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Parlor Etiquette
This is the parlor, our chat room. It's public. That means anybody can come in and hang out. That being said, if you randomly show up, please don't expect us to rush out to greet you with open arms. You just came into our home; if we don't know who the hell you are we're bound to be suspicious.
1) The primary purpose (the Prime Directive for all you Trekkies--I know you're out there) of the chat room is to role-play for purposes of character development, character interaction, storyline development, and building a sense of community, both in character (IC) and out of character (OOC). 2) You should familiarize yourself with the layout of the house as well as the characters in the house to make the whole process easier. 3) The chat room is IC all the time. Please find out where people are IC before you barge in. 4) Except in the case of correcting typos/dwds, what goes on OOC does not affect what goes on IC. 5) Generally speaking, outsiders are welcome to come chat. However, if you're not a part of Ravenswood you need to get permission from one of the leaders OUT of the chatroom. Whether your character recieves a warm welcome IC is entirely up to who s/he winds up talking to.
6)When you're speaking out of character (OOC), use double parantheses. 7) To indicate an action that either you or your character is doing, put it inside astericks. *coughs* *sneezes* *grabs Attractive Random Extra and drags him off to a closet* Double colons ::takes some cold medicine:: are ok, too, though we prefer astericks. This also applies to thoughts, i.e. *riiiight, Cats* or *what a load of bullshit* 7.5) Obviously enough, characters don't generally respond to what other characters are thinking. (There are exceptions to this rule, such as what Cats and Ali jokingly refer to as their "psychic connection," but honest-to-goodness mind reading ain't one of 'em)
3 - In AIM chats, most characters have their own unique color that enables someone to pick out who's speaking easily. It's not necessary, but it's nice. And if someone can't read your messages b/c your color is either too light or too dark & they ask you to change it, please be willing to oblige them. You can always change it back when you're done. 4 - Swearing or using foul language profusely OOC is not something most people would like to be reading, so please keep it down if you're in the habit. This isn't a huge issue, but please keep in mind that some people here are younger than you. If somebody asks you to tone it down, do it. 5 - No talk of an explicit nature, please. I think you know what I'm talking about, so I won't elaborate. The vast majority of us do not want to read it. You can refer to it, hint at it, whatever but please, no descriptions. *nods* This applies to both IC and OOC converstaions/threads. 5.5 - If someone feels uncomfortable with a topic and asks you to please stop, do. You can always finish your discussion at another time. Please be respectful of others. If you simply *have* to continue the discussion/thread, take it a private chat room. Almost every Instant Messenger service offers them. 6 - We have an R rating on chats here, which means no extremely graphic sex or violence. Language is fine, so long as it's not really foul. Moderation is the key here. 7 - As stated before- if you plan to use someone (whether they are in this LH or another) in a storyline or chatline, please ASK them before barging into their personal bubble. Don't be rude. Also--if you plan to do something strange to someone (i.e. beat them up, poison them, use your "magic powers" on them), ASK THEM FIRST. Common decency, people.
IC vs. OOC--we discussed this already. IC=in character. OOC=((out of character)). Generally speaking (except in the case of, say, correcting typos), what goes on ((OOC)) doesn't affect what goes on IC. Logging/Saving/Transcripts--Logging/saving mean the same thing--copy/pasting the chat onto Word or Notepad or something and then sending it to the list. It's nice to have transcripts around for reference. They can be found in the list archives (oh Yahoo!Groups) and soon we'll have them linked from the site. dwd--double window demon and/or damn window demon. Basically, that means that the last post from that person was in the wrong window and will usually be proceeded by a repost.
love [character's name]--this is used to indicate the thoughts/actions/reactions/etc of any character other than the one the current window represents. For example:
The same affect can be achieved in several other manners, though love is more common:
Cats - Freckles: *does not snore!*
There now, everybody clear? On to the parlor then
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