Welcome to Sufficiently Munchkined. I'm the local Benevolent Trollverlord! While you reside within this domain... name, the rules contained within this post are yours to follow, and ours to ensure so.
Every Rule has a hard and soft line. The soft line is when a staff member might begin observing you or your conduct may be reported to us. These are intentionally vague so as to provide wiggle room and a reasonable level of nuance such as that which life routinely requires. The hard line is not intended to be vague, and is hopefully very clear. Please don't cross the hard lines.
We're a lot more forgiving than you're probably used to, especially me, but if you do end up crossing a hard line, that will have us looking very, very closely at you and likely taking decisive action. Hopefully all that's required is we inform you what happened, you understand, and we'll all continue on into the sunset getting along! ...If not, though, we have lots of hammers and are resigned to using them if necessary.
Rules may be added to, or existing rules changed or removed, at any time. They won't be unless it becomes necessary, though, because nobody has time for that. These rules also apply on our Discord server.
Anyways, on to the rules!
Rule 0: Governance
This is a pretty simple rule. I, TCGM, am the end all be all dictator of this area of the web. Sufficiently Munchkined is mine, and I control it exclusively as the final say so in any decision. I can override or pass anything I see fit and do anything I wish.
That said; my ideology is one of a true Admin. I have a duty to you all, my users, my staff, to be reasonable, listen to your woes and fears and concerns and ideas, and construct a hopefully supportive space for everyone who seeks to use it. To that end, I will usually propose anything I'm thinking of changing or implementing well in advance of actually doing so and I treasure comments and feedback from those it will affect. I am not a monolith, I'm a human. We all are. And we should all work together with that in mind.
Rule 1: Legality
Don't get Sufficiently Munchkined, or any of our staff (or your fellow users!) in legal trouble. Seriously, this needs to be in the list, but it shouldn't need to be, you know?
Soft Line: Don't engage in unlawful activity, according to the laws of the United States of America, on SM.
Hard Line: Do so and you will be banned. This is the only rule with such a harsh hard line, but unfortunately this is how things must go when lawyers hover like vultures.
Conduct Rules
My goal with Sufficiently Munchkined is to provide an environment which people enjoy. A place where people can feel safe, or a safe space, but as classically defined in the psychological arena instead of its more... shall we say, modern definition. This means that hugboxing, friendly interactions, and etc is totally okay to do! Hugboxes have been mocked on other forums, and when they turn tyrannical they can indeed be overbearing, but that's not something I will allow to happen here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wishing someone well or agreeing with them. You do not have to be critical, and you do not have to nail others to a wall. These rules cover how I expect you to behave here.
Conduct Rule 1: Civility
Be civil, if not necessarily nice. Your fellow users are not your enemy, and neither are the staff or myself. Personal attacks are not allowed. You may describe someone's past behavior provided you can back that up with facts, you are even allowed to describe your opinion of that behavior or actions, but calling someone a name or otherwise labeling them is not in the cards. If you must describe someone's behavior or actions negatively, do so only once or twice at maximum. Afterwards, if they are still behaving in a way you see as not okay, escalate the situation to the moderators by reporting or flagging the post for review. Slurs and other massively negative phrases are also flatly disallowed without mitigating context, such as a villain in a story using a term because they're a villain. Note: A Slur is a word which has a widely recognized incorrectly negative meaning as applied to a group of people and is in the context of being applied negatively to a group of people. This does not include words like Nazi which have provable cause to be negative.
Soft Line: Aggravated language and continual negative behavior will be reviewed for possible issues.
Hard Line: Clear personal attacks, slurs without mitigating context, and similarly obvious situations.
Conduct Rule 2: Constructive
Criticism of a fellow forum member's works must be constructive. What is constructive criticism, you may ask? In a very simplistic form, if what you're criticizing someone on and how you're doing it, the words and tone you use, are intended to aid them in bettering themselves or their works and most importantly reflect that intent, then you're being constructive. Help your fellow forum members build themselves up, and they will help you. This rule has some overlap with Rule 2, but it is important to declare on its own anyways. Note this rule only pertains to those who are not public figures; you may mock them to your heart's content. It is the price they pay by choosing to become public figures; speech against them is protected.
Soft Line: Criticism of a person or their works which can be considered an attack upon them or their work.
Hard Line: Attacks veiled as criticism, or criticism with no constructional content at all.
Conduct Rule 3: Multiple Accounts
Good news, everyone! Multiple Accounts are allowed on Sufficiently Munchkined! However, sockpuppetting (using multiple accounts to harvest votes, create illegitimate reactions on your own posts, influence polls, inflate post counts, or similar purposes) is not allowed. To provide an option for those who need multiple accounts for other purposes there is an Account Switcher system integrated into the forum. You can easily link accounts together and swap between them, even in the middle of writing a post! The intended use for this is things like Brand accounts, but I'm sure there are others which users will discover. To get to the Account Switcher and link an account, go to the bottom of your User Control Panel or head to this link.
Soft Line: All accounts accessing Sufficiently Munchkined from the same IP address must be linked through the Account Switcher. When the staff discover multiple accounts from the same IP address which are not linked, they will notify all the accounts involved through private messages and inform them of the accounts in question. The owner of those accounts will then have a reasonable amount of time to head over to the Account Switcher system and link their accounts.
Hard Line: If the accounts are not linked after a reasonable amount of time, all accounts from the same IP address will be locked, except one. The account we choose to leave unlocked will be either the one which has existed the longest, or the one with the most activity, if they are not the same. The account owner can then contact us through the Private Staff Comms subforum after linking the locked accounts to the unlocked account to request account unlocking.
Content Rules
Content Rule 1: NSFW
I am not up to managing the issues, both legal and operationally, inherent with allowing NSFW content on Sufficiently Munchkined. Thus NSFW content is not allowed on this forum. Questionable Questing already has the framework and experience to deal with it, and I suggest you use that site to host your NSFW content instead.
Soft Line: NSFW can be lightly touched on or implied in a story, but not depicted descriptively.
Hard Line: This means absolutely no NSFW imagery. Scantily clad is fine, but visible genitalia, clothed or not, is not allowed.
I reserve the right to modify these rules at any time. An announcement of rule changes will most likely occur in such a situation.
Every Rule has a hard and soft line. The soft line is when a staff member might begin observing you or your conduct may be reported to us. These are intentionally vague so as to provide wiggle room and a reasonable level of nuance such as that which life routinely requires. The hard line is not intended to be vague, and is hopefully very clear. Please don't cross the hard lines.
We're a lot more forgiving than you're probably used to, especially me, but if you do end up crossing a hard line, that will have us looking very, very closely at you and likely taking decisive action. Hopefully all that's required is we inform you what happened, you understand, and we'll all continue on into the sunset getting along! ...If not, though, we have lots of hammers and are resigned to using them if necessary.
Rules may be added to, or existing rules changed or removed, at any time. They won't be unless it becomes necessary, though, because nobody has time for that. These rules also apply on our Discord server.
Anyways, on to the rules!
Rule 0: Governance
This is a pretty simple rule. I, TCGM, am the end all be all dictator of this area of the web. Sufficiently Munchkined is mine, and I control it exclusively as the final say so in any decision. I can override or pass anything I see fit and do anything I wish.
That said; my ideology is one of a true Admin. I have a duty to you all, my users, my staff, to be reasonable, listen to your woes and fears and concerns and ideas, and construct a hopefully supportive space for everyone who seeks to use it. To that end, I will usually propose anything I'm thinking of changing or implementing well in advance of actually doing so and I treasure comments and feedback from those it will affect. I am not a monolith, I'm a human. We all are. And we should all work together with that in mind.
Rule 1: Legality
Don't get Sufficiently Munchkined, or any of our staff (or your fellow users!) in legal trouble. Seriously, this needs to be in the list, but it shouldn't need to be, you know?
Soft Line: Don't engage in unlawful activity, according to the laws of the United States of America, on SM.
Hard Line: Do so and you will be banned. This is the only rule with such a harsh hard line, but unfortunately this is how things must go when lawyers hover like vultures.
Conduct Rules
My goal with Sufficiently Munchkined is to provide an environment which people enjoy. A place where people can feel safe, or a safe space, but as classically defined in the psychological arena instead of its more... shall we say, modern definition. This means that hugboxing, friendly interactions, and etc is totally okay to do! Hugboxes have been mocked on other forums, and when they turn tyrannical they can indeed be overbearing, but that's not something I will allow to happen here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wishing someone well or agreeing with them. You do not have to be critical, and you do not have to nail others to a wall. These rules cover how I expect you to behave here.
Conduct Rule 1: Civility
Be civil, if not necessarily nice. Your fellow users are not your enemy, and neither are the staff or myself. Personal attacks are not allowed. You may describe someone's past behavior provided you can back that up with facts, you are even allowed to describe your opinion of that behavior or actions, but calling someone a name or otherwise labeling them is not in the cards. If you must describe someone's behavior or actions negatively, do so only once or twice at maximum. Afterwards, if they are still behaving in a way you see as not okay, escalate the situation to the moderators by reporting or flagging the post for review. Slurs and other massively negative phrases are also flatly disallowed without mitigating context, such as a villain in a story using a term because they're a villain. Note: A Slur is a word which has a widely recognized incorrectly negative meaning as applied to a group of people and is in the context of being applied negatively to a group of people. This does not include words like Nazi which have provable cause to be negative.
Soft Line: Aggravated language and continual negative behavior will be reviewed for possible issues.
Hard Line: Clear personal attacks, slurs without mitigating context, and similarly obvious situations.
Conduct Rule 2: Constructive
Criticism of a fellow forum member's works must be constructive. What is constructive criticism, you may ask? In a very simplistic form, if what you're criticizing someone on and how you're doing it, the words and tone you use, are intended to aid them in bettering themselves or their works and most importantly reflect that intent, then you're being constructive. Help your fellow forum members build themselves up, and they will help you. This rule has some overlap with Rule 2, but it is important to declare on its own anyways. Note this rule only pertains to those who are not public figures; you may mock them to your heart's content. It is the price they pay by choosing to become public figures; speech against them is protected.
Soft Line: Criticism of a person or their works which can be considered an attack upon them or their work.
Hard Line: Attacks veiled as criticism, or criticism with no constructional content at all.
Conduct Rule 3: Multiple Accounts
Good news, everyone! Multiple Accounts are allowed on Sufficiently Munchkined! However, sockpuppetting (using multiple accounts to harvest votes, create illegitimate reactions on your own posts, influence polls, inflate post counts, or similar purposes) is not allowed. To provide an option for those who need multiple accounts for other purposes there is an Account Switcher system integrated into the forum. You can easily link accounts together and swap between them, even in the middle of writing a post! The intended use for this is things like Brand accounts, but I'm sure there are others which users will discover. To get to the Account Switcher and link an account, go to the bottom of your User Control Panel or head to this link.
Soft Line: All accounts accessing Sufficiently Munchkined from the same IP address must be linked through the Account Switcher. When the staff discover multiple accounts from the same IP address which are not linked, they will notify all the accounts involved through private messages and inform them of the accounts in question. The owner of those accounts will then have a reasonable amount of time to head over to the Account Switcher system and link their accounts.
Hard Line: If the accounts are not linked after a reasonable amount of time, all accounts from the same IP address will be locked, except one. The account we choose to leave unlocked will be either the one which has existed the longest, or the one with the most activity, if they are not the same. The account owner can then contact us through the Private Staff Comms subforum after linking the locked accounts to the unlocked account to request account unlocking.
Content Rules
Content Rule 1: NSFW
I am not up to managing the issues, both legal and operationally, inherent with allowing NSFW content on Sufficiently Munchkined. Thus NSFW content is not allowed on this forum. Questionable Questing already has the framework and experience to deal with it, and I suggest you use that site to host your NSFW content instead.
Soft Line: NSFW can be lightly touched on or implied in a story, but not depicted descriptively.
Hard Line: This means absolutely no NSFW imagery. Scantily clad is fine, but visible genitalia, clothed or not, is not allowed.
I reserve the right to modify these rules at any time. An announcement of rule changes will most likely occur in such a situation.