The Otherkin Community:Rules and Regulations

From The Otherkin Community

Overview: The proceeding document contains the Otherkin Community rules and regulations. All members, including administrators and moderators, are required to follow these rules under penalty of the associated action. Moderators will enforce the following rules in the areas specified.

Acronyms / Symbols:

• Ban = Banned from the chat room
• Suspend = Account suspended
• Kick = Temporary account suspension (or removal from the chat room)
• MT = Measure Taken (if rule is broken)
• #- = # or less (3- would be 3 or less)
• #+ = # or more
• [] = Optional
• TOS # = Where that rule can be found in the Terms of Service

Note: If after three (3) months you receive no additional warnings, one warning will be removed for that violation. Note that this does not ensure further action will not be taken with ranged warnings (such as 3-).

Contents 1 Section 1. Member Conduct 1.1 1. Respect 1.2 2. Role playing 1.3 3. Intent to Act 1.4 4.Member Influence 1.5 5.Audience 2 Section 2. Chat Room Conduct 2.1 1. Discussion (Official Channels) 2.2 2.Member Channels 2.3 3.Chat “Bots” 2.4 4. User Nicks 3 Section 3. Research 3.1 1.Research Guidelines 4 Section 4. Moderator Privileges 4.1 1.Account Security 4.2 2.Exercising Privileges / Enforcement 4.3 3.Moderator Qualities 4.4 4.Thread Management 4.5 5. Member Management 4.6 6.Moderator Activity 5 Section 5. Reporting 5.1 1.Harassment 5.2 2.Topics / Posts 6 Section 6. Other Information 6.1 Who are the Community moderators? 6.2 I no longer wish to be a member. 7 See Also

Section 1. Member Conduct

The following will be enforced on every Community service (forums, chat, etc).

1. Respect

In order to maintain a friendly community, the number one rule is respect.

1. Respect others' beliefs. Not all Otherkin share the same beliefs. In addition, not everyone within the community is Otherkin. If somebody does not share your beliefs, respect that. Members are not allowed to attempt to influence a party or individual into believing something else. Members may also not be condescending or ridicule other members. (TOS 1e)
2. No racism. Racism will not be tolerated within the community. That includes hostile or degrading actions or comments toward any general party – be it physical race, Otherkin race, religion, or any special interest group. (TOS 1f)
3. Use limited profanity. A word filter is available on the community, however that does not prevent the point from getting across. Limited profanity is allowed – that is, a sentence containing less than three non-ethnic, racist, or offensive words. “Offensive” is defined as a word directed toward a specific party (such as a word prefixed with 'mother'). Profanity also includes sentences with offensive comments (e.g. “shove it--”). Any words not “beeped” out on United States television is not considered profanity. (TOS 1g)
4. Equality. It is an unfortunate fact that some Otherkin feel themselves to be more powerful or 'superior' to others. Power trips or other egocentric attitudes will not be allowed. No members are to feel inferior to others, or attempt to depict themselves as superior (even administrators and moderators have their actions limited as much as possible to ensure they are “equal” with the other members). (TOS 1e)
5. No harassment. Community moderators will make every effort to ensure all members feel safe and at home within the community. If a member is harassing you or making you feel uncomfortable in any way, please contact a community moderator. (TOS 1f)

MT: [Warning (3-)] » [Kick] » Suspend

2. Role playing

The Otherkin Community is not a role playing website. All posts represent the authors' actual views and opinions.

1. No role playing. Though it may be difficult to determine when someone is role playing or not, every effort will be made to remove role players from the community. (TOS 1j)
2. Do not claim to have abilities you do not. In addition to no role playing, please to not lie about abilities you do not possess. That can be misleading to members who may attempt to learn from you. This can not be proven, so we are asking and trusting you. (TOS 1k)
3. Try to keep claims you can not back up to a minimum. Some Otherkin will claim to have done something or be something that they are unable to back up. We discourage this, both to protect members against false information and to prevent you from being mocked and/or looked down upon because your statements are not believed. Some may even go so far as to think you are a role player. (TOS 1l)

MT: [Warning (1)] » [Kick] » Suspend

3. Intent to Act

The term "ability" refers to any skill potentially posessed by an individual, be it metaphysical in nature or otherwise, as might be implied by the content of The Otherkin Community. The below rules are defined in terms of intent to act upon any individual using any ability and remain in effect regardless of whether or not the offender or receiver believe that the intended outcome is possible to achieve.

1. Do not act upon other members without their permission. Even if the action may have no ill effects on the receiver, you are not to do so without their permission. If it is discovered that you have demonstrated intent to do so, depending on severity, it may be cause for immediate suspension. (TOS 1m)
2. Do not attempt to assault other members. You may be immediately banned (depending on severity). (TOS 1n)

MT: [Warning (1)] » [Kick] » Suspension

4.Member Influence

The Otherkin Community is intended to be a safe atmosphere where Otherkin can awaken, get friendly advice and talk among those who share similar beliefs. Therefore we take strict measures to ensure members are not influenced by other parties.

1. Do not give readings on any public Community services. Awakening members are encouraged to awaken for themselves, not to rely on others' readings that could potentially be false. Please keep readings private and encourage members to look into what you have read for themselves, not to take what you have said as pure fact. Even the most accurate reader could be wrong. (TOS 1o)
2. Do not attempt to bring a member into your party. Because many of the members may be new to Otherkin or may have just begun awakening, we ask that you do not attempt to gather members into your party. This is also a precaution to protect members from malicious groups. This does not apply to members you are close friends with, but public advertisement (posting publicly on the community forums or in the community chat room) is not allowed. (TOS 1p)
3. Do not insist you are correct on inconclusive material. Much of Metaphysics / Otherkin is theoretical and unproven, therefore all statements should be expressed as opinion. Moderators will speak out against statements that are phrased as facts (unless evidence is provided to support the claim) to encourage members to build their own beliefs and explore other possibilities. (TOS 1q)

MT: [Warning (3-)] » [Kick] » Suspension In the case of 1.4.3, more warning may be issued if needed.

5.Audience

The Otherkin Community contains members of all ages from many diverse backgrounds all over the world. Therefore, you must take care when posting.

1. No sexually explicit material. The Otherkin Community is no place for such material. This includes, but is not limited to, images and stories of people in sexual situations, as well as sexual comments toward others. This does not include (but be very careful when contributing) artistic contributions (such as nude art) that do not include sexual situations, but should not be posted outside the “Expressions” forum. Discussions on reproduction are allowed so long as it does not exceed a biological discussion. Use common sense when posting. If this becomes a problem, no artistic material will be allowed. (TOS 1d)
2. No preaching or spreading your beliefs. Members of the community come from many different backgrounds and share many different belief systems. Preaching or attempting to spread your religion / beliefs is not allowed. Beliefs are statements that you can not back up with conclusive evidence. (TOS 1r)
3. Do not post personal information. All personal information should be kept to the member profile. Any other information, such as e-mail addresses as well as home addresses will be removed from your post by moderators. This is done to help ensure the safety of members. E-mail addresses are censored to help prevent spam. In the future, they will be converted to images rather than be censored. (TOS 1s)
4. Do not post copyrighted material without the author's consent. Please refer to the license of the material you wish to post for information on redistribution. If no license is provided, contact the author. Copyright laws vary between countries. (TOS 1a)

MT: [Warning (3-)] » [Kick] » Suspension

Section 2. Chat Room Conduct

The rules within this section apply only to the Otherkin Community IRC network or any other real-time communication implements such as the “blabber box”.

1. Discussion (Official Channels)

Due to limitations with the chat, some additional rules are required for chat room discussions. The rules within this subsection (1.1) apply only to the official Otherkin Community channels.

1. Use the appropriate channels. The channel #lobby is the lobby and allows for general chat. While Otherkin discussions may occur, you may find that the majority of the time members are talking about whatever they'd like. #practice is used for members to practice their abilities (and should be used for nothing else). (TOS 2b)
2. Use limited profanity. There are no word filters in the chat room (unless the members' clients supports that), therefore language will be moderated much more strictly. If you are going to use profanity, it would be polite to censor them yourself (e.g. f***). If nobody within the room complains, moderators will be more lenient (unless they themselves find it to be offensive). However, should a chat user find it to be offensive, you will be asked to stop. (TOS 2c)
3. No spamming. Do not post excessive messages within a short period of time or the same message over certain intervals. Advertisements are not allowed. (TOS 2d)
4. Do not use #practice for sparring or fighting. You may practice your abilities on each other so long as it does not involve sparring, does not result in a fight and does not disrupt the room. If you would like to do so, either take it to another channel (that allows it, or create your own) or do so in private. (TOS 2e)
5. Note: How to contact a moderator. Due to the “equality” rule, moderators within the chat do not have “operator” status – that is, they're not distinguishable from normal users. To see a list of moderators, simply type the command “!mods” in an official channel (without the quotes), or type “mods” in a private chat with Keeper. You may also type “/msg Keeper mods”.

MT: [Warning (3-)] » [Kick] » [Ban]

2.Member Channels

The Otherkin Community now hosts its own IRC server. Therefore, members (or non-members) may create their own channels (chat rooms). When creating a channel, be sure to follow the below rules/guidelines.

Remember, the IRC network is a privilege – if it is abused, you will lose your ability to use it.

1. Only the rules in section 2.2 apply in your channel. You may run your channel however you would like – it does not need to abide by any rules the forums or official channels do (except the rules in this subsection). (TOS 2f)
2. No profanity in channel names. Channel names that contain profanity will be deleted. This is because channels will (in the future) be listed on the Community website and users may list all channels within their IRC client. The Otherkin Community wishes to maintain a friendly image. (TOS 2f)
3. No illegal activities. The Otherkin Community does not allow any copyrighted or illegal material unless you have received permission from the owner. If your channel is found to contain illegal material, it will be suspended without notice until the owner takes the appropriate action. If law enforcement must get involved, The Otherkin Community will fully cooperate with the authorities and any involved third parties and release any necessary information. The Otherkin Community stores the IP address of all users who log onto the IRC server, as well as the nicks used. (TOS 2f)

MT: Warning (3-) » [Kick] » Ban

3.Chat “Bots”

In order to keep the chat environment enjoyable, we must place limits on automated applications within the chat room (such as chat bots).

You may create bots for your own channels, but they must not be placed in official Community channels.

1. No bots within the official Community channels. If you wish to create a chat bot or any type of automated script, it must not be placed within any official Otherkin Community channels. If a bot is found within the channel, you will be asked to remove it. The only bot within the Community channels is Keeper, a moderation and help bot. If you suspect there is a bot within an official channel, please contact a moderator. (TOS 2g)
2. Do not spam Keeper commands in chats. There are certain commands that cause Keeper to output text to the channel. Many people find this to be disruptive and/or annoying. Therefore, keep the majority of commands in a private chat with Keeper, or use them sparingly. If they are abused they will be removed. (TOS 2h)
3. No flooding. Your bot must not flood the server with requests (this includes flooding channels). (TOS 2i)
4. Get permission from the channel owner. If you do not own the channel, make sure you ask the channel owner if it is alright to place your bot within the channel. The channel owner is expected to ban the user his/herself, however if the user persists, the moderators will attempt to take action. (TOS 2i)

MT: Warning (3-) » [Kick] » Ban

4. User Nicks

The term "nick" in IRC represents the user's current name on the server.

1. Do not use other registered members' nicks. If you are a member of the Community, it is recommended that you use your own nick or something similar to avoid using a nick an another member has registered. If you are a registered member of The Otherkin Community, you may forcefully retrieve your nick from another user by typing "/msg NickServ KILL nick password", where "nick" is the nick that you wish to retrieve and "password" is your Community password associated with that nick. (TOS 2j)
2. Do not use offensive nicks. Avoid profanity in nicks, as well as any words or phrases someone may consider to be offensive. If a number of users find your nick to be offensive, you will be asked to change it. (TOS 2j)
3. Do not attempt to impersonate an individual, member or otherwise. If there is a member (or unregistered chatter) named “John”, do not use the name “J0hn”. Do not use nicks that represent common figures, such as celebrities or political figures. Do not use common names such as “God”. (TOS 2j)

Section 3. Research

In addition to being a community for Otherkin, The Otherkin Community was also founded as a scientific community.

1.Research Guidelines

Research is conducted by yourself. In order for your research to be both valid and taken seriously, there are a number of guidelines you must follow. Note that this applies to research articles / documents, not theoretical posts that you may create within the forums. This procedure is required for articles in the Otherkin Wiki.

1. Hypothesis. Be sure to state a well-developed hypothesis or question to be answered for your experiment. What is it that you are testing? What do you expect the results to be?
2. Create a thorough procedure for your experiment. Readers should be able to reproduce your experiment (given the necessary equipment) and achieve the same results by following your procedure. Note that the procedure must include any materials required for the experiment.
3. Set a control. A control is used to compare later experiment results in order to determine if anything has changed. For example, if your experiment was to determine how a drug affects different patients, your control would be a group of individuals who are not given the drug.
4. Cite information. If you use information in your experiment that is not common knowledge and is not defined through your experiment's procedure, you must cite the information from a valid (and preferably reputable) source.

Section 4. Moderator Privileges

Every attempt is made to ensure moderators are on the level of other members. This section outlines moderator privileges and limitations.

1.Account Security

First and foremost – security. To help ensure the Community won't be compromised, moderators are required to secure their accounts. Here, the term “moderator” also includes administrators.

1. Secure password. Moderators are required to have a minimum 10-character password including both letters and numbers (preferably both upper-case and lower-case, as well as symbols). The password may not contain your user name, name, phone number, address, social security number, or anything that can be affiliated with you. The password must also be unique to the community (must not be used on any other websites / applications). Ensure the password is stored in a safe location (though you are encouraged to memorize it) and is not stored virtually.
2. Do not allow your web browser to remember your password. If you want to log in more quickly, use the website auto-login function by checking the appropriate box upon login.
3. Do not share your account with anyone else. If you are on a public or shared (such as a household) computer that others have access to, ensure you log out before walking away from the computer.

MT: Warning (2) » Demotion

2.Exercising Privileges / Enforcement

Moderators will act as any other member until needed.

1. Do not abuse your privileges. You are to act only if it is necessary or otherwise requested.
2. Consult other moderators before making a decision (unless it is very small - such as moving a topic) unless it is urgent.
3. Record your actions in the appropriate area of the moderator forums. Also record any warnings a user receives so we may keep track of them.
4. Use moderator forums sparingly. The forums are to only be used in order to notify other moderators of information that would otherwise cause unnecessary problems within the community (such as discussing a user who requires moderation). All general chats should be kept to their respective public forums.
5. Moderators should not have operators status in the chat rooms unless needed for moderation.

MT: Warning (3-) » Demotion

3.Moderator Qualities

In order to enforce a friendly and productive atmosphere, moderators must exhibit the proper qualities. Should these qualities change, they will lose their moderator status.

1. Polite. All moderators are to be polite and respectful in their posts.
2. Neutral. Moderators must be able to take a neutral side when moderating and consider all parties involved.
3. Fair. Moderators' actions must be justified and (in many cases) verified with other moderators.
4. Patient. Sometimes moderators may need to be patient when attempting to resolve an issue. While breaking under the pressure may be difficult not to ask for, moderators must be able to withstand persistent and irritating member proposals / arguments.
5. Equality. Moderators should not feel that they are superior in any way to the other members.
6. Reflect Community qualities. Moderators must reflect the views and qualities of the Community.

4.Thread Management

Moderators are to allow members a great deal of freedom in their posts so long as they do not violate any of the community rules or the TOS.

1. Do not delete member posts unless absolutely necessary, such as a post that will provoke a large argument. Even then, a post is to be edited with the reason for the edit, not entirely deleted.
2. Sections of posts may be edited / removed if they violate a rule or may provoke an argument, so long as the reason for the edit is provided.
3. Lock the thread if the conversation gets out of hand (such as an argument). Provide a warning beforehand unless the argument is already too far gone or doing so would upset the situation further. After locking, be sure to provide an explanation as to why the thread has been locked.
4. Locked threads may be unlocked only once if the moderators feel that things have calmed down. If the thread must be locked again, it will be locked permanently.
5. Threads may be split into new threads if the conversation gets off topic. Moderators be sure to give the thread a logical name and place a notice at the top of the first post stating the thread that it was split from as well as a reason as to why it was split.
6. Remove any personal information from public threads to ensure member safety. E-mail addresses should be censored automatically, however remove them if necessary. Also remove phone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, or any other information others may be able to use to track down the member. Names are allowed unless the name posted is not the author's (other member names should not be revealed unless by themselves). Personal information should be kept to member profiles. If a member keeps posting personal information despite efforts to remove the it, notify an administrator so their account can be temporarily suspended.

5. Member Management

1. Do not delete member accounts. If a member wishes to have his/her account deleted, suspend it and censor the name. Member accounts will not be deleted in case the member wishes to return, as well as to preserve the posts (as to avoid confusion). Member posts may be censored per request or if absolutely needed (using the system – do not do so by editing a post).
2. Give all members a fresh start. If they caused problems in another community, then you may keep an eye on that person. However, be sure to give them a fresh start and do not be hostile toward him/her. Exceptions will be made in serious situations.
3. Prevent harassment. If a member states they are being harassed by another member within the community (we will not get involved in external affairs), please request that they stop. Should it continue, please notify an administrator in the event an account needs to be [temporarily] suspended as well as to verify PMs if needed.

6.Moderator Activity

Inactive moderators will be demoted.

1. Moderators must be active within the area of moderation. If you are a forum moderator, you must be an active forum reader. If you are a chat moderator, you must actively chat (unless you are a forum moderator as well). If you are not active and do not exercise moderation where needed for one (1) month (unless excused for whatever reason) you will lose your moderator status until you become active once again, at which time your reinstatement will be considered.

MT: [Warning (1)] » Demotion

Section 5. Reporting

When reporting problematic members, posts, or threads to moderators, be sure to include the following information in order to speed up the process.

1.Harassment

Moderators will do everything they can in order to resolve and prevent harassment of members within the community. Note that if you have a personal quarrel with a member outside the community, that is none of our business unless you bring it into the community publicly. The exception to this is if the person harassing you located you on the community and previously did not know you.

1. Username. Please include the username of the person harassing you.
2. Messages. Include any message sent to you (by e-mail or in private) that include harassing comments, along with the date sent. Do not delete harassing PMs as administrators must verify their existence in order to ensure you are not attempting to frame an individual. In the case of e-mails, please forward the e-mail to a moderator's e-mail address so we can attempt to verify the e-mail's origin. If the harassment is not verbal, please provide an explanation.
3. Explanation. Be sure to explain to the moderator why the message offends you. Sometimes users may receive an offending message dealing with a personal event that the moderator has no knowledge of.

2.Topics / Posts

Until the new community website, there will be no function to report topics or posts. Therefore, you must do so manually by contacting a moderator.

1. Topic title and link. Please provide the name of the topic under question, as well as a link to the topic.
2. Offending poster. Provide the username of the poster, the page the post is on, as well as a quote of the post.
3. Explanation. Please explain to the moderator why the post offends you.

Section 6. Other Information

Who are the Community moderators?

You may view admins and mods by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of the forums, below the users online. To view all admins/mods and their contact information, please see the following link below: http://www.otherkincommunity.org/wiki/Contact

Administrators and moderators also have their titles displayed below their username on the forums.

I no longer wish to be a member.

We are sorry you wish to leave the Community. Before leaving, if you could let a moderator know what caused you to leave, that would be very helpful in helping to make the Community a better place. If a member was the cause of your leaving, something may be able to be worked out and they may have violated a rule, in which case the appropriate action will be taken. The Otherkin Community does not delete accounts – this way, all posts will remain in tact in the event you wish to return. However, if you wish to leave, we may censor your user name (and out of courtesy, though we greatly discourage it, we may censor your posts provided a valid reason for doing so). To request that your account be suspended, please contact a moderator. If you ever wish to return, either contact a moderator or send an e-mail to support to have your account re-activated. Note that if you request repeated suspension and reactivation, your requests may be denied. If you choose to have your user name, posts, or both censored, then a post will be made in the “Suspension Notices” forum (within the News section of the General & Guest Forums) notifying members that you requested the suspension. No details (such as your reason for leaving) will be supplied unless you wish us to do so.

This document is subject to change at any time provided that the members of the community are notified within a post in the 'News' section of the forums. No additional notification will be provided. Members will not be held accountable for rules broken before their introduction in this document (exceptions may be made depending on severity). Members must keep up to date on this document, as no exceptions will be made should a member not understand the rules.

Website: http://www.otherkincommunity.org/

E-mail: support@otherkincommunity.org

Last updated: 01 Jan 2008

See Also

Terms of Service (TOS)