1. Respect. As a lodger of Second Heaven, your primary obligation is to convey respect to first your leaders, and to your fellow lodgers. Should a problem arise between you and another member, try to resolve the conflict in a mature manner, addressing the person privately. Involving the entire lodging house with any individual altercation will not be tolerated. Keeping the peace is the key; should further disagreement ensue, contact a lodging house leader concerning the problem. Should you clash with a leader or find the running of the lodging house not to your liking, feel free to offer suggestions, but do know this may not be the place for you if you don't seem to agree with its guidelines. Perpetual disrespect and rule violation will lead to your eviction from the lodging house. Which leads us into our next rule:
2. We reserve the right to refuse service. Rest assured this will not incorporate personal grudges or bygones, but if your behaviour in the lodging house disregards respect for the leaders and your fellow lodgers and you persist even after warning, we will be forced to evict you from the establishment.
3. Your active involvement in the lodging house is a key. We won't expect 24/7 participation, but if you're prone to lurking, this may not be the right establishment for you. We'll be understanding, however, concerning matters out of personal control, but we simply ask each lodger to remain up to date with the happenings of Second Heaven.
4. Deadlines. To misquote Jack Kelly, "Deadlines don't produce stories. Enthused writers produce stories." *Laughs* You won't be seeing deadlines for fanfiction at this lodging house, so don't squirm in your bunks or anything. We do ask that a short one-shot piece of fiction concerning your character and his/her dealings at Second Heaven be submitted sometime during your stay for our library collection, however. *Smiles* And other than that, once you start roleplaying, ideas for stories will come at you as you please. So write as you will, and have fun with it.
5. On that note, this is a community especially devoted to writing. Though we don't expect and demand best-selling literary works, we do ask each member to take their writing seriously. This is an environment wherein you can challenge yourself and grow as a writer through in-depth character development and extemporaneous plot turns, as you're apt to see in any roleplay. *Smiles*
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Rules of the Fire Escape (Chats ^.^ )
Note: Chat Ratings are set at PG13 (for more mature rating usage, simply conduct a private chat between you and your fellow lodger) and are done in script format (whereas yahoogroup roleplays are done in story format). Keep that in mind throughout.
1. Please don't cause or fuel OOC (out of character) fights. We don't want everyone hating one another. If something starts up, just let it drop, and if you or someone else won't stop arguing, we'll ask you to leave the chat.
2. IC (in character) fights are okay. *smiles* They help cause some drama and are always fun. Don't take them personally. Every character is different. Don't think that, for example, if Dewey or Tiggey is acting like a wench to your character that we are in anyway attacking you personally.
3. When speaking OOC please use double parenthesis ((like this hehe )) around your words.
4. No talk of explicit nature in the chat room please. Remember, we're maintaing a PG13 rating. You can hint at it and actually, we'll be rather lenient when it comes to this. Innuendo and such are fine, but use common sense and don't write terribly graphical content. *Smirks*
5. If someone in the chat starts feeling uncomfortable about a topic being discussed and asks you to stop, then please do so out of respect.
6. No swearing profusely OOC. IC, however, is fine. Just don't make it out to be every other word. Again, use common sense.
7. When using action or thoughts please place asterisks (*) around them.
8. Don't just come in and enter the chat right away. Wait and find out what the house characters are up to and where they all are. That way you don't end up coming in and saying your character falls back on the couch when three people are already sitting on the couch- unless, of course, you want to be sitting on them. *Grins* It will just be much less confusing if you ask where everyone is and who everyone is playing first.
9. And also, if you come in the chat and we haven't started yet (we're just talking OOC or something), you can start. You don't have to wait for us. As long as you don't include the characters that are not IC.
Chat rules were borrowed from Hoboken Lodging House with permission from Crystal. Thanks, doll! ^.^
(make sure ya've taken the tour first! *smiles*)