Code of Conduct applied to all Open General (OG) Forums

Mission Statement

We have four missions at OG Forums: Fun, Friendliness, Learning, Teaching. Everything we do will be aimed at promoting these four things.

• Fun:
  We expect our members to join us because they seek fun, not only in playing the game, but fun in discussingit as well. We discourage our members from bringing up issues or speaking in ways that detract from the fun of playing or of discussing the game.
• Friendliness:
  We expect our members to help us create a friendly environment. People or issues that detract from the friendly atmosphere that we are trying to maintain will not be tolerated.
• Learning:
  We also expect OG Forums to be a place of learning. We actively seek and encourage those who desire to learn more about our game. This implies the need for people who are seeking a group of members who are kind and courteous. Members should never be demeaning of someone’s ignorance nor insulting of someone’s lack of knowledge. We seek members who want to learn and every member can expect that no one will ever chastise them nor poke fun at them because of their lack of knowledge. We all can continue to learn about the game – no one knows everything. Anyone who is unwilling to accept OG Forums as a friendly learning environment is asked not to join.
• Teaching:
  Lastly, we intend OG Forums to be a place of teaching. While some of our members may be more knowledgeable and/or more skilled at teaching, we accept that every member has the capability of teaching any other member something of value over the course of time. We seek members who are willing to learn and also willing to admit that there are things that even the most knowledgeable among us can still learn.

Communication Style

• We acknowledge that our members are both diverse and similar at the same time. While our members come from varying regions of the world, varying cultures, varying backgrounds, varying age, varying life-styles and varying experiences, we all share at least one common interest: our game. No matter how few or how many things you have in common with any other member, please remember that we all have at least that one thing in common. Anyone who cannot accept that fact is encouraged not to join OG Forums.
• We expect our members to be courteous and respectful of ALL other members at ALL times! While posting on our forums, we expect all our members to behave in a civilized and friendly manner to all other members. And we make no distinction between subtle or blatant slander directed toward our members. Even veiled attempts to belittle other members may result in disciplinary measures.
• What you do outside the bounds of OG Forums is your business; but what goes on inside OG Forums is our business.
• No tolerance will be shown those who use offensive or profane language, or degrade, demean or in any other way humiliate another member. Your opinions are your own. We do not require that you hold any particular opinions or beliefs except a spirit of mutual respect for all other members while at OG Forums. You can expect that you will not be slandered in any way while at OG Forums, and we expect you to not slander anyone else while at OG Forums either.

Technical Issues

• Please do not use rollover images in signatures or HTML code that will make the forums crash.
• Spam in any form whatsoever, will not be tolerated.

Posting Outside Links

• We permit our established members to post links to other sites, but this is a privilege we may grant or rescind at the sole discretion of the owners and staff. As with all things, if the owners/staff don’t like what you are doing or how you are using our community, we reserve the right to handle the situation however we see fit.
• We do not tolerate using these forums as a place to post propaganda or spam. It is ok for regular members to place a link or whatever in your signature that people can use to get to your website, tools or utilities. But, if you want to attract users to your style of play, use other methods, do not use these forums for that purpose. Understand this: if we get the sense that a member’s chief purpose at OG Forums is to advertise another community and/or product, disciplinary measures will be taken by the admin staff of OG Forums. Removal of outside links or deletion of entire posts, even permanent banishment can result from making OG Forums your personal advertising outlet or recruiting tool.

 

Infractions of the rules can mean immediate BANISHMENT by the admins of OG Forums. Minor infractions of the rules might result in implementation of a probationary period or other disciplinary measures, including the deletion of any posts that violate these rules, at the sole discretion of the owners of OG Forums.

By posting at OG Forums, you hereby agree to respect and abide by this Code of Conduct in its entirety at all times.

(The original version of this set of norms were written by Johan “JP” Pieterse and Joel “Whoopy-Cat” Illian for the JP’s Forums)