Chat Guidelines

[\-Sephiroth-/]

Chat Guidelines

The chat has been developed as an entertainment-platform, to make communication easier.

Please treat others with respect.

BGOs chat rules are based on a minimum age of 16, please keep this in mind. Depending on the seriousness of the breach of the following rules may result directly in a ban. Please keep that in mind, in some cases a warning may not be appropriate. We have a filter in place on the chat system that cannot distinguish the context of chat, as such we have entered words which we consider to be offensive in nature and violate these rules. Please be aware that we are constantly changing and adapting this filter to protect users from obvious breaches of the Chat Rules.


Please use the Forum for discussions, explanations, and support questions.


1. The Chat-Language is English



2. Messages that disrupt the chat for other users; intentional or not, are prohibited.

This includes, but is not limited, to:

-Blank Messages
-Sending multiple identical or near-identical messages
-Messages consisting of all or mostly capital.
-Intentionally hard-to-read messages (i.e. using all, mostly, or alternating capital letters;
using no spaces, capital letters, or punctuation; using large amounts of "1337 speak", etc)


3. No Clan-Presentation or Clan-Member recruiting allowed!

Please use the Clan Search Channel or Forum; and its corresponding threads for such purposes.

If you are looking (“hiring”) for members or help – please follow these simply guidelines:

Wanted - Guidelines
-State what you're Guild is about.
-Provide clear information about how you're Guild works.
-State who you are looking for and what sort of talents they should bring along.
If you are offering your expertise or help – please follow these guidelines.

Offering - Guidelines
-Introduce yourself
-State you're talent(s).
-Provide information on your playing-habit.
-Provide information about what sort of work / guild you were thinking about providing / joining.


4. Spamming

Messages that clearly advertize or disturb the chat flow are not allowed.

This includes, but is not limited to:

-Personal web site advertisements / Guild advertisement
-For-Sale/For-Trade/For-Auction/Wanted notices – content in the Forum.
-Chain letters, and pyramid schemes
-Users are allowed to include a web site address in a signature, or providing a relevant link to another site at one point.
-Writing the same thing over and over again.
-Posting any web site address on the chat. -Posting multiple lines of chat, where one would be considered sufficient.

5. Offensive chatting

Messages of an offensive nature are not allowed.

This includes, but is not limited to:

-Using vulgar, profane, or sexually explicit language or abbreviations of such
-Using race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, handicap, nationality, or gender as a means of insult
-Using sexual preference terms as a term of insult in any way, shape, or form
-Using threatening, harassing, defamatory, hate-speech, or libelous language
-Providing or requesting links to or material from pornographic, obscene, or hate-speech web sites
-Providing links to web sites with potentially offensive content without a clear warning
-Descriptions or details about any sexual act or sexual organs
-Using three or four letter acronyms that represent bad language will attract a ban just as if you had said the words.
-Using *,#,@ or any other combination of numbers or symbols in a word to disguise it or push it past the filter will represent bad language and will attract a ban just as if you had said the words.


6. Flaming / Trolling / Illegal Matters

Messages clearly insulting other guild members, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed.

This includes, but is not limited to:

-Name-calling
-Direct insults
-Offensive orders
-Insinuations
Messages intended to annoy and/or offend other Guilds or Guild-Members by disturbing the nature of the chat are strictly prohibited.

This includes, but is not limited to:

-Provoking other users to respond with “flames”
-Provoking fans of a particular guild or guild-member
-Providing false information as fact.
Messages that violate or provoke others to violate the law are not allowed.
This includes, but is not limited to, asking for or providing, in any way, shape, or form:

-Illegal copies of copyrighted software (ROMs, Warez)
-Methods of circumventing copyright protection (Cracks, CD Keys, mod chips)
-Illegal copies of copyrighted music (MP3s), movies, videos, or any other type of media
-Methods of cheating in online games


7. Violating any of the above rules with a username or any part of the user profile (signature, quote, e-mail, IM) is considered a severe violation.


8. The publication of personal information is strictly prohibited over the chat.

This includes, but is not limited to:

-Telephone Numbers
-E-mail-Addresses
-ICQ-Numbers

Please use the private messaging system for such purposes; this is to protect your personal information from those who would wish to abuse it.



9. Respect the moderators.

- Do not argue or flame moderators for enforcing the rules. Complaints about bans should be posted in the Chat Section of the forums; complaints about moderators should be addressed via the Contact Form.
- The Moderators have a right to privacy. Attempting to find out their game names and/or saying their game name on the chat is not permitted.


Your BGO Team