General Rules

1. Achaea-related discussion only.
The Achaea forums are provided for the purpose of Achaea-related discussion only. Discussion of OOC politics, religion, pop culture, and the like are not within the scope of our forums. If you must satiate your hunger for such discussions, please direct yourself to a search engine by which you may discover one of the multitudes of forums on the internet provided for those topics.

Due to the often divisive, inflammatory nature of discussions on the internet in regards to OOC politics and religion, these two topics are especially unwelcome. Mature, thoughtful discussions on politics and religion can be one of the great joys of life, and while we encourage you to pursue such, please do so elsewhere. (The administration, failing to have been born on the internet yesterday, also recommends seeking such conversations outside of anonymous virtual mediums entirely.)

2. No posting confidential materials.

This includes but is not limited to:
- Non-newbie quests and skill information.
- Confidential guild/city information such as help files or private posts.
- Any type of non-public documentation including, but not limited to, non-disclosure agreements and private Iron Realms employee or volunteer contact information.
- Do not disclose, discuss, speculate on, or hint at alternate characters of any other player without his strict permission.
- Posting, or paraphrasing, the text of another person's issue or issue reply without his or her explicit consent.

3. Communication with administration on the forums.
The forums are not the appropriate medium for petitions to or attempt to debate with the administration regarding administrator/moderator punishments, conduct, or decisions. Don't use the forums to plead your case if your character gets shrubbed in-game. Communication with the administration on these subjects should be directed through the appropriate channels, such as an email to SUPPORT (at) ACHAEA (dot) com.

4. No posting of, or posting links to, anything that violates someone's copyright or involves stolen intellectual property.

This includes pirated music, software, and so on.

5. No pornography.

This includes but may not be limited to pornography, sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal, or simply displaying nudity needlessly. This covers ASCII porn, /cyber logs, and links to pornography. This includes poster avatars and signatures.

6. Watch your language.

Self-explanatory. If you're not sure whether the swearing you're about to do violates this rule, just assume it does. Profanity includes the most minor to the most vulgar. Modification of curse words (such as reversing letters or replacing some with asterisks) is also not permitted. Do not test the language filter to see if you can find a way to beat it.

7. Personal attacks are not allowed.

Debate the post, not the poster.

Not every negative post is a personal attack. If you think you are being attacked you should ask yourself why it is an attack. If it simply disagrees with your post and tells you that you are wrong, this is not an attack. Not every post that upsets you is a personal attack. You are on a public forum, and if you air your opinions, there is no guarantee that someone won't disagree with you or think that your opinions are stupid.

True personal attacks are taken seriously and will be dealt with using whatever action is deemed necessary, especially in regards to repeat offenders who do not attempt to moderate themselves. We understand that at times, debates can become heated and the occasional personal attack may slip out. However, for the integrity of our forums, we ask that you exercise self-restraint.

Violent personal attacks and threats are never acceptable and will result in a suspension or permanent banning, depending on the situation.

Examples:
- "Your post is quite idiotic." - Not a personal attack.
- "You are an idiot." - Personal attack.
- "You are a worthless person." - Personal attack.
- "Your mother liked to hump small poodles." - Personal attack.
- "You are a freaking idiot... I wish death on you and a pox on your family!" - Violent personal attack.
- "Go kill yourself." - Violent personal attack.

At our discretion, harassment of other players on the forums may result in consequences to your accounts in Achaea. For more detail, see HELP HARASSMENT.

8. No hate speech

Anyone that insults people based on their race, gender, sex, sexual preference, religion, culture, or country of origin, or threatens them explicitly or implicitly is not allowed and may result in an immediate ban. This includes both fellow forum members and your fellow human beings in general. Jokes of this nature also have no place on these forums.

Put in plain terms, if you want to sound like you belong in the KKK, do it elsewhere.

9. Spamming the board is not allowed.

Spamming the message board is a violation of the rules. This could include any of the following:
- Spamming the board with advertisements, links, pictures, or other inappropriate content.
- Posting in the last thread of every section so that your name shows up on all lines of the index (or attempting to do so).
- Posting "Hi, X", "First", or "In before X" in a thread.
- Derailing a thread through a post that has no relation to the original topic or the topic currently being discussed.

10. No advertisements.

The following are not allowed and are considered advertisements:
- Outwars / Outwars-clone link spamming / hit farming.
- Link spamming.
- Posts or links to other muds unless there's a reason to be talking about that mud.

11. Do not bump old threads without good reason.

If you're bumping an old thread for a good reason (information was requested or the topic came up again), that is fine. If you are bumping an old thread for no reason or simply to be funny, that is not. Make a new thread.

12. No impersonating other Achaeans.

Do not use a name on the board that is a character in Achaea unless you are the owner of that character.

13. No suspension or ban workarounds.

If your account has been banned or suspended, do not create or use an alternate account to post.

14. Moderator decisions pertaining to the board are final.

When a moderator or administrator makes a decision this choice is not up for public debate. If you have a problem with the choice made, PM or email that moderator or an administrator. If you create a thread to question or insult this choice, you may face further moderation.
Signature and Avatar Rules

Your avatar or signature may not contain the following:
- Explicit sexual images.
- Links to porn or warez.
- Language violations.
- Anything else that otherwise violates the forum rules.

If a moderator feels an image is inappropriate even though it may not fall under the above guidelines, you may be asked to remove it or face having it removed for you. Do not recreate the avatar or signature after it is removed.

Signature size may not be over 8 lines of normal (size 2) text in height. If your signature takes up a full screen when you have posted one sentence, it is too large.

Administrative Methods

Each moderator has his own style of moderating the board. As such, a basic template has been setup for dealing with each violation of the rules. In the case of a poster doing something blatantly over the top, he can and will be banned immediately.

Warn system guidelines
Each warning increases your warning level by 20%. Each warning carries with it a ban from posting on the forums, as follows:

Warn level 20% 10 days
Warn level 40% 30 days
Warn level 60% 90 days
Warn level 80% 180 days
Warn level 100% permanently banned from the forums

Warning appeals and good behaviour

If you disagree with a warning or action by a moderator, you may appeal it to the Forums Steward via the PM system within 7 days of the warning. Once 7 days have passed, you may no longer appeal that warning.

You may also appeal to have your warning level reduced by 20% if you have gone for six months without being warned on any forums account. This is true for each six-month increment, meaning that if you have gone for a year without being warned, you can appeal to have 40% of your warning level reduced. Each group of six months must be consecutive and not broken by any warnings, and time spent banned will not count towards the six months. You may NOT appeal to have your warning level reduced if you are permanently banned.