02-20-2021, 22:17:00 PM
DA RULES
The Trouble Cube is a fun and casual hangout space — now here are some rules to make sure it stays that way.(Most subforums also have their own rules, make sure to read these too!)
1. Be kind!
No hate speech, no discrimination, no homophobia, no defaming, no toxicity, just use your brain on what's acceptable or not. Our moderators are picked because we trust that they are capable of discerning good behaviour from bad, and because they've shown they can be trusted. Thus, joining up here means that you agree to them having the rights to ask you to follow the rules and to use the controls at hand to deal with problems.
This means no racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, etc. comments or 'jokes' that are discriminatory. We have a member base of people from all around the world and all walks of life and we want them to feel welcome. Such posts only breed hate.
In short: Do not be a dick.
2. No NSFW content allowed!
If you post NSFW in any thread, (including obvious sexual talk/jokes. We have underaged peeps come around from time to time, keep it clean) it will be deleted on sight and there will be a temporary ban or warning, depending on the moderator's decision. No, we will not be adding a private age-gated NSFW subforum. It's not worth it.
This also goes for avatars. NSFW images for avatars are not allowed, and this includes "cropped" avatars clearly taken from NSFW source images (e.g. ahegao faces). Users with such avatars will be warned and have the avatar(s) deleted.
In short: Trouble Cube is approximately PG-13, except you can say "fuck". Occasional suggestive jokes are fine, outright porn is not. If you're not sure if something's appropriate or not, you can ask a mod.
3. Political talk
In the hellscape world that is the 2020s, a blanket "no politics" rule isn't the simple solution it once was. We don't claim to be "apolitical" or "neutral" and we don't expect you to be either, but we're not about politics.
Improbable Island put this pretty well in their updated Code of Conduct:
Quote:It is now no longer possible to be politically neutral and to still be welcoming towards a wide range of players, because the rights of those players to live their lives and to see characters like them represented in games is now "political." We are now at a stage where inclusiveness is deemed "political" by an increasingly radicalized right wing, and we can no longer in good conscience claim to be "neutral" or "apolitical" given the modern implications of the terms.
This does not mean "turn Banter into /r/politics" or "constantly post memes about how much conservatives suck." We will continue to treat people with kindness, understanding and empathy, as specified in Rule 1 - but we will no longer claim to be neutral or apolitical, because what neutrality boils down to these days is support for a status quo that is increasingly unfit for purpose.
4. Depression, Suicide, etc Talk
While we do allow people to vent and angst fairly freely, don't overdo it. If you find yourself coming here day after day just to complain about your life in general, it might be that you need to seek external help for whatever plagues you. We are not qualified to say whether you need help or to give it if it is needed. At most we can give sympathy and support, but both do eventually run out if it is all you want when you come here.
If you are in crisis - suicidal, homicidal or any other type of panicked situation - please seek immediate help from professionals. There are many, many places that are open to helping others. Google can very quickly and easily hook you up with places to seek that help, whether it be a crisis or suicide hotline, or something else. Please, if you ever are in need of such things, do not hesitate to make use of them!
In short: Your fellow players are not your therapists.
5. Illegal activity:
We're not cops, but we also don't want legal issues shutting down the entire board. Do not do or encourage illegal activity.
6. Trigger talk
People have triggers, so please be sensitive to others' mental trauma by not making fun of them and not being a jerk by posting something related to it without warning so that they can leave. Most of the most common traumas and triggers are, by nature, against the laws of the Trouble Cube anyway; however some are not and are quite common - dogs, snakes, spiders, clowns, etc - so if you know that someone in the conversation has a trigger towards something in particular, please post a warning before the relevant content, and consider hiding it behind spoiler tags or in a folder.
We're not taking responsibility for making sure nobody ever gets triggered, ever — literally anything can be a trigger, after all — but we're not going to let people be blatantly reckless with content they could have easily predicted might trigger someone.
7. Source your art
If you post art created by someone other than yourself (including avatar makers like picrews), link back to the person who did create it. If you use such art as an avatar, put the link in the field provided in your profile. (If it's another forum user, you can just write their username.) "Booru"s, Pinterest, Weheartit, and "found it on Google" are not sources. Proper sources include art sites like Deviantart/Pixiv/etc., social media accounts like Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram. ect (make sure it's the artist's own account and not a "reposting" account!), and Picrews/other avatar makers. If you're not sure of the source, reverse image searching is often helpful, or seeing if the artist signed the image. And if the artist states they don't want their art reposted or used as an avatar, respect their wishes and don't do it.
8. No drama importation
Do not pick fights on Trouble Cube based on stuff that happened on other platforms, such as Discord, Twitter, or TV Tropes. If the stuff is important enough for you to still care, consider instead bringing it to a mod. In complete detail, please.
8b. No drama exportation, either
This should be obvious.
9. Don't do stuff that makes us put up more rules
If, before performing an action, you think to yourself anything like "oh man they are definitely going to explicitly forbid this after I do it" — that means you already know it's a bad idea, so don't do it.
This means no digging for loopholes, too.
10. Don't misuse sockpuppet/alt accounts
Regarding sockpuppets and alternate accounts: don't misuse them, plain and simple. Simply using a different username for the sake of a single post here and there or for a game is fine, but using them to genuinely mislead other users is a no-no, and evading bans on one account by using another is exactly as bad an idea as it sounds. Also don't use socks to take up 2 or more slots for a game. We can see if two or more accounts are owned by the same person, so don't try to fool us. Use this power with care.