Welcome to the Conquer Club community. We're not just about kicking each other's rear ends here; we also like to hug and sing and drink around a camp fire. So, we have implemented one very simple rule to keep the community happily drinking its hot cocoa:
Don't be intentionally annoying!
Common sense prevails - if you are intentionally or continually making this community less enjoyable for others, you're going to be removed from it. It's that simple. This applies to any part of the site where interaction takes place; in Forums, Private Messages, Live Chat and Game Chat.
If you understand this one prevailing rule you can stop reading now. If you're not sure what that means, read on for the boring details. If you don't agree with these please leave. There are much better sites out there for you and we're not keeping you here.
Common Sense
OK, since you're still reading it can't hurt to start with the absolute basics. The Forums, Private Messages, Live Chat and Game Chat are all privileges of being a Conquer Club community member. They are not inalienable rights. So if you find yourself acting a little Martian, Venusian or otherwise "un-CC" as you might say, you will find that those privileges are affected. Before we get into the why and how of privileges being affected, let's meet the team:
People here to help - Administrators and TeamCC
There are many people at Conquer Club who are here to help your experience run smoothly. They are known as Administrators (Admins) and Moderators (Mods), and the current list can be found here. Almost the entirety of TeamCC are members just like you who volunteer their time to make the CC community a more enjoyable place to be. They aren't "staff" and they don't have to take crap from other members just because they have a special colour in their name. If you're being annoying, even if it isn't something specifically spelled out here, expect them to let you know. If they are being annoying, then let an Admin know.
The Tools that Moderators and Admins use are: a Post Locking Feature, a Topic Merging Feature, a Topic Splitting Feature, a Topic Moving Feature, a Post Editing Feature, a Post/Topic Deletion Feature, in addition to various Disciplinary methods for Warnings and Vacations.
Moderators have green names. They are responsible for general moderating of the site, and they come in several varieties
Global Moderators have special tools in all the forums, and are good to contact when you have a general question.
Discussions Moderators have special tools in the General Discussion and Off Topics forums and sub-forums and are very good at showing you where general answers to your questions lie, in addition to having the thick skin necessary to deal with the locals.
Cheating and Abuse Moderators have special tools in several forums, but spend most of their time in Cheating and Abuse. Do not contact them about the way a case ended, they are not responsible for catching cheats, just keeping the Cheating and Abuse forum organized.
S&B Moderators have special tools in the Suggestions and Bug Reports Forum, and they can help you find the best place to put your suggestion, along with assisting with bug reporting.
Moderators - Int'l have special tools in the International Forums. They are the ones to contact if somebody is causing trouble in the International Forums.
Tournament Directors have gold names. They have special tools in the Tournament forums, and are great at helping you learn how to create, run, and join tournaments.
Cartographers have blue names. They are responsible for helping users create maps for live play by facilitating map discussion. If you are interested in making a map, or helping out with those in production, head over to the Map Foundry part of the Forum.
Clan Directors have teal names. They will help you with any clan issues as well as assist in creating a new clan. They have tools in the Callouts forum.
Chatters have purple names. They are responsible for making sure that Live Chat is a fun and friendly environment. Contact them if you are having problems with how someone is behaving in Live Chat, or if you have difficulty getting in. They have tools in Live Chat instead of in the forums.
Society Moderators have brown names. These members are the "headmasters" of the Society of the Cooks. Get in touch with one of them if you're interesting in helping new and low ranked members, or if you're in need of some training yourself. They have tools in the Training Grounds forums.
Multi Hunters have orange names. They are responsible for catching cheaters in Conquer Club, and spend most of their time in the Cheating and Abuse Reports Forum.
Administrators have red names. They are responsible for the actual running of the site, be it coding and managing the community at large. When you have a problem with the site, they should be the last people you contact, only after you have gone through other avenues.
====
Moderators may only issue Warnings and small Vacations. Administrators will be the ones to issue longer Vacations.
Note: A moderator may be in more than one group (especially for the Global Moderators), but their color is their primary group.
Now that you know the basics, the next few posts have the guidelines for the 3 main areas of interaction:
The Conquer Club forum contains several different "forums" all cunningly described in the Board Index. Each "forum" encourages focused conversation on one of the many areas of interest here at Conquer Club. Whilst it is true to say that some boards are more focused than others, all apply, at a bare minimum, the same Posting Rules described below.
Basic posting terminology:
"Posting" is the act of composing and submitting a message.
Posting a "new topic" starts a whole new discussion topic about a whole new subject and is listed separately on the list of topics shown on each board. The new topic button is available when viewing the list of topics. The first post in a new topic is often referred to as the "original post" and the user who posted it as the "original poster" - both are often abbreviated to "OP".
Posting a "new post" contributes to an existing discussion topic. The new post button is available when viewing an existing discussion topic.
As a discussion grows a "thread" of posts accumulates. The word "thread" is often used interchangeably with "topic."
We encourage you to check the Help FAQ, Forum FAQ, and use the Search Function before starting a post to ensure that your question or discussion topic doesn't already have an answer or a thread.
Conquer Club Specific BBCode Tags:
When posting you may find it beneficial to use one of our Conquer Club Specific BBCode Tags.
name of user -- This can be used if you'd like to link directly to a specific user's personal Profile page. # Example:
[bigimg] url [/bigimg] -- This should be used when posting very large images that may extend too far in height and width for normal viewing. If in doubt, use [bigimg] instead of the regular [img] tag.
Private Messaging
Frequently you might find yourself wishing to communicate with just one or a few members at a time rather than posting for the whole forum to read. In this instance, open your Inbox and click New PM. That screen is just like a public post, but only the people you wish to send it to will actually receive it.
For more specific and complicated uses of private messaging, please visit the Powers of the Inbox: How-To thread.
Much like the Game Chat, private messages are not actively moderated. It's up to you to block individuals who annoy you via PM, but in severe cases such as excessive spamming, flaming, or trolling, you can open a complaint in the Cheating & Abuse Forum.
Note: If you receive a request for a game alliance via PM, please post a copy/screenshot of this PM in the Cheating & Abuse Forum. Secret Diplomacy violates Rule #2.
Forum Guidelines
Posting in the forum is a privilege, not a right. If you want to continue to keep this privilege, play by the rules.
The following list is a set of guidelines to avoid being annoying. It is not 100% comprehensive, but please read this carefully to ensure you don't accidentally breach the guidelines:
Off topic posts are posts which de-rail a topic either directly or indirectly, at any point.
To avoid annoying the rest of the community, follow these 3 basic steps:
Ask yourself if your post is actually contributing to the topic, or is it off topic or just plain spam? If it's not contributing, find somewhere else to post.
Ask yourself if you are flaming, baiting, feeding a troll or taking the bait. If you are, then don't.
Re-ask the above two questions
There are also some CC specific issues that you need to keep in mind for proper posting.
Un-noted Automatic Join Game Links
If you post an Automatic Join Game Link, you must note that it is so to warn other users who may click on the link before the game is filled.
Foreign Language Forums are for language groups to discuss CC in their native language.
Language forums are not places to practice your skills with Google translate nor are they for national groups, they are for language groups. If you have problems in them, PM an International Mod.
Posts that nobody can read are annoying.
Signatures larger than 150 pixels high by 600 pixels wide just scream “I am compensating for something” and should be reduced in size. Note this size restriction includes all parts of the signature, i.e. all banners and all text. Here is a comparison box:
|337 5p33k (0r d00d 5p34k) 15 h4rd 70 r34d 4nd m4k35 y0u |00k |1k3 4 ch1|d 57uck 1n 7h3 80'5 4nd n07 47 4|| |337. Translation: Leet-speak just sucks, and we all know it, and you don't want to suck too, now do you?
TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS JUST OBNOXIOUS AND DOES NOT MAKE YOU LOOK COOLER OR SMARTER AND PEOPLE WON'T READ YOUR POST MORE BECAUSE IT'S IN CAPS. PLEASE USE CAPS ONLY AT THE BEGINNING OF SENTENCES AND FOR SINGLE WORD EMPHASIS WHEN REALLY NEEDED.
The only thing more stupid than TYPING IN ALL CAPS is
TYPING IN ALL CAPS IN A LARGER FONT AND ANNOYING COLOUR
Rules, precedents and customs from other communities don't apply.
Neither do the By-Laws from the Podunk 3rd district. Believe it or not, Conquer Club is a private business. Just because something works one way in another community does not mean that is how it will work here. We're usually less strict and you can get away with a lot, but that doesn't mean that you can pull the "This is how it works everywhere else" card and expect to get away with it. Really. This is not "everywhere else."
In the same vein, just because you are here, does not mean you MUST be here. This is a business and CC does reserve the right to promote or discourage any kind of behavior it sees fit. Claiming your first amendment right to free speech to post about the colour of your poop last night will not fly. If a mod or admin specifically say you shouldn't be doing something, regardless of if it's specifically spelled out in the rules, or if you think that they are stupid, it still means don't do it. If you don't like the rules here, google.com will help you find somewhere more appropriate.
Be nice or leave
It's fine if you don't like this site or the way it is run...find another one with better rules, start another one and make your own rules, abuse another one and try to get them to change their rules, but don't complain about the rules here.
Rule Enforcement
For users who break the above Guidelines, as they say, "there will be consequences and repercussions." The Mods and Admins will always take into account when past infractions occurred, and the severity of the current infraction and any past infractions, in addition to the intent of the infractions.
There are essentially Two Levels of Infraction in Conquer Club: Minor and Major/Severe.
Minor Infractions are those that are more annoying than hurtful with intent. This includes but is not limited to: Spamming, Off Topicing, Common Flaming, Common Trolling, Necro-bumping, Avatar Abuse, Chat/Forum Newbie Abuse, International Forum Abuse, Repeatedly Posting for Vacationed Users, "Report a Post" Abuse, "Cheating and Abuse Report" Abuse, Unwanted Solicitation of a user via PM/Walls/Gamechat), etc.
Minor Infractions follow the traditional vacation escalation scale of:
Warning, 24 Hour Vacation, 72 Hour Vacation, One Week Vacation, One Month Vacation, 6 Month Vacation*, with repeated 6 Month Vacations as necessary upon a Minor Infraction upon release from the max vacation.
Say a Minor Infraction of Spamming leads to a user's first Minor Warning. If they are found in violation with any Minor Infraction, be it Necro-bumping, Avatar Abuse, "Cheating and Abuse Report" Abuse, etc, the next level will be up the scale, even if the first Warning was not associated with the second infraction. -----------
Major/Severe Infractions are those that are more than just annoying, but are intentionally hurtful to a user, group of users, or the community in general. This includes but is not limited to: Cyber-bullying/Harassment, Bigotry, Personal Information Abuse, Account Sitting Abuse, Intentional Deadbeating, Repeatedly Holding Players Hostage, Serial Teammate Killing, Hijacking Accounts, Systematically "Farming" New Recruits, Illegal Point Collecting, Gambling, **Point Dumping** etc.
Major/Severe Infractions follow a shortened vacation escalation scale of:
Warning, One Month Vacation, Permanent Vacation.
**Note: Due to the nature of Point Dumping having an impact of the integrity of the game, your account will be suspended first until the issue can be resolved.**
If an account ever reaches a 6 Month Forum Vacation or Permanent Live Chat Vacation, their next infractions may be bumped up to a Permanent Website Vacation.
***Secret Diplomacy Infraction levels are as follows: Block and Warning, Block and 1 Week Website Vacation, Block and 1 Month Website Vacation, Block and Account Inactivation.*** ----------- Say a Major Infraction of Cyber-Bullying/Harssment leads to a user's first Major/Severe Warning. If they are found in violation with any Major/Severe Infraction, be it New Recruit Farming, Bigotry, Serial Teammate Killing, etc, the next level will be up the scale, even if the first Warning was not associated with the second infraction.
The general order of Rule Enforcement is as follows:
If an avatar is not within the above Guidelines or includes someone's personal information (whether it's true or not), a user will first receive a Warning along with having the avatar removed. If the Warning is not heeded, avatar use will be disabled for 1 week. If the disabling is not heeded, avatar use will be disabled indefinitely.
Signature Abuse
If a signature is not within the above Guidelines or includes someone's personal information (whether it's true or not), a user will first receive a Warning along with having the signature removed. If the Warning is not heeded, signature use will be disabled for 1 week. If the disabling is not heeded, signature use will be disabled indefinitely.
Posting Repeatedly for Vacationed or Banned Users
If you choose to make posts for individuals who have received a vacation or a ban, don't be surprised if you find yourself quickly joining them in paradise.
Usergroup/Clan Privilege Abuse
If you are a group/clan leader, and you add users to your usergroup/clan without their request or permission, or conduct/facilitate any other abuse in your private forum, your Usergroup/Clan Leadership Privileges will be removed indefinitely.
Remember: Common sense prevails - if you are intentionally or continually making this community less enjoyable, you're going to be removed from it. It's that simple.
Many of us here at Conquer Club enjoy the site so much that we often find ourselves looking for something to do between turns in our games, the start of the next round of speed games with our buddies, or while we wait for a witty response to something we posted in the forums. As a result, sooner or later you are bound to wander into Live Chat looking to shoot the breeze for a few minutes or several hours.
Although Live Chat is a happening place, and you can find a plethora of interesting things inside, let's take a moment to review a few guidelines about the type of behavior expected from an upstanding CC member.
Let's go over some rules.
First and foremost, the rules of Live Chat start with the current Forum Guidelines previously established for the intent of keeping things under control in the forums. However, for the sake of being thorough, and because Live Chat is a world of its own, let's take a look at a few specific things a little more closely:
Bigotry: Not tolerated at all; no forms of bigotry allowed in live chat or the forums.
Spam: Not tolerated in any form whether smilies, text, or characters.
Flaming: Will not be tolerated.
Links: Any links in live chat must follow the site guidelines. Links that force a user to automatically join a game are not allowed. In addition, links to sites containing nudity or pornography are NOT allowed. All users are responsible for any and all material on a link. Ignorance is not an excuse, so post links with great caution as any posted links are treated on a case by case basis as far as the discipline ladder is concerned.
Personal Information: Any personal information or photos of any member is to be regarded as private and should never be posted except by the member it belongs to (although we would advise against posting your personal info).
Sexual Conversations: Sexual innuendo and light conversations can be entertaining, but do not take it very far. Minors do use this site, so please refrain from sexually explicit material.
Callouts Window will contain requests for games and teammates for games only. No social conversations in the callouts window.
Social Window will contain conversations and no requests for games.
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of Chat Rules. Please remember the general community guideline to not be annoying.
Moderating Techniques
Chatters (or chat mods) are the ones who are in charge of keeping the public chat rooms fun for all the users. They are volunteers and members of the site first, but if you have a question or concern, please ask one of them.
Because of the dynamic and always-going nature of chat, all rules and guidelines are interpreted according to the situation solely at the Moderator's discretion. Moderator directions and/or decisions made are to be followed without question. If a user has a problem with the direction or decision that the moderator made, the user is not to disrupt the room in complaint but to address the moderator directly through private messaging. If you feel the situation was not resolved sufficiently, you may forward the problem to the Head Chatter or any of the Admin. Be sure to include logs of the attempted resolution.
Chatters are expected to adhere to the rules and their own warnings in an interest of fairness. If you feel that a Chatter is abusing their position, please inform the Head Chatter or an Admin; don't try to cause a riot over it in the public rooms.
Warnings: A chat mod may give a warning for violating any of those rules. When a warning is given, all the members in the room are requested to heed the warning.
Kicks: A kick is given when a user fails to follow a moderator's warning. The user is removed from the room for a short time, and the kick is recorded by the moderator. A kick is equivalent to a Formal Warning in the forums.
Vacations: Repeatedly ignoring warnings and kicks will earn a user a vacation. Vacations start at 24 hours and can quickly increase after that. Don't press your luck any further.
Permaban: If a user continues to abuse their time in Live Chat, their privilege to use the feature will be removed. There's no coming back from a permaban.
Useful Information
Live Chat includes some useful tools if you know how to use them. Let's look at some of them.
Private Messaging: At any time you may open a private conversation with another member in chat. To open the conversation, click on a user's name and choose "Private Message". A tab will open at the top of the chat window where you may communicate privately.
Private Rooms: While in chat you may want to include several users in a private conversation. To do this, you can open a private room. To begin or join a room, you will need to type /join "My Room" (must have the " marks) with the My Room part being the name of your room. If you want to invite a user to your private room, type /invite "Username" (must have the " marks) and the person may join.
Note: Private rooms and messages are rarely actively moderated, but using them to harass other members or violate other site rules is not allowed and may be reported.
Ignore a User: Just like in the games and forums, certain users may frequently annoy you without breaking the guidelines. You do have the ability to ignore that user; type /ignore "Username" (must have the " marks) and you will not have to read what they type. If you wish to take them off your ignore list, type /unignore "Username". You are not allowed to ignore a chat moderator.
There are other commands, but many chat frequenters prefer to keep these private to "initiate" new visitors. (Or you could read this post to find them.) Be on the lookout for them when you drop in.
The CC Game Chat is where most site members interact with each other. Players typically use the game chat to:
Wish other players good luck
Announce any alliances
Discuss strategy with your teammates
Post who you are if you are account-sitting
Talk about whatever interests you
If you are new to the site, there are some basic instructions to using the Game Chat.
Singles Games:
You can type a comment in the Message box and it will be seen by anybody in the game.
If you would like to make a comment of strategy to yourself, just check the "Note to Self" box.
Team Games:
Your messages can be hidden to keep your comments between you and your teammate(s) to communicate your strategy privately, and they are not shared publicly after the game has ended. Make sure the box is checked to keep the chat private.
To post a message so all players can read it, uncheck the "Show this message to teammates only" box.
Diplomacy:
Rule #2 on the site states that all diplomatic discussions MUST take place within the Game Chat in English or a language all players can understand. This includes proposing alliances and discussing the strategies of those alliances. Keep this in mind because players who violate it may find themselves Blocked from playing with each other.
Account-Sitting:
Players are allowed to account-sit for others as long as they are not opponents within the game. When sitting for a player, you need to post who you are and how long you will be sitting for the player so that other players in the game are aware of who they are actually playing.
Being on another player's account for ANY reason other than taking turns when they are in danger of missing a turn is not allowed. Abuse of this privilege can be considered account sharing and could result in a Bust for both accounts.
Fog of War Games:
Using the game chat to announce where a player's territories and troops may (or may not ) be is NOT against the rules. It may come across as unfair or not in the spirit of the game, but feel free to find strategic applications of this non-rule.
Annoying Players:
Sometimes you will find yourself in a game with an annoying player. If you do not like their comments in the chat or their playing style, you can add that player to your foe list. Once on the list, you will no longer have to read their comments, and they will not be able to join future games with you if you joined the game first. To modify your Foe (and Friends) List, check out the Friends and Foe Page.
If a player's comments do not violate the rules posted below, then do not ask a moderator or administrator to intervene when a player annoys you. This includes curse words and foul language. They are allowed on this site and would be too difficult to moderate every one.
After you are eliminated or the game ends, you will have the opportunity to rate your opponent. Use the ratings and up to 4 tags to describe your opponent and warn/encourage future participants.
Chats of Games you are not in
It is typically advised to not post in the chats of games you are not playing. If you do wish to post in another player's game, please keep your comments limited to a Good Luck comment or a quick question. Spamming or trolling other player's games is not allowed.
Note: When writing a message in a game that you are not playing, the "Note to Self" button does not keep the message private.
Conquer Club takes a fairly liberal approach to what is said in Game Chats, but there are some deeds that should be dealt with by a moderator. If you encounter any of these violations, please open an Abuse Complaint in the Cheating & Abuse Forum.
Spamming/Trolling
Repeatedly posting the same or nonsense comments in the chat, especially if the person is not playing in the game.
Posting comments that violate the Spamming and Trolling rules from the Forum Guidelines.
Harassing
Banter and some trash talking IS allowed in the Game Chats, so don't waste time complaining about that.
You may not be used to hearing or reading those "four-letter words", but some people do and will use them. This isn't a reason to open a complaint about the player; just kindly ask them to stop or ignore them.
What is not allowed is any form of bigotry or other flames as outlined in the Forum Guidelines. Please report any such comments that you find offensive.
Rule Enforcement
Breaking the Game Chat rules will typically earn you a warning for your first offense.
Continually disregarding the rules will earn some time away ranging from short vacations to permanent bans depending on the nature and number of the violations.
Above all, Conquer Club is a casual gaming site for world domination. Use the game chat to strategically annihilate your opponents or to enjoy a casual conversation over a virtual cup of coffee (or tea).
