All RPLI site members and guests are responsible for knowing the information contained in the following Code of Conduct.

RPLI reserves the right, but does not assume the responsibility, to restrict communication which RPLI deems in its discretion to be harmful to individual guests, damaging to the communities which make up RPLI, or in violation of RPLI's or any third-party rights.

Prohibited board, e-mail list, and chat room, behaviors include (but are not limited to):

• profanity, vulgarity, or explicit content. For example:

  • "masking" by using alternative characters/spellings and spaces to get around profanity filters, leet-speak, and combinations of words that produce an offensive result (e.g. ura hugeazz, Tow El Head)

  • "filter testing"

  • discussion of or in-character enactments of "cybering" or sexually explicit material

  • discussion of or in-character enactments of graphic violence or bloodletting

• hate speech (e.g. racial, ethnic, sexist, homophobic and religious slurs)

• promotion of or engaging in certain illegal activities. For example: drugs, drug paraphernalia, rape or solicitation of a minor, computer hacking, and copyright violation

• harassment of another specific person (e.g. persistent flaming or continued personal attacks.)

• trolling or baiting by posting inflammatory statements designed to elicit a negative response from the community

• spamming through repeated posts, or off-topic content by word or intent to boards or lists (e.g. scrolling, flooding, polling, or by "bumping" a boards post more than once in 48 hours)

• impersonation of another person, site staff or RPLI member by either screen name or self-representation (e.g. faking a screen name by using similar-looking characters, "spoofing" speech in a chat room, or claiming to hold an official title or position relating to the site)

• reregistering a banned screen name, a variation of a banned name, or declarations under a new screen name that you are "really" the banned name or attempts to resubscribe to a e-mail list under another address after being put on REVIEW by the list moderator. (for further explanation, see below)

These disruptive behaviors are grounds for removal.  Site administrators are the final judges of whether behavior qualifies as inappropriate or a disruption.

In other words, behave yourself. Treat other people you encounter on the boards, through email, or face-to-face politely.

Disciplinary Procedures

If a member of the RPLI Community has demonstrated he or she cannot behave, the member WILL LOSE ALL of his or her usernames registered at that time. This prevents a user with multiple screen names from misbehaving with one “throw away” screen name while preserving another “good” screen name.

At the point of screen name loss, the patron may register a new name(s) with the stipulation that it not be a look-alike, variation of, or reference to the lost name. Doing so—or further violations of the Code of Conduct—will only result in all screen names being lost again and the patron being barred from website community access altogether. For example, if a user with the name BadDwarf loses his name for Code of Conduct infractions, registering BadDwarf2, B@dDwarf, or FormerBadDwarf would not be allowed. The user must create a new name altogether.

Violations of a specific discussion list's additional rules (keyword use, overquoting, etc.) generally are not treated in the same manner as violations of the Code of Conduct. See the list's Welcome Letter or FAQ, if any, if you have questions on how those types of violations are handled.

These procedures are only meant to be rough guidelines, as each chat, boards, list and situation is different and may require other measures to ensure the family orientation of the site. Situations that often require harsher action are: scheduled chats with a guest speaker, very full rooms where moderator-to-patron ratio is low, out-of-hand flame wars, and flagrant and/or intentional disregard for the Codes of Conduct.

You Can Make the RPLI Community a Better Place

Our moderators can't be everywhere at once. Therefore, if you witness actions in chat, boards, or lists that you believe harms a guest, damages the RPLI Community, or violates RPLI's or some third-party's rights, please make a note of the time/place where the event occurred and contact admin@rplionline.com immediately.

Thank you, and enjoy!