Below is the working draft copy of the Code of Conduct that we've been hammering out for... well, for too long really.
Various factors (some avoidable, some not) have kept it from hitting a point where we were comfortable inviting public comment. Now, though, we've pushed through the last bit of edits, and so now it's your turn. We want to hear your thoughts on this CoC.
What isn't clear? What might be a good idea at the core, but is terribly worded? What did we forget to include?
Commenting will remain open for at least one week - longer if necessary. So by all means, take your time letting it sink in as you read it if needed.
As always, you're free to say, "It sucks." But if you do - as in, that's the entirety of your critique - we're also free to not take your comment very seriously. Or, in other words, please take some time to offer details - both about what is wrong and about how to possibly fix it.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
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The Code Of Conduct
Table of Contents
Section One: Content
Section Two: Behavior and Conduct
Section Three: Links
Section Four: Advertisements
Section Five: Signatures and Avatars
Section Six: Reporting Posts / Moderator Action
Section Seveb: Intellectual Property
Section Eight: Discipline And Procedures
Section Nine: Appendix
Section Ten: Revision History
Section One: Content
The moderators and staff of No Goblins Allowed strive to create a welcoming environment open to all those interested in tabletop games and the creative opportunities they afford. We have a low tolerance for content that negatively affects the enjoyment of others, especially hostile, insulting, derogatory, graphic, explicit, illegal, or inflammatory content. This means (among other things):
- Do not use hate speech or racial, ethnic, sexist, homophobic, or religious slurs.
- Do not post obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, graphically or gratuitously violent, derogatory, demeaning, malicious, defamatory, abusive, offensive, hateful or discriminatory language or content.
- Do not attempt to "mask" profanity or "test" the filter.
- Do not create screen names that use or reference such content.
- This is, out of necessity, an English language forum. Please use English only while posting on No Goblins Allowed. An occasional word or phrase is OK - particularly well-known ones such as gracias or adieu - but entire posts in another language are not acceptable. This extends to text-based languages such as "1337 speak" and such. Note that this is a non-warnable offense; that is, you will not receive an official warning from the moderators for posting in a language other than English. However, repeatedly running afoul of this rule could result in a warning for spamming.
This policy encompasses all content posted directly to the site, including but not limited to forum posts, avatars, user names, signatures, and private messages.
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Section Two: Behavior and Conduct
In furtherance of the aforementioned goal of creating a welcoming environment, hostile or toxic behaviors such as flaming, trolling, harassment, bullying, threatening, impersonation, and disclosure of personal information without consent will not be tolerated. This means (among other things):
- Do not harass other users, including site staff. Flaming, baiting, trolling, and any other disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.
- You are allowed and even expected to disagree with other users from time to time, but the moment you go from disagreeing to disrespecting is the moment you cross the line
- Do not spam. This includes posting in a thread multiple times in succession, as well as posting off-topic content ("derailing").
- Do not disclose personal information - including but not limited to name, age, phone number, email address, and physical address - of other users without consent. Do not disclose confidential information - including but not limited to earnings statements, pending litigation, and future plans - pertaining to a business or company.
- Do not seek to impersonate another person or organization.
- Do not claim an official title or position relating to the site. Do not falsely claim the representation of another business or website. Do not falsely claim to be a law enforcement officer.
- Do not "backseat moderate" on the site. Do not reprimand or scold another forum member because you believe their post was bad and against the CoC. Do not try to quell a flame war by "officiating" or "mediating" the actions of others. While almost always good-intentioned, such actions very rarely have a positive outcome on a thread.
- Note that online harassment or impersonating a law enforcement officer are crimes in many locations, and No Goblins Allowed will cooperate fully with any law enforcement agency investigating such crimes.
Once again, this policy encompasses all content posted directly to the site, including but not limited to forum posts, avatars, user names, signatures, and private messages.
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Section Three: Links
Content posted to sites other than No Goblins Allowed is of course not subject to our policies on acceptable content and thus may contain content that would violate this Code of Conduct if posted directly to this site. It is generally OK to link to such content, with the following exceptions:
- Do not provide links to images, videos, other media, or sites featuring explicit nudity or explicit sexual content.
- Do not provide links to images, videos, other media, or sites solely intended to be obscene, racist, sexist, or excessively graphic.
- Do not provide links to images, videos, other media, or sites solely intended to promote drug use or any other illegal activity. The site's servers are located in California, USA, so all all applicable California state and United States federal laws apply when determining legality.
- Do not provide, link to, or post malware, viruses, or websites known to be unsafe, or to services designed to gain access to another user's account or information.
- When linking to content offsite that would violate the code of conduct if posted directly, we expect you to clearly label your link (for example, "click here" is not acceptable) and we also expect it to be tagged with warnings such as "NSFW" to be absolutely clear where the user will be going after they click.
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Section Four: Advertisements
We strive to be an ad-free site; as such please observe the following rules in place regarding advertising.
- You are permitted to post about or start threads advertising non-profit websites; either charity events or merely amateur/fan sites that do not sell anything.
- You are permitted to include text or image advertisements in your signatures. All rules listed in the Section Eight apply.
- You are not permitted to advertise trades or sales items outside of the designated areas. Forum descriptions will tell you if trading is permitted; if it is not mentioned, assume it is not permitted.
- You are not permitted to post about or start threads advertising for-profit websites or services.
- Exception: You may post a link to gaming-related Kickstarters or similar crowd-funding sites. Please provide content other than just the link - discuss the project, etc. All other rules - such as bumping - apply.
- If you have a stake in a creative work - writer, artist, editor, publisher, etc - you are welcome to make a single thread in the appropriate area to discuss your creative work. Above rules about spamming, flooding and bumping apply.
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Section Five: Signatures and Avatars
The following rules are specific to avatars and signatures used by community members at No Goblins Allowed. All other rules listed in this Code of Conduct apply equally to signatures and avatars.
- The minimum size for an avatar image is 20x20 pixels; the maximum size is 120x120.
- Signature images may not be larger than 470 pixels by 120 pixels, unless contained within a spoiler block. Note that these dimensions are the total size allowed; if you have multiple images, their combined height and width must fit within these boundaries.
- Animated images are permitted as avatars and in signatures, as a general statement. However if staff deems that an image's animation results in disruption, you will be asked to remove the image.
- Under most circumstances, should the staff determine there is an issue with your avatar or signature you will be contacted privately and asked to make the changes. However, the staff reserves the right to make changes to your signature or avatar without first contacting you. Reasons for this would include, but are not limited to, extremely disruptive material (pornography, hate speech, etc) or the staff knowing the community member will be unavailable for some period of time.
- Violations of these rules will not result in an official warning as an isolated incident; however, repeated violations will be considered disruption and could result in a warning action taken against your account.
- Should a staff member request you make changes, you will be given a reasonable timeframe in which to make the edits. Should you fail to do so, a site administrator will make the changes for you and the issue will be brought up to one of the Lead Moderators to handle as they see fit.
- Restoring an avatar or signature that was removed by an administrator will result in the material being removed again without prior notice, and the issue will be raised to a Lead Moderator to determine if a warning is warranted.
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Section Six: Reporting Posts / Moderator Action
Our staff endeavors to keep our forums welcome to all and free of content against the Code of Conduct. Please observe the following guidelines when reporting content or interacting with staff.
- If a post breaks any of the above rules report the post via the provided button (
), and be as detailed as possible in the report text field. The more information you provide the staff, the easier it will be for us to deal with the issue; problems that seem obvious to you may not be so obvious to the moderator who picks up the report. - Do not respond to attempts to bait, troll, harass, etc. Report the post and move along. Responding may lead to removal of content, or in moderator action against you in addition to the offender.
- After 48 hours if a report is still open, contact the moderator assigned to that area of the forums via private message and provided detailed information on the situation. As a community member, you can determine a report is still open by attempting to report the post again. If the previous report is still open, the system will tell you the post has already been reported; if the system allows you to proceed with entering a report, that means a moderator has closed any open report against that post.
- If at any point while interacting with a moderator you feel an action is unfair or unjustified, please contact the moderator leads GobO_Fire or GobO_Althalus and provide as much information as possible. If you are still unsatisfied with the results, you may then contact the site administrator GobO_Admin. Note that GobO_Admin will ask if you've talked to the leads before dealing with your issue.
- Moderators will take action as deemed necessary to bring posts into compliance with this Code of Conduct. Should moderator action be necessary, they have several options for communicating with community members who violated this Code of Conduct:
- Nudge: A "nudge" is an in-thread post made by a moderator, not directed at any specific individual, with the goal to nip things in the bud before they start, or to inform the community that action has been taken on a large section of posts.
- Courtesy Message: A "courtesy message" or "courtesy PM" from a moderator results when one of your posts was edited or deleted for reasons that were not CoC violations. Some examples might be an unintentional double post that was removed, or you quoted a post from another community member that was edited by a moderator, which resulted in your post being edited for continuity. If you receive a courtesy message, you are not being disciplined, just informed. We endeavor to always send these out, but time doesn't always permit such.
- Soft Warning: A "soft warning" is a PM from a moderator telling you recent posts of yours violated the Code of Conduct. However, the moderator handling the action felt your action didn't deserve to go against your discipline history, and so instead opted to give you a warning. A soft warning from a moderator is analogous to a police officer who lets a speeder off with just a warning because the speeder was only 5 MPH over the limit.
- Hard Warning: A community member receives a "hard warning" when a moderator feels one or more posts by the member violated the Code of Conduct, and the violations were too severe to merit a soft warning. Hard warnings are tracked within the system and used to determine further discipline such as day, week, and permanent bans. Sticking with the police officer analogy, a hard warning is like receiving a ticket for speeding.
- Banning: Accumulation of hard warnings against your account will result in various bans, preventing you from posting, reading or sending PMs, and so forth. Depending on the number of warnings, bans last anywhere from one day to permanent. Extending the previous analogy even further, this is like the judge reviewing your 28th speeding ticket and deciding it's time to suspend your license for a period of time.
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Section Seven: Intellectual Property
We value creativity and hope you're willing to share your creative works with us and the rest of the community. We also understand, however, that many creative folks worry about losing their Intellectual Property rights. All content posted on the forum remains the property of the original owner of the copyright and/or trademark. By posting your content on our site, you agree to grant No Goblins Allowed an indefinite but revocable license to host said content and display it on our forum and blog. This license does not grant us permission to use your material in any other way, commercially or not, without your permission.
You may at any time of your choosing revoke this license by contacting either the site administrator, GobO_Admin, or one of the moderator Leads, GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire. Please inform us where your content is posted (which thread, whether it was quoted by another user, whether it was ever on the blog, etc) and we will be happy to remove it and contact you in return so you can verify the content was satisfactorily removed. Proper attribution will be given in all instances; if content is posted to the blog and you would like your real name identified with your material, contact the site administrator or a lead moderator and they'll take care of that for you.
Original content posted to No Goblins Allowed is the intellectual property of the poster of that content. Content may be posted with other licenses as desired by the intellectual property owner of that content, with the caveat that none of those licenses may require NGA to host a work that the owner expressly forbids posting on the forum or blog in any context. NGA is a community, not a hosting site. Additionally, the correct usage, adherence to, and display of that license is the sole responsibility of the user of that license. NGA does not arbitrate intellectual property disputes dealing with user-specific licenses outside of cases of copyright infringement.
All applicable United States copyright laws apply to this forum. If you believe your work has been infringed upon by a user of this forum, please follow the same procedures as you would for the standard license revocation procedure as outlined above. However, please ensure before issuing a request that the work in question is, in fact, infringing. Transformative works and fanfiction are protected under Fair Use guidelines in the United States and are not, in and of themselves, evidence of copyright infringement. Please see the Organization for Transformative Works' FAQ for more information on Fair Use and the kind of non-profit fan works this site encourages. Sale or distribution of cracked copies of games, proxies, copyrighted works of fiction, and similar non-transformative and/or for-profit materials is strictly prohibited.
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Section Eight: Discipline And Procedures
If any member has demonstrated he or she cannot follow this Code of Conduct, the Website Terms of Use, or the Privacy Policy, then the member may lose access to ALL of his or her accounts and all associated content and screen names. Moderators issue formal warnings via private message or email when a member has made a Code of Conduct infraction. Depending on the severity of the infraction, No Goblins Allowed may issue a warning, timed suspension or termination of the account.
This explanation of disciplinary procedure is meant to be a guideline for members to understand our processes. In rare exceptions, No Goblins Allowed reserves the right to deviate from this procedure at any time, if it deems it necessary to do so.
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Section Nine: Appendix
For ease of reference, provided here is a list of all current staff members, they're "title" on the staff, and a brief explanation of their job role. This information is provided here to aid in determining, for example, which moderators cover which forum sections. In addition, the below table also indicates who specific staff members report to, so that if there is ever a need for a community member to escalate, the information is documented.
Name|Title|Reports To|Description
GobO_Admin|Site Owner|—|The Grand Poohbah, Admin is the final authority on any matter
GobO_Welder|Site Admin|GobO_Admin|Welder is responsible for technical maintenance of the site
GobO_Slobad|Community Manager|GobO_Admin|Slobad is responsible for community building, including increasing traffic to the site
GobO_Althalus|Moderator Lead|GobO_Admin|Althalus is responsible for supervising the moderation team
GobO_Fire|Moderator Lead|GobO_Admin|Fire is responsible for supervising the moderation team
GobO_Blitz|Underground Moderator|GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire |Blitz is responsible for moderating the Underground section of the forum
GobO_Furt|MTG Moderator|GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire |Furt has moderation responsibility over the entire Magic section of the forum
GobO_Kheldar|MTG Moderator|GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire |Kheldar has moderation responsibility over Magic General, Limited, Constructed, and DotP Place
GobO_Ravenclaw|MTG Moderator|GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire |Ravenclaw has moderation responsibility over the entire Magic section of the forum
GobO_Sapper|PBP & RPG Moderator|GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire |Sapper has moderation responsibilities over the Tabletop RPG and Play-by-Post sections of the forum
GobO_Scarlet|PBP Moderator|GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire|Scarlet has moderation responsibilities in the entire play-by-post area
M:EM Archivist|Magic: Expanded Multiverse Archiver |GobO_Althalus and GobO_Fire |M:EM Archivist is a special user-account with minor moderation tools available to enable the M:EM community to more easily archive their accepted works
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Section Ten: Revision History
When this version of the CoC goes live, all changes to the document - even typo correction - will be logged to this section to make it easier for community members to see revisions at a glance.
Date|Version #|Revision Author|Section #|Summary of Change
{Pending}|1.00|Site Staff|Whole Document|Initial Release
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