Anne's Rules
1: No characters created by Anne McCaffrey can be used, in any way.
2: No religion, magic, or war on Pern.
3: Other universes, whether created by Anne McCaffrey or other people, will never be involved with Pern.
4: There are only five dragon colors: gold, bronze, brown, blue, and green. There are no other colors, and there are no sport dragons.
5: Golds will only Impress to women. Bronzes will only Impress to men.
6: Benden Weyr and Ruatha Hold are off limits.
Our Rules
1: No spamming or advertisements (unless approved). This should be a given.
2: Be courteous and respectful of everyone at all times. This rule is very important and will be strictly enforced. Immature behavior or discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.
3: No one under the age of 16 will be admitted. Mirror Lake is an R-rated Weyr. We are a mature community, and adult concepts and situations are likely to come up in stories. This is rather hard to avoid, given the nature of mating flights and the powerful effect these events have for everyone involved. That said...
4: No pornography. R-rated and X-rated are two very different things. Descriptions of sexual situations are acceptable to a point, but they cannot be overly graphic. Determining exactly what is and is not acceptable is more up to intuition than anything else. Just remember to keep it tasteful, and when in doubt, err on the side of caution.
5: All members are required to make a minimum of one post per real-time (not Pernese) month. This may seem a little more strict than some other weyrs, but when you think about it, one post a month is really not bad. It tells us you're alive and helps keep activity from falling into nothing. There isn't any rule about how long the post needs to be, so if you're in a crunch you can post something short. Anyone who does not meet this requirement will be put on the inactive list for one month. After that, if they remain inactive, they'll be removed from the member list and would have to re-apply to start playing again. Exceptions to this rule are those members who are on a Leave of Absence. Anyone who needs to take some time off due to real life constraints can put themselves on LOA for however much time they will need. However, LOAs aren't indefinite. If someone on LOA does not return by one month after they said they would, they get bumped to inactive.
6: Anyone playing a ranking character is required to make two posts per real-time month, one of which must involve the ranker. If a member has more than one ranking character, each one must be posted for at least once per month, however, more than one character can be involved in a single post. In other words, if I had 3 ranking characters, I could make one post involving one of them and another with the other two to make the 2-post requirement and still get in all 3 ranking characters. It can get to be a lot of work to maintain multiple rankers, which is why we don't generally recommend it.
7: Board Members must make a minimum of 3 posts per real-time month. Requirements for ranking characters they might have still apply, but other than that member posting requirements do not stack. A board member with a ranking character still only needs to post 3 times a month.
8: Nothing can be involved in stories that would not exist on Pern. Obviously, this would include things like firearms or stereos, but it also pertains to made-up creatures or vocabulary not in the Pernese dialect. Small mistakes are understandable, just so long as they are corrected after the member is informed of them.
9: You can only write for your own characters and NPCs unless you receive permission from another character's owner to do otherwise.
10: You must have read at least one book in the Pern series, and be familiar with the basics of Pernese culture to post here.
Posting Guidelines
When writing dragon thoughts, mark them this way: }: I'm hungry. :{
For human thoughts: **We can go hunting soon. Just be patient.**
The begining of every post needs to contain certain information: what characters are involved, what day(s) the post takes place, where it takes place and a very brief summary of what is happening within the post. The way you should present this information is as follows:
Who: Nalia, T'zair and NPC Lena
What: Nalia and T'zair argue about Lena's punishment
Where: Mirror Lake Weyr
When: Month 2, day 15
You should also include a signature at the end of the post which states your name and e-mail, as well as what characters you own and any dragons they may ride. Something like this:
Fred, dragonlover@hotmail.com
Player of: Felina and
D'nor, rider of bronze Lorth
Board of Directors Rules and Requirements
BoD Responsibilities
All members of the Board of Directors, as stated in the rules, are required to make a minimum of three posts per month. However, it is strongly encouraged that BoD members try to exceed the requirement, as they should be some of the most active writers in the Weyr. In addition, all BoD members have the responsibility of creating plotlines and keeping them going. If member participation falls low, it is the BoD's responsibility to actively encourage members to get involved in both Weyr-wide and smaller scale stories.
All BoD members are required to vote on any important issues which may come up regarding a specific BoD decision (ie: changes to the rules, adding or removing members, beginging a new Weyr-wide plot, etc).
BoD members are allowed to share in the writing of any BoD-controlled NPCs.
In addition to the general requirements that all BoD members have, there are also specific positions in the BoD that have their own requirements. Some of these positions are currently combined, as we don't yet have enough regular members to justify more than three BoD members. In addition, other positions may open up in the future.
Founder: The founder is required to keep track of the rest of the BoD and make sure that they are meeting their requirements. In the end, the founder has the most responsibility in the Weyr, because if anything goes wrong, it is up to them to make sure that it gets fixed. Any work in maintaining the Weyr that is not done by the other BoD members needs to be taken up by the founder, so they must keep track of a number of misc. things. The founder also maintains the club e-mail address, so any and all important e-mail that needs to be forwarded to the other BoD members (new character sheets, etc) is the founder's responsibility, as is sending out any e-mails to the regular members that aren't part of the other BoD members' responsibilities. There are a thousand and one things that the founder has to do and keep track of, and it would be difficult to list them all here, but basically, they keep everything running in whatever ways that they need to.
Webmaster: The webmaster is required to keep the website updated in whatever ways are necessary. This includes character and member information, news, current rules, and everything in between.
Regulator: The regulator keeps track of all club activity and makes note of whenever a member breaks one of the rules. If this occurs, the regulator saves whatever information they need as proof of the incident (either a saved e-mail or copied portion of a post, generally), then contacts the member who violated the rule and informs them of what they did. They also send all of the required information to the founder, so that she is aware of what is going on. If anything other than a verbal warning is required, the regulator must present the information and evidence to the entire BoD, who will then decide together what course of action to take (demotion, removal of character, banning member, etc).
Requirements Tracker: The requirements tracker keeps track of all of the member posts. He/she keeps a running count of all of the posts each member has made per month, as well as which characters have appeared in each post. Every week, they e-mail the founder with an update on this information, making note of which members and which characters are not meeting their posting requirements. The founder can then send out this information in the Weekly Weyr Report.
Advertiser/PR Person: The advertiser has the job of keeping the roleplaying community aware of Mirror Lake's existence. They post ads and actively recruit new members, on both a large and small scale. In addition, they field any questions that potential members may have about the club and the Weyr.
BoD Voting Rules
If an issue is put before the BoD for voting, it must receive a majority vote to pass. In the event of a tie, the founder's vote determines the outcome.
Issues requiring a BoD vote include (but are not limited to):
Adding or removing a club member
Adding or removing a character
Promoting a current character to a ranking position
Beginning a new Weyr-wide plot
Adding, removing or changing a rule
Adding or removing a BoD member (the member in question would not participate)
Anything influential that may happen to BoD-controlled NPCs (such as death or pregnancy)
Taking disciplinary action against a member
Anything else that has an important effect upon the club