User blog:Imouto-tan/Chat Rules

"Salutations, friends! It's an honor to finally meet you!"

- Hibiki #101 to the Chatlings

Thanks to the help oh various VTSF, administrators and, the mods over at the RWBY chat for allowing me to use their rules as a template.

Chat Moderators
Chat moderators reserve the right to ban or kick any user who does not abide by the rules or if the moderator determines that the user may be harmful to the wiki or the chat in some way indefinitely until a admin-chatmod meeting can be held.

To undo (Perma)bans there needs to be a vote by at least three mods or more.

Please note that users of administrator and bureaucrat status are automatically given chat moderator status, and reserve just as much rights on chat as any chat moderator. The following is a list of users with chat moderator status or higher:
 * Death-chan:
 * DYBAD-Onii-chan:
 * Little Sister:
 * RAVEN BRANWEN:

'At all times, please comply with admin, chatmod, and Staff requests. If you don't, it may result in a warning which then may lead to you being banned from Chat. All Cyber Bullies will be reported to Staff, so please play nice :)'

General
Don't try to replace the moderators - You're free to let users know of the chat guidelines, but please do not tell them what to do or not to do. If there are moderators present and active in chat, it is their responsibility to give warnings to users. Be sure it doesn't seem as though you are trying to take the role of a moderator.

Chat Moderators
Chat moderators are asked to give fair warnings (two or three) to users about their behavior when appropriate. Chat moderators must explain to the user why they are being kicked prior to kicking them from chat if warnings about the specific behavior have not already been given.
 * Sometimes the chatmods may ask you to move on from a topic. This might be because it's likely to cause argument (like some religion or politics conversations) or make the environment uncomfortable to others (like using the chatroom as a dating site). Please listen to the mods and drop a topic if you are asked to.
 * Chatmods must cooperate with one another and should always have their PMs open for the other mods to speak with them.

When banning a user, moderators must clearly specify the reason for the ban in the ban summary. In incidents where chat and/or its users are significantly disrupted and/or threatened, such as, but not limited to, an invasion, large volumes of spam making conversation difficult, or multiple links to malware or sexual content, moderators are permitted to take immediate action to remove or stop the offender.

On the occasion that a user may think that the behavior of a chat moderator is inappropriate, please take screenshots showing the situation and contact an administrator or bureaucrat for them to deal with. Possible chat moderator status abuses include, but are not limited to:
 * Kick/Banning/Harassing a user for no valid reason
 * Unfairly threatening users about behavior/making unfair demands

If a chat moderator is determined to be abusing their powers, he/she must formally apologize to the user and, in some cases, a nomination for their removal may be opened, but only to other moderators and wiki administration.

Rules
1. Undefined Circumstances: The chat moderator reserves the right to add temporary rules or take action in a situation not covered by the Superpower Wiki Chat Policy. When doing so, the action taken must always be explainable, should an administrator investigate the situation.

2. Age Requirement: Only users of ages 13 and above may enter chat. Although we do not have any function to determine a user's age, any user determined to be under 13 will be banned until they reach 13 years of age.

3. Harassment: The direct targeting of an individual user on the basis of their race, gender, religion, interests, sociological factors (spelling, grammar, intellect), psychological state (mental illnesses) or physical appearance.
 * This covers the threats of violence, legal actions and the use of media to harass the individual. The act of getting users to gang-up on or mob the harassed individual is also prohibited.


 * "Teasing" a user is perfectly fine, as long as the user being teased does not get negative emotions from the teasing or asks the user to stop.

Abusing a user's ping phrases also falls within these boundaries. Ping phrases are usually meant and intended for giving the user an audio and text notification on the Chat. Spamming this will continuously generate the audio for the user for each "ping phrase" said, and CAN constitute harassment if the users asks for an end to it, and said request is not followed.

4. Civil Behavior: All users are expected to keep a civil manner when talking. Do not say anything that may offend a user, and keep profane wording to a bare minimum. If a user shows exceptional profanity or disrespect, report it to a chat moderator immediately to deal with the situation.
 * All users must show respect to one another. Abuse and insults will not be tolerated. Do not interrupt or disrespect a staff member in the process of enforcing policies.

5. Chat Disturbances: Chat moderators are given the right to immediately take action if he/she sees user(s) to be excessively spamming, trolling or flaming. This includes, but is not limited to, flooding the chat with random external links, the over-use of capital letters, posting long walls of text, toggling the AFK chat hack, or the repeat spamming of a certain phrase.

6. Links: Linking to certain types of content is prohibited in the public chat. This prohibited content includes, but is not limited to: excessive gore and violence, "shock" or "screamer" sites, illegal content, and malware. Users are asked to avoid using link shorteners such as bit.ly when possible, as they hide the actual destination of the link. However, certain links do require shortening, as they would be excessively long otherwise. If a user you do not trust posts a link you are unsure of, it may be wise to avoid clicking it. If you are linking an image from Google, click "View Image" to link to the image itself, rather than a long Google link.
 * Please note that enabling illegal activities by explicitly promoting websites by name, or otherwise giving instructions on how to access illegal content, is also heavily discouraged, even if direct links are not provided. Moderators may use their discretion to determine whether or not a discussion fits this criteria.

7. Chat Games: Chat Games are fun way to pass the time. Such games include "Hit the person above you" or "say the first word that pops into your head after reading the previous word". These games are usually allowed, however, if the activity becomes out of hand, moderators may cease the game.
 * Roleplaying is also perfectly acceptable, as long the content is not overly disruptive, overly sexual, or otherwise downright disturbing. Any roleplay that may violate these rules or disrupt chat will asked to be taken to PM immediately, otherwise it will not be permitted to continue.

9. Chat Topics: Conversations discussing religion, politics, gender, sexuality, or race must be kept in order by a chat moderator. If a user feels uncomfortable or offended by a topic of current chat discussion they may make their opinion known to a moderator, who will assess the situation. If the topic is found to violate any other policies, it must cease immediately or offending users will be removed from chat. Users may continue the topic in PM.
 * If the topic is found to not be violating any policies, the moderator will ask for chat's majority opinion to determine if the topic will be continued (even so the chat mod can still decide on what to do on the matter). If the topic is continued the offended user is free to go AFK or leave chat until the discussion is over, but any other violations made during this time or and abuse/harassment made towards the offended user will result in a indefinite ban.

10. Cross-wiki Incidents: Actions such as mobbing another chat, or encouraging users to do so is prohibited. It is highly advised that users do not link other chats in main, as this can lead to large invasions, even if not intended. Any actions done to another wiki, or by another wiki to this wiki are to be immediately reported to a moderator or administrator to handle. In addition, personal issues with other wikis are to be kept to an absolute minimum.
 * If another wiki causes an incident with this wiki, DO NOT go back to their wiki to get revenge or investigate. Allow for a single moderator or administrator to assess the situation themselves.

11. Sockpuppeting: Any account found to be a "sockpuppet", such as (but not limited to) a second account being to avoid a ban or warning, shall be banned indefinitely from chat. Moderators are asked to report sockpuppet accounts and the user who created them to an administrator, so they can take any further action needed.
 * Read more about socks here

12. Wounded Gazelle gambit: Users who complain to admins, lying about being the victims will receive infinite ban if caught.

Unofficial Rules
1. Sexual Content: No explicit sexual or erotic content is to be linked on the public chat, including images and sites. Any violation of this rule may lead to immediate banning without warning. Sending users links to pornographic material via PM is accepted as long as the user agrees to it. Conversations which may contain sexual content are allowed under keen observation. If a user feels uncomfortable about a sexual based topic they are to contact a moderator who will assess the situation.
 * If a user bothers you, feel free to block their private messages. If you are blocked from PMing someone, it means they do not want to talk to you there. Please respect their wishes. Admins and chatmods cannot monitor PMs, and we do not accept screenshots (because they can be faked). So while it's okay to report a PM problem, simply blocking PMs is best. If many people in the channel are having the same issue, then please report that to the chatmods.

13. Miscellaneous: Keep in mind that any action or behavior prohibited by Wikia policies or Staff is also prohibited in the Superpower Wiki Chat and Discord.

Trivia
"If you see this on a user's page, chances are that user is a Chatmod"

- Hibiki #101