Code of conduct

[Naeann]

Introduction

This Code of Conduct ("CoC") is meant to supplement, not replace, general Dragonmount rules, and if situations arise that are not covered by the CoC but require moderator attention, the Admins will act as they believe necessary in the best interests of the site after consulting with the relevant staff and other Admins.

 

The Dragonmount Staff

1. The Dragonmount Staff consists of Admins, Club Leaders, and Moderators. We also enlist the assistance of other contributors and developers who are not necessarily considered Staff when it comes to making community decisions. 

 

2. A full list of the DM staff can be found here. 

 

Warning Point System

1. Dragonmount employs a "3-strikes" warning system throughout the website. All registered members are subject to receiving  1 or more Warning Points if violations occur. Violation types include, or may be similar to:

 

• Hate speech (flagrant) (3 points earned—automatic site ban)
• Inappropriate Language (1 point earned)
• Trolling (1 point earned)
• Abusive Behavior (1 point earned)
• Topic Bumping (aggressive) (1 point earned)
• Inappropriate advertising (1 point)
• Signature Violation (0 points earned—but email warning sent)

 

2. You will receive an automated email if you are cited with a Warning Point.

 

3. Warning Point Consequences - Most Warnings will result in the user receiving 1 Warning Point, which generally remain on your record for 180 days. 

 

• 1 warning point:  the user has their content moderated for 2 days. Posts and comments during this timeframe requires moderator/admin approval to be seen by the community. 
• 2 warning points:  the user has their content moderated for 30 days. Posts and comments during this timeframe requires moderator/admin approval to be seen by the community. 
• 3 warning points: user is permanently banned from DM. 

 

4. Banned - A user who is banned, either by receiving 3 or more Warning Points or other method determined by a Dragonmount Admin will not be able to post to the forums, clubs, news comments, or anywhere else on the website. Banned users will be removed from all clubs and not allowed to sign-in to the website any longer. 

 

I. Violations of Conduct

 

0. All Violations are determined by the Dragonmount Staff. We are open to fair discussion, but reserve the right to make all final decisions on the nature of a violation. 

 

1. Hate Speech – Dragonmount takes a strong stand against bigotry and discrimination in any form. Anyone found posting sexist, racist, homophobic or religious hate messages will be dealt with quickly and severely. Typically, violations of this nature will result in permanent ban from the website, as outlined above. 

 

2. Inappropriate Language - Please refrain from using inappropriate language, especially in anger. As a guideline, only language found in the Wheel of Time books should be used. The DM Staff have the authority to use their judgement for concerns that arise in this area.

 

3. Abusive Behavior - Dragonmount strives to provide a safe and friendly community for members to enjoy our shared love of The Wheel of Time and related works. A member may not harass, threaten, or otherwise bother another member, including moderators, Club Leaders, and Admins. 

 

4. Trolling - Is the act of intentionally posting provocative or offensive messages on in order to get attention, cause trouble or upset someone. The DM Staff have the authority to use their judgement for concerns that arise in this area.

 

5. Topic Bumping - It's OK to respectfully "bump" an older message thread if a reasonable amount of time has gone by and the thread has become static. Frequent bumping, or bumping a larger volume of topics will result in a Warning. 

 

6. Inappropriate Advertising - There's a fine line between this and outright spamming.  If a well-meaning member posts more than one topic to advertise a website or pet project, a Warning will be issued.  The DM Staff will use its best judgement on what is spam and what is simply a well-meaning, but over-aggressive way of telling people about something outside of DM. If you have a website or project you want people to be aware of, please post a single thread in the Off-Topic forum. In some cases, posting a single thread on a Club forum may also be appropriate. When in doubt, please ask the relevant Club Leader or Moderator. 

 

7. Signature Violation - Dragonmount has specific rules for creating signatures. If there's a violation, you will be asked to change it, but generally speaking, you will not receive a Warning Point. 

 

 

 

II. Member Conduct

 

1. Privacy. No member of Dragonmount should ever publish private correspondence, without the approval of ALL Parties involved in the exchange. This includes PMs, E-mails, and Instant Messages.

 

2. Bullying. Bullying takes many forms and can be far more destructive than many people will realize. Some people will laugh off the most vicious comments; others may be driven nearly to suicide. The Staff reserve the right to remove any posts, avatars or sig pics that are deemed to fall into this category. As a general guideline – if you wouldn’t say what you’re about to post in real life, in a dark alley, to someone twice your size and better trained in fighting than you, don’t post it at all. See above for more information on this topic. 

 

3. Personal Attacks (including on Private Boards). Personal attacks on other members are not tolerated, period. Club Leaders and their assistants are expected and obligated to deter any personal attacks made by one of their members. Failure to do so will result in 1 or more Warning Points being issued. See above for more information on this topic. 

 

4. Account Information. The individual who registered for an account will be held responsible for all actions taken by the account. To avoid being accused of something you did not do, never give your account information to anyone.

 

5. Off-site boards.

 

(i) No Dragonmount member(s) may create an "off-site" which exists solely for the purpose of themselves and other Dragonmount members participating in Dragonmount related social interaction and/or private communication within a forum setting (either in an attempt to avoid information being viewed by Admins, or because they are dissatisfied with any aspect of Dragonmount's rules or members).

Using Dragonmount as a place to recruit members to such forums is also prohibited. Any Group or subcategory that is found to have created a social off-site board expressly for Dragonmount-related communication will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

 

(ii) The only authorized off site web spaces that are acceptable are: Club wiki's, and web pages

detailing Club information or documentation.

 

(iii) Advertising of independent (non-Dragonmount affiliated) sites is allowed on Dragonmount by placing ONE link and invitation on the General board. Members are also welcome to place a link in their personal signatures subject to signature size rules. Please contact webmaster@dragonmount.com for permission for any other advertising.

 

6. Instructions by staff.

 

(a) Ignoring instructions given by staff, or these rules is grounds for discipline, which will, for first offenses, typically take the form of a 30-day temp ban. However, if the nature of the conduct requires it, the discipline imposed may vary at the discretion of the Admins, up to and including a permanent ban even for a first offense. Should the conduct continue after the expiration of any temp ban or imposition of other discipline, or should the member require further discipline for other misconduct, the member will typically be permanently banned from the site. Again, however, the Admins have discretion to impose a lesser punishment should the situation warrant it.

 

(b) If you believe Staff is wrong in an instruction they gave you, open a discussion with them about it via PM (

not on-thread). If, after making an attempt to discuss the issue with the Staff member, you believe you are not being adequately heard, feel free to include the relevant supervisor (see below for information on the Staff hierarchy).

In the interim, follow the Staffer's instructions even if you disagree with them.

 

7. Account/Name changes. Members should only have 1 account on Dragonmount, unless given specific permission by the Admins. If a member decides to make another account, they must gain permission from the Admins, who will then either merge the accounts or delete the one the member no longer wishes to use.

 

(a) Members who wish to change their display name, can do so in their Account Settings once every 120 days.

They should notify their Club Leader about the name change for record keeping purposes.

 

(b) If the member has an issue with changing their display name, please email help@dragonmount.com or PM @SinisterDeath/@Elder_Haman/ @Arie / @CaddySedai

(c) It is considered good forum etiquette to display "Formerly [Prior Name]" in their personal text or prominently in their signature for 90 days following the change. If you are changing your display name for safety or privacy reasons, you can ignore this etiquette.

 

(d) If you Have any Safety or Privacy concerns, please Email help@dragonmount.com or PM @SinisterDeath/@Elder_Haman/@Arie / @CaddySedai

 

8. When a decision is made and it is not the decision a member wanted, they will accept it with good grace and move on. Continually badgering and haranguing about the decision will result in a warning. If the warning is ignored, the member may be subject to discipline, up to and including banning. 

 

III. Conflict Resolution

As Dragonmount is on the Internet, it is inevitable that drama will ensue. If internet drama happens to you, please follow the following procedures.

 

1. Notify Staff of any Issues.

 

(a) If a member has an issue with another member (and this includes issues with Dragonmount Staff members- if the dispute is based on anything other than the Staff member’s actions as Dragonmount Staff), please bring it to the attention of the relevant staff (Moderator/Club Leader/Admin) by PM. 

 

(b) If a member has an issue with a Dragonmount Staff member’s actions as Dragonmount Staff (i.e. a problem with how a particular issue or situation was handled by the Staff member in their official capacity) please PM both the Staff member and the Staff member’s supervisor.

 

2. Keep Disputes Private. Dragonmount strongly believes that issues between members, or between members and Staff, are best resolved in private, via PM and e-mail. Keeping issues private allows the parties involved to consider the problems and possible solutions without grandstanding or worrying about “losing face”, and avoiding public disputes is thus more conducive to reaching a resolution that works for all parties involved. DO NOT call out other members or Staff on-thread; doing so is in and of itself grounds for discipline.

 

3. Speak Your Mind. Dragonmount will never discipline any member for telling Staff something Staff does not want to hear. That doesn’t mean that members have license to be ruder to Staff than they would be to other members. But it does mean that if you see a problem, you need to tell us about it, no matter what it is.

 

4. Remember that Reasonable People Can Disagree. There are certain things that are black and white, of course: bigotry won’t be tolerated, favouritism is wrong, American football is better than soccer. But most disputes don’t fall within these realms of incontrovertible truth; more often, there are shades of grey, and reasonable people acting in good faith can and will take different positions even when looking at the same set of facts. As a general rule, people who come into a discussion of issues with this in mind tend to be able to find a mutually agreeable resolution much more often than people who don’t.

 

 

TERMS OF SERVICE (A reminder of what you agreed to when you registered)

 

Please review the Terms of Service available here.

 

Copyright Policy:

 

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

 

It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Our DMCA page describes the information that should be present in these notices, how to submit them, and how Dragonmount will respond to such notices.

 

Regardless of whether we may be liable for such infringement under local country law or United States law, our response to these notices may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers. If we remove or disable access in response to such a notice, we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the poster of the affected content so that they may make a counter notification.

 

Fanfiction is defined by the use of characters and expression from an original creative work and the creation of derivative works, all of which is illegal under current copyright law (McCardle, 2003), as such Fanfiction is not allowed on DM.

 

One minor Addendum.

If you believe a user is Trolling, Flame Baiting, using inappropriate language, offensive, or is just a spamming dark friend. Please, for the love of Bela, just report it and Ignore the trolls.

Reporting is confidential, and staff will not share any information on who was reported or did the reporting. 

 

To report a post, simply click on the 3 dots to the top right of a post, and click report.

You can fill out why you're reporting before clicking submit.

 

Thank you for your time!

 

 

[Amadine]

*reads & agrees*

[Moon Sedai]

r/u oh great mistress