Global Community Rules (Updated: August 3rd, 2020)

[JoanRisu]

Global Rules:
These rules apply everywhere, including Discord, the server, and even private discussions with non-admins. When in doubt about any of these rules, ask the staff.
If you're looking for in-game specific rules, click here.

1. You must be 18 or older to browse this website or enter the game server. No exceptions. If you are even suspected by admins of being underaged, or act like it, we will ban you until you can prove your age. If this happens, contact me on Byond, Discord, or on Aryion.com to try to appeal. Be prepared to provide photographic evidence and possibly photo ID. Your ban cannot be appealed without proof of age.

• Zero-tolerance. You will be banned.
• Vorestation reserves the right to check users for proof of age at any time for any reason.
• The community, in general, is Not Safe For Work (NSFW). Log in from work at your own risk.
• Knowing another user is underaged but not reporting it is considered grounds for an immediate, permanent ban.
• Do not log in from public places where children are usually present, such as libraries.

2. No spam. (Posts with useless content, repeated posts, off-topic posts, blatant advertisements, inappropriate for the channel, etc.)

• When you post something, think: "What will this post bring to the conversation?"
• Posts only designed to antagonize, derail, or otherwise escalate the discussion are generally considered spam. Try to be civil about your grievances.

3. No necroposting. (Forum Rule)

• If a thread is over a month old with no replies, don't post in it. Make a new thread if you must.
• Exceptions are made for support threads if you're having the same problem as described in the topic, but still need help after reading the thread.
• Joke threads are also excluded from this rule.

4. Do not post anything illegal. This shouldn't be rocket science. Things, like (but not limited to,) child porn, sharing piracy sources, violent threats, or real-world drugs. You should know better.

• Zero-tolerance. You will be permanently banned. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
• Posting underaged content in a sexual context, be it loli, shota, or actual photographs of child porn, will be considered a violation of this rule and will result in a permanent ban. Saying "the character shown is actually (some age over 18)" is not going to save you. If it looks like a child, it's considered a child.
• Threats of real-world harm including self will be taken seriously. We are not equipped to deal with such things, so we will attempt to contact your local emergency services instead to conduct a wellness check.

5. We are here to have fun, so if you are not having fun, maybe it would be best for you to take a break.

• If you consistently cause trouble, we may ask (read: ban) that you take a break, and might also require that you abandon your old identity should we allow you to come back.

6. Please be respectful of other users. You can disagree with someone without being a hostile douchebag.

• Hard real world slurs against any real world groups are banned from use in all discussions, regardless of the alleged context. Softer slurs are only allowed in a context where parties involved are not bothered by it. Swearing in general usually isn't an issue either. If asked to stop by a third party, stop.
• If you have a problem with someone, keep it in private. It's no one else's business except the people involved. It's recommended you speak to the offending party calmly and rationally, or at least tell an admin. Ranting about someone in public, or otherwise talking about someone behind their back violates this rule.
• Going to another website or group to rant about incidents here is considered breaking this rule. If you have a problem with someone or something involving this community, then you should try helping to fix it (such as telling an admin, or better yet bring it up directly with the offending party) rather than circlejerking with your friends about how terrible everything is.
• Likewise, we also don't want to hear your complaints about other SS13 communities, especially in an effort to dissuade people from playing in another server. We will not tolerate toxic behavior.
• Keep in mind that you are in the VORE Station Hub Discord Server, which may significantly differ in culture than previous servers you have visited. Regardless of where you are from, please be courteous to our staff and your fellow community members.

7. Abuse of any site function or game mechanic with the goal of disrupting the others' access to or enjoyment of it will not be tolerated.

• Just because it's in character or doesn't break other rules doesn't mean it's okay if your intention is to deliberately upset people.
• Sharing personal information from this site to outside sources or vise-versa is strictly forbidden. This is considered doxxing and is a permanent ban worthy offense, even if you claim you had no intention to cause harm.

8. No discussion about bans anywhere beside the unban forum.

• If you get banned, it's discouraged to publicly lambast this fact - direct your attention to the appeal forum, as complaints about bans outside the official formats are disruptive and fall on deaf ears by all parties involved. Please do not jeopardize your own standing and instead write an appeal with a cool head.
  
• If you ask an admin why or if someone was banned, you will probably not receive an answer. We will tell you that the situation has been handled in some way, as bans are a private manner. You will probably find out in the ban appeals what happened.
  
• Third-Party ban appeals or arguments are usually ignored, unless there is a pressing reason. Arguing for a person can be done in their official appeal when community input is allowed.

9. Legible English is required to use this website.

• If your English while out-of-character is so bad that we can't even understand what you are typing, it's pretty much an automatic ban. Sorry, but if you can't write, you can't read, and if you can't read, you can't read the rules.
• Expect complaining from admins and players if your writing does not meet a particular standard. Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation when emoting or speaking ICly.
• We need to be able to understand you in order to help you. We do not have the resources to have a translator on staff.

Asset Licensing
Unless otherwise stated, it will be assumed any user-made assets (i.e. maps, sprites, guides, music, etc) that is posted with the intention of possibly being used on the server (posted on GitHub, sprite work showcase on the forum) has an implicit license of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License regardless of if the asset ever is actually used. In a nutshell, this means that if you post assets for the game in our community, then other communities are free to use your asset if they so please. If you want your assets to be licensed differently, then you must attach a license to your post. Discord is exempt from this policy. Assets posted on Discord that have not been added to the game will be assumed property of the artist unless stated by the artist that the assets are meant for use in the server.

Please direct all comments or concerns about these rules to the Suggestions & Feedback forum, or directly through PMs to me or other admins.

[Aces]

Ever wondered why the rules are what they are? You don't have to read this, but in case you were ever curious...
And because it gives me a chance to be snarky because of how often people ask about why we have some rules.

Rule 1 is because it's illegal to host adult sites for people who are not adults.

Rule 2 is because it's obnoxious, and disrupts the intended purpose of this website.

Rule 3 is because it revives outdated information that new users could be confused by.

Rule 4 is because it's fucking illegal.

Rule 5 is because if you're being salty over a badly coded Byond game, you need to rethink your priorities in life.

Rule 6 is because this behavior attracts more douchebags who we don't want in this community, even if you think "harr harr it's just a joke bro don't be so sensitive." It shows me you don't give a shit about other people.

Rule 7 is because despite our best efforts to write rules against bad behavior, there's always going to be some asshole who tries to abuse the system.

Rule 8 is because every time this happens, people are led to believe nonsense like "THIS PERSON WAS BANNED FOR DISAGREEING" or some other stupid (and false) ban reason, when really it's more like they got perma-banned for bombing the station and then making IRL death threats after an admin tried to tell them to stop. Yes, this is always the case. There would be no outrage if everyone knew the person was banned for a valid reason, and if it wasn't valid, that is what ban appeals are for, and it's why everyone can see them.

Rule 9 is because our site is run by English users, for English users. If you can't understand and speak comprehensible English, you are unable to contribute to this community. Like I said, you probably haven't even read the rules. You likely haven't read this. If this offends you, then it probably doesn't apply to you because you can read it.

[Aces]

I didn't want to make it a public statement because I don't want to encourage people to be nasty to admins, but I feel it necessary to point out a very strict policy we have at Vorestation.

So, we don't want any player to feel like they have to walk on eggshells when talking to us privately. We risk missing on a lot of important information if players feel like they could be banned for saying something wrong. So, let me be abundantly clear.

Admins will never ban you over anything you say privately to them, no matter how rude you may sound.

Now, that isn't to say the admin can't still ban you for a rule you already broke, nor does it mean an admin can't ban you for bringing up drama in public or otherwise spreading it among other Discord servers. It just means that, were you to contact an admin to complain about something you disagree with, you can say mean names to them all you want, and the worst that admin can do is just call you a dumbass and block you. Obviously it is encouraged that you still try to be civilized about it, as nobody is going to listen to the person who is spewing a bunch of hateful nonsense, but you should not fear saying something that could get you banned. We simply won't do it. Any admin who does will be punished for it. Retaliating against a player in other ways will also be punished severely, up to and including a permanent ban of the offending admin. (It's happened at least once.)

I must reiterate, so people don't get confused, or try to abuse arguing with admins as a get-out-of-jail-free card: If an admin contacts you about something, and you complain in response, and find yourself banned, mind you that it's probably not that you were banned for complaining. You were more likely banned because you did something wrong, and the admin doesn't think you're going to stop doing it based on the conversation you had with them. This is a situation of you already broke a rule, and the admin could have just banned you without even giving a chance to explain yourself. Likewise, if you're complaining on the Discord server, usually where the involved admin isn't even part of the discussion, don't be surprised when you suddenly get banned for it, as that scenario violates rule 6.

But if one of us does something you think is stupid, DM us and tell us why you think it's stupid. We might listen to you, or we might not, but it's better than saying nothing at all. The ability of the community to call out admins directly when they occasionally fuck up has been an important role in keeping this community healthy. I want players to keep doing that. Vorestation would not have thrived for as long as it has without regular players occasionally calling out admins on their bullshit when said admins are having bad days and making bad choices. After all, the admins are still human.