The Rules.

.:Overall Site Rules:.

1. No spamming. What's spamming? Essentially it covers pointless posts - and how do you identify a post as pointless? Well, we have a few sub-rules for that;
1.1. Do not double-post. Double-posting covers posting directly after yourself, with no responses in between. In some cases this can be ignored - for instance, if it's your own topic and you're providing updates of some kind. Still, if that's the case, please make sure there's at least some time between the posts - tiny updates or ones soon after posts you've already made can really afford to just be edited onto your previous post.
1.2. Do not go off-topic. Okay, there is some leniency on this. Naturally, every now and again conversations will take unexpected routes, and get a little off path. Still, preferably, try and stay on-topic as possible, and if you realise the conversation is moving off-topic, try and curve it back as well as you can.
1.3. No one word posts. Or two or three or any particularly tiny posts that add nothing to the conversation. We understand sometimes you might not have much to say - still just a post that says 'Okay' or 'That's good' or 'Thanks' really is just taking up space on the forum. If you don't really have much to say... well, you're not forced to say anything!

2. No drama. We understand everyone has problems, and we understand you'll sometimes want to talk about it. Still, please don't come on the forum or into the chat with the express purpose of just talking negatively and trying to drag the whole mood of the place down. We're trying to build a happy community! There's a time and a place to be upset, and everyone here will be here to support you - but please don't use this as your own personal support site, or a site to let all of your frustrations out on. Everyone has bad days, but that's no excuse to drag everyone through it.
2.1. No flaming or trolling. What's flaming/trolling? It's at it's core insulting people, or speaking in a way as to purposefully offend, annoy or antagonise others. We're trying to be a friendly community here people, so any overt acts of aggression WILL be dealt with.
2.2. Avoid encouraging arguments. If someone is flaming you, try not to encourage them by arguing back. We understand that can be quite hard, but try to rise above it, and if you feel someone is attacking or offending you personally - report it to a staff member. They'll step in and try to defuse matters.

3. The site rating is PG-13. No 'ifs' 'ands' or 'buts'. No 'Well I'm 13 and I watch 18+ movies'. No 'Well lots of 13 year olds are into violent media these days'. PG-13 in the most traditional sense of the word. All conversations AND roleplays in any public space of this forum must stick to this rating.
This means to avoid items of a more sexual nature, detailed violence or other more sensitive subjects. It also means we'd rather you keep swearing to a minimum - it's not outright banned, but try to avoid using it unless you feel it absoloutely neccesary to the emphasis of your statements. We'll warn you if we feel you're being excessive... though ideally you should be able to tell for yourself if you are.

4. No art or character theft. This should be pretty obvious to all of you, but we've had a fair amount of this. What does this include? It includes claiming another person's character as your own, using others art without permission, recolouring other's work and claiming it as your own, playing a character who's not your own, a whole variety of things along those lines. And if you think we won't find out? Well... I'll just say we have a very good track record for catching people in the act. So don't do it!

5. No joining just to advertise. We have a segment for advertising off-site things and you may use that, but only if you already have 50 posts. We're here to build an active community, not for you to leech members off of. If you have a site or community of your own, you can feel free to share it only once you've proved you're willing to be part of the little community we have here.
It is worth noting, for art topics and similar such, you're allowed to link to your art, or comics, or other relevant things. Just... no advertising your own site and such until you've reached that post cap.

6. Only have one account. Your account is your account, for you and you alone. It is not your character's account, no specific account's per character. No additional accounts for if you want to change your name - we have topics in place for that. No 'I got banned and wanted to explain my actions so I created another account!' Your account is your account - it's a record of who you are and what you've done on the site, both positive and negative. Stick to it.

7. Have respect for others. This is by far the most important rule, encompassing many of the other rules above. This is a community, and whilst not everyone will neccesarily get along, it's important to treat everyone here as a human being, and treat everyone as you'd like to be treated yourself! And this does include everyone on the forum - not just the ones you think 'deserve it'.
7.1. Respect the staff and their decisions. You sometimes may disagree with the staff - you sometimes may feel that their call isn't right. But just remember how many members they're having to manage over, and how few there are of them. In the end, they'll make the choices best suited for the forum and the community as a whole - not for the best of one of it's individuals who thinks they're above their authority.
7.2. Respect the rules. These are all here for a reason. They're to make the community the best it can be. Some of them may seem restrictive, but in truth, they're here to provide the membership the freedom to interact without worry of others ruining it for them. Please stick to the rules... and don't try to find loopholes. If you're gonna break rules, don't try and get out of it on technicalities or abuse wording. If you know there's something you shouldn't be doing... don't do it. End of.
7.3. Overall? Be a good person. It's as simple as that. Stick to the rules, don't be a jerk, treat everyone with respect, behave, and all will be well! Play nice people!

8. Make an Introduction topic. Oh, did you think I'd wrapped up there? Well, not quite - posting this right at the bottom, so it'll be fresh in your mind and you'll have no excuse for forgetting. We'll take it as a sign that you've read the rules! Aaall you have to do is, before posting anywhere else or doing anything else - make a topic in the forum's Introduction section to introduce yourself! Get on that, and then you can start to get to know the community - and then start to get posting!

.:Social Platform Rules:.

1. Keep to the overall site rules.

2. No mini-modding. Either you are a mod/admin or you are not. Don't try to play mod while you are not one.

3. If you have an issue with a member, take it OFF the public lobby and into PMs/IMs and/or drop the issue completely. If the other does continue you are free to call in an admin, just don't try and fight it out in the chat.

4. No forcible attention grabbing. We understand that we all have troubles and issues and have our bad and good days. But please try not to unload all your problems in the chat.

5. Don't spam. This includes:
- USING ALL CAPS,
- TYPING,
- LIKE,
- THIS,
- Posting nothing but emoticons,
- Repeating somebodies name over and over.

6. Try not to get too cutesy and cuddly with your partner. This includes RPs. It can be a little awkward to read for everybody else.

7. If somebody asks you to drop a subject, DROP IT. Likewise, members if you are ever uncomfortable with a subject that is being talked about, ask people to stop, it's fine. Just... do it nicely.

8. All of the above rules apply in every SRN chatroom we might have across different platforms (At the moment Skype and Discord).

.:Character Creation Rules:.

1. No characters that are directly associated with the Canon Characters. We don't need 5 girlfriends of Sonic, 7 best friends of Tails, 10 ARK projects that are just like Shadow, etc. The ONLY way you can have your character be friends with a Canon Character is via RPs in the Canon sections of the site. THIS INCLUDES METAL VERSIONS!

2. Don't make your character OP. This means: Stick to one form (unless you have a good excuse to have multiple), don't have them have too many powers and balance their powers and strengths out by weaknesses.

3. If your character is tied to a canon organization/character such as GUN, Eggman, Dark Egg Legion or even ARK, try to keep things realistic. There are no 500 best GUN agents or high ranking Eggman goons. Most of those already exist and can be found in the Canon Character listing. This also means no 500 ARK projects.

4. Your character can't automatically have Chaos Emeralds, Phantom Ruby, Warp Rings or the Master Emerald/shards.

5. Try not to give your character mental illnesses as it can be really, REALLY tricky to play those right and can really insult people experiencing them. If you ABSOLUTELY MUST, do your research, and don't use clichés.

6. Your character needs to have a reason to do what they do, especially if you want to play a villain. Most evil people aren't just BORN evil, they have their reasons, ambitions and motivations for their actions.

.:Roleplay Rules:.

1. No godmodding. Regardless of who, what, when, where, why and how. It ruins the roleplay, especially the fight-esque ones. It gets really annoying when your character dodges every single hit.

2. No metagaming. Long story short, don't use Out of Character information in character. So, say, you know the name of the character the other person plays but your character has never heard it, don't have him call out that name just because YOU know what it is.

3. No powergaming. In other words NO AUTO HITTING OR CONTROLLING ANOTHER PERSON'S CHARACTER. In a fight instead of typing : "Sonic punches Metal to the Moon" Change it to "Sonic attempts to punch Metal to the Moon". This gives the other member a chance to pick the result. In situations such as: "Sonic shined really bright and everybody closed their eyes", instead try "Sonic shined bright enough to hurt one's eyes should they not shield them." Notice how in the first example you FORCE an action on other people's characters and how in the second one, you heavily suggest they should do something and what the risk is of not doing it? Always remember to give other RPers a choice.

4. No RPing as a Canon Character outside of the "Non Canon" roleplay area, UNLESS you have claimed a character in the Official Character Applications and got accepted. You can find THAT topic here: https://sonicrpnation.forumotion.com/t1136-official-character-applications

5. You also can't have or magically find a Chaos Emerald, they are scarce in number and are awarded out by admins and tend to need to be fought for or found in an RP lead by staff. You can have Chaos powers, but heavily limited when without an energy source. The ONLY place where you are allowed to just have Chaos Emeralds is in the Non Canon section.

6. No ships a la Fan charactersxCanon characters. Only place you ARE allowed to do this is in the "Non Canon" section.

7. No killing/severely harming another person's character without their permission.

8. Don't make the roleplay all about your character. This does mean, don't have your character faint in every single RP or get hurt in every single RP. It gets frustrating, really quickly. Don't have your character be the main point of attention, there are other people who also deserve a bit of spotlight, so if you REALLY want to have some epic adventure about one of your characters only, write a fanfiction.

9. No crossovers. This means NO My Little Pony RPs, NO Pokemon RPs, NO Megaman RPs, ect. 

10. Don't barge into an already running RP. Open RPs are open to new characters, but if the plot has advanced enough, it might reach a point where it wouldn't be appropriate for a new character to hop in. It's also good practice to include a greetings in (brackets) to just say hi to your new fellow RPers and work out anything that needs to be worked out in terms of slotting your character in to the story.

All rules updated and put into a single thread.

Huge thanks to Burning-fox, Lady-tragedy and Ultimate Tank who helped writing down these rules