- Rule #1 of Luminaries: HAVE FUN!
- You MUST be at least 18 years of age to participate. All new members are screened by the Mods so very few, if any, exceptions will be made to this rule. This is primarily for our own safety and the safety of the community.
- Characters: Characters must be celebrities over 18 and can be from any walk of life (actors, musicians, athletes, models, etc.) The celebrity you pick must be currently living and we will only accept one of each character. Celebrity relatives will be accepted after Mod-approval.
- Auditions: Occasionally we will hold auditions for a particular role (see our Wanted list). These auditions are held for the more popular roles to ensure we get a writer who is active, mature, creative and plans to stick around for awhile. Auditions consist of two parts: two descriptive journal entries and two AIM conversation examples to give us an idea of your writing style. If you're interested in trying out for a part we're holding auditions for, please leave a comment in the Luminary Mods journal with all the requested information.
- Signing Up: When signing up, you will be asked if you have read and understood the rules. The answer to this question is "no" as we don't have rules, we have guidelines. This added step in the signup process helps us avoid future problems.
- Do Your Research: While we don't expect you to know every single detail of your character's life, we do expect you to do your research. Be aware of any concerts, movies, TV appearances, magazine articles, etc. your character is appearing in. The more you know about your character, the better you'll be able to portray them.
- Be Active: The more you put into this, the more you'll get out of it. Please update your journal regularly and participate in AIM conversations. We also encourage commenting frequently to other people's posts and even participating in icon/comment "wars".
- Inactivity Limit: You must post a descriptive entry in your journal at least once every 10 days. By "descriptive" we mean something more than one or two lines. All journals that haven't been updated in a 10-day period will be removed from the community. WE ARE NO LONGER GIVING UPDATE WARNINGS! You will have to take responsibility for making sure you don't go inactive. In the event you will not be able to update for 10 days, please post a message in Luminary_OOC ahead of time as well as informing a Mod. You may also make an OOC post in your journal if you wish.
- AIM Usage: In an RPG, AIM serves 2 purposes: it acts as a cellphone for your character to call other characters and it can be used as a means for RPing situations in which 2 or more characters are together physically (either in a private IM or a chat room environment). It is NEVER to be used as an internet chat program while IC. Here are some guidelines:
- Please do NOT flood people with chat room requests. It's annoying and we've had complaints.
- Please be aware of where your character is physically. If they're on tour in Japan, they obviously can't attend a party in LA at the same time.
- Having multiple private IM conversations at the same time is fine as long as they're considered phone conversations. You obviously can't RP that you're out drinking with friends while at the same time RPing that you're at home with your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse.
- NO SMILEYS! Period.
- If you need to contact someone OOC, please enclose your message in brackets of some type.
- Outside Communities: Please do not use your Luminaries journal to join any other communities or correspond with any non-Luminaries friends. The only exceptions to this rule are if you'd like to join an RPG advertising community, a layout community and/or an RPG icons community.
- Naming Conventions: When naming your journal and obtaining an AIM screen name, please choose names that will let others easily recognize the celebrity you are portraying. Please avoid using vague character references and, whenever possible, use your character's first and/or last name. Please do not change your AIM screen name unless you have no other choice (i.e. the original one won't login).
- Hold Time: Upon request, we will hold characters for a period of 6 hours to give you time to get everything setup. Once added, you MUST confirm the 4 emails and make your introductory post in Luminaries within 24 hours or we'll remove you. If you're having problems posting or don't receive the 4 emails, please contact a Mod immediately so we can add you manually.
- Multiple Journals: If you'd like to portray more than one character, please feel free to do so. The only thing we ask is that you keep all your characters active and don't make them all sound like they're being written by the same person (i.e. try to keep their personalities different from one another).
- Leaving: In the event you decide to leave, please make a post in Luminary_OOC to let us know you're leaving.
- Luminaries Time: Just like the TV show "24", everything here happens in real time. One hour in your life equals one hour in your character's life. Broken bones will be in a cast for at least 6 weeks; pregnancies last 9 months and MUST be agreed upon by BOTH parties (mother and father), etc.
- Death/Suicide/Illness/Accidents/Pregnancies: NO CHARACTERS CAN DIE unless, tragically, something happens to that celebrity in real life. Likewise, no character can threaten or commit suicide. Storylines about accidents are fine provided they are realistic. As for illness, everyone gets sick, even the writers - if you get sick, feel free to write that into your storyline to allow you time to get well. As for pregnancies, BOTH parties (mother and father) MUST be in agreement of a pregnancy storyline before it is started. Don't forget that it lasts 9 months.
- Abuse/Domestic Violence/Self-Inflicted Harm/Mental Illness: Abuse of ANY kind should not be taken lightly because people can and do die from it every year. If you choose to write a storyline containing something such as Cutting, Overdosing, Abuse, Eating Disorders, Mental Illness, etc. we ask that you please take these topics seriously. Should you decide to venture into any of these areas, please do your research before introducing them into your storyline so that you may accurately portray them. We also ask that you consult the people your character interacts with to make sure they are comfortable with such subjects before you begin to write about them. Also, if at any time this makes someone too uncomfortable we ask that you give us the right to come to you and ask you to modify your storyline because we want to make sure everyone is comfortable and happy here.
- Language: This is a mature community, so please write like an adult. For example, if your character is a 26-year-old man, please don't make him sound like he's a 14-year-old girl. Please also refrain from what is commonly known as "teenie talk". This means using actions (see the FAQ instead of acronyms like "lmao" or "rofl" and spelling words correctly ("God" instead of "gawd", "Because" instead of "cuz", "And" instead of "an", etc.) GreatestJournal has a spell-check feature built-in - please use it if needed. Also, please keep your usage of "smileys" to a minimum (especially in AIM conversations).
- Journal Content: Please do NOT post quizzes, memes, etc. as it will only clutter up everyone's Friends pages. Also, please use cut tags (see the FAQ) when posting images or making especially long posts.
- Storylines: Date/marry/befriend whoever you want - we don't care as long as the storyline is realistic. Also, don't feel obligated to date or be married to a particular person just because your character is in real life. As for slash, we now allow 20% of our members to have slash storylines. This means for every 10 members, 2 of them can be played slashy. This limit keeps the slash from getting out of control and keeps options open for the female characters.
- Reality Check: This is a game - please don't take IC drama OOC. This includes blocking other members on AIM which is unacceptable. We understand that characters will sometimes have disagreements, etc. but that's no reason to abuse the person portraying the character.
- Mods: Don't fight with the Mods. Period. If you've got a problem with us, tell us. If you're unable to participate in a mature, adult discussion about it, you'll be removed from the community. Luminaries is a community that values member input. The Mods are not "in charge" nor do they do not have the final say-so in matters affecting the entire community. Polls are taken whenever a major change is being considered and the majority rules. The Mods are here to help keep everything running smoothly - if you want to help them out, by all means please volunteer.
If you agree to these guidelines and would like to join us, please refer to our
How To Join page.