:. Cybernations Forum rules and TOS, Rules & Guidelines - READ

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Cybernations Forum Rules

The following are basic guidelines for use of the Cyber Nations community forum. Anyone caught disobeying these guidelines will be issued a warning. The forum staff works on a three strike policy unless the situation calls for more appropriate action. A permanent ban on the forums results in a game ban, and vice versa.

1.) First Warning
2.) Second Warning
3.) Third Warning
4.) Temporary Ban (48 Hours)
5.) Permanent Ban

Game Bans and Forum Bans
If you recieve a 100% warn level on the forums, you will be banned from the forums AND have your nation deleted and banned from the game.

If you are deleted/banned in the game, then you will be banned from the forums.

Process of Appeals
Once banned, that player has a chance at an appeal to the Senior Staff in which they state their case and why they deserve to be allowed back into Cybernations. This process alone may take up to three or four days, depending on the activity of the moderators, and the time of the year. If your appeal is denied, you may try again at a later date, suggestively a month or more, depending on if we feel your appeal has given us reason to trust you again.

Players may also appeal individual warnings. You should only appeal a warning if 1) you can show with evidence that it was unwarranted or unduly harsh, or 2) if a reasonable amount of time has passed (no less than one month) in which you have demonstrated reformed behavior. Wasting staff time with inappropriately filed reports and/or unfounded appeals will resort in a warn level raise. Repeat incidences will result in a ban from the forum.

The only place where discussion of moderator action is acceptable is in the appropriate Moderation forum. Posting commentary or disagreement with moderator action elsewhere will result in a warn level raise.

Flame/Flamebait
Flaming is expressing anger at someone in uncouth ways with out of character (OOC) comments. Flamebait are posts that are made with the aim of angering someone indirectly. Forum users should not be participating in either as in doing so will result in a warning.

Topic Hijacking
Hijacking is forcing the current thread discussion off of the original topic and usually results in spam or flame from either side. Forum users found hijacking threads will be given a warning.

Trolling
Trolling is submitting posts with the aim of angering a group instead of an individual. Trolling is not tolerated and will result in a warning.

Repeat Topics
One topic is enough. Repeat topics will be locked and moved to the archives without mercy and the author given a warning. Users found creating repeat topics after others were locked by staff will result in a temp-ban.

Spam
Spam is not permitted on the Cybernations Forums. Users found spamming will receive a warning, verbal or otherwise. Posts containing nothing but smilies, "+1", "QFT", "this", etc. which have no substance are considered spam and will be dealt with as such.

No Discussion Forums
There are forums that are not for discussion and are used strictly for game and forum staff to address certain issues, bugs, etc. The following forums are not open to discussion: Report Game Abuse, Report Forum Abuse, and Warn & Ban Appeals. Only moderators and the original poster may post in a thread, period, with absolutely no exceptions. Users found disobeying this guideline will receive a warning.

White "Invisible" Text
Using "invisible text" or white colored text should not be done at any time on the forums. Users found making use of white text will receive a warning.

Wiki Vandalization
There is a zero-tolerance policy. Any player finding his or her Cyber Nations wiki article vandalized may report it in the Report Forum Abuse forum by supplying the offending IP. The IP will be banned from the game and the forums.

Mild/Explicit Language
Mild expletives (crap, damn, etc.) are generally frowned upon and should be extremely limited in use. The only forum with no restriction on the use of mild expletives is the Open World RP forum. Excessive use of what are deemed mild expletives on the open forum will result in a warning.

Harsh expletives (sh*t, f*ck, etc.) are forbidden on all parts of the forum except the Open World RP forum. Excessive use, even in the RP forum, will be subject to warning from moderation up to and including forum access restriction.

Filtered words.
Any attempts to evaid the word filter will result in a warning.

Harassment
Forum users should not be stalking/harassing others on the forums. Anyone found stalking players from topic to topic, etc., will be subject to a warning.

Gravedigging
Gravedigging is not allowed anywhere on the forums. Gravedigging is "bumping" old topics which havent been active for quite some time. Your warn level will be raised if you are caught doing this.

Signatures
Those who fail to read and comply by these rules will have their signatures 'fixed' without warning. You may have only 1 picture per signature which may not exceed the maximum size described below, only 6 to 8 lines of text and/or links and a font size no larger than 5.

Signature pictures must adhere to a total area of 450x150. Please don't message the moderation staff asking for an exemption as one will not be granted.

Obscene Spam /Account Suicide
Anyone caught posting Goatse, Tubgirl, Lemonparty, or anything related in either text form or picture form will have their account(s) permanently banned, and their ISP contacted.

Death Threats
A death threat will equate to an automatic ban from the game and forums, if it is determined to be malicious. We do not tolerate such an action here whatsoever.

Forum Names
With the exception of moderator accounts, all forum accounts must match up exactly with the ruler name or nation name of your in-game country. Those found not matching up will be banned immediately. Forum account names may not be profane or offensive.

Multiple Forum Accounts
With the exception of moderators, if you are caught using a multiple forum account, the multiple account(s) will be banned and it will be announced by a moderator who your main account is so that any IC punishments can be taken. You will also receive a warn.

Impersonation
A player may not impersonate another player by creating another forum account with a name very similar to the person they are impersonating. Accounts that are in violation of this will be banned or deleted without notice.

Avatars
Size for avatars is limited by the forum mechanics, therefore there is no size issue for a user to worry about. Avatars must be in good taste, and any avatar containing a picture that is too violent, disgusting, sexually explicit, insulting to another player or staff member, etc. will be removed. Avatars that are potentially seizure inducing will not be permitted.

Swastika's
The swastika may not be used in signatures or avatars. Pictures of swastika's are acceptable for use in the In Character (IC) sections of the roleplay forums, so long as its context is In Character, and not Out Of Character. Pictures of Hilter, mentionings of the Holocaust, etc... have no place in the roleplay forums, since these people and events existed in real life, and have no bearing or place in the Cyberverse.

Moderation Staff
The revealing of the private identities of the Cybernations moderation and other staff is strictly prohibited, and thus no speculation/accusation of identity is allowed. Doing so is grounds for moderator action against your account appropriate to the offense, including a full forum/game ban.

Claims of moderator bias should be directed to the Lead Forum Admin. Claims of moderator bias without supporting evidence is grounds for a warning.

Blatant disrespect of the moderator staff is strictly prohibited. This includes but is not limited to spoofing moderator accounts in any way, sig/avatar references, baiting, flaming, rude demands, and unsubstantiated claims of bias. They are volunteers hired to enforce the rules. If you have a problem with the way a moderator is enforcing the rules or the rules themselves please contact Moderation or an available member of the Senior Staff.

Do not ask about becoming or campaign to become, a moderator. The moderators are drawn from CN membership, but moderation positions are by invitation only. Asking to become one will substantially decrease your chances of ever being asked.

Questionable Actions and Content
The forum rules are not designed to cover every scenario. Any action that is seen to be counter-productive or harmful to the forum community may be met with moderator action against your account. The Cybernations Forum Staff reserve the right to ban your account without warning if you are seen engaging in such behaviour.

Private Transactions
Nation selling and other private transactions via such auction sites like ebay will not be promoted here on the forums. It is against the Cyber Nations terms and conditions and although our moderators cannot control what people do outside of the game you are not allowed to promote such private exchanges on our forums without expressed permission from admin only.

Third Party Software
Third party software is not allowed to be advertised on these forums by any means (post, signature, PM, etc). These programs can easily be used to put malware on the user's computer, and as such can cause huge security issues. Anybody who is caught spreading links to these will at the very least have their warning level increased.

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CyberNations Game Rules

Multiple Nations
It is illegal to have more than one nation per player. Violation of this rule will result in the deletion of all nations.

The only exception to this rule is Grandfathered nations. If the nations were created before February 18, 2006 the player may have up to three nations; all nations must have been created prior to this date or they will all be deleted. These nations may not interact with each other in any way, whether that be trade, aid or wars (whether in cooperation with or against). Any attempts to use loop-holes such as 'money-laundering' are also illegal. If any of these rules are broken all of the nations will be deleted.

Multiple Users On The Same IP Address
Due to rampant abuse of the good faith of the moderation team, we will no longer be allowing multiple nations to be controlled on the same unique internet connection by different family members or roommates. By the estimation of our game moderation staff a large number of these reports of family members or roommates actually controlling these nations are entirely fraudulent and are being made simply as a free pass to cheat. The Cyber Nations Game Moderation team will be reviewing all previously reported "multies" and taking appropriate action where necessary. We have all the information we require for the investigation, so please do not bombard our game moderators with your specific pleas to save your nations. If you are not a multi, we will be able to tell.

Nation-Sitting
If a user is unable to access their nation for any period of time then they may have another user control it over that period. This must be reported here and during that time these nations may not interact in trade, aid or wars (whether in cooperation with or against). Any attempts to use loop-holes such as 'money-laundering' are also illegal. If any of these rules are broken all of the nations will be deleted. Nation-Sitting may only last up to a maximum of four weeks. If longer than this is necessary then the user must contact a game mod for permission, and state who has granted it in the nation-sitting thread.

Sale of Nations
Nations may not be sold, given away or indefinitely sat. Any nations taking part in this will be deleted.

Offensive Content
Offensive usernames, nationnames or bios will result in the deletion of the offending nation. 'Offensive' includes but is not exclusive to swear words, overt sexual references and excessive racism. These are judged on a case by case basis by the game moderation staff.

Aiding Rule Violators
Any user found to know of a serious rule violation without reporting it to a game moderator (eg. knowledge of a user with multiple nations) will be given a warning or, in more serious cases, have their nation deleted.

Aiding Banned Players
Any user found to be harbouring, aiding or otherwise knowingly helping a banned user will be deleted. This includes knowing of their existence within the game without reporting it to the game-moderation staff.

Sending ‘joke aid packages’
Nations caught trying to fill opponent’s aid slots by sending unsubstantial joke aid packages will receive an ingame warning. Such activity is not only senseless as the recipient is able cancel the package, but it creates extra traffic which puts unneeded stress on the game servers.

War slot filling
Intra alliance war drills are not permitted. This is deemed as war slot filling and nations involved will recieve in a ingame warning. Alliances are only permitted to declare war on individual nations flying the same affiliation as themselves if they have a legitimate in character reason. Military drills with allied alliances are permitted if both alliances are currently uninvolved in any inter alliance wars. If nations are caught fighting nations in an alliance they are allied to in the course of an inter alliance war they will recieve an ingame warning for illegal war slot filling.

Use of Exploits
The use of loop-holes or exploits in the game code is strictly prohibited. The discovery of these should be reported here immediately so that they can be closed. Their use will result in deletion.

Private Exchanges
Private transactions for real-life money, such as selling CyberNations resources, are illegal. Users can, however, make donations to CyberNations in the name of other users (thus giving them the bonus), and the exchange of CyberNations resources for this is permitted.

CyberNations Terms of Service
Any nations found breaking the CyberNations Terms of Service will be deleted. The Terms of Service can be found here.

Appeals
You may not appeal in-game actions. All cheat warnings and deletions are final. No members of the Game Staff have the ability to restore nations or alter your nation in any other similar way, so don't even ask.

Bans
Bans are handed out after a user has collected either two deletion-level offences or has perpetrated a sufficiently bad violation to merit a straight ban.

Reporting Violations
You can report violations of these rules here.