Trolling, Personal Attacks, and Harassment

Trolling, personal attacks, and harassment of other community members serve no purpose other than to anger, generate animosity, and discourage engagement on the site. As such all members of Stratics shall not:

• Troll or otherwise badger, or abuse, other users of Stratics (including staff members), other posters, visitors, and VIPs from development teams.
• Trolling is defined as: To make a deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
• Personal attacks are defined as: The making of an abusive remark on or relating to one's person instead of providing evidence when examining another person's claims or comments.
• Engage in abusive use of the Report button in order to attempt cause action to be taken against another poster, without justification.
  • Baiting is defined as when a user trolls an individual for the purpose of eliciting a negative response.
  • In the event a user reports a post that is a reaction to a troll or personal attack (baiting) the reporting party issued, the reporting party will receive a double weighted warning.
• Start threads for the purpose of posting derogatory comments or opinions about any user of Stratics.
  • Civil, tactful, constructive criticism of a game, game mechanic, or on site practice is allowable so long as it remains impersonal.
• Continually attempt to derail or redirect a thread off topic.
• Make accusations or publicly air disputes or grievances. Such public accusations can not be resolved on the forums and serve only to stir animosity, which negatively impacts the community as a whole.
• You may not make public accusations of misconduct against or about any other user of Stratics, staff members, EMs, other players, developers, or guilds.
  • While you may discuss in-game problems in general terms, these should not be written in a way that makes concern(s) identifiable to any individual(s). Disputes or grievances should be taken to private channels; if you need clarification as to the proper channels please contact a moderator or administrator.
  • Attempts to dodge this rule through pointed implications, or veiled accusations may at the discretion of the moderation staff be considered a personal attack and action taken accordingly.
• Make or imply threats of physical or mental harm against any other user, users, or individual(s).

Content

Content posted on Stratics does not grant Stratics ownership of the content. Stratics does however reserve the right to edit, or remove content posted on our website(s). The following types of content are not allowed on Stratics:

• Posts containing content containing profanity or attempting to bypass the software based profanity filter.
• Posts containing or linking to pornography or other explicit material.
• Posts containing or linking to information concerning or relating to the execution of bugs or exploits in a way they can be reproduced.
• Post or link to content or engage in conversations which are discriminatory or derogatory in nature. Examples of this are:
  • Content which is derogatory in nature aimed at defaming or lobbying against people of a specific culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, or nationality.
  • Off color jokes based on stereotypes.
  • Use of racial or ethnic slurs.
• Posting or linking to 3rd party game related software and utilities not authorized for use by any title supported on Stratics, or images from such.
• Examples of this third party content include but are not limited to:
• Script Engines
• Emulation Software
• Speed Hacks
• Software that facilitates game client modification
• Posts containing or linking to content which violates an NDA agreement with any organization.
  • Stratics reserves the right to assist and disclose user information to appropriate 3rd parties on request concerning NDA breeches.
• Posts containing or linking to pirated or otherwise illicitly acquired copyrighted content.
  • Stratics reserves the right to assist law enforcement and/or damaged parties in the investigation of illegal usage of copyrighted materials, including releasing user information.
• Posts containing or linking to a virus or other malicious software which may harm another users computer.
• Posts linking to any 3rd party site which engages in real money transactions (RMT), which are not authorized by the Stratics Leadership Team.
  • For the purpose of this provision, the Stratics Leadership Team currently only authorizes linking to the Origin Store and the Shroud of the Avatar Store.
• Posting of spam content is prohibited, spam is defined by Stratics as:
  • Excessive off-topic threads.
  • Repeatedly posting nonsensical messages.
  • Flooding the forum or a thread with similar messages.
  • Post-count farming.
  • Messages without content.
  • Spreading out a single message into multiple posts rapidly.

Trade Forum Rules

In order to ensure that all users of the various trade forums have a fair, competitive opportunity to present in-game items for sale, specific rules for the trade forums have been created as an addendum to these Rules of Conduct. You should review and view these rules on the Trade Forum Rules page.

Privacy

Stratics takes the privacy of its users seriously. In order to support and protect user privacy:

• You may not post or distribute chat logs or the contents of private conversations/IM threads/SMS messages unless the participants of those conversations have given their express consent for you to do so.
  • Private messages sent through or posted on Stratics are still subject to the Stratics Rules of Conduct and Terms of Service. Stratics reserves the right for the Senior Leadership Team to review any reported conversations sent through our private message system as needed to ensure context of reported violations.
• You may not post any form of real life information of another user on Stratics.
  • Examples of real life information include name, address, IP addresses, phone numbers, IM contact information, un-publicized email addresses, employment or financial information.
• You may not openly discuss warnings, thread locks, or bans publicly without the consent of a member of the Stratics Leadership Team. This includes posts and threads currently under moderation.

Prohibited Activities

Stratics users may not use our website(s) to engage in any of the following activities:

• Conduct any commercial activities on Stratics:
  • RMT or selling or trading virtual goods or services for any real world currency / real life goods or services for virtual currency.
  • Contracting to or hiring other users for out of game activities paid with in-game currency or items.
  • Contracting to or hiring other users for in-game activities paid for with any real world currency.
  • Sale or trade of game time or other game codes.
  • Sale or trade of game accounts for any game is prohibited.
• Engage in any activity which would be in violation of the laws of the United States of America, the States of New York and Illinois, where our servers are located, and the State of Washington where Gamer's Gambit, LLC. is registered.
• Engage in any malicious activity through the use of the services provided on Stratics.
• Engage in real-life political or religious discussions anywhere on Stratics or associated properties.

Language Restrictions

English is the predominant language used on Stratics and it is preferred posts be composed in English. Posts in other languages are subject to the same rules, and if translations imply or reveal that a poster is attempting to evade the rules by posting in another language, the infraction will be treated more severely.

Site and User Account Security

In order to protect both the site and the information of our users, the following activities are strictly prohibited:

• Accessing or attempting to access the accounts of other users.
• Sharing your Stratics account information with other individuals.
• Exploiting or attempting to exploit bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes in our systems or software, whether they are disclosed or undisclosed.
• Allowing others to access your user account:
  • Users are responsible for the security of their account information.
  • Accounts may not be transferred, loaned, or given to other users.
  • Users are responsible for any content posted by their accounts.

Username Limitations

User Names should not:

• Be the name of a famous or infamous individual from history.
• Be used for the purpose of marketing or advertising any 3rd party organization or website.
• Contain or phonetically represent any derogatory word, phrase, or otherwise violate any portion of the RoC or ToS, or attempt to bypass profanity filters.
• Be created intentionally or otherwise to impersonate another individual.

Usernames should be unique and tasteful. Stratics staff may request a user choose an alternative name if their username is found to be offensive or otherwise violate these Rules of Conduct. On failure to comply with this request, Stratics reserves the right to change a username to bring it into compliance.

Please be aware that users may request one (1) username change for the lifetime of their account. Any additional requests will be denied.

Signature Limitations

Signatures used on Stratics must conform to acceptable standards:

• Signatures may not contain more than 6 lines including blank lines.
• Signature images may not be larger than 650px wide and 150px tall, with a maximum file size of 250kb.
• The signature must not violate any portions of the Stratics Rules of Conduct.