RULES
The NationStates Role Play Symposium 2017 follows the criteria laid out in the NationStates One Stop Rules Shop. We expect all Symposium participants to abide by the rules.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
1) Keep it PG-13. The standard for both the forums and game is the US movie rating "PG-13". Mild swearing may be tolerated, mild sexuality may be hinted, but explicit or excessive versions of either or both may result in proportional mod response.
Erotic roleplay and cybersexing are forbidden -- forums, private messages, and Discord Server/Channels. Engaging in these anywhere on site will lead to deletion.
2) Keep it Civil. While being abrasive, mean-spirited, and mean are not against the rules, they do make you much harder to get along with and will be considered as aggravating circumstances, whether intentionally or not. Someone who's generally decent but has an off day is always going to get cut more slack than someone no one likes to be around. Additionally, if someone's being decent, it's really hard for that person to do something that will get them in trouble. When in doubt, a simple guideline is 'Don't Be A Dick'.
3) Thread Ownership. It's accepted that creators of booths have what's become know as 'thread ownership' in order to maintain more control over their thread. In all other areas, participants do not 'own' their thread.
4) We are not NSG. Please limit political and religious talk to NationStates or the privacy of your private messages. The NS Roleplay community is diverse and its members encompass a wide range of beliefs. Please respect that.
5) Respect intellectual property. Do not borrow or steal ideas, images, and so on without the creator's explicit permission.
REPORTING
Forum-side violations are to be reported in the Issues Forum.
FORBIDDEN ACTIONS
If there are any doubts about what is forbidden here, please refer to the OSRS Forbidden Actions section.
SHARED ACCOUNTS
It is highly recommended that you do not share accounts. ProBoards uses a universal log-in feature. The account you create here might be used inappropriately by a "shared user" elsewhere.
PROBOARDS TERMS OF SERVICE
All Symposium participants and staff must follow the Terms of Service (TOS) established by ProBoards:
18. OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT
You represent and warrant that you shall not use the Website or Services to upload, post, transmit, display, perform or distribute any content, information or materials that: (a) are libelous, defamatory, abusive, or threatening, excessively violent, harassing, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or pornographic; (b) constitute child pornography; (c) solicit personal information from or exploit in a sexual or violent manner anyone under the age of 18; (d) incite, encourage or threaten physical harm against another; (e) promote or glorify racial intolerance, use hate and/or racist terms, or signify hate towards any person or group of people; (f) glamorize the use of hard core illegal substances and drugs; (g) violate any provision of this Agreement or any other ProBoards agreement or policy, including without limitation ProBoards' Community Guidelines; or (h) is generally offensive or in bad taste, as determined by ProBoards (collectively, "Objectionable Content"). PROBOARDS DISCLAIMS ANY PERCEIVED, IMPLIED OR ACTUAL DUTY TO MONITOR THE CONTENTS OF THE WEBSITE AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREON. Without limiting any of its other remedies, ProBoards reserves the right to terminate Your use of the Website and Services or Your uploading, posting, transmission, display, performance or distribution of Objectionable Content. ProBoards, in its sole discretion, may delete any Objectionable Content from its servers. ProBoards intends to cooperate fully with any law enforcement officials or agencies in the investigation of any violation of this Agreement or of any applicable laws.
19. PROHIBITED USES
ProBoards imposes certain restrictions on Your use of the Website and the Services. You represent and warrant that you will not: (a) "stalk" or otherwise harass any person, or contact any person who has requested not to be contacted; (b) provide false, misleading or inaccurate information to ProBoards or any other member; (c) impersonate, or otherwise misrepresent affiliation, connection or association with, any person or entity; (d) while, using the Website and Services, use "ad blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to hide, block or prevent the proper display of online advertising; (e) modify or change the placement and location of any advertisement appearing on the Website; (f) harvest or otherwise collect information about ProBoards users, including email addresses and phone numbers; (g) use or attempt to use any engine, software, tool, agent, or other device or mechanism (including without limitation browsers, spiders, robots, avatars, or intelligent agents) to harvest or otherwise collect information from the Website for any use, including without limitation use on third-party websites; (h) access content or data not intended for You, or log onto a server or account that You are not authorized to access; (i) attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Services, the Website, or any associated system or network, or breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization; (j) interfere or attempt to interfere with the use of the Website or Services by any other user, host or network, including, without limitation by means of submitting a virus, overloading, "flooding" "spamming," "mail bombing," or "crashing"; (k) use the Website or Services to send unsolicited e-mail, including without limitation promotions or advertisements for products or services; (l) forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or in any uploading or posting to, or transmission, display, performance or distribution by means of, the Website or Services; or (m) attempt to modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise reduce or attempt to reduce to a human-perceivable form any of the source code used by the ProBoards Parties in providing the Website or Services. Any violation of this section may subject You to civil and/or criminal liability.
20. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
(a) Compliance with Law
You represent and warrant that, when using the Website and Services, You will obey the law and respect the intellectual property rights of others. Your use of the Website and Services is at all times governed by and subject to laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property generally. You agree not to upload, post, transmit, display, perform or distribute any content, information or other materials in violation of any third-party's copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights. YOU SHALL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY VIOLATIONS OF ANY LAWS AND FOR ANY INFRINGEMENTS OF THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS CAUSED BY YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE AND SERVICES. YOUR BEAR THE SOLE BURDEN OF PROVING THAT CONTENT, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIALS DO NOT VIOLATE ANY LAWS OR THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS. PROBOARDS TERMINATES ACCOUNTS OF USERS DETERMINED TO BE REPEAT INFRINGERS.
(b) Trademarks
PROBOARDS, PROBOARDS.COM and the "ProBoards logo" (collectively, the "ProBoards Marks") are trademarks or registered trademarks of ProBoards, Inc. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics, logos and domain names appearing on the Website may be the trademarks of third-parties. Neither Your use of the Website and Services nor this Agreement grant You any right, title or interest in or to, or any license to reproduce or otherwise use, the ProBoards Marks or any third-party trademarks, service marks, graphics, logos or domain names. You agree that any goodwill in the ProBoards Marks generated as a result of Your use of the Website and Services will inure to the benefit of ProBoards, Inc, and You agree to assign, and hereby do assign, all such goodwill to ProBoards, Inc. You shall not at any time, nor shall You assist others to, challenge ProBoards, Inc.'s right, title, or interest in or to, or the validity of, the ProBoards Marks.
(c) Copyrighted Materials; Copyright Notice
All content and other materials available through the Website and Services, including without limitation the ProBoards logo, design, text, graphics, and other files, and the selection, arrangement and organization thereof, are either owned by ProBoards, Inc or are the property of ProBoards' licensors and suppliers. Except as explicitly provided, neither Your use of the Website and Services nor this Agreement grant You any right, title or interest in or to any such materials. Copyright © 2000 to the present, ProBoards, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
(d) DMCA Policy
As ProBoards asks others to respect ProBoards' intellectual property rights, ProBoards respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe content located on or linked to by the Website violates Your copyright, you are encouraged to notify ProBoards in accordance with ProBoards' Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy. ProBoards will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the offending material or disabling all links to the offending material.
You represent and warrant that you shall not use the Website or Services to upload, post, transmit, display, perform or distribute any content, information or materials that: (a) are libelous, defamatory, abusive, or threatening, excessively violent, harassing, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or pornographic; (b) constitute child pornography; (c) solicit personal information from or exploit in a sexual or violent manner anyone under the age of 18; (d) incite, encourage or threaten physical harm against another; (e) promote or glorify racial intolerance, use hate and/or racist terms, or signify hate towards any person or group of people; (f) glamorize the use of hard core illegal substances and drugs; (g) violate any provision of this Agreement or any other ProBoards agreement or policy, including without limitation ProBoards' Community Guidelines; or (h) is generally offensive or in bad taste, as determined by ProBoards (collectively, "Objectionable Content"). PROBOARDS DISCLAIMS ANY PERCEIVED, IMPLIED OR ACTUAL DUTY TO MONITOR THE CONTENTS OF THE WEBSITE AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREON. Without limiting any of its other remedies, ProBoards reserves the right to terminate Your use of the Website and Services or Your uploading, posting, transmission, display, performance or distribution of Objectionable Content. ProBoards, in its sole discretion, may delete any Objectionable Content from its servers. ProBoards intends to cooperate fully with any law enforcement officials or agencies in the investigation of any violation of this Agreement or of any applicable laws.
19. PROHIBITED USES
ProBoards imposes certain restrictions on Your use of the Website and the Services. You represent and warrant that you will not: (a) "stalk" or otherwise harass any person, or contact any person who has requested not to be contacted; (b) provide false, misleading or inaccurate information to ProBoards or any other member; (c) impersonate, or otherwise misrepresent affiliation, connection or association with, any person or entity; (d) while, using the Website and Services, use "ad blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to hide, block or prevent the proper display of online advertising; (e) modify or change the placement and location of any advertisement appearing on the Website; (f) harvest or otherwise collect information about ProBoards users, including email addresses and phone numbers; (g) use or attempt to use any engine, software, tool, agent, or other device or mechanism (including without limitation browsers, spiders, robots, avatars, or intelligent agents) to harvest or otherwise collect information from the Website for any use, including without limitation use on third-party websites; (h) access content or data not intended for You, or log onto a server or account that You are not authorized to access; (i) attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Services, the Website, or any associated system or network, or breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization; (j) interfere or attempt to interfere with the use of the Website or Services by any other user, host or network, including, without limitation by means of submitting a virus, overloading, "flooding" "spamming," "mail bombing," or "crashing"; (k) use the Website or Services to send unsolicited e-mail, including without limitation promotions or advertisements for products or services; (l) forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or in any uploading or posting to, or transmission, display, performance or distribution by means of, the Website or Services; or (m) attempt to modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise reduce or attempt to reduce to a human-perceivable form any of the source code used by the ProBoards Parties in providing the Website or Services. Any violation of this section may subject You to civil and/or criminal liability.
20. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
(a) Compliance with Law
You represent and warrant that, when using the Website and Services, You will obey the law and respect the intellectual property rights of others. Your use of the Website and Services is at all times governed by and subject to laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property generally. You agree not to upload, post, transmit, display, perform or distribute any content, information or other materials in violation of any third-party's copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights. YOU SHALL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY VIOLATIONS OF ANY LAWS AND FOR ANY INFRINGEMENTS OF THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS CAUSED BY YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE AND SERVICES. YOUR BEAR THE SOLE BURDEN OF PROVING THAT CONTENT, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIALS DO NOT VIOLATE ANY LAWS OR THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS. PROBOARDS TERMINATES ACCOUNTS OF USERS DETERMINED TO BE REPEAT INFRINGERS.
(b) Trademarks
PROBOARDS, PROBOARDS.COM and the "ProBoards logo" (collectively, the "ProBoards Marks") are trademarks or registered trademarks of ProBoards, Inc. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics, logos and domain names appearing on the Website may be the trademarks of third-parties. Neither Your use of the Website and Services nor this Agreement grant You any right, title or interest in or to, or any license to reproduce or otherwise use, the ProBoards Marks or any third-party trademarks, service marks, graphics, logos or domain names. You agree that any goodwill in the ProBoards Marks generated as a result of Your use of the Website and Services will inure to the benefit of ProBoards, Inc, and You agree to assign, and hereby do assign, all such goodwill to ProBoards, Inc. You shall not at any time, nor shall You assist others to, challenge ProBoards, Inc.'s right, title, or interest in or to, or the validity of, the ProBoards Marks.
(c) Copyrighted Materials; Copyright Notice
All content and other materials available through the Website and Services, including without limitation the ProBoards logo, design, text, graphics, and other files, and the selection, arrangement and organization thereof, are either owned by ProBoards, Inc or are the property of ProBoards' licensors and suppliers. Except as explicitly provided, neither Your use of the Website and Services nor this Agreement grant You any right, title or interest in or to any such materials. Copyright © 2000 to the present, ProBoards, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
(d) DMCA Policy
As ProBoards asks others to respect ProBoards' intellectual property rights, ProBoards respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe content located on or linked to by the Website violates Your copyright, you are encouraged to notify ProBoards in accordance with ProBoards' Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy. ProBoards will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the offending material or disabling all links to the offending material.