Play Marbles

Play Marbles offers a worldwide community site for players of every age, and every nationality. We have two primary and often conflicting goals in the service we provide for you, the members of the community; the first being to ensure that all members are free to express themselves within reason with as few restrictions as possible while nurturing an environment of fun and creativity, and the second is to protect the members of the community, to the best of our abilities, from infringement of copyright, discrimination, harassment, and prejudice.

All members of the Play Marbles community are expected to be familiar with these rules of etiquette and they will be enforced evenly and without bias in every situation which is brought to the attention of the administration regardless of the membership status of the user in question.

All Play Marbles members are requested to abide by the following code of conduct. All members are expected to behave with common sense and decency, just as you would in a face-to-face situation. Any inappropriate or offensive content will be deleted, and offenders may be banned.

This code of conduct covers all content posted by users on the Play Marbles Website; this includes forum postings, private messages, signature files, user-created Web sites, and user-created images.

More detailed rules are posted below. Obviously, these cannot cover every possible circumstance or eventuality, so Darkside Entertainment Ltd (the Forum Operators), reserve the right to amend the code of conduct, and/or take any action it deems appropriate at its sole discretion, without notice.

Please report any member whom you feel to be in violation of this code of conduct to the Forum Operators.

Prohibited Commentary

Prohibited commentary is typically considered to be inherently disrespectful, aggressive, or otherwise abusive.

We must insist that you refrain from comments which are racist, bigoted, or which otherwise offensively target a philosophy or religion. In addition we ask that our members avoid making offensive remarks based on gender or sexual preference and that you do not make any remark, comment or critique which is intended to be a direct insult to an individual, group, or genre of artwork submitted.

Members of the Play Marbles community may also be members of other Web communities and use other products and services. Please do not degrade or discredit other communities or products.

Hate propaganda is met with zero tolerance. Comments that are overly aggressive, personally insulting or needlessly abusive are also prohibited.

If you feel that you have been the target of harassment, personal insults or other severe behavior please notify the staff by using the official contact form.

Discouraged Commentary

Discouraged commentary is typically considered to have the potential to escalate into an aggressive or abusive situation.

While not strictly prohibited we must insist that all personal arguments, disagreements, and other volatile “personal” issues within be confined to private communications such as Notes, emails, or Instant Messaging programs. Likewise we discourage public accusations and other similar situations; please bring all issues of this nature to the attention of the staff by notifying us via the contact form.

Exploitive Commentary

Exploitive commentary is typically considered to be disruptive due to unusual or unique factors.

Do not 'spam' (send large numbers of identical notes or comments). Spamming is obnoxious and is typically used for self-promotion, or other unwanted advertising.

Do not 'flood' (place large numbers of comments rapidly on a single page, or craft a single comment which consumes a large amount of page space) the forums. Flooding usually disrupts page loading times and serves no useful purpose.

Mature Content

When we discuss mature content we are specifically referring to submissions which contain images, subject matter, or other themes which some viewers may find offensive, distasteful, or otherwise undesirable to view or to read. The most common 'undesired' viewing material may include, but is not limited to, images containing artistic nudity, large amounts of simulated blood and gore, or generally violent themes.

Play Marbles strictly prohibits the submission of materials classified as pornographic or obscene. There is no exception to this prohibition. Certain content may be deemed obscene by the administration and as such the staff reserves the right to remove such content immediately upon discovery. The administration reserves the sole right to review and classify questionable material as obscene or not obscene.

Forum Posting

In addition to the outlines in the above section entitled Prohibited Commentary and Exploitive Commentary we have a few additional policies regarding comments and posts within the Forum areas of Play Marbles.

• All threads started within a specific forum and all comments within those threads should be relevant to the forums Title. Do not post the same topic in multiple forums. If you are unsure of which forum a thread should go under, just state that in your post. Multiple posts are unnecessary and will be deleted.
• We encourage interactivity and we allow comments to be either positive or negative in nature providing that they remain constructive and promote a worthwhile dialogue.
• We insist that forum threads adhere to the same standards as the rest of the site in terms of what is considered acceptable subject matter (i.e. no racist threads, no sexual discussions, etc).
• Signatures should be no more than three lines.
• Images should be no more than 600×400 (units?), and no more than 100k
• Do not post messages in all caps or in excessively large fonts as this is considered to be “shouting”.

It is important to remember to be as clear in your intent as possible while communicating on the internet. Text communications do not afford a clear representation of sarcasm. Please use common sense when posting to avoid confusion. Threads which are misplaced, which contain inappropriate subject matter (such as sexual discussions), or which contain an undesirable number of insults or other violations of this etiquette policy will be locked and closed to further commentary.

Please take these rules seriously and try to respect the spirit in which they were created. Violations of the Terms of Service may result in a warning notification or may result in termination of your account and deletion of all your images.

Avatars

This section applies only to avatars which you personally use for your account. You may freely use material and resources with only the restrictions outlined as follows;

• Your avatar should not contain nudity of any sort.
• You may not use avatars specifically created by other users without their explicit permission.
• If your avatar contains a portion of a work made by another artist it will be removed by staff at the request of the original artist.
• In all other respects your avatar must conform to the guidelines set above in regards to hate propaganda.

Exploits, Vulnerabilities, and Site Abuse

The Play Marbles staff will not tolerate attempts to exploit or disrupt the layout, navigability, or general use of the site. Such actions disrupt the ability of the community to access and review artwork and are considered Site Abuse. We will issue no warnings for violations of this nature. Violators will be banned immediately upon the discovery of the disruption or abuse.

Spam and commercial usage

• Do not use the Play Marbles community for the purpose of ’spam’ or excessive advertisements! This includes direct emails to other members.
• Please refrain from posting press releases or other commercial material, unless you have been given permission in advance from the Forum Operators.
• Marketing surveys are not allowed, unless you have been given permission in advance from the Forum Operators.
• Do not post other people’s email addresses or other personal details without their permission.

Changes in Etiquette Policy

As new situations come to our attention we may find it necessary to alter or expand upon the policies stated here with little or no notification and any such changes may be enforced in full against previously existing submissions or behavior.

Alterations of policy may be announced through either the Play Marbles Status Forum or through other Announcements and News Topics.

Appeals and Inquiries

Appeals, inquiries, or questions concerning submission removals, violation notices, account suspensions, or other administrative actions should be addressed to the official contact form

Your Safety

• Darkside Entertainment Limited employees will never ask you for your password, email address, or other account information. Do not be misled if you are contacted by someone pretending to be from Darkside Entertainment Limited.

That’s all; please have fun on our website and welcome to the Play Marbles community!

Many Thanks,
The Play Marbles team