The Otherkin Community:Terms of Service
From The Otherkin Community
The Otherkin Community ("The Community" with a capital "C") allows any users to join subject to the following Terms of Service (TOS). In the following terms, "website" will refer to The Otherkin Community websites (all sites residing on the domains www.otherkincommunity.com/, www.otherkincommunity.net and www.otherkincommunity.org), and "site" is a synonym for the term "website". The term "user" refers to you, the visitor, both before and after registration. The term "member" refers to you, the user, after agreeing to these terms, but also implies the term "user". The term "administrator" refers to any and all members of the website that have direct control over the community and its members. Note that "moderator" differs from "administrator" in that "moderators" do not have complete control over member activity and only 'moderate' the site and that when referring to "moderators", "administrators" are also implied. Where the Community is referred to a separate entity from the members, "administrators" and "moderators" are implied. You, the user, upon registering with The Otherkin Community, agree to the following terms.
Note that The Otherkin Community holds the right to change the TOS at any time in agreement with Section 6. Modification of these terms is not justification for early account termination or punishment for actions done before their appearance within the TOS. As of 02 Jan 2008, portions of The Otherkin Community Rules & Regulations have been merged with the TOS.
Contents |
1. MEMBER CONDUCT
a. The Otherkin Community will not be held responsible for the opinions of its members. You, the user, are directly responsible for any illegal or unacceptable content contained within posts. The Otherkin Community will cooperate with any and all authorities and affected third parties in order to provide information relating to the poster of the illegal or copyrighted material.
b. Posts made by users represent the views of the author and may not be held by The Otherkin Community; posts made by moderators may also reflect personal views not held by the Community as an organization. Only official documents signed by The Otherkin Community reflect the organization's views, unless otherwise stated by a moderator.
c. Though moderators of The Otherkin Community will attempt to remove all unacceptable material as defined in Section 4, moderators of the Community will be unable to review every post made by its members. The Otherkin Community will not be held responsible for any emotional or psychological harm done by unacceptable posts by other users.
d. Members agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or other materials that may violate United States laws or be damaging to the stability of the Community and its members. The Otherkin Community reserves the right to ban any users in violation of this term.
e. Members agree to adhere to The Otherkin Community Rules & Regulations.
2. CHAT ROOM CONDUCT
a. The Otherkin Community's IRC network is a privilege. If misused, the user will lose all privilege associated with the service.
b. Users should use the appropriate channels when talking on official Community channels. Those channels are outlined within The Otherkin Community Rules & Regulations document.
c. Users should use limited profanity within official Community channels, as no word filters are in place unless the receiving user's client software supports it.
d. Spamming, posting the same message over certain intervals and advertising are not allowed in official Community chat rooms.
e. The #practice channel should never be used for sparring or fighting.
f. Members may register their own channels (users may host their own channels but ChanServ will not allow channel registrations to users who have not registered accounts with The Otherkin Community). Member channels do not need to follow any Community rules except those listed within this term (2f). There must be no profanity in channel names and the channel must not encourage any illegal activities, or contain any illegal material.
g. Chat bots or any other types of automated scripts are not allowed within the official Community channels. Keeper, the official moderation and help bot, is the only exception.
h. Do not spam bot commands in the chat in an attempt to flood the room with messages.
i. Bots and scripts are allowed in non-official channels if you have received permission from the channel owner. Should you create a bot or script, it must not flood the server with requests.
j. Users may not use nicks that (a) belong to a registered member of the Community other than themselves, (b) contain offensive words or phrases or (c) attempt to impersonate an individual, member or otherwise, including popular figures such as celebrities and political figures, or common terms such as "God".
3. COMMUNITY RIGHTS
a. The Otherkin Community is NOT a religious community or cult. All members contain the right to believe as they wish, though they do NOT contain the right to exercise their beliefs in the form of preaching, prayer, destructive practice, or any attempts to convert other members to their religion.
b. The Community makes no attempt to sway members toward any specific religion or belief system. The Community is simply trying to convey information relating to the topics of "Otherkin" and "Metaphysics", as well as developing a scientific community. How members choose to interpret this information is solely the decision of the user, though all attempts will be made to provide a solid point with little room for multiple interpretations.
c. The Otherkin Community is not attempting to build up any sort of "cult", "army", or any group with the intention of reforming using malicious or destructive means. The Otherkin Community is by no means responsible for any ideas or intentions resulting from the views of its members.
4. MEMBER SECURITY
The Otherkin Community will never reveal member information to Third Parties without consent of the owner. The community has the obligation to reveal member information to authorities with a proper warrant without permission from the member.
a. Member passwords are guaranteed secure, encrypted with MD5 hash, which is not possible to decrypt. No passwords are logged and any attempts to retrieve member passwords will result in the retrieval of hashed information.
b. All member information is stored in an unencrypted database unless otherwise noted. Though this information is not given out freely, The Otherkin Community is not responsible for any information retrieved through forceful and/or unlawful means. All attempts to reduce these occurances have been taken, however they can never be fully prevented.
c. The website uses cookies to store login information for users who wish to stay logged on indefinitely and for additional user preferences. They contain no personal information or malicious data and are stored under the name of 'otherkincomm'.
d. Administrators or moderators of The Otherkin Community will never ask a member for specific personal information such as Credit/Debit Card Numbers, Social Security Numbers, Phone Numbers, Addresses, etc. All information requested outside website forums should be reported immediately to a Community administrator or moderator so the appropriate action can be taken against the user.
e. The user's IP (Internet Protocol) Address is logged for each post and upon each entry into the chat in order to help enforce community rules. This information will not be used maliciously or given out to any third parties.
5. UNACCEPTABLE MATERIAL
Members of the community agree not to post any unacceptable material on this website, as defined in this section. Failure to agree to these terms will result in account suspension and/or other legal actions based on Third Party assessment. The Otherkin Community agrees to cooperate with all involved Third Party members and proper authorities for the given situation.
a. Illegal and/or copyrighted material can NOT be posted on the community forums or other public areas (such as the wiki) without express permission from the copyright holder. Illegal material may not be posted at all. Illegal material can result in account suspension depending on severity (as assessed by the community and its members) and legal action from Third Parties and proper authorities.
b. Sexually-explicit material does not have a place in The Otherkin Community. Posts found to contain sexually-explicit material will be immediately deleted. Sexually-explicit material includes photographs, drawings, sounds, video, and other types of media clips depicting sexual scenes. Note that material such as erotic art and photography, though not sexually explicit, should not be posted outside the 'Expressions' forums due to younger members.
c. Sexual harassment of other members is not allowed. Doing so may result in immediate ban. Sexual harassment includes words and/or phrases, images (including ASCII images; that is, images formed out of characters, such as letters, numbers and symbols), photographs, drawings, sounds, video and other types of media clips.
d. Abuse of your right to upload files to The Otherkin Community will result in termination of that right. That includes uploading harmful or unlawful software, illegal/copyrighted material, sexually-explicit material, or other unacceptable material as defined in this section. Serious offenses may result in account termination.
6. PUNISHMENT & ACCOUNT TERMINATION
The Otherkin Community reserves the right to suspend and/or terminate your account due to any violations of the TOS. "Suspension" refers to temporary banning of a member, and "termination" refers to the permanent ban [and censoring] of the offending member's account. Accounts on the Community will never be permanently deleted. In select cases, the offender will be turned over to the proper authorities or affected third parties.
a. The Otherkin Community has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and cruelty in the Community forums or any other public service.
b. The Otherkin Community has the right to suspend a specific IP (Internet Protocol) Address, or range of IP Addresses, to ensure the safety and stability of the Community. Repeated registrations or attacks from IP Addresses within a certain area may result in that entire area being banned from The Otherkin Community services.
c. The Otherkin Community will exercise the right, if needed, to suspend and deny all further services it provides for violations of The Otherkin Community TOS.
7. CONTENT SUBMISSION
Any participation in any public services offered by The Otherkin Community, including posts within The Otherkin Community Forums and chat discussions, are considered to be a donation of "content" to The Otherkin Community. The term "information" as used within SECTION 7 of this document refers to both content and information provided by the user, so long as that information does not contain personal information without consent of the individual.
a. The Otherkin Community holds the right to retain any and all information indefinitely, or until it sees fit.
b. The Otherkin Community may redistribute this information in any form, including publications, with respect to the user's privacy. In most cases, consent will be required from the user before any publication is made.
c. The user will retain the copyright to all submitted content, however the user grants permission to The Otherkin Community to distribute such information without royalties or fees.
8. MODIFICATION OF TERMS OF SERVICE
The Otherkin Community holds the right to modify the Terms of Service whenever fit with the agreement of all Community administrators. Members can not be held responsible for actions committed before the violated term was listed in the new TOS, and the new TOS is not justification for early termination or suspension. Members will be notified of each change made to the Terms of Service on the community website. Failure to notify will exempt existing members until notification has been made. Future members will not receive exemptions since these terms are displayed before registration.
Upon announcement of the new Terms of Service, members must either (a) agree to the new Terms of Service or (b) request that their account be terminated within fourteen (14) days of the new Terms of Service. If the account remains active fourteen (14) days after the announcement of the new terms, the member will have accepted and will be bound to the new Terms of Service. Should the member decide to terminate his/her account within the fourteen (14) day period, the new terms will not be effective on his/her account until the time that the member decides to re-activate the account, in which case he/she will have agreed to the new terms.
BY USING ANY SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE OTHERKIN COMMUNITY, YOU AGREE TO AND ARE BOUND BY THE ABOVE TERMS OF SERVICE. VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS WILL RESULT IN SEVERE PENALTIES RANGING FROM ACCOUNT SUSPENSION/TERMINATION TO MAXIMUM PROSECUTION UNDER UNITED STATES OR ANY APPLICABLE LAW. ALL MATERIALS AND ARTICLES ON THE OTHERKIN COMMUNITY, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, INCLUDING GRAPHICS AND CONTENT ARE PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT LAW.
