All ISRP site members and guests are responsible for knowing the information contained in the following Code of Conduct.

ISRP reserves the right, but does not assume the responsibility, to restrict communication which ISRP deems in its discretion to be harmful to individual guests, damaging to the communities which make up ISRP, or in violation of ISRP’s or any third-party rights.

Prohibited chat room, board, and e-mail list, behaviors include (but are not limited to):

·         profanity, vulgarity, or explicit content For example:

• "masking" by using alternative characters/spellings and spaces to get around profanity filters, leet-speak, and combinations of words that produce an offensive result (e.g. ura hugeazz, Tow El Head)
• "Filter testing" That is, trying to find a way to get prohibited words past the filters.
• Discussion of or in-character enactments of "cybering" or sexually explicit material. This means roleplaying having sex, or sexual type encounters of any sort, to include oral, homosexual, foreplay, etc.
• Discussion of or in-character enactments of graphic violence, bloodletting, rape, torture, slavery, etc. This means no descriptions of entrails all over, no lurid descriptions of blood spattering and fountaining all around, no depictions of rape, or detailed accounts of rape, no torture or cruelty such as found in slavery situations, no enactments of slavery or the process of enslaving someone.

·         Hate speech (e.g. racial, ethnic, sexist, homophobic and religious slurs)  This includes jokes of same sorts. Calling people fags, kikes, micks, carpet crunchers, what have you is right out.

·         Promotion of or engaging in certain illegal activities, For example: drugs, drug paraphernalia, rape or solicitation of a minor, computer hacking, and copyright violation. Generally, if it’s illegal, it isn’t to be done on site. Period.

·         Harassment of another specific person either IC or OOC. The procedure for this is simple. If someone is harassing you, tell them pointedly that you find it bothersome and tell them to stop. Clearly. Not implied. If they continue, use the ignore function, that is what it is for. And report them to a Moderator. Harassment is not a joke and will be dealt with severely. Things like unprovoked attacks, following people around the site, posting annoying thought bubbles that irritate, not stopping when asked to stop. In Character play DOES NOT obviate this rule.

·         Trolling or baiting by putting to the screen inflammatory statements designed to elicit a negative response from the community. To include posting thought bubbles with statements calculated to irritate or offend. This includes things like “this place is boring”, “these people are all idiots”, “same cheesy characters”, and other things of similar or related type.

·         Spamming through repeated posts, or off-topic content by word or intent to boards or lists (e.g. scrolling, flooding, polling, or by "bumping" a boards post more than once in 48 hours) We usually count scrolling as five or more lines not part of IC interaction in rapid but not necessarily sequential order. Things like running through the emote list, the same emote several times. Also included are the wonderful indicators of sleeping, like ZZZZZZZZZ or zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry people that’s spam.

·         Advertising or promoting a business or commercial site. This means any site for commercial or business purposes. The only ones who can do this are the site owners or the Moderators at their direction. Patrons will not post adverts to other sites, nor promote their business, nor any other commercial enterprise.

·         Impersonation of another person, site staff or ISRP Moderator by either screen name or self-representation (e.g. faking a screen name by using similar-looking characters, "spoofing" speech in a chat room, or claiming to hold an official title or position relating to the site) Or pretending to be another player’s character by the same means.

·         Reregistering a banned screen name, a variation of a banned name, or declarations under a new screen name that you are "really" the banned name or attempts to resubscribe to a e-mail list under another address after being put on REVIEW by the list moderator. (for further explanation, see below) If you re-register a banned name, or claim to be a banned character with another name, you *will* be banned again. So don’t do it.

·         Off-topic posts or casual chat/IC play in the wrong chatrooms For example:

• out-of-character chat in designated in-character rooms
• casual chat or non-combat play in designated combat-only rooms, or, conversely, combat play in non-combat rooms
• at Magi discretion, off-topic chat or posts in topic-specific rooms/forums

ROOM DISRUPTION

      Room disruption is any activity that disrupts either the flow of the play in any give room, or flagrantly violates the setting rules of any room, or both. That’s the simple definition. It’s a hard thing to define tightly and judgment on the part of hosts will always be a factor. However, it includes everything already posted to this point, as well as any sort of modern everyday talk, netspeak, leetspeak, phonetic speech, and so on are disruptive. Fantasy language use is NOT disruptive. Using parentheses around words denotes them as Out Of Character by convention, so don’t use them, they are disruptive. Typing in all caps is disruptive. Doing things that force others to react to them if they wish to remain In Character is disruptive. You may not make the Tavern shake, break the walls or doors down, shoot fireballs and lightning bolts around the rooms, gun down everyone in TMP, throw in hand grenades, etc. These are all disruptive behaviors. Brawls in the rooms are disruptive. Throwing knives at one another, being a Dragon in the Tavern, a log of cheese, or what have you. Again, these are disruptive. Characters that are anathema to a given setting are disruptive. They don’t belong in the In Character chats that are setting defined to exclude them. Nor may people use perceived ‘loopholes’ to try to avoid these things.

      Settings will have their own subsection of rules which will more closely define what is and isn’t disruptive/acceptable within them. If an activity violates these rules, then they are disruptive in that particular setting. It is the responsibility of the players to know the rules of the places they are going to, and by signing up to play on this chat site, you have asserted that you have indeed read and understand these rules. You will be held to that.

      Finally; In Character play never justifies breaking the Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct always takes precedence over a character’s nature, concept, alignment, what have you. Ignorance is never an excuse.

FREEDOM OF DESTINY

No one can force your character to do anything you do not want them to do. You do not have to die, be blown up, be subject to a spell, etc. By the same token, neither can you force anyone else. You may ask. This does not mean anyone is free to break the CoC because their character would do so. See the above noted statement in this regard.

MODERATOR JUDGEMENT

By the very nature of what we play at, and what the Moderators have to do, things simply can’t be completely defined. As a result, Moderators will have to exercise their judgment, and in fact are required to do so. It is their judgment that is used in determining if someone has violated these rules. You may ask for an explanation, explain your case, and even go to a higher Moderator, if you disagree with this judgment. But when it is made on the spot, you must abide by it until a ruling is made in a dispute. Logs of the chatrooms will be used to ascertain what exactly happened. You will be notified of final judgment in any disputed case. Remember, by signing on to play here, you have certified that you have read and understand these rules, and agreed to abide by them. Ignorance is not an excuse.

In other words, behave yourself. Treat other people you encounter in the rooms just as you would like to be treated…...politely.

Disciplinary Procedures

If a member of the ISRP Community has demonstrated he or she cannot behave, the member WILL LOSE ALL of his or her usernames registered at that time. This prevents a user with multiple screen names from misbehaving with one “throw away” screen name while preserving another “good” screen name. You have three strikes. Your agreement in having read and understood these rules can be used as your first one. Upon the third you will lose all your currently subbed Screen Names. A total of six warnings, to include the aforementioned loss of of all Screen Names results in being banned from the site entirely. You may petition for a review after six months if this happens.

At the point of screen name loss, the patron may register a new name(s) with the stipulation that it not be a look-alike, variation of, or reference to the lost name. Doing so—or further violations of the CoC—will only result in all screen names being lost again and the patron being barred from website community access altogether. For example, if a user with the name BadDwarf loses his name for CoC infractions, registering BadDwarf2, B@dDwarf, or FormerBadDwarf would not be allowed. The user must create a new name altogether.

Violations of a specific Setting’s additional rules generally are treated in the same manner as violations of the Code of Conduct. See the list's Welcome Letter or FAQ if you have questions on how those types of violations are handled.

These procedures are only meant to be rough guidelines, as each situation is different and may require other measures to ensure the smooth operation of the site. Situations that often require harsher action are: very full rooms where Magi moderator-to-patron ratio is low, out-of-hand flame wars, and flagrant and/or intentional disregard for the CoC.

You Can Make the ISRP Community a Better Place

Our moderators can't be everywhere at once. Therefore, if you witness actions in chat or boards that you believe harms a guest, damages the ISRP Community, or violates ISRP’s or some third-party's rights, please make a note of the time/place where the event occurred and contact a Magi immediately. If they aren't handy, please see our community contact page.