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Young Writers Society


Chat Room Rules



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Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:17 am
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Meshugenah says...



Here is the basic break down of the chat room rules:

1. Keep it Family Friendly
2. No Spamming
3. No Trolling
4. Use Proper English
5. Listen to the mods

So lets look at how each of these break down.

1. Keep it Family Friendly

This rule applies to YWS as a whole since we are a site for young writers. What does it mean exactly though? While in the chat we expect members to:
-Not curse
-Not play with the chat censors
-keep all topics PG (What is PG is at the discretion of the Moderator* in the chat)
-Do not link to anything that isn't PG (video/site with violence, sexual content, etc).
-Do not insult/harass other members. (Not directly "family friendly", but I'd say families are nice to friends! And so it shall be.)

2. No Spamming

Spamming is a pretty easy concept to understand. Don't flood the chat with your messages, trying to annoy everyone. Don't beg over and over for reviews, or advertise your site every other message you send. The chat is for conversation and socialization - not advertisement spam.

3. No Trolling

Here's wikipedia's description of a troll:

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.


If you believe there is a troll in the chat room, please PM a moderator either who is in the chat and let them know, or PM a moderator on the site. Give them their username, and if possible, copy and paste whatever messages into the PM that you believe makes them a troll. (Only for on site PMs rather than in chat PMs. If they're in the chat, they'll be able to look at the messages.)

Please keep in mind though, a troll is not someone who simply annoys you. A troll is someone who is trying to get you to response emotionally, be angry and upset, about what they're doing. If someone is bothering you, you have every right to contact a Moderator about it, but that may not always mean they are a troll. Be careful throwing this word around.

4. Use Proper English

Straight forward, right? But it's a bit more than that. We ask that you don't use chat speak in great abundance (several sentence, most words in chat speak). We also ask that you don't talk all in CAPS LIKE THIS, because it's frustrating. Again, what is and isn't proper English is up to the Moderator who is in the chatroom. But, if you believe you were warned for improper English when it wasn't called for, feel free to bring it up with a different moderator. This shouldn't be too great of an issue, and will more than likely only come up when the member is always doing one of the above three.

5. Listen to the mods

Last but certainly not least, listen to the mods! They are tasked with maintaining a civil and generally friendly chatroom, and they may take action at times if the chatroom veers into territory that is uncomfortable for some members. If you ever feel that a mod has done something inappropriate, then please contact any admin or GM.

--

In all of the above cases, you will first be warned, then kicked and then banned.

While in the chatroom, besides the above, the other important rule is to respect all requests/warnings given by Moderators. It'll make the situation a lot easier if you listen to what they have to say. They're not trying to bully you, they're trying to make the chat safe and fun for everyone to play in. That's our primary job: safe & fun. As such, if at any time a member is doing something that is seen as threatening the safety of the chatroom and/or YWS, a moderator has every right to take action whether what the member is doing is specifically listed as against the rules or not.

Final Note:

If you are a non-moderator member and you are seen moderating in the chat, you will be warned not to do this. We don't ask this of you because we're grumpy, but because it causes inconsistency. The moderators know how to deal with these situations, and they can sometimes be more than you know how to handle. We've had experience. We appreciate your help in every way, and we love it when you tell us something shady/bad is going on, but we ask that you leave warning members up to the moderators. You have every right to show them the chat room rules in case they don't know them, but to keep any situation from become worse than it needs to be, it's better if non-moderator members stay out of the issues, unless they concern you directly. (Ei: someone bullied you, attacked you while in the chat - but then, it only requires a report to a moderator.)

Please Note: a kick only kicks someone out of the chat room, they can come right back in. A ban can last anywhere from a few days to a year. Be careful what you do in the chat. We don't want to ban you, but if you aren't following the rules, it will happen.

*A Moderator is any Chat Moderator, Junior Moderator, Moderator, or Admin. Anyone with a shield next to their name on the chat list.

(Rewritten by Suzanne July 2010)

(Updated by Demeter on February 29th, 2012)

(Updated by Meshugenah June 2013)
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia








The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitudes.
— Viktor Frankl