RPGHQ

RPGHQ's(hereafter referred to as 'HQ') Rules:

1. Nothing illegal. This means United States of America law.
2. Do not take deliberate action to harm HQ or its ability to operate.
3. No "doxxing" of HQ members or relatives thereof.
4. Content,
   1. Stay On Topic: Respect the purpose of each thread and do not deliberately derail discussions. If you have a new topic to discuss, feel free to start a new thread in the appropriate section.
   2. No Spam: Posting the same message or irrelevant content multiple times is not permitted.
5. NSFW Content,
   1. NSFW content in a post must either be put behind a spoiler, or in a thread appropriately labeled as NSFW. It's just polite.
   2. Avatars & Signatures must be SFW.
   3. No hardcore pornography. If deemed obscene, it will be removed. This does not apply to mere nudity — "I know it when I see it."
   4. Don't post homosexual content. Go be gay somewhere else.
6. Posts must be in American English. Acceptable exclusions include threads dedicated to non-English discussions and quoting third-party sources in a non-English language. British people should learn to spell better.
7. Privileges,
   1. Delete & edit are privileges. Do not abuse them. Abuse includes, but is not limited to: mass deletion of posts, mass redaction of posts, and changing the contents of a post to make a discussion appear differently.
   2. Report is a privilege. 'Joke' reports will result in your ability to report posts being revoked. It stops being funny after the 100th time we handle it.

---

HQ's Guarantees:

1. The HQ will allow you to share your opinions, even if — especially if — we disagree with it. It may be moved if it's off-topic, but you will be allowed to discuss it as long as it's not content that violates the aforementioned rules.
2. The HQ will never abide by any country's laws except for USA, and any requests from non-USA governments for content takedowns will not be complied with.
3. The HQ will never release any user's personally identifying information unless required to by USA law enforcement. Non-USA government requests for user information will be denied.

---

Commentary & Interpretations of the rules can be found here.

If you find any of the content in this thread unclear/bad/wrong, please make a thread in the Feedback forum.

Updated Rule #5 to clarify that if your avatar is animated, it must be sensibly animated.
https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=sensible

a. Acting with or exhibiting good judgment; reasonable: a sensible person; a sensible choice.
b. Not ornate or impractical: a sensible hairdo; sensible shoes.

Basically, if I think it might give someone a seizure it's getting nixed.

Avatars get extra restrictions not found on other content because they can't be put behind spoilers and everyone must view them by default. I believe this to be a reasonable compromise.

All further changes will receive a reply to this thread explaining what changed and why. if you disagree or want to discuss or dispute a change, please make a thread in Feedback so we can talk about it.

Rule #7 added.
If you disagree or want to discuss or dispute the change, please make a thread in Feedback so we can talk about it.

Rule #1 clarified. I'm not your father or mother, if you have a username shared elsewhere with the one you use here then that's not my fault and you need to learn better cyber hygiene. I will help you change your name here if it's an issue, but I will not ban someone for merely deciding to look it up in a search engine.

Rule #4 clarified that if a thread is marked as NSFW, then no individual spoilers are needed for NSFW content. Consider the title to be the spoiler warning, you have been warned.

Rule #7 updated to point out that editing your posts to overwrite them is pointless. Again, if it's to censor personal information, contact an admin to have it fully deleted from our database. If you feel it must be removed immediately, feel free to delete it but you must still contact us to actually delete it from the database. A delete from a user is merely a 'soft' delete that effectively just hides it.

Rule 8 added, it's a small one that will rarely apply to most of you.

Rule #2 reworded somewhat, no change in how it is enforced, hopefully easier to understand.

Rule #6 clarified, bri'ish are being put on notice.

Rule #9 added.

Partial rewrite, sections moved around, some stuff added.

Added:

• Mark content that contains spoilers with spoiler tags. Consider this mandatory for any content that has released in the past 6 months, and just a polite thing to do otherwise.

The rules have been updated. Addition:

No simping.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ November 24th, 2023, 16:25

The rules have been updated. Addition:

No simping.

Ban for @The_Mask incoming

I simp for free speech.

GhostCow wrote: ↑ November 24th, 2023, 16:27

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ November 24th, 2023, 16:25

The rules have been updated. Addition:

No simping.

Ban for @The_Mask incoming

You really don't want to see how I behave around feminists and/or liberal white *******.

... or maybe you do.

At some point the bullet point regarding removal of real life information was removed, I added it back.
See:

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ March 4th, 2023, 04:57

Rule #7 updated to point out that editing your posts to overwrite them is pointless. Again, if it's to censor personal information, contact an admin to have it fully deleted from our database. If you feel it must be removed immediately, feel free to delete it but you must still contact us to actually delete it from the database. A delete from a user is merely a 'soft' delete that effectively just hides it.

I thought this ****** was permabanned.

Watser wrote: ↑ December 7th, 2023, 18:49

I thought this ****** was permabanned.

Yes.

I request to be unpermabanned.

SumDrunkGod wrote: ↑ December 7th, 2023, 19:04

I request to be unpermabanned.

Request denied.
Reason: Unwanted, doesn't actually play RPGs, too dumb to even post in the correct section.

Rule 7 updated.

Rule 4(d) updated to be more specific about what is allowed and disallowed.
No effective change in what is allowed or disallowed, this is merely a wording change.

Rule 3(b) updated to clarify actual policy, no effective rule change:

We recognize that discussions in threads naturally drift away from the original topic. These discussions will be split into their own threads in an appropriate section once the discussion is no longer active so as to not interrupt an ongoing discussion.

---

May split rules into rules and guidelines so as to keep the rules as short as possible, as it contains some content that isn't actually a rule.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ February 3rd, 2023, 02:02

RPGHQ's(hereafter referred to as 'HQ') Rules:

1. Please be aware that HQ is not a social media platform. Therefore:
   • Refrain from sharing personal details, including links to personal social media accounts or self-portraits (selfies).
   • It's acceptable to share professional works, such as books, comics, or similar items, that bear your name.
   • We discourage personal vlogs. If you wish to discuss personal topics, consider typing them in text format and posting them in the Off-Topic forum. No, we won't read it.
   • Gaming content, such as gameplay videos, game reviews, or commentary, is highly encouraged. If you include gameplay videos, please consider excluding overlays of your facial reactions.
2. Nothing illegal. This means United States of America law.
   1. No "doxxing." This means actual, real life identifiable information that could feasibly be used to contact, stalk, or harass someone in real life. Do not attempt to debate the legality of this.
      • This is currently defined as surname, physical address, phone numbers, family members, place of work, and any personal photos. If you are unsure if a piece of identifying information would fall under this, just assume yes.
      • If you accidentally "self-doxxed", remove it via edit or delete, contact a staff member to have it purged from the database, and report any posts quoting the content to have them redacted.
3. Content,
   1. HQ has a large selection of subforums that cover a diverse range of topics along with a catch-all "Off-Topic" section. Threads should be created in the correct section.
   2. Stay On Topic: Respect the purpose of each thread and do not deliberately derail discussions. If you have a new topic to discuss, feel free to start a new thread in the appropriate section.
      • We recognize that discussions in threads naturally drift away from the original topic. These discussions will be split into their own threads in an appropriate section once the discussion is no longer active so as to not interrupt an ongoing discussion.
   3. No Spam: Posting the same message or irrelevant content multiple times in different sections or threads is not permitted.
   4. Mark content that contains spoilers with spoiler tags. Consider this mandatory for any content that has released in the past 6 months, and just a polite thing to do otherwise.
4. NSFW Content,
   1. NSFW content in a post must either be put behind a spoiler, or in a thread appropriately labeled as NSFW. It's just polite.
   2. Avatars must be SFW. If you choose an animated avatar, it must be sensibly animated, no flashing lights. No other restrictions, but prefer a gaming avatar.
   3. Signatures must be SFW.
   4. No hardcore pornography. If deemed obscene, it will be removed. This does not apply to mere nudity — "I know it when I see it"
5. Posts should be in American English. Acceptable exclusions include threads dedicated to non-English discussions and quoting third-party sources in a non-English language. British people should learn to spell better.
6. Delete & edit are privileges, do not abuse them. Abusing in this context means mass deletion or redacting of posts.
7. No simping towards any other member of the forum.
   

   ---

   HQ's Guarantees:
   1. HQ will allow you to share your opinions, even if — especially if — we disagree with it. It might be moved if it's off-topic, but you will be allowed to discuss it as long as it's not content that violates the aforementioned rules.
   2. HQ will never abide by any country's laws except for USA, and any requests from non-USA governments for content takedowns will not be complied with.
   3. HQ will never release personally identifiable information of any poster unless required to by USA law enforcement. Non-USA government requests for user information will be denied.
   If you find any of the content in this thread unclear/bad/wrong, please make a thread in the Feedback forum.

Archive of the rules as of 03/29/24.

Rules received a major rewrite, they are now in three sections: Rules, Guarantees, and Guidelines. Guidelines accompany the rules. This greatly slims down the rules to the bare essentials.

Rule 1(A) → Rule 2. Doxxing now only applies to members of the HQ and relatives thereof.
Rule 2 → Commentary. Previously: "Refrain from sharing your personally identifying details, including links to your personally identifying social media accounts or self-portraits (selfies)". No effective change, as this did not need its own rule.

Guidelines/Policy → Commentary. This helps understand the purpose. Commentary likely will be thinned down in the future.

Added:

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ February 3rd, 2023, 02:02

Report is a privilege. 'Joke' reports will result in your ability to report posts being revoked. It stops being funny after the 100th time we handle it.

---

I want to reduce the size of the OP, as I think it's far too long right now.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 30th, 2024, 02:23

I want to reduce the size of the OP, as I think it's far too long right now.

The rules are actually very simple and concise. If you want to reduce things, you can split the OP into 3. Rules. Guarantees. Commentary.

The_Mask wrote: ↑ August 30th, 2024, 02:26

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 30th, 2024, 02:23

I want to reduce the size of the OP, as I think it's far too long right now.

The rules are actually very simple and concise. If you want to reduce things, you can split the OP into 3. Rules. Guarantees. Commentary.

Yes, it's the explanation of the various terms and how rules are interpreted that take up most of the space. I assume most posters don't actually need this, as they can get a good grasp on the rules without it delving into specific edge-case rulings.