Acceptable Use Policy

General

1. The websites, chat rooms, and other electronic services available to you here at Epic Chronicles (collectively the "Network") is provided by the individual staffmembers and server operations managers of A Call To Duty Roleplaying. In this document, "we" refers to A Call To Duty Roleplaying, "user" refers to you, and "AUP" refers to this Acceptable Use Policy. As a user, you are subject to the terms of the Epic Chronicles Acceptable Use Policy, and its related addended rules and policies that may be published from time to time by Epic Chronicles.

The Network is a private electronic service, and not a public chat network. Your right to speak freely here must be exercised with courtesy and self-restraint. When you utilize a component of The Network (be it a chat room, forum, etc), it is the same as entering any real privately-owned facility, like a restaurant or shopping mall. The manners and laws of real life apply the same here as in the real world, and we have the right to remove you if you choose to exceed the Acceptable Uses outlined below.

Harassment

2. We wish to promote communication in an atmosphere of mutual respect. While not always possible, we strive to create a safe, mostly family-friendly atmosphere of open discussion and socialization. We remind all of our users that you are entirely responsible and liable for all activities conducted through your usage of The Network. We require you to follow, at all times, the following Standards of Acceptable Use:

WE DO NOT TOLERATE HARASSMENT.

We welcome people of all ages, races, religions, genders, national origins, sexual orientations and points of view. We do not tolerate expressions of bigotry, hatred, harassment or abuse, nor will we tolerate threats of harm to anyone.

Names & Rooms

3. Because we encourage discussion and exchange of ideas, we do not allow threatening, defamatory, abusive, tasteless or indecorous statements. For the same reason, we do not allow sexually explicit material in conversations, room titles, room topics or nicknames.

We invite people to open public rooms to faciliate their own topics of conversation, outside of the lounge(s) we provide. Creators (Operators) of such rooms must follow our Standards of Acceptable Use in choosing a room name, topic, and content. We reserve the right to limit the number of redundant open rooms, rooms not starting with a letter in the alphabet, rooms with extraneous characters such as !@#$%&, etc. or extremely long room names. Operators may use the /kick command only if a participant violates one of the Standards of Acceptable Use.

Illegal Use, Distribution

4. Although this seems obvious, we will not allow any illegal activities. Specifically, we disallow advocation of illegal conduct or participation in illegal or fraudulent schemes. You cannot use our chat rooms (channels) to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted material, including photos, artwork, text, recordings, designs, or computer programs. Importantly, though, is that you are allowed to DISCUSS material, but you are not allowed to DISTRIBUTE it. Distribution includes the revealing of download site addresses, posting of URLs, and otherwise revealing of third party distribution sites of such copyrighted material. In addition, we do not allow the trading or swapping of images that are sexually explicit, obscene or vulgar. Because there can be no way of ensuring compliance with this section, rooms titled for the purpose of exchanging or swapping images are not allowed. We will not let you impersonate someone else, including one of our trained staffmembers.

Stalking of others, in our chat rooms or in another manner, is a serious offense. In many areas, such behavior is considered to be a criminal act. We reserve the right to release information to the proper authorities, because of a violation of our standards, or because of unlawful acts, if the information is subpoenaed, and if we deem it necessary and/or appropriate.

Staff Liability

5. We cannot guarantee the content of comments that you will receive while you are online. Other people's comments may be offensive, harmful or inaccurate.

While we conduct chats on a broad range of topics, we do not offer professional advice of any kind. Staffmembers and other discussion participants speak from their own experience and voice their own opinions when helpful for conducting a conversation. Staffmembers claim no professional or expertise or authority, and we claim no responsibility for their remarks.

WE ENCOURAGE OPEN DISCUSSION AND DISALLOW DISRUPTIVE COMMUNICATION

Bots & Viruses

6. We do not allow posting or use of computer programs that contain destructive features, such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc. We also do not allow any unauthorized bots or unattended scripts on the Network, whether they are benign or destructive in intent. If you wish to run a bot on the Network, you must petition for its authorization to the Director of Network Operations, proving its benign nature, and also assuring such automated systems will not appear in any official A Call To Duty operations channel (including the general lounge).

Chat Network Conduct

7. We also discourage disruptive conduct: persistent off-topic comments in a topic-oriented chat session, statements that incite others to violate the Standards of Acceptable Use, or the physical act of "scrolling" -- repeatedly hitting the Return key in a chat session -- all are considered disruptive.

The use of ASCII art or macros that are excessively long (more than two lines of text), and the use of pop-ups or sounds in a repetitive manner that disrupts the topic or conversation in a room, are not allowed. Users inviting others to visit Web sites with content that do not comply with these Standards are considered to be in violation of our Standards.

Idling, or staying in a channel without saying or doing anything, is considered highly rude. Idling in the lounge for more than one (1) hour is prohibited, and will cause the Channel Management Bot (Chanbot) to kick you. Idling in the mission rooms for more than two (2) hours is prohibited, and will cause the Channel Management Bot (Chanbot) to kick you. This allows enough time for most background transcript recorders to catch a full one-hour mission, plus anything interesting before and afterwards. Idling in an unmanaged channel (e.g. OOC channels, OOM channels, or channels of your own making) for more than three (3) hours is highly frowned upon and is grounds for you to be considered running an unauthorized bot on the network.

Solicitation

8. We encourage communication between our members, but posting or transmitting of unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or any other forms of solicitation to other users, using any aspect of the Network, except in those areas that maybe designated for such a purpose, is not allowed.

Privacy

9. Your right to privacy is addressed in our Privacy Policy.

Network Rights

10. We reserve the right to immediately terminate or suspend access to the Network for conduct that we believe interferes with other peoples' enjoyment. We also reserve the right to amend or change these guidelines at any time and without notice.

When in doubt about appropriate behavior here, remember that the Network is an electronic world, but the people here are real, and come from diverse backgrounds of beliefs, viewpoints, and feelings.