RuneVillage Rules of Participation, Policies, and Other Information
These rules apply to all people who use RuneVillage (villagers). Absolutely no one (including staff members, users who have donated money, RS items, or other help to RuneVillage) is immune to these rules.

RuneScape Rules
RuneVillage Staff Hierarchy
Posting
Profile Use
Special Punishments
Temporary Bans
Indefinite Bans
Warning Removal
Name Changes
Private Forum & Usergroup Requests
Special Ranks

RuneScape Rules
RuneVillage actively supports Jagex in punishing any player who breaks the rules of play in RuneScape. As a result of this, users found to be breaking the following Jagex rules will be immediately banned from RuneVillage, and their details sent to Jagex. Other Jagex rules not listed here are still enforced, however, and will result in warnings if violated.
  • Rule 2. You must not scam or deceive other players. Lying to other players for your own personal gain is not in the spirit of the game.
  • Rule 3. Asking/trying to persuade another player to give you their password for any reason is against the rules and will not be tolerated.
  • Rule 5. You should not attempt to impersonate Jagex staff in any way, for any reason.
  • Rule 6. Each account should only be used by ONE person. Account sharing is NOT allowed. You may not sell, transfer or lend your account to anyone else, or permit anyone else to use your account, and you may not accept an account that anybody else offers you.
  • Rule 7. You must not attempt to use other programs (e.g. bots, macros or autominers) in conjunction with our games to give yourself an unfair advantage at the game. You also may not circumvent any of our mechanisms designed to log out inactive users automatically.
  • Rule 9. You must not encourage others to break any of the RuneScape rules
  • Rule 12. RuneScape items must only be exchanged for other items/services within the game. Exchanging RuneScape items for items or other benefits in other online games, real-life money or other real-life benefits is not allowed.
  • For more details please check the official Runescape rules, which can be found on http:/www.runescape.com under the rules & security section.
The administration reserves the right to alter this list without prior warning or announcement.

RuneVillage Staff Hierarchy
At the top of the hierarchy is Hiker, who is the founder and owner of RuneVillage. Below him, in order of authority indicated by cascading bullet points, are various staff positions and user statuses. Each staff position has authority over the staff position and user statuses on the lines below and to the right of it. Forum Administrators, for example, have authority over all moderators and users, but they must answer to Asst. Site Administrators and Hiker.
  • Site Administrator (Hiker)
    • Asst. Site Administrators
      • Forum Administrators
        • Board Moderators, Forum Moderators, and Asst. Forum Moderators
          • Chat Moderators (on the ThePub)
          • forum users (including Village Staff, Village Legends, Village Elders)
      • Chat Administrators
        • Chat Moderators
          • Board Moderators, Forum Moderators, and Asst. Forum Moderators (in the RV Chat)
          • chat users (including Village Staff, Village Legends, Village Elders)
To clarify, Board Moderators, Forum Moderators, and Asst. Forum Moderators must answer to Chat moderators within the RV Chat, and Chat Moderators must answer to Board Moderators, Forum Moderators, and Asst. Forum Moderators on ThePub.

Posting
These rules apply to: any information or discussion posted on this forum; private messages sent between users; information displayed in your profile (signature, avatar, location, etc); and the phpbb e-mail function.

I. The following rules each warrant 1 official warning if violated once, and 2 official warnings for every addition violation:
  1. Do not use offensive language or bypass the filter.
  2. Do not double post under any circumstances. Double posting is making a second post after another post of your's in the same topic without any replies in between either of your posts. Note: We understand that sometimes lag occurs and that may cause a user to mistakenly double post. You will not be warned for double posts caused by lag.
  3. Do not post the same topic more than once, in any forum or across multiple forums.
  4. Do not post anything that doesn't contribute to the topic (such as "lol", etc).
  5. Do not use any of the RV rank images as an avatar, especially admin or moderator ranks.
  6. Leave the moderating to the moderators. If you witness another user break a rule, please send a private message to a moderator containing a link to the offending post or topic. Do not reply to the offending post or topic and attempt to handle the situation yourself.
II. The following rules each warrant an 2 official warnings if violated once, and 2 warnings for every additional violation:
  1. Do not insult or degrade any individuals.
  2. Do not make sexual comments directed at other people or just in general.
  3. Do not post links to sites where you get credit for getting people to click your links.
  4. When debating, stay on topic. Do not make unfounded comments against a general group of people (political party, religious association, etc), or a specific member of this board.
III. The following rules each warrant 2 official warnings if violated once, and 3 warnings for every additional violation:
  1. Do not post flame bait or anything encouraging others to break the rules.
  2. Do not repeatedly break the profile rules.
  3. Do not revert a post or profile field's content back to what it was before an admin or moderator edited it.
IV. The following rules each warrant 3 official warnings if violated once, and 5 warnings for every additional violation:
  1. Do not make offensive comments towards a user's friends or family.
  2. Do not post racial/prejudice/discriminative slurs or remarks.
  3. Do not refuse to change your profile when a moderator asks you to.
  4. Do not steal another user's art/personal creation.
V. The following rules each warrant 5 warnings if violated once, and a permanent ban if violated a second time:
  1. Do not imply or suggest that you are superior to any other culture, ethnicity, race, sexuality, or other specific group of people.
VI. The following rules each warrant a permanent ban if ever broken:
  1. Do not post the same topic or post several times on purpose, such as to advertise a site, or to spread inappropriate images or harmful files.
  2. Do not post obscene/pornographic/offensive images or links to web pages which contain such images.
  3. Do not register here to 'harvest' AIM/YIM/MSN/ICQ usernames to send malicious programs to.
  4. Do not attempt to hack or scam anyone in any way.
  5. Do not post sites harmful to user's computers.

Profile Use
These rules apply exclusively to your signature and avatar in your Profile field.
Signature size limits: 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels high. Avatar size limits: 80 pixels wide and 80 pixels high. File size limit for all images found in Avatar and Signature field: 55kB. (56,320 bytes)


VII. The following warrant image or text in your profile being edited or removed.
Note: If an administrator changes your profile, and you undo the change and add back the disallowed content, you have will your signature and avatar disabled for a month. Likewise, the same punishment will be issued if you refuse to change your profile when a Moderator or Administrator asks you to do so.
  1. Your signature and avatar may not add up to more than 55kB in size. This includes every image in your signature field, plus your avatar's size added up into one number.
    For example: MiscUser1 has 2 images in his signature which are each 20kB large in file size, and an avatar which is 5kB large. Therefore, total size is 45kB.
  2. You may not have more than 8 lines of text in your signature, or 4 along with any images. If you use a small font (70 or lower) you may have a maximum of 16 lines of text without any images, or 8 with an image(s).
  3. Your avatar may not be more than 80 pixels wide and 80 pixels high and your signature may not be more than 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels high.

Special Punishments
  • 1 warning - Unable to host a clan forum here and not allowed to request a name change
  • 3 warnings - Ability to use an avatar disabled
  • 4 warnings - Ability to use a signature disabled
  • 6 warnings - "Posts" (in your profile) set to 0 (Your post record will never be restored)
  • 8 warnings - Indefinite ban
  • Violation of a rule in section VI. - Permanent ban
Temporary Bans
In certain cases, such as breaking the same rule two or three times in a row, you will be temporarily banned. Depending on the offense, an administrator may: disabled your ability to post; disable your ability to send private message; or deactivate your account.

Indefinite Bans and Warnings
If a moderator judges so, you may receive a verbal warning instead of an official warning for violating a rule in category in I. or II. Verbal warnings (sometimes called unofficial warnings) are only given to new users who evidently did not read these rules. If you were to ever recieve an indefinite or permanent ban, you would not be allowed to register a new account, as that would render the ban redundant. If you are discovered to have multiple accounts, and you do not have an indefinite or permanent ban, you would be forced to surrender one of your choice, and any warnings on all of the accounts would be added up and transferred to the account you'd wish to keep. If you were to persist in creating new accounts to avoid warnings or bans, your IP would be banned and your ISP (internet service provider) would be notified.
Indefinite bans must be served a minimum of 2 months. After that period of time, you may appeal your ban to an administrator. 2/3rds of administrators who participate in the vote must vote to unban you if your appeal is to be successful. (Chat Admins and Forum Admins vote on all users, regardless of who originally issued the ban.)


Warning Removal
Warnings will be removed two at a time each month with good behavior, if a moderator or administrator believes you deserve it to be taken off. You cannot simply take a month vacation and come back expecting to get 2 warnings taken off. If you're generally active and well behaved, your warnings will come off easily. If you do an outstanding job, you may have more than 2 warnings taken off monthly. If you act up again once you get your warnings taken off, they will be re-added.

Name Changes
If you wish to have your name changed, you may request so from an admin via a private message. In your private message, you must give your desired name and the reason you wish to have your name changed. (If it is later discovered that you were untruthful about your reason(s), your name will be reverted and you will be issued 3 warnings.) You may not request to have your name changed to anything that is: similar to another RuneVillager's name; similar to a well-known RuneScaper's name; more than 16 characters long. Do not request to have your name changed with intent to have it changed back at a later date. Name changes are limited to one per every 3 months, excluding reverts. The administration reserves the right to refuse to change anyone's name for any reason not present here.

Private Forum & Usergroup Requests
You may request from an administrator a private usergroup and forum in the Private Usergroups forum category. You may ask for one other person to co-host the forum with you. You may not request a private forum for discussion of a non-Runescape clan-related or non-Runescape subject that can already be discussed in an existing forum. (For example, you may not request a private forum for "Super Mario Bros. Players," because Super Mario Bros. can be discussed in the "Other Games" forum.)
When requesting a private usergroup and forum, please give the specific name and description you'd like to be assigned to either. If you provide no description, it will be left blank. If you provide no specific name, you will be asked for one.
If your private usergroup becomes inactive without notice (has no new posts) for 2 weeks, you will be given a warning. If your forum does not return to activity within 1 week after the warning, your forum and usergroup will be deleted. You may not request another new usergroup or forum until after 3 months since the deletion.


Special Ranks
The ranks "Village Legend", "Village Staff", and "Village Elder" are all privileges to have. Users who have any warnings are not eligible for these ranks, and users who already have one of the ranks will have it revoked if they gain 4 or more warnings. Users may earn back the rank or eligibility for the rank one month after they have earned off their warnings. The ultimate decision of whether or not a certain user deserves a special rank is made by the administration.