Code of ConductFollowing is the IMPERIUM Member Code of Conduct (Community Policies / Constitution) All perspective members wishing to the join IMPERIUM must read and AGREE to the terms as noted, in order to be accepted into the alliance. Otherwise all members of the IMPERIUM (LaZy Nation) are bound by these operating guideline.
CONDUCT
POLICY FOR INTERACTION WITH THE GUILD WARS COMMUNITY: All members are expected to behave in a mature, responsible manner toward the global Guild Wars Community, reflecting the values of IMPERIUM, and being courteous toward all. IMPERIUM wishes to promote not only the family feel inside our Community itself, but within the gaming Community as a whole. Your personal actions in the game reflect upon IMPERIUM, since you are representatives with the [LaZy] tag wherever you go. Please honor our values and behave in a way that best represents IMPERIUM. Anyone found sharing confidential, sensitive or proprietary information concerning any business of IMPERIUM with other guilds within Guild Wars or other supported IMPERIUM games, to the detriment of IMPERIUM, will be removed immediately and banned. Scamming of alliance members or in-game players is not permitted. Anyone found scamming will be removed and banned from IMPERIUM. Scamming is defined as knowingly deceiving others for your own benefit. SMURFING: Members found to be SMURFING, or leadership knowingly enabling SMURFING within IMPERIUM, are subject to review and risk being banned from IMPERIUM by the Senior Leadership Team. Smurfing, in the context of online gaming, refers to the practice of a well-known or highly-skilled player creating an unknown name, character or login, then using it to play against, defeat, and often humiliate low-skilled players. The unknown character/login is necessary to fool the low-skilled players into entering the game, particularly if the high-skilled player is known to have done this before. Often, the player utilizing this "smurfing" technique will intentionally lower their "rank" or "record" by intentionally losing many matches, to further enhance the appearance of his apparent ineptitude to the game in which he/she is playing. The oblivious opponent, seeing their low ranking, will see the match as an "easy win", which often leads to their further humiliation by being beaten by this apparent novice. CHEATS/HACKS/BOTS: The use of cheats, hacks, bots, exploits or any third party programs not sanctioned by Anet is not permitted. If you are found to be violating this policy you will be reported to Guild Wars support, removed and banned from IMPERIUM. REAL LIFE FUNDING: The use of real-life funds to obtain services in-game, either covered in the game’s EULA or otherwise, is subject to be banned from the alliance as determined by the Senior Leadership Team. Members are denied from ever negotiating the services of others for their personal benefit, or for the gain of the IMPERIUM alliance itself. PARTICIPATION: All members are encouraged to actively participate within the IMPERIUM alliance. This includes within game, guild, alliance, ventrilo and website participation. Members are encouraged to provide suggestions and input.
HELPING OTHERS/REQUESTING HELP: GUILD TRANSFERS: Members wishing to transfer from one IMPERIUM guild to another are responsible for informing their current GM who will then contact the GM of the guild the member wishes to move to through vent, personal message, and/or forum post on the website. Both GMs must be in agreement with the transfer of the member from one guild to another. Failure to gain approval from both GM’s prior to transferring guilds will result in website and ventrilo account deletion. OFFICER ACCOUNTS: CHAT POLICY: Guild chat, alliance chat, ventrilo, and IMPERIUM’s website must not contain any defamation. This includes making statements about other guilds or alliances as well as people. There is no clearly defined rule or standard about what constitutes a personal attack as opposed to constructive discussion, but some types of comments that are never acceptable include but are not limited to:
Additionally, members are strongly discouraged from using profanity in guild chat, alliance chat, website, and on Ventrilo. Insulting or disparaging a member is a personal attack regardless of the manner in which it is done. When in doubt, comment without referring to the member. It is as unacceptable for anyone to attack a member with a history of foolish or boorish behavior, or even one who has been subject to disciplinary action as it is to attack any other member. IMPERIUM encourages a positive online Community: people make mistakes, but they are encouraged to learn from them and change their ways. Personal attacks are counterproductive to this spirit and damaging to the continued growth of the member. A pattern of hostility reduces the likelihood of the Community assuming good faith, and can be considered disruptive. Additionally the following topics are not allowed in any form, in any area of the IMPERIUM Alliance infrastructure; membership, communication, content or services:
Members who engage in these topics of discussion will be asked to stop, only once. If they continue discussing the topics they will be immediately removed from the guild. No harassment, stalking, or invasion of privacy is permitted. Personal issues with fellow members are to be taken directly to an officer, guild manager or elder. Please remember to be fair, courteous, and treat fellow alliance members as you would like to be treated. While the Alliance Senior Leadership respects the right of our members to have personal opinions, it is not the right of our members to express their personal opinions on the topics listed above. Members who insist on a confrontational style marked by personal attacks are subject to administrative disciplinary action, which can and will include being banned from IMPERIUM and all of its resources. IMPERIUM is a family Community and therefore topics of discussion in alliance chat should be focused on in-game play, technical questions and answers, and subjects and topics related to those in a broad sense. LANGUAGE: Mild use of cursing/swearing is allowed. However more extensive or vulgar use of language is not allowed in any forum other than the Adult Channels on ventrilo (you must be a member of [LaZy] and 18+ to be in these channels). Acceptable language is common everyday items such as Sh*t, cr*p, D*mn, however, these terms should not be used in excess. ADULT VENTRILO CHANNELS More extensive or vulgar use of language is allowed in the Adult channels on Ventrilo only. These channels are restricted to [LaZy] members, 18+. Chat policy rules still apply in these channels (See CHAT POLICY) . SPAMMING: Spamming is not allowed. Spamming is defined as repeated posting of the same message or conversation thread, more than once, in a 10 minute period. If a thread is posted twice or more, in a 10 minute period it is considered spamming. The exception to spamming is official guild communications by the Alliance Senior Leadership team. BEGGING/REQUESTING OF MONEY, ITEMS or MATERIALS: Begging, requesting or asking for MONEY, ITEMS or MATERIALS from other IMPERIUM members is not allowed. SELLING OF ITEMS: Selling of items is allowed provided that; (a) a member can only advertise one item for sale every 10 minutes (b) the seller is not to take advantage of other IMPERIUM members with price of item. If members are found to be exploiting others regarding prices - they will be removed and banned from IMPERIUM. WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE TO USE ONE FORM OF CHAT VERSUS ANOTHER? Alliance Chat, our most commonly use medium of communication in game, should be used by members for general discussion of in game topics related to PvE and PvP. It should also be used by Officers for communication of Alliance-related information. Leadership will use CAPS in messages, it is not considered yelling, it is to bring something to your attention. Guild Chat is to be used for more off-game or local discussion and guild-specific information. This includes topics not directly related to the game. You should also try to request help here first, before resorting to alliance chat. Whispering is recommended if two specific members continue a conversation beyond two rounds of inter-change on a specific subject. If more than two members are involved it can be taken to a Guild Hall or Ventrilo channel. IN GAME CHARACTER NAMING CONVENTIONS: IMPERIUM is a family oriented Community. While it is permissible to use mild language (as noted in our Chat Policy); use of sexual, racist, or demeaning terms are not. This policy extends itself into the character naming convention used by members of the Community. As such, Character Names are not to violate the terms of the Chat Policy. Character Names that are found to be in violation of this policy are to be immediately addressed by Guild Officers. A member can expect the following: If an officer contacts you regarding the naming convention you have chosen for one of your characters, and finds that it is in violation of our Chat Policy, the member will be asked to do one of the following:
If a member, after already being warned by an officer not to use a character name because it is found to be in violation of our Chat Policy, continues to publicly use that character (violating Option 3 above), the member is to be immediately banned from IMPERIUM. Officers are to fully document the incident immediately upon it happening in the Officer Discussion Board. The offending member is allowed one petition of the matter, to their Guild Manager, for review. The Guild Manager is allowed the final decision if the member is to remain banned or allowed one opportunity to return. The Guild Manager also has the discretion to determine if the member's character name is indeed a violation of our Chat Policy. POLICY FOR REMAINING ACTIVE IN GUILD In-Game Play: Due the nature of in-game play for Guild Wars, our policy for remaining active within IMPERIUM is 14 days. If, within 2 weeks you do not log onto Guild Wars and your account passes to 14 days inactive, your account will be removed from IMPERIUM. We enforce this policy to help maintain an active and diverse alliance for our members to enjoy. IMPERIUM website: The same can be said of your participation in our communications as in-game play. We rely heavily upon our website for broadcast of communications and require all members to interact with it. As such, if members do not interact with our website on a regular basis (maximum of 14 days inactivity) they will be subject to removal from the alliance. How to protect your membership from being automatically removed from IMPERIUM: If for certain reasons you know that you will be inactive for 14 or more days, please post an announcement in your guilds inactivity thread. When creating your post please provide the details as to why you will be inactive and when you expect to become active again. Doing so will protect your account from being removed from IMPERIUM for an additional 7 days to a total of 21 days. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to post in this forum; simply notifying an officer will not ensure your account will be protected. USE OF VENTRILO: Perspective [LaZy] recruits MUST HAVE VENT and log on to our interview server at the time when recruited; the interview server is not to be used by members outside of this time. A policy has been implemented for those who wish to use Ventrilo. When creating an account to log into Ventrilo, officers will create your login name as follows: Web Forum Account Number/Real Name/Primary Character Name Note: Conventions used for Guild Names are: AoM, CoI, CoS, DL, GOTI, IL, SOTI, TILN, UI, CotF LEADER = Leader, GM = Guild Manager, SO = Senior Officer, O = Officer, E = Elder, M = Member, IM/BOD=Imperium Manager/Board of Directors For the overall interest of the IMPERIUM Community, our policies and processes along with the responsibilities of those to enforce them, it is best that our Ventrilo server not be used for guests outside of IMPERIUM. As such the IMPERIUM Ventrilo server is only to be accessed and used by IMPERIUM members. On occasion the Senior Leadership may choose to extend an invitation to outside members for diplomatic reasons only (typically a guild leader from another guild to discuss in-game or IMPERIUM member related issues). As such our Ventrilo server's credentials (server network information, password, etc.) are not to be shared with anyone outside of IMPERIUM. Additionally the server is not to be used to host pick-up groups for any form of activity including PvP, Farming, Running or general PvE play. Public servers are available across the internet, free, to host combined activities of this nature. This policy ensures a broad environment by which the majority of our members can use ventrilo and interact with each other, bound by the same policies for its use, with facilitation and application by the officers within IMPERIUM. All users of ventrilo who are aged 18 or below are allowed in all ventrilo channels with the exception of the Adult Ventrilo channels. All members are allowed to interact and game together in the IMPERIUM channels. The adult ventrilo channels are restricted to [LaZy] members, 18+. Failure to follow this policy will result in forceful removal from the channel and then from ventrilo. If the user continues to enter the restricted channels they risk permanent removal from ventrilo. For [LaZy] members only: Officers of LaZy reserve the right to also ask other LaZy members under the age of 18 to leave other channels if the topics of conversation become subject matter which is deemed unsuitable for minors. Finally, the use of "Binds" on Ventrilo, including intentionally broadcasting Bind announcements anywhere in the server, is prohibited. Members found to violate this rule will be provided one warning. If they repeat the offense they will be permanently banned from the VENT server and potentially from IMPERIUM and its resources. MEMBER ACCOUNT BANS Upon confirmation that a member within IMPERIUM has received a permanent account(s) ban (or any ban equal to, or more significant) administered them by ANet or NCSoft, that member is to have their account(s) banned from IMPERIUM; including banning from all its resources (i.e. web, Ventrilo, etc.). Any and all items donated by said individual(s) to the Community (or members of the Community), received any time before, during or after their membership to the alliance, are immediately and permanently forfeited upon banning; including in-game items, in-game currency, game key access codes or real currency. Forfeited items or currency will not be returned under any circumstances - nor is IMPERIUM (its leadership, officers, elders or members) responsible or accountable for such; either in the past, present or future. This instruction is inclusive of all accounts/characters owned/operated by the individual banned by the developers/operators of any game in which we play. BANS: There are conditions that may exist where an emergency and global banning is recommended by Senior Leadership of the Community. In these conditions, mitigating circumstances exist where the potential security of the alliance is at stake and a threat exists that can create either turmoil or disruption to the member Community or operations of the alliance itself. In these cases, the Senior Leadership is to convene and review the circumstances of the potential threat. A majority vote is required by the available Senior Leadership online and available at the time of the threat being exposed in order for an emergency ban to be implemented. Emergency bans are swift, served without notice, and do not follow the normal due process of review for the conditions of banning to take place. These circumstances are rare and conditions must be extreme if an emergency banning is executed. Qualifications for consideration by the Senior Leadership used to consider an emergency banning are: the potential for spread of a problem or issue is very likely by one member to other members, access to the IMPERIUM Community is threatened by which an individual can access the IMPERIUM environment and infrastructure through others accounts (game, Ventrilo, website), or the likelihood exists that an individual is driving a personal agenda and has convinced or enlisted sympathy from others in support of their personal agenda - whereby the agenda is found to be either a risk to the IMPERIUM Community or possible risk to disrupting the IMPERIUM Community. In said cases, the IMPERIUM Leadership reserves the right to implement emergency banning of members without due process. Further, IMPERIUM Leadership reserves the right of non-disclosure for their actions or intent in order to support, protect or defend the security and well-being of the IMPERIUM Community. An appeal process is to be provided all individuals who are banned from the guild, to be facilitated by the Guild Elders and decided upon by the Alliance Senior Leadership Team and/or IMPERIUM's Leader. Further, IMPERIUM's Senior Leadership and IMPERIUM's Leader reserves the right to suspend or deny the appeal process or the right for an individual to appeal to the guild at any time for any circumstances if feels in the better interest and or safeguarding of the IMPERIUM Community. OPPORTUNITY FOR APPEAL: A previous member of the guild, banned for breach of the previously listed policies, may appeal to rejoin the guild if they believe that their banning was unwarranted and unfairly administered. In such a case, the decision to allow said member back into the guild requires investigation by one or more of the Community Elders. A recommendation will then be given to IMPERIUM’s Senior Leadership Team and/or IMPERIUM’s Leader. Further, IMPERIUM's Senior Leadership and IMPERIUM's Leader reserves the right to suspend or deny the appeal process or the right for an individual to appeal to the guild at any time for any circumstances if feels in the better interest and or safeguarding of the IMPERIUM Community. STAY PERIOD TO REJOIN IMPERIUM: Members, who are either banned, filing an appeal, removed voluntarily or involuntarily must wait a minimum of 45 days before being allowed to rejoin IMPERIUM for the first time they leave. If they leave IMPERIUM a second time their stay period is 90 days. If they leave IMPERIUM a third time their stay period is 6 months. All disputes filed in regards are to be done so with the guild's Elders. All appeals reviewed, considered and otherwise approved are subject to a full the corresponding action (1st, 2nd, of 3rd time) the corresponding number of days indicated from the date by which an individual was posted on the website as having been removed from, or leaving, the guild. No exceptions will be made under any circumstances to this policy unless otherwise approved by the Senior Leadership Team. Filing of Appeal does NOT constitute requirement of the Senior Leadership Team to meet to consider an appeal. There is a 24 hour grace period in effect. Should a member leave IMPERIUM on good terms (member in good standing, as opposed to rage quitting), the member has 24 hours in which to contact their GM, who has the final decision in regards to their return to IMPERIUM. The GM’s decision is final and binding. |