Chat Rules of DarkSwords
The
following list of rules has been worked out by the Administrator and the
moderators of the game DarkSwords. These rules are obligatory to be followed by
all participants of the game. By entering the game you automatically agree to
follow these rules.
If you act
against these rules you are considered a violator and will be punished. This
applies to any sentence said by your character in game. Punishment can be
anything from some time of not being able to chat up to an IP ban for severe
violations. All violations are subject to be punished by either the moderators
or the Administrator.
The first
and most important rule of DarkSwords is:
Moderators and the representatives of DS Adminstration have absolute power and their acions are not to be discussed in any kind of in-game chat. If you violate this rule you will receive a minimum punishment of 1 hour of your chat being disabled.
In return, if any staff violate the rules, their mute time will be doubled (if there is a warning to be issued first, there will be no warning).
Rudeness
to moderators or Administration will not be tolerated: if you are upset or frustrated no need to let it out on moderators as they need to focus on the chat. MP: 1 hour Silence.
If you feel
punished unfairly you may voice your dissatisfaction in the Complaint section
of www.darkswords.eu/forum in a manner that follows the forum rules (you need to be registered in order to access this section).
(Please
note that the following list displays the minimum punishment (referred to as MP in the rest of the text) for each
violation. Repeated violations will lead to harder punishment. The
Administration also reserves the right to ban a character or an IP in case of
multiple violations. MP - Warning, multiply offences in same violation will add 15 minutes per violation.)

The following is forbidden in Public Chat:
Other languages in Open
- MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence. The official languages of this server
are English and German. It is forbidden to use other languages in common chat. If you want
to talk another language you are free to do so in Private Chat or Clan Chat.
Flood - MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence.
You are not allowed to post similar messages more than once every 60 seconds.
Symbol
Flood - MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence. You are not allowed to Flood Symbols.
The following is considered Symbol Flood:
Using more than six symbols of a kind is considered symbol flood. For example when you write: "Help me please!!!!!!" that sentence would be considered symbol flood.
Also if the symbol reappears over and over in a line, its considered Symbol Flood. Example: "Help! He is killing me! Help me! Im going to die! Please! Stop! No!"
There is an exception to the rule though. When group of three dots are used
repeatedly in one line this is not symbol flood. For example „Hmm...I don't
know...might be tricky!“ This is not considered symbol flood.
Smiley
Flood - MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence. You are not allowed to Flood Smileys.
The following is considered Smiley Flood:
Posting of more than three smileys in a line is considered smiley
flood. Also the number tags like * 001 * and symbols like :P and so on are
considered smileys (please be advised, that moderators may ask you to stop excessive smiley use in order to improve char performance, if their request will be ignored it will be considered as flood).
Capital
Letters (Caps) - MP: Warning/15 minute Silence. You are not allowed to
excessively use capital letters. The following explains what is allowed or not
with Caps:
The use of more than Two words in capital letters is forbidden.
Its against the rules to write long names (even if the excisting character name consist of all capital letters) or places with all caps in Common chat. Its only necessary to capitalize the first letter.
Capsing the first letter of every word in a sentence is ok, while capsing
several letters in more than one word (example: „HoLy MoLy, ThIs RoCkS!“) is
again considered capsing.
Trade messages - MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence. Messages concerning trade are not
allowed in Common Chat. Further restrictions and rules concerning will follow later in the text. Posting in open chat "look at trade chat" is a mixed trade message and is a warning/15 min silence

Trolling
- MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence. any type of trolling, useless and or excessive talking, rambling talk, or playing in a juvial mannor. Speaking rapidly of nonsence things is all considered trolling.
References to illegal drugs - MP: 30 minute Silence. Illegal drug references are not allowed. An illegal substance is one that causes addiction, hibituation or a marked change in consciousness.
Inappropriate comments - MP: 30 min silence. any type of sexual talk, Unsuitable talk for an online game,sexual inuendo and or references, sexism, Any talk that is not appropriate for children.
Vielded Cursing/swearing - MP: 30 min silence. you are not allowed to use any type of "vieled" swearwords to swear in open chat, or you will get 30 mins of silence for inappropriate comments.

Rudeness, Insults - MP: 1 hour Silence. You are not allowed to to use rudeness or any type of insults to another player. Futhermore, you will be punished for insulting others.
Foul language - MP: 1 hour Silence.Cursing/swearing are not allowed in public chats. Any type of of profane or obscene oath or word will be a punishment of 1 hour of silence.
Talking about other games: MP: 1 hour
Silence. Discussing other MMRPG games in common chat is forbidden.
Discussion of moderator's actions: MP: 1 hour Silence. Staff includes moderators, Helpers, Traders, Dealers and Pastors.

Rudeness to Staff - MP: 1 hour Silence. Staff includes moderators, Helpers, Traders, Dealers and Pastors.
.
Staff Harassment - MP: 3 hours Silence up to Katorga. Examples:
Using multiple characters to get around mutes;
Rudeness to Moderators;
Flooding a Moderator in any form, including:
- sending plat mail repeatedly
- pro’ing and unpro’ing
- smiley and symbol flooding
- flooding with trade request
GRA (world chat) rules -.Swearing in GRA -MP:3 hours
Rudeness insults -MP: 3hours
Vieled swearing/curinsg and Inappropriate comments - MP:1 hour
Flooding -MP:30 mins
Continuted swearing from a characters alt's will result in additional time being issued for mutes, to the maximum of 24 hours plus kartorga. All other GRA offences are at the moderators discretion.
(Please
note that violations in Gra messages are subject to double the punishment. In
severe cases moderators are enabled to send the character to Katorga in addition
to the regular punishment.)

Distributing Links: You are forbidden
to distribute links that are not related to DarkSwords. A DarkSwords related link means that a part of the URL has 'darkswords.eu' in it (i.e. main page, forum, or a page from library).
Only staff (dealers, traders, pastors, moderators, helpers, and admin) are allowed to post a link to their website, which MUST provide DarkSwords service. This link must be posted from the said staff account or the punishment will be received.
We differentiate between four kinds of links which will be punished at a different degree: - External
General Links (e.g.
www.yahoo.com, www.bbc.com) MP: 1 hour Silence. External Media Links (e.g. www.youtube.com) MP: 3 hour Silence. External Game Links (e.g. www.notdarkswords.eu) MP: 24 hours Silence. External Links with sexual or other harmful content MP: 24 hours Silence plus katorga.
Recruitment to other mmorg games in private chat is forbided will result in MP: 24 hours Silence plus katorga.
Real
Life Threats: Real Life Threats will NOT be tolerated and will lead to your character being sent to Katorga and 24 hr silence. We also reserve the right to ban the users IP in these cases.
Selling
characters: Selling characters is forbidden. If
caught, the character will be muted for 24 hours directly and then send to
Katorga, a forced labour camp.
Racial Remarks: Racist comments are not tolerated. MP: 24 hour silence
and a trip to katorga.
Discriminatory comments/remarks: Any form of harassment, or comments containing hate, targeted towards a particular group sharing a common trait. MP: 24 hour silence
and a trip to katorga.

The following is allowed in Public Chat:
Everything
that is not forbidden is allowed in Public Chat.
The following is forbidden in Private Chat:
(Please
note, if you receive any violations in Private Chat you want to forward to a
moderator, please take a screenshot as proof. Only cases where screenshots are
provided can be punished.)
Discussion
of moderators' actions: MP: 1 hour Silence.
Distribution
of harmful or unwelcomed links: MP: 24 hours
Silence.
Sale
of Characters: MP: 24 hours Silence and trip to
Katorga.
Sale
of items not related to DS (e.g. sale
of underwear, apartments, ...): 24 hours mute and a
trip to Katorga.

The following is allowed in Private Chat:
Everything
that is not forbidden (e.g. Caps, Foul language and speaking of non-english
languages).
Moderators
will not deal with those kind of punishments, so please do not bother the
moderators with such. Instead, if you feel violated in Private Chat or do not
wish to receive any more Private Messages from a certain character, please use
the ignore function. The name of the undesired character should change to grey
and you will not receive any further messages from that character.

The following rules apply to Trade Chat:
In Trade
Chat all rules for Common Chat apply if not specified otherwise in this
section.
All
messages related to trades have to be written in Trade Chat (messages of
purchase, sale, chargeable services and others).
Non-trade
messages (except clan recruiting) are not allowed in Trade Chat as Common and Private Chat may be used
for this. MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence.
Sale of
Platinum for NON-GAME MONEY is only allowed by Dealers or Traders in all forms of chat.
Any other type of sale posted by dealers or traders should be done in trade chat. 24 hours mute and Katorga.
Mixed
messages about Trades and Buffs are to be written in Trade Chat.
Cursing in trade is now considered the same as cursing in GRA. MP: 3 hour silence.
Mixed
messages about Trades and Private/Non-Trade issues are not allowed in either
Common or Trade Chat. MP: Warning/15 minutes Silence.

Restrictions on nicknames:
It is
forbidden to use nicknames including offensive or foul language. MP: ban of the
character. Moderators and the Administrator define what is offensive and what
not.
It is
forbidden pose yourself as active game players using similar names in
phonotation and pronounciation. In case of complaints from players moderators
and Administration reserve the right to silence the character in question for
24 hours and then ban them.

Further information on rules and sales:
If you suspect somebody of religion cheating please take a screenshot and send it to a moderator. Upon receiving those screenshots the Administrator will investigate each case individually and punish the violators. The minimum
punishment for such violations is a 24 hour mute and lvl 5 Katorga. Furthermore
twice a year the Holy Inquisition will take place and violators against the
rules of religious warfare will be punished with loss of religion and the loss
of 15% HP and MP for a month.
If a player
is caught using bots, macros or other means to be able to hunt while actually
being away from keyboard that character will be send to Jail. The sentence will
be negotiated in each case individually.
Flooding
with trade requests or protection will not be tolerated and will lead to a
visit in Jail.

Abuse of report function:
Do not report any
private, clan, religion, or clan land messages unless they contain either real life
threats or racist comments. To do so will earn you a Warning and if continued 15 minute silence.
Do not report offences
if the player has already been muted for that offence. To do so will earn you a Warning or 15 minutes
silence if continued to do so. In void, you cannot see mutes issued, so suddenly reporting something may fall
under this as well.

Others:
Giving out personal information:
your own: 30 minutes;
someone else's: 24 hrs + lvl 2 katorga.
Personal info includes real life names (not first), location and or personal information about a players life.
By location, it is meant an exact location that can be used to find a particular person (such as an exact address).
For example, phrases such as Hi, my name is Alex, and I am from Canada are not considered a violation of this rule.
Religion Chat: If reported, or seen by an religion active mod, any offences that break the normal chat rules will be treated as the same offence, and will receive the same punishment.
Trading
Platinum for gold is not forbidden, however it is a risky business. The
purchase of Platinum for gold is not official and thus not supported by the
Administration. All deals are made at your own risk. To prevent getting scammed
we advise you not to click the Apply button in trade window until both parties
inserted the amount of goods negotiated.
To purchase
Plat we highly recommend you to use official Dealers or Traders. Dealers and
Traders can be recognized by the Moneybag/Coin Symbols next to their names in
the Player List.
Please,
read and follow the rules and take the advice we are giving you. It makes
gameplay enjoyable for everybody. Enjoy playing DarkSwords and have a nice day!
Your DS Administration
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