15.11 LANGUAGE RULES

(See also HELP LANGUAGE for the various languages of Lusternia.)
(See also HELP OOC for going out of character vs. staying in character)

The rules for using language in Lusternia are simple:

1) Discriminatory language is banned, no matter the medium. Do not use racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, or any hateful language at all. We have a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech, and we will take harsh action against those who ignore this rule.

2) You must not inflict overly obscene language on people who you do not _know_ are willing to hear it. Please remember the game does have underage players and others might be uncomfortable with such language forced upon them regardless of age. This includes sexual language and references to sexual situations, particularly as personally directed toward another player or otherwise overtly public (and thus inescapable).

3) You must spell out words in all in-character situations. You should not use sound-like abbreviations (how r u?, k?) or emoticons (See also: HELP SAY).

4) You should avoid emoting on public channels (GT, GTS, GNT, CT, CGT, clans owned by city/commune/guild, Order channels, etc.). This breaks immersion for many players and it is encouraged that you find other means to express yourself. If you feel you need to *laugh* on a channel, you can simply use sounds: Hah!, Hahaha!, Heh!, Hehehehe!

These rules must not be broken on any public channels (market, shout, yell, newbie, etc.), organisational channels, or temporary channels (squads, covens, mindlinks, hives, ship channels, etc.). The rules also apply to warcries, mottoes, titles, and anywhere else in-character in Lusternia.

Outside of the absolute restrictions on discriminatory language, you can use whatever other language you see fit in the following scenarios:
- in tells with friends 
- in says in the presence of friends only
- on private clan channels (or as dictated by the head of the clan)

Tighter guidelines on these rules are imposed on any sort of news posts where snub cannot be accounted for and a permanent record of the text is made public. Due to the permanent and visible nature of this medium, all vulgarities or other aforementioned infringements are to be avoided upon this medium for non-clan organisations. Private clans mostly rule themselves on this matter but are also subject to absolute restrictions on discriminatory language.

Our language rules fit within the general context of HELP OOC (or HELP ROLEPLAYING).