Discord Guidelines

Discord Rules Guidance

THE FOLLOWING ARE NOT RULES. These are guidelines meant to help clarify the rules and provide guidance to the community and the moderators on how the rules will be enforced. Because these are not rules, the moderators are not obligated to follow it verbatim. The intent is to provide a starting point where the moderators and the community can look and discern whether an action qualifies as a rules violation.

1) Respect is subjective. While the community strives to be inclusive, the end users are primarily “Western”. As such, the concept of respect is couched in a Western perspective.

A) Personal insults are considered disrespectful in nearly every case. Exceptions are likely allowed if both parties are participating in mutually agreed friendly joking. Moderators may lack context in these cases. Users are encouraged to explicitly state that they are “joking” with one another in these situations.

B) Disparaging or derogatory jokes will be censored. However, nobody has the right to not be offended. Whether a joke “crosses the line” into inappropriate territory is at the discretion of the mods.

C) Baiting is classified as: posting shocking, offensive, or antagonistic material to elicit a negative response from others. Whether something meets this criteria is at the discretion of the mods.

D) “Assuming the Best” in others means users should never assume that someone will, either in game or in Discord, act maliciously or in bad faith. The exception is when there is a very clear history of such actions that have been repeatedly addressed by either the mods or the Titans. Claiming “Jim Bob will only ever be a dick to me” is a violation. Stating “Jim Bob has been warned multiple times for Not Playing With Friends by the Titans, I don’t think it’s going to change” is not a violation.

2) Occasionally referring to other players as their characters will rarely result in muting. It is difficult to make the mental separation between a player and their character. However, failing to make the distinction after being reminded by a moderator will likely result in negative repercussions.

A) As much as possible, keep discussions that could be handled in-character within the game. The moderators will not punish Discord users for not following this guideline, but adherence is encouraged. It promotes in-game activity.

B) Regarding the Titans: If a user feels they have encountered an in-game rules violation, the first response should be “report it to the Titans” not “I don’t think that’s a violation, just keep going”. No user in the Discord (except the admins) has the right to make that decision. Liberal use of the !Titans command is encouraged.

C) Titan decisions are to be respected as sacrosanct. Whatever the Titans decide is akin to a rule. Saying something like “That decision is bullsh*t” is similar to declaring “The Social Contract is bullsh*t”, which is a violation. However, discussing the repercussions and ramifications of a Titan decision is fine, i.e. “This decision will likely have far reaching effects across the game” is perfectly acceptable. Questions and clarifications should be sent through the !Titans command rather than needlessly speculating.

3) Keeping topics related to their assigned channels will be loosely enforced, erring on the side of more activity is better than less. Topics tangentially related to the channel they are in (i.e. history discussions in #Character_Building) will be allowed. Excessively long discussions of completely unrelated material will be moved.

A) Any discussion of IRL politics and/or religion will be immediately moved to #politics_and_religion. *References* to politics (e.g. a mild joke or single offhand statement) will likely be allowed as long as it’s not inflammatory or an invitation to further discussion.

B) The #politics_and_religion channel will be less strictly moderated than other channels due to the nature of the discussions there. All participants are expected to behave with maturity. All rules still apply in their entirety within the #politics_and_religion channel.

C) Spamming channels is defined by the ability of others to reasonably participate without being “drowned out”. #memes and #bm_memes are the two channels where this rule will be less strictly applied.

4) Moderators have the final say in all Discord matters. Discord users do not have a right to a “trial” of any sort, nor any other rights or protections except those outlined in the rules. If a user has a problem or concerns about a moderator or their decisions, the user is encouraged to contact the Head Moderator directly or (if the issue is with the Head Mod) the Admins.

A) Moderators are the only individuals allowed to moderate Discord. Instead of attempting to vigilante moderate the server, users are encouraged to abide by the rules in their entirety, lead through example, and call the mods if there is an issue. If a moderator doesn’t appear in a timely manner, users are encouraged to leave the situation and cease participating in the rule-breaking behavior. Moderators may, at their discretion, review events that have happened in the past and issue judgements/punishments after the fact. Failure to extricate oneself from a situation is punishable.

B) Moderators will generally issue a warning before muting a player. The warning will typically be public so all users will be aware of what behavior violates the rules, and to encourage transparency. Moderators, at their discretion, may Direct Message (DM) a user for more in-depth discussion and resolution. After the warning, if the user makes the same violation within a reasonably short period, the user will be muted. For the first muting, an apology and acknowledgement of the rules will typically result in release. After that, progressively longer stints of muting will occur.

C) By exception, moderators may immediately mute a user for especially egregious violations of the rules, typically when even a generous understanding of the situation in favor of the violating user doesn’t excuse their behavior.

D) The intent behind punishing a user is to isolate them from the community and effect a reformation of behavior. If the full use of all the tools at a moderator’s disposal are not enough to correct a pattern of rule violating behavior, a user may be banned (with consent of the Admins).

E) Moderators will attempt to resolve issues by methods other than mutings as much as possible.

F) It is incumbent on the users of the Discord to understand and follow the rules. It is not the duty of the moderator team to guide and control every conversation in the Discord. Ignorance is not a valid defense. “The Mods should have said/done something” is not a valid defense. “The Mods didn’t mute me last time I did it” is not a valid defense.

G) The rules and these guidelines are not all-inclusive. Moderators may act as they deem necessary for each situation they encounter. As stated, users are not guaranteed a “trial” and arguing with a moderator is punishable.