DOW PG Policy Guidelines *Please Read!*

[Batleth]

Disney's Online Worlds PG fan forums' Policy Guildelines

Welcome to the fan forums of Disney's Online Worlds. We specialize in hosting fanforums and a wiki for Disney's MMOs. Please read these policy guidelines as they apply to all public and member-only areas of Disney's Online Worlds PG fan site(s) and wiki. To help you get started, we do have a welcome thread which shows the basics of forum navigation and how to post. Please read carefully as there is no valid reason for violating any policy with the excuse "I didn't know it was a policy" or "I didn't think that was the meaning of that rule." Ignorance of the rules is never acceptable. If you are questioning yourself on whether or not your actions are in violation of the site rules, then you should refrain from doing that action and ask an Administrator (Admin) or Moderator (Mod) before proceeding. Keep in mind that Administrators have final say about what happens on our sites and their decisions are final. Please report any problems or policy violations you see on the forums by using the report a bad post button located at the top right-hand corner of every post and PM.


Advertising - Any site in direct competition with our sites, containing obscene content, or those seeking for personal gain are not to be linked to or mentioned.


Back Seat Modding - A person may not act like or impersonate a moderator or an administrator of this forum unless they are one. Back seat modding includes but is not limited to: correcting another user or taking matters into your own hands by replying, PMing, or scolding another user. This behavior often ends in a flame war or makes the targeted user upset and therefore is not tolerated.


English Only - The moderators/administrators and other users must be able to read and comprehend your posts. To ensure this, we ask that everyone posts only in English. Disney games primarily use the English language and therefore set a common ground of communication. You may, however, write in other languages to your friends in PM or ask a specific question/answer for foreign language homework.


Flaming - Deliberately attacking another user on the forums will not be tolerated for any reason. This includes, but is not limited to: race, religion, gender, or s**ual orientation. An attack is considered any word, phrase or image that casts any user in a negative light.


Hacking and Hacker Discussions - Any discussion of third party program usage or altering game files to change game play as it was not intended by Disney will be removed from our websites. Using third party programs or altering game files can result in your Disney account being suspended or terminated. Inherent bugs and/or glitches of games are allowed to be discussed.

Originally Posted by Disney's FAQ

Q: "How can I be sure to avoid being banned for hacking?

A: There are two kinds of activities that can result in your account being banned for hacking: altering/tampering with code and using third party software.

Altering code means manipulating Disney's programming (or telling other players how to do so), in order to change the way the program behaves. This can cause damage to the game and take our programmers away from projects that will make Toontown better for everyone.

Third party software is any program that interacts with Disney's Online games, and does not come from Disney. Do not run third party software programs from other players, websites, or forums. These programs include, but are not limited to: programs to prevent logout, engage in automatic gameplay, modify the results of gameplay, or circumvent Chat filters. These programs can impact the experience of other players in Disney's online games, and often pose a security threat to players who use them.

Highly Controversial Topics - Discussions designed to educate or explore a topic are permitted; however, ones designed simply to inflame or generate conflict will not be tolerated. Posts containing political subject matter (i.e., new governmental laws, candidates, etc.), promotion of religious beliefs, or other topics which can cause debates to go beyond a civil debate will be removed.


Inappropriate/Non PG-Rated Discussions - This site is family friendly. As such, nothing obscene will be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to:

• harsh foul language/cursing (mild expressives are ok)
• nudity and/or s*x
• extreme violence (mild and cartoon violence is acceptable)
• drug use (or any other illegal substance)
• severe or life-threatening or death related illnesses
• unmoderated chat rooms or instant messaging apps on user pages
• and other topics not suitable for ages 13+

Users found in violation of this policy may receive an automatic ban depending on the severity of the infraction.


Multiple/Sharing Accounts - Members are allowed only one user account per person per household. Sharing an account with other family members and/or friends is strictly forbidden. You are responsible for anyone and everyone who uses your account and/or accesses other accounts from your computer. Stating that you share accounts with another user isn't allowed. This promotes others to do the same which isn't allowed on our sites or in-game by Disney.

In terms of guideline violations, moderators/administrators may track multiple shared accounts from single or multiple computers as one account. If a guideline violation is severe enough, it may become necessary to ban one or all of the user accounts on the same computer, depending on the severity of the infraction. Therefore, the actions of one person could easily directly impact all known accounts that access the sites from a single computer. Users who have been grounded from the site should not attempt to make another account. Users who do; risk an extension of the suspension or possibly being permanently banned from the forum.

NOTE: This does not apply to Admins/Moderators, as they often need multiple accounts to test technical issues that come up from various user levels and to do that properly it requires us to create "test" accounts.


Name Changes - One name change each year will be allowed per account. To request a name change, please PM an admin with your new name. Do not PM a mod as they can't help you with this request. If you have been suspended for a period of 7 days or more, you are no longer eligible to receive a name change. We will not allow any name changes that contain characters which cannot be typed on a conventional English keyboard. We no longer allow non-alphabetic or non-numerical characters to be included in usernames other than an underscore (_) due to the problems they may cause with certain aspects of our site's software and the hassle of having to copy/paste certain usernames that would contain them. The decision whether to allow the new name is based on the guidelines and the discretion of the Admin Staff.


Off-Topic/Nonsense Posts - If your post/thread does not make sense, hijacks, disrupts, is filled with gibberish or contributes nothing to the discussion, it will be removed. While we expect that some topics will stray a bit, if a series of posts completely takes over the discussion and/or disrupts the flow of conversation, those posts will either be removed, edited, or split into a separate thread.


Personal Information - This site has children present therefore asking for or volunteering personal information is not allowed.

Personal Info consists of:

• Real Life Names (either first OR last are allowed - if not unique, never both)
• Age
• Gender (Stating which you are is okay. Asking another what they are, is not.)
• Location (Saying which country, state, or province you live in is acceptable; but anything smaller, such as city, is not.)
• Links to profile pages on social media or other sites
• Password/Account Information
• School Information (includes grade)
• Posting personal pictures including yourself, family, other users, schools or homes
• D-name

Originally Posted by Disney's FAQ

Your D-Name is a unique name that will be shown on features that require a display name, such as High Score boards, chat windows and personal Disney Xtreme Digitalsm Channels. Your D-Name should not contain any Personal Identifiable Information, such as your first and last name, physical address, street name, city, state or e-mail address.

Personal Relationship Discussion - The forums are not to be used as a dating service. No one is to be asked if they are dating or married nor any reference to being "taken" or seeking. Within a story, users may use SOME personal relationship terms as seen in the Disney movies. It must remain appropriate for ages 13+ viewers.


Scamming - Charging for services or taking advantage of another user is prohibited. Users may not ask for membership codes or for "gifts" in exchange for membership codes. Membership Codes can be given away, but not requested. This refers to membership codes, Disney Movie Reward codes, etc.


Signature Lengths - Users should be considerate of other users on the forums. Excessive signatures cause the flow of the threads to be disrupted. Therefore, 500 x 200 in pixel length and width is the maximum size of the TOTAL signature permitted (this includes graphics, text, spaces, smileys and tickers).

So the total dimensions of the signature should not exceed this size:


Spamming - "Spam" refers to posting identical, irrelevant, hard-to-read posts that make it difficult to comprehend what a user is attempting to state. Mass PMing people you do not know or who have not invited you to PM them, posting for the sole purpose of boosting your post count, excessive bumping of threads, one or two letter replies (i.e. ok, LOL, Yes, agreed, nods), caps/lowercase variances (I wAnT A sEcReT fRiEnD), poor color choices for their text versus the forum's skin color (such as white text on a yellow background), excessive punctuation (yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) or letter repetition in a word (Wooooooooooooooot!), and excessive use of smileys as posts are irritating and often hard to read so will be removed at the discretion of the mod staff. An original poster is allowed one bump per twenty-four (24) hours after the last post was created in their thread!


Trolling - Trolling is trying to make someone or a group of people angry by forcing them to respond to you, either through wise-crackery, posting incorrect information, asking blatantly stupid questions, or other foolishness. This is done by unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on an innocent by-stander and/or by baiting people to flame at you, stating false arguments, or putting the forum down and/or encouraging people to leave. Using a poll or post to claim that another user is better, smarter, cuter, or in any way a favorite is also trolling. Claiming copyright or trademark infringement without true possession of said documentation is another form of trolling. This type of behavior is not permitted on our sites.

However, any user replacing previously deleted/edited posts that have already been reviewed by a mod/admin is considered trolling the mod staff by not only ignoring our sites policy guidelines, but also the actions of that mod. This action will be cause for an automatic suspension. Please contact a mod first and use the appeal procedure below if you do not agree with an action taken.


Reputation System Misuse - The Reputation system allows our members to leave positive feedback comments about other user's posts, and thereby contribute to their overall 'reputation'. Common use is to show one's appreciation for someone posting a guide or being helpful with their answers to a thread. Rep comments are subject to all other site policies and will be enforced. If you obtain any reputation comments that violate any of our policies, contact a mod about this immediately.

Reputation Begging - The act of requesting reputation from other users is called reputation begging. Acts of requesting or bribing or having others feel sorry for them to obtain additional rep from people are prohibited.


Netiquette

• Mod Shopping - When you have a concern you'd like to discuss privately, please only PM one moderator/administrator or post in the mod hotline forum. When messages are sent to many different moderators it is difficult to know if the questions have already been answered. The entire mod staff operates under the same rules and policies; therefore, attempting to solicit a more favorable answer is a waste of the staff's time. If you post in the mod hotline forum, the first mod that has free time will respond to your message. They will only PM you if they need to follow up with you concerning the matter of your message.
• Typical Mod Contacts - First contact will be a reminder to look at the policies. Next will come a first warning, then a second warning. Then the suspensions begin: 3 - 5 days the first time, 5-7 days the next, two weeks, a month, etc. Each time a user is suspended from the site it will be for a longer period until they are permanently banned from the sites. The mod is not limited to these guidelines if the infraction is severe enough. Please check the edit reasons as a mod will often 'fix' a post and take no further action if the problem is very minor.
• Search Feature - Many common questions can be answered by searching for similar posts. Answering the same questions over and over, or merging multiple threads of the same topic, is time-consuming for our volunteer staff and could be solved by simply checking to see if the topic exists before posting. Please look at the thread "How to use the search button" for more information.
• Moderation Queue - Posts/threads/pictures subject to approval are reviewed often throughout the day. Please be patient while waiting for your post to appear. Badgering the mod staff to get your post approved will not help it get approved any faster than it would have otherwise.
• We greatly appreciate the support our users voluntarily wish to give us for providing a great fan site for Disney games we all enjoy. Donations and Subscriptions to the site are just that -- a donation, it is not a payment. We have provided users with extra features/subscriptions for donating as a courtesy and a "thank you for supporting" but other than that it is a donation. We do not provide refunds on donations. If a user decides not to use the features/subscriptions or decides to quit the site or violates the policies of the site and loses their account, it has nothing to do with their donation.
• Please report any problems or policy violations you see on the forums by using the report a bad post button located at the top right-hand corner of every post and PM.
• We do not let donations or seniority dictate to or influence us on the decisions that are made in keeping this site fun and safe for all of our members.

Moderators and Administrators of these sites monitor your compliance with the rules of the site and dispense disciplinary action at their discretion. Disciplinary decisions may be appealed through the Appeal Procedure. All appeals should be kept within PM's and/or e-mail correspondence and should not be publicly posted or sent via friend. If you have concerns regarding an incident, please feel free to discuss the matter with the mod or admin via e-mail or PM. Do not create a new topic simply for the purposes of questioning a moderator's decision. In addition, user infractions and disciplinary actions will only be discussed with the individual account holder and no other person(s). If you have an issue with actions taken or displayed by a Moderator please report it to an Administrator. If you have an issue with an Administrator please report it to Batleth. If you have an issue with Batleth, please contact Nick.

Disney's Online Worlds collective of sites are privately owned and operated. We have no affiliation with Disney or its other holdings.

[Batleth]

The above is a entirely new set of policy guidelines for the site as well as our other sites. Please, take the time to review these as there are many changes from our previous version that we were using and it's your responsibility to know these when posting! We've worked very hard to provide a more user-friendly set of policy guidelines for everyone that now coincides with new standards for PG-rating, changes made in Disney's policies, and the newest trends of the internet.

Since there are so many changes, we will be allowing a period where we will be ignoring most minor violations. We are giving everyone a chance to review these without getting into trouble for site violations. I am leaving this thread open for discussions. Please, do not attack the policies or the mod staff in your replies. I will only be answering civil questions and concerns about this new set of policies.

Please, be patient as we make several changes to the site to adjust things in accordance with these new policies. Such as; We will no longer have an approved hosting site thread, since advertising has been completely rewrote and now allows the use of just about any hosting site on the internet. Our filters will soon be adjusted to reflect this as well and other changes we will be making over the next few days.

Past policy violations will have to remain on a user's history as they happened under the policy guidelines in place at that time. However, a mod will take that into consideration if a new violation under the current policy guidelines (those above) happens. That mod will not necessarily move to the next level of contact unless the action is really bad.We understand that some users may have a history of past policy violations that really no longer apply to our new policy guidelines. Past violations of currenlty suspended users can be reviewed and decided upon on a case by case basis. Those user may send in an e-mail to [email protected] for admin review.

We hope that everyone will enjoy these new lighter and user-friendly policy guidelines!

The staff at POF!

[The Skirata Clan]

I have a couple of questions:

1- What where the changes made in comparison from the previous rules and guidelines?

2- Regarding Back-Seat Modding, Trolling , and Flaming in the Activities section (mainly The Ban Game)... How will the changes affect these since some activities, like The Ban Game, has elements of these 3 issues. But most of us (I think) understand that a bit of ribbing goes on the activities sections.

3- How will the new features, like adding the YouTube buttons and the creation of the POF Facebook page will affect the personal info guidelines?

4- Did you guys added Twitter accounts for the POF staff? Kudos!!

Thanks.

[Batleth]

Originally Posted by The Skirata Clan

I have a couple of questions:

1- What where the changes made in comparison from the previous rules and guidelines?

Some policies were dropped, we added just a couple like back seat modding, and rewrote all of them for clearer understanding with examples. Advertising policies probably had the most changes since we're allowing most sites to be linked to now except for competitor sites, mature only sites, and those which directly link to personal info of users here. Frankly, I wouldn't worry so much about what the old policies stated as much as taking note of the new rewording of them now.

Originally Posted by The Skirata Clan

2- Regarding Back-Seat Modding, Trolling , and Flaming in the Activities section (mainly The Ban Game)... How will the changes affect these since some activities, like The Ban Game, has elements of these 3 issues. But most of us (I think) understand that a bit of ribbing goes on the activities sections.

Though back seat modding policy is a new one, the others remain much intact from our previous guidelines. They were reworded to have a clearer definition and include some examples so everyone can have a better understanding of them. So there will be acually little change regarding them, overall. We understand that many of you are friends and a little ribbing, as you call it, is ok but we don't know who are friends and who might just be stating something mean towards another user. So keep that in mind when posting.

Mild bantering in a competitive nature is just good nature of playing around with others. Calling others a negative name is never acceptable.

Originally Posted by The Skirata Clan

3- How will the new features, like adding the YouTube buttons and the creation of the POF Facebook page will affect the personal info guidelines?

This will allow us to post links to disney's pages and posting their videos as well as other topics we might be of interested in. We can't allow direct linking to people's profile pages say on facebook or youtube due to all the personal info those may contain. Of course, some people have created facebook accounts for their pirates to keep the personal info to a minimum and be able to stay in contact with their friends from POTCO. Which would be acceptable to link to here.

POF Facebook Page

Originally Posted by The Skirata Clan

4- Did you guys added Twitter accounts for the POF staff? Kudos!!

Thanks.

We know have a facebook page per our site and everything posted on them is automatically updated to our twitter account. We figured one twitter account for all our sites would be easier to maintain.

DOW Admins on Twitter

Originally Posted by Cannonfury

I understand what backseat modding is but at the same time there are people who try to be helpful, I know I would like to be told when I'm doing something wrong, maybe someone new would take offense to that so, I can understand it.

There's a difference between being helpful and being rude. Giving someone an answer to a question they have is acceptable. Such as "where can I find this quest item?", "How do I get a signature on this site?", "You don't need to do that ingame, you should do this instead.." are all fine replies or answer.

Telling someone something out of topic just to correct that person isn't acceptable. Such as just blurting out "You need to learn how to spell correctly!", "You can't post that because it's copyrighted.", "You are in trouble because you can't post that as it's a violation of X policy." aren't acceptable. Often in these cases, you should just report the problem to a mod and let them handle it.

[Cannonfury]

I understand what backseat modding is but at the same time there are people who try to be helpful, I know I would like to be told when I'm doing something wrong, maybe someone new would take offense to that so, I can understand it.

[The Skirata Clan]

Thanks for the answers. Good job as always.

[Slasher]

Originally Posted by Batleth

Within a story, users may use SOME personal relationship terms as seen in the Disney movies. It must remain appropriate for ages 13+ viewers.

Sorry, just defining this for myself. So this means that only if you are within a story, and the story involves a relationship are you to talk about a relationship, correct? Kinda confusing.

[Batleth]

Originally Posted by Slasher

Sorry, just defining this for myself. So this means that only if you are within a story, and the story involves a relationship are you to talk about a relationship, correct? Kinda confusing.

Correct. Within the context of a story, you can write how the characters met and how the relationship progresses as it relates to the story. If you are just adding in the relationship and it has no bearing on the plot line - it would not be within the guidelines.

[The Skirata Clan]

What it mean is that you can use terms that describe a relationship in the context of a story, but you can't say things about your own personal relationships. I might be wrong but that is what I understood from that.

[Bluepengie]

OK, thanks alot. I havent been on for a while, and never knew what trolling was. Inadvertantley, you expanded my vocabulary