/rules/ - Ponyville Rules

BEHAVIORAL RULES
[Third Degree]
Rule 1. Please keep posts generally respectful towards others;
Rule 2. Do not post in a thread for the purpose of being rude or inciting trouble;
Rule 3. Do not derail a thread intentionally. Please generally be respectful to the current topic and atmosphere of the thread. If an OP asks you to stop derailing, please do so;
Rule 4. Please do not engage in advertising or promotion of any kind without first contacting site administration. Pony fanart, stories, music are generally acceptable.

[Second Degree]
Rule 5. Please do not act with extreme hostility towards any user, this includes all manner of insults, threats, and name-calling;
Rule 6. Do not bait or goad another user into engaging in rule-breaking content. In the event of such an occurrence, the baiting user shall be found in violation of this rule. The baited user shall only be in violation of this rule if the user, after receiving warnings from staff not to engage, chooses to ignore such warnings and engage with the bait instead of reporting or informing the staff. Purposefully allowing oneself to be baited, after being given fair warning by staff, shall constitute a violation of this rule;
Rule 7. Do not post content of an aggressively, ironically, or trollishly poor quality, designed to derail discussions, or otherwise make the site unusable or intolerable to our regular community;
Rule 8. Do not post threads or posts that are deliberate provocations to certain users, or deliberate provocations concerning the topics of Race, Religion, Nationality, Political Opinion, or Membership of a Particular Social Group;  

[First Degree]
Rule 9. Malicious spamming or raiding, on and off site, are disallowed. Do not encourage spamming or raiding any other community;
Rule 10. "Doxxing" and sharing of others' personal information against their will is disallowed;
Rule 11. All content that is illegal under the law of the United States is expressly and absolutely prohibited on Ponyville.us;
Rule 12. Malicious impersonation, or sockpuppeting, is strictly disallowed, i.e., pretending to be another user to manipulate a discussion or hurt their credibility.

Rules are separated into three degrees. Each degree denotes a different level of offense.

Third Degree offenses are the least serious, and shall be met with multiple warnings, only to be escalated if the behavior immediately continues, or if the behavior occurs multiple times from the same user over a reasonable period of time, or if the behavior causes enough disturbance on site to warrant substantial staff attention

Second Degree offenses are lesser offenses than shall be met with a warning, and followed with a ban if (1) the behavior immediately continues within a reasonable time after warning, or (2) if the behavior stops, but has a second occurrence within the span of a week.

First Degree offenses shall be met with a ban for the first offense. Users with no notable history of interaction with the site may be met with an immediate permaban, depending on the circumstances


ADULT CONTENT RULES
Rule 1. Suggestive content is generally permitted, but obscene content is not;
Rule 2. Please do not post content depicting pornography, gore, or, extreme violence, either real or imagined;
Rule 3. Please do not post fetishistic content that crosses the line into being sexually charged;
Rule 4. Posting of sexually charged content, designed for and appealing to a predominantly sexual interest, that involves people or imaginary characters under the age of 17, or assumed to be under that age by a reasonable person, is prohibited.


Adult content rules do not follow the same degree system, and violating an adult content rule does not preclude one from having violated a behavioral rule at the same time. (i.e., spamming with pornography to raid the site).