These are not guidelines. These are rules I expect each and every one of you to follow. I'm a very lenient person, but should you break my commandments...

Registration:

You may register as soon as you have read, and understood the rules.

1. Register under your characters name, with a proper first and last name. I.E. Mary Thomas, both capitalised! I don't want to see any mary_Thomas's, MaryThomas's, Mary-Thomas's... JUST "Mary Thomas"! And I certainly don't want to see any sexy_little_mary's. If you stuff up, PM Admin, we'll fix it up. Fail to, and your account will be deleted.

2. Do not add a prefix (Professor, etc) to your username. Admin will do that when your application is approved.

3. When choosing a name, please take the time to look at the names of existing characters on this board. If applying for a teaching position, check the "Staff Positions" topic, if enrolling as a student read the class list in order to make sure the name you have chosen hasn't already been used. If it has, you will be asked to change. This applies to students, teachers and adult members. Also, try and create a character that is different to what we already have. I'm not asking you to read all the profiles, just make a character that you feel doesn't already exist at the school, and (especially in the case of students) preferably into an age group that we lack characters in. It's no fun having a school full of fifth-year easy going students. It takes all types to make an RP.

By the same token, we cannot have an entire school staffed by vampires and werewolves. If you apply for your character to be staff and one of those two races, then please realize approval will depend on our current balance of staff. The option will be provided to be a resident in that case.

This is the way we expect these characters to be RP'd on this site.


Another note on your name: I don't like going to other sites, and recognising members purely from their character name. Playing the same character in more than on RP is called "Double Dipping" and it's not on... it's an insult to both the Administrator of the existing site, and myself. I don't mind if the names are similar, or if the characters are a little alike.... just a little originality is appreciated. If doubles are found (and I am quite friendly with many other admins, you will be found) you will be asked to delete or change one or the other.

Application:

4. Fill out the entire form, and post it in the appropriate place. Please do not post anywhere else until your application has been reviewed and accepted. We may have to ask for a few changes. Be flexible, we can't have a million fourth years running about with very few firsties, can we?

5. If when you return, your application isn't there, it's probably because it has been moved to the "Character Profiles" section. This means you have been accepted.

Activity
While we realise that real life has its commitments, there is still a sense of commitment to rping as well.

While posting once a week can be considered remaining active, to truly be active and maintain a feel for the plots, the least one should post is two to three posts per week. Any less than that and you begin to lose your sense of the timeline and everyone else is moving on past where your character currently is.

Should posts begin to drop below this level, you will be emailed. Should you fail to either reply to this email explaining why you have been unable to rp or pick up your rp activity In Character, then we will delete inactive characters from our roles.

Playing:

6. No Percy-moding, autoing, or otherwise. This is where you control or hurt another persons character without permission, and it's not on. Not here, and not at any other site I've ever been to. Perhaps I should clarify.

Jim took his wand, and pointed it at Vernice.

That's not powerplaying...

Jim took his wand, and pointed it Vernice. He aimed as carefully as he could, and fired.

That comes close. But although Jim fired the spell, he didn't say it hit. It isn't powerplaying.

Jim took his wand, and held it to Vernice's head, and fired his spell.

That certainly is. Firing point blank, she wouldn't have had a chance.

Jim took his wand, and fired it at Vernice, watching her fall back to the ground as it hit her hard in the chest.

If I see anything like that, you'll be shot, I swear. That's the worst kind of godmoding. But none of it will be allowed here.. okay?

7. Write all your posts and applications in the third person, and stay in character! Remember to be realistic! A first year student will be weaker than a third, who is weaker than a seventh! Professors are stronger, and the older the professors are, the more experience they've had. I don't want to see young children making something out of nothing....

8. If you feel the need to break out of character on one of the IC boards, post it between the parenthesis like this: (OOC( *Your message here* )).

9. No arguing between players in OOC. I can't stand it at all, it will result in an automatic punishment, and you'll be in my bad books forever. Nothing annoys me more. If you MUST fight with someone, use the Private Message system, or go calm yourself down somehow. I will not abide fighting on the boards.

10. In regards to OOC and posting on the IC forums, please don't post JUST an OOC message. They will be deleted. There is a place for talking OOC, it is not in the IC topics. Either add a post for your character as well, or take it to the cafe, where it belongs!

11. Post length... this is important. One liners are hideously hard to reply to! I'll accept shorter posts if your character is in the middle of something with another character, but please try and keep at least one hundred words in the posting box at all times. Bonus cookies for those who do more. Note: OOC and IC are separate. I want one hundred words IC.

12. This place is above the Adult rating. Swearing is allowed, just don't go overboard. The PDA (Public Display Of Affection) Rule is as follows: It is perfectly fine to speak of something that happened, general shows of affection are allowed (hugs, kisses)... If you really feel you need to go further, please PM me to have a password-protected forum created for your use.

13. Although I love you guys to play and play and play, and have lots of fun, lets be sensible. Lets not throw hundreds of different posts up overnight. It's great having an active site, but things begin to get confusing if people go overboard. Try and keep to a maximum of three threads at a time... for my own sanity.


14. Another pet hate of mine, double posting. There is an edit button for a reason, please. Any second posts will be deleted without warning. This applies to ALL forums.

15. Multiple Characters
Quite a few people have asked me about having multiple characters, and the answer is yes - you can have more than one character, but I do have a few conditions that have to be met before I'll approve one. Your first two characters are 'freebies'... ie, I don't ask for a particular post count before you register them. However... and this applies as from now:

A. Of your first two characters, only ONE may be a professor.
B. Any other combination of character types [Student/Resident, Resident/Prof... etc] will be granted.
C. To gain any further characters, your existing characters MUST have a post count of at least 100. This is to ensure you are dedicated to the site, and an active member.
D. Inactivity will result in your newest character being pulled from the site first. This is where the absences forum becomes important... if you're going away, you need to let us know, so you don't get 'swept out'.


16. Regarding the OOC forums, please don't spam. It's bad for you. If you wish to have a thread for random things, please at least make it useful... play a game, or discuss the stupidest thing you can think of. Don't make a purely random thread, they don't work, and they don't help my head.

17. I didn't think I'd have to say anything like this, but anyway.... if you don't like the site, I'm not asking you to stay. I do, however, hope that you'll be mature enough to leave without leaving several notes as to what I supposedly am, and what this site is. If it is too much for you to believe that I've put heart and soul into Hexing Hogwarts, and you have nothing better to do than disrespect my rules, opinion and other members, I strongly suggest you leave now.

18. Tags... another thing that is common sense. If someone has a topic going, it's generally not done to break into it, and ruin the flow of the thread. However, if you think something is going wrong in there, alert myself or one of the House Heads. Do not take matters into your own hands. Please only post in threads that it is likely your character would be in... at this point in time, we're having one character to one thread at a time. Your character can not be in two places at once.

Off-Board Conduct & Advertising:

19. Not that I'm worried about anyone here, but this is just a reminder for new and old members alike. I will not tolerate spamming of any kind. I do not tolerate it from guests, I do not tolerate it from members. If you feel the need to advertise your site here, I'm more than happy to consider you as an affiliate/sister site.

20. In additon to that, I had better not recieve reports from any other Administrator that people have been spamming other boards in Hexing Hogwarts name. Flattered as I am that you might feel these boards are worth advertising, spamming others is not the way to go around it - and if caught (I should probably say that I am a member of a lot of Admin communities, and we do share the IPs of spammers about) you risk being permanently banned from these boards. So keep it nice, and be polite whenever you are promoting Hexing Hogwarts- always follow the rules of that board, and never spam another board back simply because they got us.


Anything you think I've forgotten? Post it below.