SOTF Mini Rule Changelog

[MurderWeasel]

Handful of tweaks:

AU Preamble Adjustment:

Alternate Universes (AUs) are smaller, often handler-run games hosted on SOTF Mini. Thus far, three AUs have actually been run: The Battle Royale AU (which was not completed), SOTF: Evolution, and Virtua-SOTF (which was initially intended as a third primary universe, a role taken by Second Chances due to handler response). AUs are the responsibility of their creators.

After much consideration, staff has decided to, on a trial basis, once again allow handler-run AU games to be hosted on Mini. There are, however, a notable number of restrictions and caveats at play. We feel that all handlers, prospective AU-runners and prospective AU-players alike, should be aware of the following:

Alternate Universes (AUs) are smaller, often handler-run games hosted on SOTF Mini. We have had a number of AUs run on the site, with new ones cropping up regularly and even more in planning! In the early days of Mini, AUs often fell partially under the umbrella of staff work, but now they are the responsibility of their creators.

While AU hosting is pretty open in many respects, there are a notable number of restrictions and caveats at play. We feel that all handlers—prospective AU-runners and prospective AU-players alike—should be aware of the following:

AU Requirements Adjustment:

[*]A fully-detailed arena. This means all areas fully written and detailed. Each area description should be a small to medium paragraph that gives sufficient information for handlers to roleplay around. Notable objects and points of geography should be clearly pointed out.
[*]A Prologue, as well as any non-handler-influenced fluff and flavor text. The Prologue gets the game started, so is needed right at the start. If there are any non-player-based elements of the story that will play out over the course of the game, they should also be prewritten.

[*]A fully-detailed arena. This means all areas fully written and detailed. Each area description should be a small to medium paragraph that gives sufficient information for handlers to roleplay around. Notable objects and points of geography should be clearly pointed out.
[*]Any randomly assigned elements in play. In more traditional games, this means a weapons list with enough items on it to assign each character a weapon, but it can be other things too. If your game sees each character assigned a mutant dinosaur at random, then the list of mutant dinosaurs should be done at time of submission. Note that AUs are in no way required to have randomly-assigned elements; we just ask that those elements be prepared in advance if they are included.
[*]A Prologue, as well as any non-handler-influenced fluff and flavor text. The Prologue gets the game started, so is needed right at the start. If there are any non-player-based elements of the story that will play out over the course of the game, they should also be prewritten.

SC Eligibility Adjustment:

The following characters are eligible for Second Chances versions:

• Any character from Main who did not win or escape and did not feature in a past version of SC. Characters who are rolled may not be submitted before their deaths are completed on Main.
• Any character from a Mini or AU who died in that game without winning and did not feature in a past version of SC, except BR AU characters.

The following characters are ineligible for SC2:

• Any character who won their version, regardless of whether or not they subsequently died or what form their victory took (ten-kill winners from TV and any sort of co-winner are thus out).
• Any BR AU character.
• Any character who featured in a past version of SC proper (characters who were submitted but did not end up in-game may be used for later iterations of SC).
• Any character who escaped their home version or otherwise survived the island.
• Any character from RPs not officially hosted by Main or Mini (ex: Mercy Street, Arena, REvo)

The following characters are eligible for Second Chances versions:

• Any character from Main who is dead and who did not win or escape and did not feature in a past version of SC. Characters who are rolled may not be submitted before their deaths are completed on Main.
• Any character from a Mini or AU focused on an elimination-based death game who died in that game without winning and did not feature in a past version of SC, except BRAU characters or characters from AUs whose hosts specifically disallowed SC use at the start of the version. Note that this includes characters from versions without rolls, profiles, etc. so long as they are recognizable.

The following characters are ineligible for Second Chances versions:

• Any character who won their version, regardless of whether or not they subsequently died or what form their victory took (ten-kill winners from TV and any sort of co-winner are thus out).
• Any character who escaped their home version or otherwise survived the game.
• Any BRAU character.
• Any character from an AU which is not an elimination-based death game. Note that featuring death and eliminations does not alone qualify a game as an elimination-based death game. To qualify, a game must be primarily focused on death achieved through the elimination of the cast as a core mechanic. In unclear cases, Mini staff (not AU staff) will serve as the final arbiter.
• Any character from an AU whose host requested at the time of launch that characters from it not be eligible for SC.
• Any character from RPs not officially hosted by Main or Mini (ex: Mercy Street, Arena, REvo, anything in Other RPing)
• Any character who featured in a past version of SC proper (characters who were submitted but did not end up in-game may be used for later iterations of SC).

Plagiarism Adjustment:

There's a slight exception to this for thread titles. Generally speaking, titles even of published media are frequently quotes and references. It's no different on SOTF. Thread titles have historically often been taken from song lyrics, lines of dialogue from movies, etc., and generally speaking there is no expectation of originality when it comes to thread titles.

If you're ever unsure whether something is sufficiently distanced or marked as to not constitute plagiarism, feel free to contact the staff. The staff will come to an agreement and give you an answer. In general, though, it's always best to err on the side of citing.

There's a slight exception to this for thread titles. Generally speaking, titles even of published media are frequently quotes and references. It's no different on SOTF. Thread titles have historically often been taken from song lyrics, lines of dialogue from movies, etc., and generally speaking there is no expectation of originality when it comes to thread titles.

Additionally, we want to be clear that using someone else's work with express permission is fine, though you should communicate that this is what you are doing and be ready to supply proof of permission upon request. This extends to profiles; you are welcome to submit profiles written by other handlers or write profiles for other handlers to submit, so long as this is communicated to staff and is done with permission from all parties involved. You may not refurbish other handlers' profiles (even abandoned ones) without express permission from the handler in question.

On a related note, we expect the majority of your in-character writing to be your own. If you want someone else to temporarily handle your character for a post (or more) for whatever reason, they should do so from their own account. Please note that this does not count as activity for purposes of the activity timer. If you want someone else to permanently handle your character, you should officially hand them off. GMing and co-writing remain acceptable; they just shouldn't be happening all the time. We're drawing this distinction to avoid a potential situation in which a handler entirely writes multiple casts, posted from different accounts—the character cap is in place for a reason, and we expect it to be held to both in letter and in spirit.

If you're ever unsure whether something is sufficiently distanced or marked as to not constitute plagiarism, feel free to contact the staff. The staff will come to an agreement and give you an answer. In general, though, it's always best to err on the side of citing.

Multiple Account Clarification:

Running multiple accounts at once is effectively cheating, and will result in a ban. Changing accounts without notifying staff will be frowned upon heavily, and will result in a ban should it be determined that any inappropriate action was taken or that any notable advantage was gained. Otherwise, the offender will be warned and may face further consequences (up to and including a ban) depending on the circumstances and staff discretion.

If multiple members are accessing the site from the same location (siblings, roommates, etc.) please let staff know right away. These situations can cause false positives in the system, and you’ll be in much better shape if staff is aware of your situation in advance.

Running multiple accounts at once is effectively cheating, and will result in a ban. Changing accounts without notifying staff will be frowned upon heavily, and will result in a ban should it be determined that any inappropriate action was taken or that any notable advantage was gained. Otherwise, the offender will be warned and may face further consequences (up to and including a ban) depending on the circumstances and staff discretion.

There are two exceptions:

First, AU hosts may have an additional account for AU administration purposes. They may either use the generic AU_Help account, or may create their own, which may be reused for later AUs if desired. These accounts should be clearly noted as such to staff, and should not be used outside of these purposes without staff permission. Staff reserve the right to revoke permission to operate AU accounts and require the use of AU_Help instead should we have any concerns.

Second, members of the staff team may use additional accounts for technical testing purposes. These will either be archival accounts or accounts clearly labeled for test use.

Following recent community discussion, we have decided that running extra accounts for artistic purposes is not something we're sanctioning at this time. Additionally, for the same reasons we will no longer be allowing any anonymous submissions as we have occasionally done in the past.

If multiple members are accessing the site from the same location (siblings, roommates, etc.) please let staff know right away. These situations can cause false positives in the system, and you’ll be in much better shape if staff is aware of your situation in advance.

If you have a particular special want or need for another account outside those outlined above, please contact an Admin. Such requests will likely be denied, but we're always willing to listen and consider.

Removed staff transference protocols in accordance with the staff hiring overhaul.

Going through and fixing some old links that went to ZB but now 404.

[MurderWeasel]

Away thread adjustment:

ny time you are logged as Away will not be counted against you for activity, within certain limits; this means that in most circumstances your inactivity deadline will be (fourteen days + [number of days marked Away]).

Also, please note the following rules with regards to inactivity:

• If a handler has not posted "away" for the entirety of one calendar month, then they must post at least once per character in said month to be considered active.
• One day inactivity notices do not count towards the inactivity timer, as they are not considered to be significant enough to prevent posting.
• Any given handler cannot post as "away"' for more then four weeks of any six week period, barring severe real life extenuating circumstances (being in the hospital or another country without internet access, say, as opposed to being busy with schoolwork). Away notices exceeding this cap will be ignored and the inactivity timer will continue.
• Posting on the general boards, or spending a lot of time in chat, may be considered violation of an away notice and the timer will start again. If you have time to shoot the breeze in chat or mess around on the board, then you have time to dash off a post. We get that sometimes you only have fifteen minutes and want to stop in to say hello, and you won't be slammed for that, but if you're around the site for hours, staff will cancel Away notices.
• If you are Away but find yourself with time to dash off a post, feel free to do so! If you're still Away and the spare time is a one-time thing, just PM any staffer to let them know, and your Away notice will not be canceled. It would be absurd to punish handlers for being responsible above and beyond the call of duty, especially since it's something we love to see.

To keep things easy on the staff, and to make tracking inactivity simpler, we ask that everyone in the thread follow the template below when posting away. If you do not do so, your away post will not be counted, and you will not receive any extra time against inactivity.

This is not the thread to post that your activity will be reduced, as doing so clutters it up and makes it harder for staff to track.

Handler: Your name goes here. Use your forum handle, so we can easily find you in the list.
Dates Away: Post the dates you are away for here (January 5 2011-February 7 2011, say). Please spell out the months, so we can tell what you mean; dd/mm/yy is not the standard in every country. Do not leave this open-ended; if you have to, estimate high and return early or renew as required.
Days Away: The total number of days away goes here. This saves you from staff math errors late at night. DO NOT give a range. Pick a single, specific number. If in doubt, estimate high and then come back early if you are able. If you give a range, staff will give you the lowest number you put in.
Reason for Away: Here is where you say why you're gone.
Characters: List your characters here.

After this, feel free to put whatever you want, but you must have this template completely filled out to be counted as away.

The code is:

Code: Select all

 Handler:
Dates Away:
Days Away:
Reason for Away:
Characters: 

Do not edit any away posts. Do not post edit posts to say you are back. Do not change your dates away. If there's any issue, repost, or staff won't find your changes and you may run into inactivity troubles. If you need to extend your away for whatever reason, that is totally fine. Just repost to cover the new dates (and only the new dates) that you will be away.

Finally, a note on "babysitting." Babysitting was a practice in which handlers allowed others to write their characters while they were gone. This is still allowed (though heavily discouraged as it tends to produce unsatisfactory results), but the presence or absence of a babysitter has absolutely no effect on inactivity. You post yourself away for however long you are away for, and your inactivity dates are adjusted based on that. If you have a babysitter, that's fine, but it is only to keep up your characters' momentum/keep things going with their threadmates. You personally are still responsible for posting with them by their adjusted inactivity date, and failure to do so will bear the usual results.

Any time you are logged as Away will not be counted against you for activity, within certain limits; this means that in most circumstances your inactivity deadline will be (fourteen days + [number of days marked Away]).

Also, please note the following rules with regards to inactivity:

• If a handler has not posted "away" for the entirety of one calendar month, then they must post at least once per character in said month to be considered active.
• One-day inactivity notices do not count towards the inactivity timer, as they are not considered to be significant enough to prevent posting.
• Any given handler cannot post as "Away"' for more than four weeks of any six week period, barring severe real-life extenuating circumstances (being in the hospital or another country without internet access, say, as opposed to being busy with schoolwork). Away notices exceeding this cap will be ignored and the inactivity timer will continue.
• While we do not typically police chat or non-RP activity while a handler is Away, in certain circumstances it may be cause for an Away to be nullified. This specifically applies to cases where either the Away is obviously resolved (if you post Away due to a total lack of internet, say, and then are online for hours a day every day) or cases where an Away is particularly long-term (if you're gone for over two weeks but have time to be hanging around for hours a day, you can probably find time to dash out a post, even if it's not a masterpiece).
  
  We do not, however, require you to sequester yourself or limit your community engagement during Aways as part of the process. We're aware that the community can be an important support network and don't want to limit access to that, and we're aware that sometimes circumstances are such that someone can engage with others but not write for whatever reason. We only consider cancelling Aways in instances of abuse or significant game detriment—it hasn't happened in well over half a decade, and we don't expect it to happen anytime soon.
• If you are Away but find yourself with time to dash off a post, feel free to do so! If you're still Away and the spare time is a one-time thing, just PM any staffer to let them know, and your Away notice will not be cancelled. It would be absurd to punish handlers for being responsible above and beyond the call of duty, especially since it's something we love to see.

To keep things easy on staff, and to make tracking inactivity simpler, we require that everyone in the thread follow the template below when posting Away. If you do not do so, your Away post may not be counted, and you may not receive any extra time against inactivity. Also, note that staff failing to understand an inaccurately-posted Away is not "staff error" when it comes to appeals.

This is not the thread to post that your activity will be reduced, as doing so clutters it up and makes it harder for staff to track. If you're just leaving a courtesy note, please do so in the reduced activity thread.

Handler: Your name goes here. Use your forum handle, so we can easily find you in the list.
Dates Away: Post the dates you are away for here (January 5 2011-February 7 2011, say). Please spell out the months, so we can tell what you mean; dd/mm/yy is not the standard in every country. Do not leave this open-ended; if you have to, estimate high and return early or renew as required.
Days Away: The total number of days away goes here. This saves you from staff math errors late at night. DO NOT give a range. Pick a single, specific number. If in doubt, estimate high and then come back early if you are able. If you give a range, staff will give you the lowest number you put in.
Reason for Away: Here is where you say why you're gone.
Characters: List your characters here.

After this, feel free to put whatever you want, but you must have this template completely filled out to be counted as away.

The code is:

Code: Select all

Handler:
Dates Away:
Days Away:
Reason for Away:
Characters: 

An example of a properly-posted Away is:

Handler: Mini_Help
Dates Away: April 1, 2023 - April 9, 2023
Days Away: 9
Reason for Away: I'm serving as an example and thus not allowed to post for nine days.
Characters: Brigadier-General Adams, Ritzy Daggers, Victor Danya

Do not edit any Away posts to adjust content. Do not edit posts to say you are back. Do not change your dates Away. If there's an issue or an update, make a new post for it, or staff won't find your changes and you may run into inactivity troubles. If you need to extend your Away for whatever reason, that is totally fine—just repost to cover the new dates (and only the new dates) that you will be Away.

Finally, a note on "babysitting." Babysitting was a practice in which handlers allowed others to write their characters while they were gone. This is still allowed (though heavily discouraged as it tends to produce unsatisfactory results), but the presence or absence of a babysitter has absolutely no effect on inactivity. You post yourself Away for however long you are Away for, and your inactivity dates are adjusted based on that. If you decide to have a babysitter, that's fine, but it is only to keep up your characters' momentum/keep things going with their threadmates. You personally are still responsible for posting with them by their adjusted inactivity date, and failure to do so will bear the usual results (inactivity).

Small changes to clarify phrasing and bring the text of the Away process in line with how it's already been enforced for years. Functionally, nothing will change except hopefully people will stop worrying about getting zinged for stuff we don't actually zing people for.