Rules
A more in-depth description of our rules and what they mean
Rule 1
Keep a bit of common sense in the server.
Don't be rude towards other people.
Don't attack, harass, or bait others for any reason.
Don't dox, troll, or threaten others for any reason.
Don't excessively swear or use any slurs.
Don't ping people for no reason.
Don't spam or use channels for the wrong topic.
Don't add roles that don't apply to you.
Don't mini-mod others.
Follow Discord's ToS and Community Guidelines.
This rule is a basic "golden rule" rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated and there shouldn't be any issues. Since there are subsections of this rule, we will go over each of them individually.
Don't be rude to other people.
What it means: This is by far the most important part of this rule. Treating others with respect and kindness is the best way we can build a healthy, growing, and fun community for everyone.
Don't attack, harass, or bait others for any reason.
What it means: Calling other people rude names, attacking/baiting/making fun of others over their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, disabilities, or genetics are all not allowed on this server. Even if the user says it's "just a joke," their "joke" still breaks this rule. Baiting is the act of taunting or annoying someone deliberately to get a certain response out them. Baiting for the sake of trolling is not allowed on our server.
Don't dox, troll, or threaten others for any reason.
What it means: Doxxing is when a user threatens or completes the action of releasing private information about another user without their permission. We do not allow doxxing on our server, as well as general trolling or threats towards and individual, group, or the server as a whole.
Don't excessively swear or use any slurs.
What it means: The occasional swear is okay, but people that swear in almost every message they send is not a good look for a public server and we should all aim to be above that. Slurs of any kind are also not allowed under this rule.
Don't ping people for no reason.
What it means: Pinging people that just sent a message in the chat or for no good reason is just not needed and can sometimes be annoying to the person being pinged. This rule helps to prevent future arguments over pinging people. When using Discord's quote feature, be sure that you aren't excessively pinging people too.
Don't spam or use channels for the wrong topic.
What it means: Spamming is the repetition of a word or line typed out by a user or group of users using a chat system. We also consider multiple short line messages in a row as spam on the server. Adding nothing to the conversation by just saying the same phrase every couple hours is also not allowed under this rule. Also make sure that you are posting content in the correct channel. The #welcome channel and each channel's description outline what type of content is allowed to be posted in that specific channel.
Don't add roles that don't apply to you.
What it means: Adding roles for instruments that you don't play, places you don't live, or positions you don't hold are not allowed under this rule. We use the honor system on this server in terms of self-reporting your own roles, but if it becomes blatantly obvious that you do not have the proper roles set, that is where this rule steps into play.
Don't mini-mod others.
What it means: While we appreciate the help, the act of mini-moderation can come off as rude or annoying to others. Mini-modding is when a user who is not a moderator acts like they are one and tries to tell others what to do as if they have the full right to do so. Most issues with mini-modding tend to occur when those users consistently tell others what to do in a condescending way, those users are not presently part of the conversation but try to jump in and tell others what to do, or multiple users repeat the same thing to other users in the chat telling them what to do. Please refrain from doing this very much. If you have the urge to mini-mod, try to either do it kindly (ex. "hey maybe we should move this conversation to X), or ping the Mods for help.
Follow Discord's ToS and Community Guidelines.
Rule 2
The discussion of activities illegal to those under 18 years of age and NSFW topics are not allowed. This includes sexual content, drug usage, alcohol, blood/gore, and other activities related to them.
What it means: This rule is to prevent the discussion of illegal underage activities. Even though a good number of the members on the server are at or above the age of 18, we still have a good portion of our membership that is below that age. Discussing NSFW topics in our server can also get us removed from Discord's official partner program since we are a public server. While the age of consent is under 18 years of age in most of the US, discussion of sexual content is not allowed on our server. Images that contain any nudity or inappropriate references are not allowed on the server. Items that are not allowed to be discussed include, but are not limited to:
Pornography
Sexual Intercourse
Tobacco
Marijuana
Other illegal substances
Vaping, Juuls, and E-cigs
Alcohol use
Blood/Gore
Rule 3
Images and expanded links that are not related to an ongoing discussion are only allowed in #media.
Rule 4
Posting "leaks" of anything relating to a marching band or drum corps is not allowed. Leaks are considered to be details, like show themes, music, uniform styles, etc., that have not been officially announced by a band or corps.
What it means: Marching band and drum corps leaks are not allowed on the server. Leaks can be considered rumors or unconfirmed information about a band or corps, their admin teams, their repertoire of their upcoming show, show theme, a prop, a costume/uniform, or anything else that is not officially released by the band or corps.
Rule 5
Solicitation of any kind, both directly on the server or in DMs, is not allowed unless you have received permission from a moderator. This can include sending non-partnered Discord server invites, asking for/offering services or content including audition packets, requesting leaks, and other related activities.
Rule 6
Statements and discussions that are prone to arguments ("is marching band a sport," "instrument x is better than y," politics, etc.) are not allowed.
What it means: In order to keep the server open and welcoming to all, as well as keep the majority of the topics related to Marching Band, we do not allow controversial topics to be discussed on the server. Some common topics from past incidents that would break these rules include:
Is marching band a sport?
Politics
Apple vs. Android
Other large scale debates with personal attacks being thrown
Just because a political or other rule-breaking discussion is not becoming hostile does not automatically mean it is allowed on the server. Remember that while your views might differ from other peoples, we are all on this server for one collective reason: Marching Band.
Rule 7
The posting of full show videos from copyrighted competitions (DCI, BOA, USBands, etc.) or rehearsals (both open and closed), including video drives and normal video links, is not allowed, unless they are publicly posted by a corps or its sponsor (Vic Firth, Yamaha, etc.).
Rule 8
Please refrain from asking the community about one's ability to march with any given medical complication. These types of questions belong in the hands of medical professionals and corps staff.
Rules Clause
All rules apply in all of the text and voice channels on the server. Breaking our rules may warrant a warning, mute, kick, or ban depending on the severity. All bans are IP-bans. All bans are final unless a ban appeal is accepted through the ban appeal process. Moderators have the right to ban a user after a certain number of mod-log entries or verbal warnings, no matter the severity of the last rule infraction. Moderators are allowed to use their own judgement in determining what punishment to take when a rule has been violated.
These are all things that don't necessarily fit into any of the rules listed above, but still need to be stated. Since there are different parts to this paragraph, we will go over each of them individually.
All rules apply in all of the text and voice channels on the server.
What it means: All of the rules that are listed above apply to both text and voice channels that we have here on the server, no exceptions.
Breaking our rules may warrant a warning, mute, kick, or ban depending on the severity.
What it means: Any time you break a rule, you are subject to any form of punishment that we have here on the server, which includes a verbal warning, bot warning, mute, kick, or ban, which depends on the infraction and what the specific circumstances around it were.
All bans are IP-bans.
What it means: By default set by Discord, all of the bans that we make are IP-based bans, meaning that if you circumvent a ban, you are in violation of Discord's ToS.
All bans are final unless a ban appeal is accepted through the ban appeal process.
What it means: We have not and will not accept any ban appeals for any reason. Allowing ban appeals defeats the purpose of the ban and weakens the punishment level of a ban. Before each time someone gets banned, unless they are a very obvious troll/spammer, a moderator goes into our chat and asks if its justified to ban that individual. We take bans very seriously and try to rarely use them. Banning isn't something we take lightly, and when we do it, we ALWAYS make sure its justified and not just done because we "feel like it," because that would not be fair to anyone here.
Moderators have the right to ban a user after a certain number of mod-log entries or verbal warnings, no matter the severity of the last rule infraction.
What it means: If a user has a large number of rule infractions, either in the #mod-log channel or through verbal warnings, but has yet to receive a ban, a moderator is allowed to ban that user for their next rule infraction, no matter what the infraction is.
Moderators are allowed to use their own judgement in determining what punishment to take when a rule has been violated.
What it means: Sometimes, there are cases of rule infractions that are not explicitly stated in the rules but are obviously cases of rule-breaking behavior. This statement allows the moderators to use their own best judgement to determine which punishment level to choose when dealing with these cases.
Punishments
On this server, we use UnbelievaBoat for our moderator actions. When we create a new punishment, a new case is added to the #mod-log channel with a short description of what occurred to cause the punishment. The order of punishments, which changes on a case by case basis, is as follows:
Verbal Warning (No bot)
Warning (Bot)
Mute for 1 hour
Kick
Ban
This order of punishments can change depending on the seriousness of the issue, meaning that sometimes the moderators might skip a step instead of following this process exactly as described. Our team tries to give the benefit of the doubt the majority of the time to users in our server because we believe that flowing discussion is important for our community. However, that does not imply that we will ignore rule-breaking activities for the sake of a conversation. Please remember to use your head and common sense when discussing anything on the server to prevent issues.
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