Code of Conduct

Valucre has a code of conduct that members are expected to follow. This is primarily a matter of etiquette: we want the game to be fun for everyone, and a civil community is an important part of that. The staff reserves the right to punish or expel any player who is in violation of these rules. You are expected to take responsibility for your issues with other members by following the Formal Complaint Process. If you feel mistreated, you absolutely have the power to speak up and deal with it.

1. Do not flame, troll or harass others.

Do not flame. Flaming is verbal abuse that unfairly derides any user or their posts. An argument itself is not considered flaming. Valucre entertains diverse patronage and it is expected that users will disagree at some point. A fair criticism is one that is backed up by facts, logic and rationality. Posts in question are judged on those criteria, not on geniality. Ad hominem arguments are discouraged because they are unsound, not because they lack tact. Note that while everyone is happy to help you, acting like a nasty person will only lead to being treated like one.

Do not troll. Trolling is the posting disparaging remarks with the intent to incite flaming, spamming, or any activity that disrupts the intended uses of the site.

Do not harass others. There is a line between persistence and harassment. If someone asks you to leave them alone, you should. The staff takes all complaints of harassment very seriously.

2. Do not post hate speech. No OOC racism, sexism, or other forms of discrimination or spreading of hateful speech and ideologies will be tolerated.

3. Do not advertise on our forums. That is not what they are for. There is an Affiliates thread to which staff adds websites and forums we all accept. Users may also use their signature space to post approved links.

4. Do not add copyrighted or otherwise plagiarized content to our website. The clear exception to this being that one is acting under the Creative Commons License.

5. Do not link to, add or advertise warez or stolen video or content to our website.

6. Do not post pornographic material. Graphic or explicit posts of a sexual nature will be removed. Use of obscene words is acceptable, but not necessarily encouraged. In order to play this game and enjoy all facets of its nature, one must have a sufficiently mature mind. However, gratuitous and unnecessary use of obscenities is discouraged and will be handled properly.

7. Do not bring up your issues with other members publicly. The forum is not a place to act on your personal vendettas and issues. This includes stuff you've read in IM, disagreements about roleplay, and things like that. Use the formal complaint process to bring your issues to the attention of staff members.

8. Do not metagame. OOC should stay OOC, and IC should stay IC. If something happens to your character, do not take it personally, nor should you use OOC knowledge to further your PC's agenda.

9. Do not powergame. Powergaming is no fun for everyone else. Don't go around self-modding your character so that he's the only one who gets to do awesome stuff.

10. Respect the game world. Although this is a fantasy setting, we expect a certain amount of realism. New nations do not appear out of nowhere, nor do governments topple for no reason. Every event IC should have a rational explanation within the game world. In other words, no god-modding.

Remember, this is a game. We're all here to have fun.

The administration reserves the right to jump to any level of punishment they feel is appropriate for the situation, and generally accounts warned for violating the Code of Conduct will suffer the following:

One warning will result in being banned from the thread or chat room in question.
Two warnings will result in having the ability to post in the OOC sections of the forum taken away.
Three warnings will result in an automatic ban for one week while the administrators consider further action.

The Complaint Process

Do you have a complaint that you wish to file against another Valucre member? If so, there is a specific process you need to follow.

• Contact the user! It's in bad judgment to automatically assume they intended to hurt you. Not everyone perceives things the same way, and so something you took personally very well may have been in jest. You can get a hold of them through Valucre PM or any various instant message systems. 90% of all user problems could be solved in their beginning stages if the parties involved talked it over.

• If it becomes clear after communication that they were intentionally insulting you, and/or there are repeated offenses after you asked them to stop, you may contact the administration. Using the Contact Us button at the bottom of the page, or the Valucre PM system, you can get a hold of any of the administrators very easily and ensure we will receive your message. Complaints should be structured and formal so that everyone understands it is a serious issue. If you do not make them formal, then we will dismiss your complaints. If you can't take it seriously, why should we?

Note: Transcripts aren't necessary, but they are encouraged. If you have evidence of harassment, or any other violation to your person, it makes the process of dealing with issues much easier.

Note 2: In regards to harassment over private message, and not on the public forum, it is important to note that we have an ignore feature. You can make them disappear. If you feel that is not sufficient, you can contact the police and report them for cyber harassment.

Note 3: There is not a fine line between someone being annoying and someone being a harasser. We will point this out if necessary.

• Keep in mind that complaining about a post does not mean we will find offense in it. Complaints may merit a verbal warning, sometimes less, sometimes more. A formal complaint is reserved strictly for serious offenses—not a passing glance or a tidbit of snark. Remember the ignore function mentioned earlier. Due to the nature of the chat room lacking an ignore feature, messages there may receive more scrutiny.

• If you come across a post that is blatantly offensive, or is outright disgusting or unreasonably vulgar, then you can Report the post. Do this by clicking the Exclamation (!) symbol at the bottom of the post in question. This will send a notice to the administrators' e-mails and it will be dealt with quickly. We take reported posts seriously and stress that the Report feature should not be used or taken lightly.

• IC harassment is not dealt with as immediately or severely as its OOC counterpart. It rarely happens and when it does, it is often the result of a misconception or an outburst of utter silliness.

• In regards to lodging a formal complaint against staff, the process is much the same. Understand that we have meticulously hand-picked all of those that are on staff. Yes, they are friends, but their position is not a function of nepotism. We know them well enough to trust them, we are aware of their skills and the usefulness of said skills, and we are not going to jump on their case at the drop of a hat. If you disagree with staff action taken against you, assuming you are doing so from a logical standpoint, first bring it up with the staff member in question. All staff members can be appealed to by logic and rationale. Then, and only then, bring your transcript to higher staff.

• Do not confuse staff members' identities as users with their identities as staff. When acting in a staff capacity, staff members are expected to act professionally, but this does not mean their personal opinions are endorsed by Valucre as a whole, and it certainly does not disallow staff from exercising the freedom to express personal opinions. The only added expectation of a staff member is that they preform their duties. We do not hire staff for their ability to conciliate others, but to efficiently and effectively generate and execute ideas.

Authors: Damon, Carlos, James.
Editor: Rob.