The websites, chat rooms, and other electronic services available to
you here at A Call To Duty Roleplaying (collectively the "Network") is provided by
the individual staffmembers and server operations managers of A Call
To Duty Roleplaying. In this document, "we" refers to A Call To Duty Roleplaying, "user"
refers to you, and "AUP" refers to this Acceptable Use Policy. As a
user, you are subject to the terms of the A Call To Duty Roleplaying Acceptable
Use Policy, and its related addended rules and policies that may be
published from time to time by A Call To Duty Roleplaying.
The Network is a private electronic service, and not a public chat
network. Your right to speak freely here must be exercised with
courtesy and self-restraint. When you utilize a component of The
Network (be it a chat room, forum, etc), it is the same as entering
any real privately-owned facility, like a restaurant or shopping
mall. The manners and laws of real life apply the same here as in the
real world, and we have the right to remove you if you choose to
exceed the Acceptable Uses outlined below.
In the same manner that Gene Roddenberry believes in a future where
humans can work with mutual respect for each other, we wish to promote
communication in an atmosphere of mutual respect. While not always
possible, we strive to create a safe, mostly family-friendly
atmosphere of open discussion and socialization. We remind all of our
users that you are entirely responsible and liable for all activities
conducted through your usage of The Network. We require you to follow,
at all times, the following Standards of Acceptable Use:
WE DO NOT TOLERATE HARASSMENT
We welcome people of all ages, races, religions, genders, national
origins, sexual orientations and points of view. We do not tolerate
expressions of bigotry, hatred, harassment or abuse, nor will we
tolerate threats of harm to anyone.
Because we encourage discussion and exchange of ideas, we do not allow
threatening, defamatory, abusive, tasteless or indecorous
statements. For the same reason, we do not allow sexually explicit
material in conversations, room titles, room topics or nicknames.
We invite people to open public rooms to faciliate their own topics of
conversation, outside of the lounge(s) we provide. Creators
(Operators) of such rooms must follow our Standards of Acceptable Use
in choosing a room name, topic, and content. We reserve the right to
limit the number of redundant open rooms, rooms not starting with a
letter in the alphabet, rooms with extraneous characters such as
!@#$%&, etc. or extremely long room names. Operators may use the /kick
command only if a participant violates one of the Standards of
Acceptable Use.
WE ALLOW ONLY LEGAL ACTIVITIES
Although this seems obvious, we will not allow any illegal
activities. Specifically, we disallow advocation of illegal conduct or
participation in illegal or fraudulent schemes. You cannot use our
chat rooms (channels) to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted
material, including photos, artwork, text, recordings, designs, or
computer programs. Importantly, though, is that you are allowed to
DISCUSS material, but you are not allowed to DISTRIBUTE
it. Distribution includes the revealing of download site addresses,
posting of URLs, and otherwise revealing of third party distribution
sites of such copyrighted material. In addition, we do not allow the
trading or swapping of images that are sexually explicit, obscene or
vulgar. Because there can be no way of ensuring compliance with this
section, rooms titled for the purpose of exchanging or swapping images
are not allowed. We will not let you impersonate someone else,
including one of our trained staffmembers.
Stalking of others, in our chat rooms or in any other manner, is a
serious offense. In many areas, such behavior is considered to be a
criminal act. We reserve the right to release information to the
proper authorities, because of a violation of our standards, or
because of unlawful acts, if the information is subpoenaed, and if we
deem it necessary and/or appropriate.
We cannot guarantee the content of comments that you will receive
while you are online. Other people's comments may be offensive,
harmful or inaccurate.
Although we conduct chats on a broad range of topics, we do not offer
professional advice of any kind. Staffmembers and other discussion
participants speak from their own experience and voice their own
opinions when helpful for conducting a conversation. Staffmembers
claim no professional or expertise or authority, and we claim no
responsibility for their remarks.
WE ENCOURAGE OPEN DISCUSSION AND DISALLOW DISRUPTIVE COMMUNICATION
We do not allow posting or use of computer programs that contain
destructive features, such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc. We
also do not allow any unauthorized bots or unattended scripts on the
Network, whether they are benign or destructive in intent. If you wish
to run a bot on the Network, you must petition for its authorization
to the Director of Network Operations, proving its benign nature, and
also assuring such automated systems will not appear in any official A
Call To Duty Roleplaying operations channel (including the general
lounges of various A Call To Duty Roleplaying games).
We also discourage disruptive conduct: persistent off-topic comments
in a topic-oriented chat session, statements that incite others to
violate the Standards of Acceptable Use, or the physical act of
"scrolling" -- repeatedly hitting the Return key in a chat session --
all are considered disruptive.
The use of ASCII art or macros that are excessively long (more than
two lines of text), and the use of pop-ups or sounds in a repetitive
manner that disrupts the topic or conversation in a room, are not
allowed. Users inviting others to visit Web sites with content that do
not comply with these Standards are considered to be in violation of
our Standards.
Idling, or staying in a channel without saying or doing anything, is
considered highly rude. Idling in the lounges for more than one (1)
hour is prohibited, and will cause the Channel Management Bot to kick you. Idling in the mission rooms for more than two
(2) hours is prohibited, and will cause the Channel Management Bot to kick you. This allows enough time for most background
transcript recorders to catch a full one-hour mission, plus anything
interesting before and afterwards. Idling in an unmanaged channel
(e.g. OOC channels, OOM channels, or channels of your own making) for
more than three (3) hours is highly frowned upon and is grounds for
you to be considered running an unauthorized bot on the network.
WE DO NOT ALLOW UNAUTHORIZED COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
We encourage communication between our members, but posting or
transmitting of unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, promotional
materials, or any other forms of solicitation to other users, using
any aspect of the Network, except in those areas that maybe designated
for such a purpose, is not allowed.
Your right to privacy is addressed in our Privacy statement.
We reserve the right to immediately terminate or suspend access to the
Network for conduct that we believe interferes with other peoples'
enjoyment. We also reserve the right to amend or change these
guidelines at any time and without notice.
When in doubt about appropriate behavior here, remember that the
Network is an electronic world, but the people here are real, and come
from diverse backgrounds of beliefs, viewpoints, and feelings.
MOTION-PICTURE STANDARDS
Currently we are using two (2) rating standards for our services. As
time goes on these will be further defined. Please refer to the MPAA
website: http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/about/index.htm
LOUNGE - General Non-Mission-Related Channels
RATING G - "G:"General Audiences-All Ages Admitted."
This is a film which contains nothing in theme, language, nudity and
sex, violence, etc. which would, in the view of the Rating Board, be
offensive to parents whose younger children view the film. The G
rating is not a "certificate of approval," nor does it signify a
children's film.
Some snippets of language may go beyond polite conversation but they
are common everyday expressions. No stronger words are present in
G-rated films. The violence is at a minimum. Nudity and sex scenes are
not present; nor is there any drug use content."
To further clarify, words such as damn, hell, and ass are not
acceptable. Any other derogatory words are also unacceptable. We
expect users of our Lounge to act accordingly.
MISSION - Mission-Related Channels
RATING PG - "PG-13:"Parental Guidance Suggested under the age of 13. Some Material May Not Be
Suitable For Children."
This is a film which clearly needs to be examined or inquired into by
parents before they let their children attend. The label PG-13 plainly
states that parents may consider some material unsuitable for their
children, but the parent must make the decision.
Parents are warned against sending their children, unseen and without
inquiry, to PG-rated movies.
The theme of a PG-13-rated film may itself call for parental
guidance. There may be some profanity in these films. There may be
some violence or brief nudity (including full frontal) and scenes of sexual and intimate relations. But these elements are not deemed so
intense or graphic as to require that parents be strongly cautioned beyond the
suggestion of parental guidance. There may be brief references to illegal drug use content in a
PG-13-rated film.
The PG-13 rating, suggesting parental guidance of ages 13 and under, is thus an alert for
examination of a film by parents before deciding on its viewing by
their children.
Obviously such a line is difficult to draw. In our pluralistic society
it is not easy to make judgments without incurring some
disagreement. So long as parents know they must exercise parental
responsibility, the rating serves as a meaningful guide and as a
warning."
To further clarify, words such as damn, hell, and ass are
acceptable. Any other derogatory words are not acceptable in large scale but may appear occasionally (no more than once per episode per character). We expect
users of our mission rooms to use discretion with borderline words.
