Bay 12 Games Forum

Edited from /tg/station rules at http://wiki.nanotrasen.com/index.php?title=Rules.

Guiding Principle:
Try to keep things fun for everyone, i.e. the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

Primary Policies

0. Admins may disregard any of these rules at their discretion when they feel its in the best interest of the current round/server/playerbase at large. They will, of course, be fully accountable for their actions should they choose to exercise this privilege.

1.We’re all here to have a good time. If you’re intentionally trying to ruin everyone else’s good time, you won’t have a place here. Being a jerk in-character is fine to a point, but being a jerk out of character is not welcome at all.

2. You are playing a game where you are not fully in control of everything. You will be put into situations beyond your control, which will result in some rounds being ruined for you. Man up and deal with it. However, if you are obviously griefed, be sure to report it to administrators by using the ‘adminhelp’ verb.

3. Randomly murdering people is generally considered to be ruining someone’s fun and poor form in roleplay. If you don’t have a solid IC reason for murder, you may be removed. Trying to justify it with ‘My character is so random/insane’ is not tolerated.

4. IC information should be kept out of OOC channels and vice-versa.  IC in OOC is far less acceptable than OOC in IC.

5. Don’t metagame. Do not use information, acquired out of character or through patterns or events your character would not be able to know, in game.  This includes exploiting bugs.

6. If you take up or are given a job, which is important for game progression (head of staff, AI, antagonist role), make sure you actually do that job. If you find yourself unable to do this due to real life circumstances, that’s fine, but please let an admin know (adminhelp) before you leave.

7. Speak like a normal person while in character. Don’t spam, either IC or OOC. Don’t use smileys, netspeak, etc. in IC speech.

8. ERP is disallowed on Urist McStation.  It’s nearly impossible to ensure that people who don’t wish to hear it don’t have to listen (bystanders, ghosts, admins).

9. Ingame administration has the final say in all ingame matters. If problems arise, you can report offending or abusive admins on the forum thread, or more preferably in a private message to one or more admins. If an admin says something was valid, it means it was valid. This is the admin’s way of saying it’s been investigated and found to not breaking any rules; The admin will not reveal ingame information.

10. It should go without saying, but if you break the rules (or regularly come very close to breaking them i.e. “toeing the line”), you will be warned, muted, banned, or talked about rudely.



Additional Policies

Roleplay
Murder is justifiable as long as it was properly escalated. You can’t go from a single rude punch to a knife in the neck. You can, however, go from a single punch to a counter punch to a brawl to using weapons, and so on. Other IC justifications may exist for murder, but these are on a case by case basis. Minor aggravations like demotions, pranks, insults, or thefts are not adequate justification.
IC in OOC can be a no warning ban of 15 minutes, it can be longer if the IC in OOC is severe. To clarify, this is revealing anything about the current round that others can use in the OOC channel. If you are unsure do not say it.
Avoid using non character names. If you have a very offensive name or an obviously immersion breaking moniker like 'xenohunter360' you will be asked to change it.
As long as there is adequate IC backing and it doesn’t happen too often, assisting a traitor is within the rules.
Admins are not only allowed to run events or otherwise influence the course of rounds, they are encouraged to. They are as much GMs as they are enforcers of the rules, perhaps even moreso.
Persistent character relationships are acceptable, so long as they’re roleplayed out every round. Wordlessly assisting your OOC friends (or harming your OOC foes) ICly is NOT cool and will be addressed harshly. Roleplaying out your interactions will help you stay on the right side of the rules. How much or how little of previous “shifts” your character recalls is up to their discretion, with the caveat that being a known traitor doesn’t persist past the round it occurred in.
Griefing on the shuttle can also be a no warning ban scaling up from 15 minutes. Shuttle griefing is attacking people or preventing people boarding before the shuttle has launched for no IC reason.
Silicons
All Silicons are expected to follow their laws to the best of their ability. Failure to do so will likely result in a job ban from all silicon positions.
Law order determines law priority. In the case of two laws contradicting, the one with the smaller law number wins.
Asimov silicons are not required to do what players who threaten self-harm demand, unless they choose to interpret law 1 to include that.
Command/Security
Security are expected to use non-lethal force when defending against non-lethal attacks. This of course also means that security are allowed the option to use lethal force when defending against lethal attacks. Getting stunned in a dark maintenance hallway by an assistant is potentially lethal - a clown slipping you outside Medbay, probably not.
Permabrigging is functionally the same as murder. Anyone who is valid for execution is valid for permabrigging. Anyone who is not justifiably executable is, likewise, not justifiably a candidate for permabrigging. Makeshift permabrigs are treated the same as the official permabrig in terms of rules-enforcement.
A Captain or acting Captain may execute criminals, traitors, and other known threats to the station should alternatives not prove sufficient. Abuse or misuse of this privilege can lead to job banning or worse.
Theft, assault, annoyance, false arrest, sentence times etc. are in character matters. Unless it is extremely excessive or griefy, it is not an admin matter.
Admin-help
When you adminhelp do not say things like 'is it valid?' or 'being griefed', give details of what is happening and ideally who is doing it, job and character name.
If you see someone doing something that seems out of line adminhelp right then, do not wait until round end to see if they are a traitor then adminhelp next round. It makes it a lot harder to deal with.
Do not lie in PM's and avoid being aggressive, unhelpful or insulting to admins, lying while being questioned over an incident will cause you to receive a longer ban and being consistently insulting or aggressive will get you muted.
Any private communication between a player and an admin regarding a complaint, problem, or other issue related to this server should be kept as such, private. Any such communication should not be shared with any party, publicly or privately, excluding other admins, without the permission of the involved admin or the head admin.

Definitions
An admin is someone with full admin/coder/debug privileges on Urist McStation.  They have full voting privileges in all admin matters.  They have full access to the Urist McStation codebase.

A trial admin has all the same characteristics as a regular admin, but is a temporary state for newly elected admins.  Trial admins are easier to remove.  Trial admins do not have voting privileges until the end of their trial period.

The head admin has all the characteristics of a regular admin.  Additionally, they collect and tally votes, and provide final direction on clarifications in policy.  They should not make policy without a vote of the admins. 

A host is someone who provides space and bandwidth for Urist McStation.  They have all the accesses and privileges of an admin, and additionally may update the code currently running on the server.  They are immune from inactivity penalties, in consideration of the time spent keeping the server running.

A moderator is someone with access to most admin functions on Urist McStation.  They do not have commit access to the Urist McStation codebase.  They do not have voting privileges.

Inactivity
Any person with privileges on the Urist McStation server or codebase may have those privileges suspended if they do not log into Urist McStation for a period of 31 days or 1 month.  They may be reinstated by the head admin if their lapse has been for a period of less than 93 or or 3 months.  After that period, reinstatement will require a vote for new privileges as appropriate.

Moderators
Moderators may be appointed by the head admin, and may be appointed by the nomination of any two admins.  They may be removed by normal vote.

Voting System
A proposal may be presented by any person with voting privileges.  Voting will take place on the server via the server polling system in an admin-only vote.  Votes may be “yes”, “no”, or “abstain”.  Votes will remain anonymous.  The voting period will last for 72 hours, but may be extended at the discretion of the proposee or the head admin.  A proposal will pass on a simple majority of received votes, unless otherwise noted below.  In the event the server polling system is not available, a proposal will be presented by forwarding the topic for voting to the head admin, who will present the proposal to the admins.  Admins will respond to the proposal by replying to the head admin with their vote.

Votes may take place on any topic relevant to Urist McStation.  Votes are required for a change of the rules or other major policy, or for removal of any privileges.  Votes for electing new admins or a new head admin are a special case.

Admin Election Votes

Admin elections begin with a nomination of the person to be elected by a current admin.  This person is presented to the current admins by the head admin, and voting proceeds for a period of 72 hours.  Electing a new admin requires both a simple majority of received votes and a minimum of five (5) votes received.  Additionally, all admins have the right to veto a proposal for a new admin.  In the event of veto, the proposal will again be presented to the admins, and requires a simple majority (1/2) of the entire admin body to vote against the veto.  If the veto is overturned, the candidate bypasses the trial admin phase to become a full admin immediately.

Upon a proposal passing to elect a new admin, that person is made a trial admin.  This trial will last for a period of 14 days.  Upon the expiration of this period, they become a full admin.  Additionally, the trial admin does not have voting privileges until their trial period is complete.  During this period, any current admin may veto to prevent them becoming a full admin.  A veto requires a simple majority (1/2) of all admins voting against the veto to overturn the veto.   If the veto is overturned, the candidate becomes a full admin immediately.

Head Admin Election Votes

Elections for a new head admin may be initiated by any admin, including the current head admin.  The proposal including the name of the proposed head admin is presented to the admins by the initatior.  A simple-majority (1/2) of all admins is required for the proposal to pass.  The voting period lasts only until a sufficient number of votes have been received to determine the result.  This vote must be public among the admins.