movies, shows, books, etc or any that are similar to them.
Our Hogwarts discourages the use of real life names for your character. In an effort to keep all members of Our Hogwarts safe, please avoid using your real life names for your characters. If you plan on using your first name for your character, please DO NOT use your real life last name on the account. NEVER EVER use a name that will identify you in the real world.
You must get sorted before you post around site. Upon creating your account here and giving yourself a proper name, you must go to the Sorting Hat or Transfer board and get yourself into a house before you post around site. If you are going to be a Professor or staff of Our Hogwarts, please go to the Job Applications board and sign up. You MUST do this before you can sign up for classes or at Gringotts Bank. You can not do these things UNLESS you are sorted into a house. Just because you want a certain house and post around on site about it, DOES NOT mean that is the house you will be placed in.
If you are UNSORTED, you may ONLY post in the board Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. After posting in the Sorting Ceremony or Job Applications thread, you may post in Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. This is the only place that you may post in until you are properly sorted. If you post anywhere else (before you are sorted) you may delay the sorting of your character.
Your character's age is determined by their year. The age of your character is determined by their year. You are NOT any older then the year specified. You cannot be a 18 year old first year. The ages go as said below...
NO SPAMMING! Spamming will NOT be tolerated on site. (Definition: Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail. To send (a message) indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups.) There is a specific board at the bottom saying "Other RPGs" and that is where you may post the link to your site... no where else! You are not allowed to PM members of Our Hogwarts about your site, place site links/images/etc in your signature or put any messages on your profile or signature, in your posts, or anywhere else to advertise your site or basically say "Hey come join my site!" Putting your site in your profile under your homepage is permitted but do not add anything to your personal text saying to join or check out your site. If we find that you are violating this rule, traces of your site will be removed IMMEDIATELY. In addition to that, any infringes of our copyrights will also result in immediate deletion of traces and warnings, even possibilities of immediate banning. Spamming of any kind could possibly get you banned on the spot, for a day, three days, a week or even permanently. For further details on the agreement for promoting your site in "The Classifieds" board, please click here.
No death, drugs, suicide, killings, weapons, explicit sexual content, etc. There will be no promotion of death, suicide, weapons, explicit sexual content, drugs, finding dead bodies, etc. No killings or serious criminal activities to yourself or to other members will be allowed on site. We want Our Hogwarts to be fun and enjoyable to all, so certain real life issues and subjects may be tolerable if they are handled properly and fit into the storyline or your characters natural progression. If you are unsure if something is considered proper or improper, feel free to ask the Administration (Abba, Arri, and Emma). Basically, if it is not acceptable in the real world, then it should not be here as well.
Underage drinking is prohibited. There will be no underage drinking for student characters. If your character is not an adult wizard they are unable to drink. With that being said, it will be handled in roleplay if caught but will also get you a warning with the administration. Please read below for proper posting of such an event if you are an adult character (your character, not your OOC person).
When having your character roleplaying adult themes DO NOT use non-canon phrases. Since the issue of drinking has been such a big problem and is done in the books, the only "adult beverages" that characters are allowed to have are Harry Potter book canon drinks. These lists will be available at the Wizard pubs. Any use of non-canon drinks, mixed or straight, is prohibited. As such, if you are caught altering any censor words or using prohibited phrases you will get a warning (through PM) and reprimand if caught (through roleplay). Continued abuse of this issue may result in banning of offender and the loss of this adult beverage privilege for all.
NO superhero/god like powers. Strive for realism in your character, maybe a combination of magical and a real life student. Try not to get too carried away with super-hero/god-like powers or outrageous talents. Magical aspects are fine but shooting laser beams from your eyes, breathing fire, etc. just doesn't sound realistic. We will not allow you to portray super hero characters, ranging from (but not limited to) Teen Titans to Superman. This also includes the knowledge of certain magical powers that you can learn in school. They are, but not limited to, telekinesis, channeling, elemental magic, wandless magic, transformation, invisibility, and mind reading.
No double characters. We will not allow double characters on one single account. For example, you can not have two twins on one account. You must make a separate account for each twin (One for Mary-Kate and one for Ashley, etc). Double characters are very confusing and quite annoying. Having to distinguish who is who by color codes gets others very confused and is unbearable, as there have been complaints and incidents in the past.
Canon Characters may only be made upon approval. Any canon character or character from the books or movies must be asked for and approved before registering and starting the account.
Your banner can not be larger then 550 pixels wide and 500 pixels tall. Your banner can not be bigger then 550 pixels in width. The length/height can be no longer than 500 pixels (to see how big a 550 x 500 signature is, click here). This is a total amount, not per picture. There have been complaints in the past that images are too large and that they stretch out the site to where it is hard to read. If your image size is too large then we will remove the image and you can only replace it if you resize your banner or image to the proper size. If you need assistance resizing an image, please ask someone in the graphics board.
You MUST register yourself to be/own a magical creature or to keep a muggle creature. If you are a vampire, werewolf, demon, or any other magical creature you are REQUIRED to go to the Ministry to get approval for your character to be the type of magical creature that you say they are. If you own any magical or muggle creatures as pets, you are also required to get them registered. If you have taken Animagi at Our Hogwarts, passed, and are allowed to transform, you are required to register your form with the ministry so that we can keep track of who is legally and illegally changing. If you do not register yourself at the Ministry of Magic, you are not considered that type of magical creature, do not own a magical/muggle creature, or are illegally transforming into your animagus form. If you have any questions please PM the administration (Abba, Arri, and Emma) or see one of the Ministry workers at the Ministry of Magic.
No powerplaying. Reading vs. IC knowing. If you have read a certain incident on site, it DOES NOT mean your character knows about it. To be able to say that you saw person A cheat on person B, or whatever incident, you must have been in that thread WHILE it happened, not after and stating that you were "there the whole time". This is considered a form of power play in that you have your character knowing information even though they weren't there to actually get it. Just like in real life, you can't just magically know about something unless you've seen it or someone told you about it on the Our Hogwarts site in your roleplay posts. Also you cannot control another persons actions which is considered power playing or god molding. You can only control your actions, for instance if you are in a duel you cannot say whether the spell hits someone or how it affects them, it is up to the other person to decide what happens to their character.
No OOC in IC areas. There should be no OOC in the role playing boards or threads, and if so it should be kept to a minimum. There are places on Our Hogwarts made just for OOC and should be kept there or sent through a PM. An exception may be if you are RPing with someone and you suddenly have to leave you can add that under your post or either say you will be back later, or if someone needs help or you see someone doing something wrong then an OOC warning or suggestion should be ok. So basically if you are not in that thread then you shouldn't just appear and make some OOC comment to someone or about the thread subject just to be doing it. If you want to join the thread then it should be in an IC form only since OOC comments from others usually has nothing to do with the thread or subject plus it annoys the ones posting and disrupts the RPing. In the event that you feel you need to make an OOC comment then it should be above/below your post or in a separate post and be in between (( )) or [[ ]] or {{ }} so it can be separated and not confused with the RPing.
Always PM all Our Hogwarts Administrators regarding situations. As stated in the Site Policies, you are required to PM all Administrators (Abba, Arri, and Emma) regarding questions you have or situations you've seen, etc. For a more detailed list of when you should PM the administrators, please click here. But when in doubt, always PM them. DO NOT post onsite a situation that has occurred.
There will be no harassment toward any member in any way, shape or form on this site. Whether it be in OOC comments or through a PM, we try to provide a fun and safe environment for our members so any type of harassment will NOT be tolerated! Harassment includes, but is not limited to, threats, sexual misconduct, constant attacking through comments, posts, etc. Harassment of any kind could possibly get you banned on the spot from Our Hogwarts, for a day, three days, a week or even permanently. If you feel that you have been harassed then please PM the Our Hogwarts Administrators (Abba, Arri, and Emma).
No arguing/fighting with Admins onsite. There will be no arguing, fighting or disrespecting an Admin anywhere on this site. This will not be tolerated in any way nor at anytime, the Admins word is final! We are not perfect and if you feel you were wrongly accused or punished then send your reasons through a PM to discuss in private. These matters are in no way to be settled anywhere onsite and will should be handled privately. If we were wrong we will right our mistake. Any breaking of this rule could possibly get you banned on the spot, for a day, three days, a week or even permanently.
When an agreement is broken, we will use the three step warning system. When you signed up for this site you are required to read the site agreement (as you are doing now) and are to adhere to the agreements. By registering for Our Hogwarts and going to the Sorting Ceremony, Transfer Student, or Job Applications board you are stating that you agree with the Our Hogwarts site agreement we have set forth. In the event that you break an agreement term, you will be warned as stated....
You will receive only ONE written warning regardless of how many different offenses you have or occur.
You agreed to the terms of ProBoards� and Our Hogwarts by registering and/or sorting, so saying you have not read either and all agreements set forth to get out of punishment is no excuse.
By registering at the Sorting Hat you are agreeing that you have read these agreements and will abide and agree to the terms set forth here.
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We have constructed the board to a Hogwarts style format, but we encourage originality, and we are only vaguely basing the site on the Harry potter Series...so everything need not be by the books or movies. You can base your character as one from the books or use your imagination and create your own original one.
We are going to start with this and see how things progress, and we will add and change the agreement if needed depending on how things happen in the future.
If you have any questions or problems about anything listed here or if you think we need to add new agreements and regulations, please feel free to contact the Our Hogwarts administration anytime. We will be on everyday and extremely active and hope that each member is active also. So never hesitate to contact us.
Please note that upon registering for the site you are saying that you have read and agreed to the stated agreement and policies by this site and the site provider (ProBoards�).
Thank you,
Abba & Arri
________________________________________________________
You must be 13 years or older to register for this site. You are required to be at least 13 years of age upon the day you register for the site. This is not our rule, but a rule of ProBoards and a LAW. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was created so that the private information (IP address, email, etc) of children under 13 years of age would not be given out. To find out more information about COPPA, click here.
You must have a proper name for your character. Upon creating your account here, you must give yourself a proper name. First and last is preferred but you need to have at least a first name (ex: Mary, John, Harry, Peter Calliway, etc). We will not accept any names such as HarryPotter46346, dracosbabe, iloveharrypotter, etc. You are required to change your screenname after registration so that you can be sorted. This also includes changing from colindingleberry to Colin Dingleberry. Failure to not follow this rule will result in you not getting sorted. This rule also applies to transfers, and job positions. Once you have an established name you MUST gain approval before changing it to a different one. Approval must be granted by the Our Hogwarts Administration (Abba, Arri, and Emma) thru PM. Once granted you must take it upon yourself to inform ALL Professors, staff, etc of this change immediately to keep from causing confusion and so that you can get credit for all work you did under your previous name. You also cannot have any types of symbols within your name or anything else besides your proper name. This includes but is not limited to the heart symbol, < or >, *, ~, ( or ), %, #, @, $, etc. It must be a proper name, like Samantha, Taylor Thomas, etc. No celebrity names or names that are characters in other movies, shows, books, etc or any that are similar to them.
Our Hogwarts discourages the use of real life names for your character. In an effort to keep all members of Our Hogwarts safe, please avoid using your real life names for your characters. If you plan on using your first name for your character, please DO NOT use your real life last name on the account. NEVER EVER use a name that will identify you in the real world.
You must get sorted before you post around site. Upon creating your account here and giving yourself a proper name, you must go to the Sorting Hat or Transfer board and get yourself into a house before you post around site. If you are going to be a Professor or staff of Our Hogwarts, please go to the Job Applications board and sign up. You MUST do this before you can sign up for classes or at Gringotts Bank. You can not do these things UNLESS you are sorted into a house. Just because you want a certain house and post around on site about it, DOES NOT mean that is the house you will be placed in.
If you are UNSORTED, you may ONLY post in the board Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. After posting in the Sorting Ceremony or Job Applications thread, you may post in Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. This is the only place that you may post in until you are properly sorted. If you post anywhere else (before you are sorted) you may delay the sorting of your character.
Your character's age is determined by their year. The age of your character is determined by their year. You are NOT any older then the year specified. You cannot be a 18 year old first year. The ages go as said below...
First Year - 11 to 12 years old
Second Year - 12 to 13 years old
Third Year - 13 to 14 years old
Fourth Year - 14 to 15 years old
Fifth Year - 15 to 16 years old
Sixth Year - 16 to 17 years old
Seventh Year - 17 to 18 years old
Second Year - 12 to 13 years old
Third Year - 13 to 14 years old
Fourth Year - 14 to 15 years old
Fifth Year - 15 to 16 years old
Sixth Year - 16 to 17 years old
Seventh Year - 17 to 18 years old
NO SPAMMING! Spamming will NOT be tolerated on site. (Definition: Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail. To send (a message) indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups.) There is a specific board at the bottom saying "Other RPGs" and that is where you may post the link to your site... no where else! You are not allowed to PM members of Our Hogwarts about your site, place site links/images/etc in your signature or put any messages on your profile or signature, in your posts, or anywhere else to advertise your site or basically say "Hey come join my site!" Putting your site in your profile under your homepage is permitted but do not add anything to your personal text saying to join or check out your site. If we find that you are violating this rule, traces of your site will be removed IMMEDIATELY. In addition to that, any infringes of our copyrights will also result in immediate deletion of traces and warnings, even possibilities of immediate banning. Spamming of any kind could possibly get you banned on the spot, for a day, three days, a week or even permanently. For further details on the agreement for promoting your site in "The Classifieds" board, please click here.
No death, drugs, suicide, killings, weapons, explicit sexual content, etc. There will be no promotion of death, suicide, weapons, explicit sexual content, drugs, finding dead bodies, etc. No killings or serious criminal activities to yourself or to other members will be allowed on site. We want Our Hogwarts to be fun and enjoyable to all, so certain real life issues and subjects may be tolerable if they are handled properly and fit into the storyline or your characters natural progression. If you are unsure if something is considered proper or improper, feel free to ask the Administration (Abba, Arri, and Emma). Basically, if it is not acceptable in the real world, then it should not be here as well.
Underage drinking is prohibited. There will be no underage drinking for student characters. If your character is not an adult wizard they are unable to drink. With that being said, it will be handled in roleplay if caught but will also get you a warning with the administration. Please read below for proper posting of such an event if you are an adult character (your character, not your OOC person).
When having your character roleplaying adult themes DO NOT use non-canon phrases. Since the issue of drinking has been such a big problem and is done in the books, the only "adult beverages" that characters are allowed to have are Harry Potter book canon drinks. These lists will be available at the Wizard pubs. Any use of non-canon drinks, mixed or straight, is prohibited. As such, if you are caught altering any censor words or using prohibited phrases you will get a warning (through PM) and reprimand if caught (through roleplay). Continued abuse of this issue may result in banning of offender and the loss of this adult beverage privilege for all.
NO superhero/god like powers. Strive for realism in your character, maybe a combination of magical and a real life student. Try not to get too carried away with super-hero/god-like powers or outrageous talents. Magical aspects are fine but shooting laser beams from your eyes, breathing fire, etc. just doesn't sound realistic. We will not allow you to portray super hero characters, ranging from (but not limited to) Teen Titans to Superman. This also includes the knowledge of certain magical powers that you can learn in school. They are, but not limited to, telekinesis, channeling, elemental magic, wandless magic, transformation, invisibility, and mind reading.
No double characters. We will not allow double characters on one single account. For example, you can not have two twins on one account. You must make a separate account for each twin (One for Mary-Kate and one for Ashley, etc). Double characters are very confusing and quite annoying. Having to distinguish who is who by color codes gets others very confused and is unbearable, as there have been complaints and incidents in the past.
Canon Characters may only be made upon approval. Any canon character or character from the books or movies must be asked for and approved before registering and starting the account.
Your banner can not be larger then 550 pixels wide and 500 pixels tall. Your banner can not be bigger then 550 pixels in width. The length/height can be no longer than 500 pixels (to see how big a 550 x 500 signature is, click here). This is a total amount, not per picture. There have been complaints in the past that images are too large and that they stretch out the site to where it is hard to read. If your image size is too large then we will remove the image and you can only replace it if you resize your banner or image to the proper size. If you need assistance resizing an image, please ask someone in the graphics board.
You MUST register yourself to be/own a magical creature or to keep a muggle creature. If you are a vampire, werewolf, demon, or any other magical creature you are REQUIRED to go to the Ministry to get approval for your character to be the type of magical creature that you say they are. If you own any magical or muggle creatures as pets, you are also required to get them registered. If you have taken Animagi at Our Hogwarts, passed, and are allowed to transform, you are required to register your form with the ministry so that we can keep track of who is legally and illegally changing. If you do not register yourself at the Ministry of Magic, you are not considered that type of magical creature, do not own a magical/muggle creature, or are illegally transforming into your animagus form. If you have any questions please PM the administration (Abba, Arri, and Emma) or see one of the Ministry workers at the Ministry of Magic.
No powerplaying. Reading vs. IC knowing. If you have read a certain incident on site, it DOES NOT mean your character knows about it. To be able to say that you saw person A cheat on person B, or whatever incident, you must have been in that thread WHILE it happened, not after and stating that you were "there the whole time". This is considered a form of power play in that you have your character knowing information even though they weren't there to actually get it. Just like in real life, you can't just magically know about something unless you've seen it or someone told you about it on the Our Hogwarts site in your roleplay posts. Also you cannot control another persons actions which is considered power playing or god molding. You can only control your actions, for instance if you are in a duel you cannot say whether the spell hits someone or how it affects them, it is up to the other person to decide what happens to their character.
No OOC in IC areas. There should be no OOC in the role playing boards or threads, and if so it should be kept to a minimum. There are places on Our Hogwarts made just for OOC and should be kept there or sent through a PM. An exception may be if you are RPing with someone and you suddenly have to leave you can add that under your post or either say you will be back later, or if someone needs help or you see someone doing something wrong then an OOC warning or suggestion should be ok. So basically if you are not in that thread then you shouldn't just appear and make some OOC comment to someone or about the thread subject just to be doing it. If you want to join the thread then it should be in an IC form only since OOC comments from others usually has nothing to do with the thread or subject plus it annoys the ones posting and disrupts the RPing. In the event that you feel you need to make an OOC comment then it should be above/below your post or in a separate post and be in between (( )) or [[ ]] or {{ }} so it can be separated and not confused with the RPing.
Always PM all Our Hogwarts Administrators regarding situations. As stated in the Site Policies, you are required to PM all Administrators (Abba, Arri, and Emma) regarding questions you have or situations you've seen, etc. For a more detailed list of when you should PM the administrators, please click here. But when in doubt, always PM them. DO NOT post onsite a situation that has occurred.
There will be no harassment toward any member in any way, shape or form on this site. Whether it be in OOC comments or through a PM, we try to provide a fun and safe environment for our members so any type of harassment will NOT be tolerated! Harassment includes, but is not limited to, threats, sexual misconduct, constant attacking through comments, posts, etc. Harassment of any kind could possibly get you banned on the spot from Our Hogwarts, for a day, three days, a week or even permanently. If you feel that you have been harassed then please PM the Our Hogwarts Administrators (Abba, Arri, and Emma).
No arguing/fighting with Admins onsite. There will be no arguing, fighting or disrespecting an Admin anywhere on this site. This will not be tolerated in any way nor at anytime, the Admins word is final! We are not perfect and if you feel you were wrongly accused or punished then send your reasons through a PM to discuss in private. These matters are in no way to be settled anywhere onsite and will should be handled privately. If we were wrong we will right our mistake. Any breaking of this rule could possibly get you banned on the spot, for a day, three days, a week or even permanently.
When an agreement is broken, we will use the three step warning system. When you signed up for this site you are required to read the site agreement (as you are doing now) and are to adhere to the agreements. By registering for Our Hogwarts and going to the Sorting Ceremony, Transfer Student, or Job Applications board you are stating that you agree with the Our Hogwarts site agreement we have set forth. In the event that you break an agreement term, you will be warned as stated....
1st Warning: Now, as you read this (reading this is your responsibility).After receiving your written warning, your warning level will increase somewhere between 0-100 depending on how severe your situation was. At that time or anytime after, if your warning level reaches 100 you will be banned from Our Hogwarts with the length of time determined by your situation, and will gradually go down each week if you cause no further trouble.
2nd Warning: Written with a short explanation of why.
3rd Warning: Getting a warning level, or possibly banned, depending on the situation.
Other warnings: Any one of the following depending on the situation
* Another warning of some kind.
* Your previous warning level going up
* Banned for one day
* Banned for three days.
* Banned for a week
* Banned permanently
You will receive only ONE written warning regardless of how many different offenses you have or occur.
You agreed to the terms of ProBoards� and Our Hogwarts by registering and/or sorting, so saying you have not read either and all agreements set forth to get out of punishment is no excuse.
By registering at the Sorting Hat you are agreeing that you have read these agreements and will abide and agree to the terms set forth here.
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