The Network is a private electronic service, and not a public chat network. Your right to speak freely here must be exercised with courtesy and self-restraint. When you utilize a component of The Network (be it a chat room, forum, etc), it is the same as entering any real privately-owned facility, like a restaurant or shopping mall. The manners and laws of real life apply the same here as in the real world, and we have the right to remove you if you choose to exceed the Acceptable Uses outlined below.

We wish to promote communication in an atmosphere of mutual respect. While not always possible, we strive to create a safe, mostly family-friendly atmosphere of open discussion and socialization. We remind all of our users that you are entirely responsible and liable for all activities conducted through your usage of The Network. We require you to follow, at all times, the following Standards of Acceptable Use:

WE DO NOT TOLERATE HARASSMENT

We welcome people of all ages, races, religions, genders, national origins, sexual orientations and points of view. We do not tolerate expressions of bigotry, hatred, harassment or abuse, nor will we tolerate threats of harm to anyone.

Because we encourage discussion and exchange of ideas, we do not allow threatening, defamatory, abusive, tasteless or indecorous statements. For the same reason, we do not allow sexually explicit material in conversations, room titles, room topics or nicknames.

We invite people to open public rooms to faciliate their own topics of conversation, outside of the lounge(s) we provide. Creators (Operators) of such rooms must follow our Standards of Acceptable Use in choosing a room name, topic, and content. We reserve the right to limit the number of redundant open rooms, rooms not starting with a letter in the alphabet, rooms with extraneous characters such as !@#$%&, etc. or extremely long room names. Operators may use the /kick command only if a participant violates one of the Standards of Acceptable Use.

WE ALLOW ONLY LEGAL ACTIVITIES

Although this seems obvious, we will not allow any illegal activities. Specifically, we disallow advocation of illegal conduct or participation in illegal or fraudulent schemes. You cannot use our chat rooms (channels) to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted material, including photos, artwork, text, recordings, designs, or computer programs. Importantly, though, is that you are allowed to DISCUSS material, but you are not allowed to DISTRIBUTE it. Distribution includes the revealing of download site addresses, posting of URLs, and otherwise revealing of third party distribution sites of such copyrighted material. In addition, we do not allow the trading or swapping of images that are sexually explicit, obscene or vulgar. Because there can be no way of ensuring compliance with this section, rooms titled for the purpose of exchanging or swapping images are not allowed. We will not let you impersonate someone else, including one of our trained staff members.

Stalking of others, in our chat rooms or in another manner, is a serious offense. In many areas, such behavior is considered to be a criminal act. We reserve the right to release information to the proper authorities, because of a violation of our standards, or because of unlawful acts, if the information is subpoenaed, and if we deem it necessary and/or appropriate.

We cannot guarantee the content of comments that you will receive while you are online. Other people's comments may be offensive, harmful or inaccurate.

While we conduct chats on a broad range of topics, we do not offer professional advice of any kind. Staffmembers and other discussion participants speak from their own experience and voice their own opinions when helpful for conducting a conversation. Staffmembers claim no professional or expertise or authority, and we claim no responsibility for their remarks.

WE ENCOURAGE OPEN DISCUSSION AND DISALLOW DISRUPTIVE COMMUNICATION

We do not allow posting or use of computer programs that contain destructive features, such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc. We also do not allow any unauthorized bots or unattended scripts on the Network, whether they are benign or destructive in intent. If you wish to run a bot on the Network, you must petition for its authorization to the Director of Network Operations, proving its benign nature, and also assuring such automated systems will not appear in any official A Call To Duty Roleplaying operations channel (including the general lounges).

We also discourage disruptive conduct: persistent off-topic comments in a topic-oriented chat session, statements that incite others to violate the Standards of Acceptable Use, or the physical act of "scrolling" -- repeatedly hitting the Return key in a chat session -- all are considered disruptive.

The use of ASCII art or macros that are excessively long (more than two lines of text), and the use of pop-ups or sounds in a repetitive manner that disrupts the topic or conversation in a room, are not allowed. Users inviting others to visit Web sites with content that do not comply with these Standards are considered to be in violation of our Standards.

Idling, or staying in a channel without saying or doing anything, is considered highly rude. Idling in the lounges for more than one (1) hour is prohibited, and will cause the Channel Management Bot to kick you. Idling in the ITOH Game Rooms for more than two (3) hours is prohibited, and will cause the Channel Management Bot to kick you. This allows enough time for most background transcript recorders to catch a full two-hour mission, plus anything interesting before and afterwards. Idling in an unmanaged channel (e.g. OOC channels, OOG channels, or channels of your own making) for more than three (3) hours is highly frowned upon and is grounds for you to be considered running an unauthorized bot on the network.

WE DO NOT ALLOW UNAUTHORIZED COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY

We encourage communication between our members, but posting or transmitting of unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or any other forms of solicitation to other users, using any aspect of the Network, except in those areas that maybe designated for such a purpose, is not allowed.

Your right to privacy is addressed in our Privacy statement.

We reserve the right to immediately terminate or suspend access to the Network for conduct that we believe interferes with other peoples' enjoyment. We also reserve the right to amend or change these guidelines at any time and without notice.

When in doubt about appropriate behavior here, remember that the Network is an electronic world, but the people here are real, and come from diverse backgrounds of beliefs, viewpoints, and feelings.

MOTION-PICTURE STANDARDS

Currently at In The Time Of Heroes, we are one (1) rating standard for our services. As time goes on this will be further defined. Please refer to the MPAA website: http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/about/index.htm

OUT OF CHARACTER (OOC) Rooms - General Non-Mission-Related Channels

MISSION (Game Rooms) - In Game-Related Channels

RATING PG-13 - PG-13:"Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some Material May Be Inappropriate For Children Under 13."

PG-13 is thus a sterner warning to parents to determine for themselves the attendance in particular of their younger children as they might consider some material not suited for them. Parents, by the rating, are alerted to be very careful about the attendance of their under-teenage children.

A PG-13 film is one which, in the view of the Rating Board, leaps beyond the boundaries of the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, sensuality, language, or other contents, but does not quite fit within the restricted R category. Any drug use content will initially require at least a PG-13 rating. In effect, the PG-13 cautions parents with more stringency than usual to give special attention to this film before they allow their 12-year olds and younger to attend.

If nudity is sexually oriented, the film will generally not be found in the PG-13 category. If violence is too rough or persistent, the film goes into the R (restricted) rating. A film's single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, shall initially require the Rating Board to issue that film at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive must lead the Rating Board to issue a film an R rating, as must even one of these words used in a sexual context. These films can be rated less severely, however, if by a special vote, the Rating Board feels that a lesser rating would more responsibly reflect the opinion of American parents.

PG-13 places larger responsibilities on parents for their children's moviegoing. The voluntary rating system is not a surrogate parent, nor should it be. It cannot, and should not, insert itself in family decisions that only parents can, and should, make. Its purpose is to give prescreening advance informational warnings, so that parents can form their own judgments. PG-13 is designed to make these parental decisions easier for films between PG and R.