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It is now: Year 5 - Day 5 - Lunch/Freetime before the Yule Ball (December 25, 2011 A.D.)

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Viewing Single Post From: The Rules
Sailor Moon	Jan 2 2007, 04:07:30 AM
Champion of Justice Posts: 334 Group: Sailor Scout Member #1 Joined: January 1, 2007	If you wish to impress me, please look into following these rules, and reading them thoroughly. If you wish to become a teacher, a prefect, or a canon character, these rules must be burned into the inside of your skull (figuratively!). I look favourably upon those who follow the rules well and ask questions. Disclaimer: Most of these rules are simply guidelines; they should be followed, but no one will ever be banned for making simple mistakes. Only those who intend to do harm to the site or its members run the risk of being intervened. The Administrative Team Administrators: Dave McKelvey (Sailor Moon, site founder) Addie Lumineux (site co-founder) Tristan Nightshade (first administrator brought on board) Ian de Ponte du Lac (plot mastermind) Hellius Surla (first moderator, plot mastermind) Constanta Lupei (First Lady) Katriane Quicompoix (Secretary of State) Emma Gray (Secretary of HNNNG) Moderators: Eleonore Collins Savannah Edkins - A complete list of the administrators and moderators (admin not on the above list are alternative characters to the listed admins) is available by clicking here. Account Names - No titles in usernames. Just first and surnames. Middle names are optional. - Usernames should be the name you plan on using to role play with. Examples of good names: Jeffrey Johnson Examples of bad names: JeffreyJohnson, Jeffrey_Johnson, JeffreyJohnson16, OMGWTFBBQ, SnapekillsDumby, jeff johnson. The format for names is simple. First name, space, last name. No titles, no underscores. Use capital letters. An exception to the "no titles" rule is for the word "Professor", or suffixes such as "III" or "Jr.". - Please try to stay away from celebrity names. - Try not to use a name that is similar to one that is already in use. - Please do not use your real name, and if you happen to do so, don't advertise the fact that you have. - Make your name creative. Names like "Mistress Gemini" will probably cause people to not take characters seriously. - Name change requests can be done through the Preferences menu, or by clicking here. When your request goes through, feel free to shoot me a PM on my Dave McKelvey account (click me!) to let me know that you've put forth a request. If there are any problems, again, feel free to PM me. Concerning Canon Characters - You may use the names and personalities of canon characters. What I would ask, if you do wish to use a canon character as your main role playing character, is that you try to keep their personality the same. You may not have a completely off character whom you just want to have the name of a canon character. If you don't understand what I mean by the word canon, I mean according to and straight from the books. By canon characters, I mean the characters in the book, as they are in the text. Such examples of canon characters are Harry, Hermione, Ron, Severus Snape, and Rubeus Hagrid. One other thing that I would ask is that, if you wish to use a canon character, that it be a student. If I could, I would at least like to keep such characters as Voldemort, Dumbledore, and the rest of the adults of Harry Potter out of the story, as I feel that the adults from the story are too concrete to change around for a role play. You may play as such students as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, any of the Weasleys, Draco Malfoy, Seamus, Neville, Luna, whoever. I would just like it if you did not change them around too much. Currently, few canon characters have been taken, so most are available. - People who apply to play a canon characters should not expect to get the role if they do not write well, are inactive, or do not obey the rules. - Extension canon characters. These characters are either students or adults who are related to canon characters from the books, or are canon characters who have been shifted into our timeline. We do have several of these characters, such as "Beth Snape", who is the daughter of Severus Snape, and "Bellatrix Black", who is Bellatrix Lestrange prior to her marriage and adult life. As such, these types of characters are allowed, but we ask that you make sure that your character makes sense. For example, since Bellatrix Black (Lestrange) is currently a student at Hogwarts, she can't yet have a daughter. Please see the master character roster in the "Characters" forum for a complete list of all characters. Character Creation - Characters must be original. In one incident, a role player here stole three characters from another role playing forum and used them as her own, also using the original creator's avatars/banners, and the creator came complaining to me. Stealing is not good for business, so please, do not use anyone else's characters, banners or avatars without explicit permission. - New characters are required to fill out the character sheet, which is available in a stickied topic in the sign up forums for both teachers and students. Character sheets can be done by simply answering the questions, though some people have gotten creative in the past and answered the questions in character. Whatever suits you is fine. - Additional fields may be added to character sheets for extra information, but please don't remove any of the original fields. - If possible, please omit the example texts from your character sheets when you fill them out; it makes them hard to read when it says "This is how old you are blah blah blah 11." - You may have multiple characters. You may also have both a student and a teacher character. You can also apply for auxiliary characters (house elves, or ghosts, for example), but it is up to you to make your own character sheets/edit the existing sheet for these types of characters. - Please try not to make characters too powerful. Students are 11 years old entering their first year at Hogwarts; it would be very unfitting to see students killing Aurors with Avada Kedavra anytime soon. - Mary Sueing. Any seasoned role player has heard this spiel, but I have to say it again. No single character is perfect. Characters can't be the hottest, smartest, strongest, most powerful person in the school. Everyone has weaknesses, negative qualities, in addition to things they are good at. Let's face it: characters who are perfect are boring. Yes, they may achieve top grades, and yes, they may be able to destroy my character in a wizarding duel, but they are still a plastic, personality-less shell, whom no one wants anything to do with because they're so much better than everyone else at everything. Another form of Mary Sueing is when a character is always being the center of attention, or always coming in to save the day. This isn't a superhero RP, so characters should not try to be the all-powerful, righteous protagonist - Mary Sueing also comes in the form of characters being clich� and overused. Here are a few common examples that we've all seen before: Facial scars Near death experiences Being an orphan Witnessing the death of family members/friends/loved ones Accidental murder Being overly built for their age Being disliked for "uniqueness" or personal style Being a loner or antisocial An explosive temper (most likely caused by past trauma) Having unattractive features but being attractive anyway Overprotective or overbearing parents The good parent/bad parent thing with mom and dad Having a Firebolt This list is subject to change at any time, when good examples of Mary Sueing arise on the boards (there haven't been many yet!). When writing up character profiles, try to be realistic. Maybe you want to have a previously traumatized character, but so does every Tom, Dick, and Jane. Not everyone had a horrendous childhood. The bottom line is: there's nothing wrong with being normal. - Characters who have a violent history concerning their parents, have mental disorders, problems with addictions, or anything else that could result in PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder, which means having flashbacks or being emotionally scarred from past events) are strictly prohibited. We don't need anyone coming on here with a family member who suffers from something, then seeing someone role playing a character with that specific thing for the fun of it. There will be none of the following, under any circumstances: Abused children Rape victims Drug abusers Mentally ill characters Suicidal characters - Any characters who are experiencing suicidal thoughts or performing self mutilation will have their posts edited and will receive a warning. - Special abilities, odd heritages, or special possessions are uncommon (Marauder's Map or invisibility cloak, being a werewolf or vampire, or being an animagus at the age of 5). If you would like to request a special ability for your character, please see the Special Abilities Thread. Broomsticks - Please refer to the "Which Broomstick's Complete and Comprehensive Guide to Brooms (click me!)" thread in The Compendium forum for a list of brooms available to students. Multiple Accounts/Characters - You are allowed to have multiple characters, as having one character alone can result in you being stuck in an area if whoever you're role playing with goes offline. Having a second character gives you something else to do if one of your others are stuck in limbo. - This does not mean you need seven characters (yes, it's happened before). You will be limited to a certain number of characters based on how long you've been on the site and how active you've been across all of them. If you are unsure about if you should create a new character or not, contact Dave via PM. - All accounts and characters owned by the same person MUST be registered under the same email. If they are not, you will not be sorted until they are. Concerning Avatars, Banners, and Celebrities - Character avatars and banners are allowed (and encouraged). Apart from the obvious things, such as not having them so huge that they stretch the page, the only rule we have concerning avatars and banners is that no two characters can have the same celebrity. When you have made your character, or if you'd like to base your character's appearance off of the celebrity you intend to use, please make sure that the celebrity has not already been claimed in the Celebrity Claim Thread. The rest of the rules concerning celebrities can be viewed there. Role Play Location and Time This role play is based directly in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The current year is 2009. The real events of the Harry Potter story have been stricken from history, as we wouldn't be able to allow canon characters if they were not. What that means is that Voldemort never existed, Dumbledore never existed, etc. If someone happens to play Harry, he's just another guy. God Moding - God moding is not allowed. God moding is the practice of dictating how your actions against another player end up happening, most likely in your favour and against theirs. If you cast a spell at another player, it's up to them if it hits, and what it does to them if it does hit. - Though you have the power to dictate what happens to yourself, please try to be reasonable. If you're dodging every spell thrown at you by twenty people at a time, there's obviously something wrong. - The prime thing to remember here is that anything you try to do to another character, either positive or negative, has its effects decided by the target. A spell, or even a hug, both work this way. You can try to hug someone, but if they don't like you, it gives them a chance to push you away or move away themselves. - God moding can also come in the form of dictating what another character does. For example, if you leave a classroom and go somewhere, saying that another person's character came with you without their consent, that's god moding. - Even something as small as assuming that a character did something minuscule is god moding, as you are not supposed to control another person's character. Something as small as saying someone has a surprised look on their face is god moding. - Bottom line is: your posts do not concern the actions of another character. The only actions of another character that you should include are actions that they have done in their previous post, for example, saying "as whoever walked over to my character... my character did this," with "whoever's" last post saying that they began walking over to your character. - Intentional god moding can be done with permission. Since our characters are growing up and hormones are running rampant, there are bound to be couples and groups of people walking about, so if they're walking together, they will probably just god mode each other around when they change rooms in the castle. Posting Guidelines - Any discriminatory remarks regarding sex, race, or sexual preference, will result in a warning, and, depending on the severity, possibly a ban. In character discrimination, such as against halfbreeds, half bloods, or muggles, is fine. - Seeing as the roleplay has a huge spectrum of personalities, cursing is bound to come into play every now and then. Do what you wish, but take it in moderation, and try to stay away from sexual remarks. - The most important rule about posting: post in third-person in the past tense. There's nothing worse than reading a post that is in third-person, and then the reply is in first-person. By third-person, I mean not using personal pronouns, such as "I", "we", "me", or anything of that sort. You will refer to your character by their name, or by "he" or "she". As for past tense, when you conjugate a verb, it should come out in past tense. Here's an example: Good: Jennifer walked into the great hall, moving her head around to see if she could spot her friends. Bad: Jennifer walks into the great hall, and moves her head around to see if she can spot her friends. - Try not to make frequent spelling/grammatical mistakes. If you think you're making mistakes, copy and paste your posts into MS Word and check them over before submitting them. The FireFox browser comes with a built in spellchecker. - Grammar is our friend. Use commas (,) when you would pause if you were reading your post aloud. Use quotation marks (" ") around spoken dialogue. I hope I don't need to tell you where to use periods. Also, try to know the differences between such words as your and you're, there/their/they're, and its/it's. Also, please don't use accents ( ' ) as quotation marks. - All posts are important, whether they are short or long; no one's going to be shot for having two liners, because being anal about this sort of thing is kind of stupid, in hindsight. Be aware, though, that people might not find your character interesting if all your posts are extremely short. - Please try to avoid double posts. If you have to change something, the edit feature should be available to all users to edit their own entries in the role play (let me know if it's not!). If you double post, however, or something goes wrong (stuff happens) and your post comes out twice and you miss it, a moderator will most likely fix it for you. - Please, make sure you are posting in the correct area. I know the amount of forums here may be overwhelming, but you will learn, in time, how to navigate them. You can visit the navigation tutorial thread here: The Hogwarts Navigation Tutorial - Sex, intimacy, and awkward encounters are bound to come up at some point, but try to stay away from specifics if anything does happen. - Extreme violence should be kept to a minimum. Violence is allowed, of course, but think realistically; assaulting someone is enough to put you in jail in most places of the world, so behave. - If you see someone breaking the rules, please do not take it upon yourself to flame them. If you see someone breaking rules, hopefully by accident, please kindly point them to this thread, and if it continues, do not hesitate to PM me personally. Chances are I will have noticed, though. - If you are reading this, I commend you. At the end of your application, please answer "the ultimate question" with your answer to the following, so I know you have read the rules: "If you had the ability to cast one spell from the Harry Potter series at will, what would it be?" Don't forget! - Use the post codes at will. The most common three are bold, which can be used for stressing a word or displaying anger; italics, which are only to be used to display a character's inner thoughts; and underlining, which can be used to stress a word as it is spoken. Here are some examples of how to use these three features: Code: `[b]bold text here[/b] [i]italic text here[/i] [u]underlined text here[/u]` - When italicized text is used, it means that the dialogue is in the character's head. When your character thinks something, it should be set apart from the rest of the paragraph, either by quotations, or by putting it on its own line. I personally like to put my character's thoughts two lines down, as to separate it from the rest of my paragraph. Here's an example: Quote: Jack walked into the great hall, feeling very nervous. Wow... I didn't realize there were this many people here. Not aware that he looked utterly stunned, Jack sat down at his house table with the rest of his house. Notice the use of italics to show thought. Also, I'd like to point out my use of underlining to place emphasis on the word "this". This is how I like to set out my characters' thoughts, but if you'd like to do it in quotations, then go ahead. Remember: Thoughts are in a character's head. If you see another character thinking, your character should not read their mind and bring up what they were thinking about; that would be unrealistic. - When you have to post out of character, either to ask a question of another player, or for whatever reason, please make sure you set your out of character (OOC) dialogue outside of your paragraphs. This is how I do it: Quote: OOC: Hey professor, are you sure taking away 50 points is really fair? Lillian's jaw dropped as the professor announced that he was taking 50 points from her house. Damn that idiot. Why should the rest of the house suffer because of something he did? - Another commonly used code is the color code. The simplest way to use the color code is to put [ color = 'insertcolorherewithoutspacingorquotations']your text here[ /color], without the spacing. Most common colors work, as well as shades (darkred, lightblue, for example). Please be diligent, however; no one wants to read an entire post that's in dark blue or black. Color codes are most commonly seen when a character is entering or leaving an area, and the color they use is usually their house color, though this is optional. - Finally, the best rule of thumb (in my opinion), is to proofread and/or reread your posts. I personally always read my posts over again right after I submit them, and if I see a spelling/grammatical error, I fix it immediately. Forum Activity - All information and applications are kept on file, so you will never lose anything that you need for character reference, even after being inactive for over 9000 days. - If you must take a leave of absence, such as a holiday, it would be great if you could let us know beforehand that you will be inactive. There is an absence thread in the Off Topic section. - Canon characters must be active members of the community. Inactive canons will have their character stripped from them, and the canon character will be up for the taking by another user, wherein which the new user would assume the previous owner's place in the story as the character, or, if the canon was hardly active in the first place (which has happened in the past), the canon's new owner can simply start over and assume it is their character's first time at Hogwarts. - If you take on the position of a professor, you agree to be active at least once every week for several hours. If a professor can't post and finish lessons when required (the schedule is available in the announcements section), they run the risk of losing their job, though accidents do happen, and people are sometimes required to disappear from the site for a while. Advertising - No. Questions and Concerns If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to approach me. I am available for contact through personal messages, e-mail, and MSN Messenger, if needed. Once our member base grows, you may post questions in the support section and may even get help from another member. Please do not feel intimidated by myself or the other admins. I'm a really approachable guy, and I like to think myself extremely lenient when it comes to anything... except grammar and spelling. I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve the forum, and the role play itself, so if you have any, feel free to share them. Finally, I just thought I'd add one thing: I know that a lot of these rules make me seem extremely anal, and believe me, I am, but I'm not a hard person to get along with, and I'm not going to pull out the whips on you for making mistakes. We all make them, and we're all here to have fun while writing a story, so as long as you come with a good attitude, minor rule breaking is not a huge deal. These "rules" can be seen simply as guidelines. Also, for those who don't know, my student character is Dave McKelvey. Any concerns you have should be directed to me in a PM addressed to Dave, as I use that account most often.
	I am Sailor Moon, champion of justice! On behalf of the moon, I will right wrongs and triumph over evil. In the name of the moon, I will punish you!

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