General Community Guidelines and Terms of Service

To summarize, the guidelines outlined here govern user behavior on the rosco_m68k Discord and outline what is and isn’t acceptable in this community.

While many of these things are common sense, they are outlined here so that there is a clear expectation set among members as to how they should behave.

Failure to follow these rules may result in time-outs, kicks or in extreme/repeated cases, bans from the community.

Where a breach involves illegal content under UK or US laws, bans will be immediate, irrevocable, and not subject to any appeals process.

The Really Old School Company Limited ("The Community Operator"), together with the community moderators ("The Moderators") keep these terms under review and we reserve the right, from time to time, to vary them without prior notice as we feel necessary to maintain and sustain the community, prevent negative experiences and comply with applicable laws.

General Rules

• You must be 13 years or older to use the rosco_m68k Discord server
• The server is a safe space for discussion of retro computing, technology, electronics, software, projects and adjacent topics
  • Discussion that does not fall broadly under these (or adjacent) topics is not acceptable here
• Your posts must be "suitable for work" (SFW), which expressly preclude
  • Foul language
  • Derogatory speech
  • Content that includes discussions of nudity, sexuality and violence
• Discriminatory jokes and language related to one’s race, age, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. are prohibited
• Content that is explicitly pornographic, depicting sexual acts, or depicting nudity is prohibited
• Posts discussing highly charged, inflammatory or politically / emotionally sensitive topics are prohibited
• The common language spoken on the server is English

Zero Tolerance / Illegality

The following rules relate primarily to illegal or unethical content. Breaches of these will result in an immediate, irrevocable ban and, where appropriate, reports made to Discord and/or the relevant authorities.

In such cases we reserve the right to furnish such authorities with access to and copies of any and all infringing messages, posts, media or content where permissable under applicable laws.

• No doxxing or harassment (especially threats on someone’s life/property) or encouraging self harm
• No spamming, phishing, or attempting to steal another user’s account (broadly speaking, one could consider this “no spamming or scamming”)
• No illegal content or messages, including (but not limited to):
  • Gore / animal cruelty
  • Child abuse imagery (aka child porn)
  • Image-based sexual abuse (aka revenge porn)
• No copyright infringement / sharing of pirated content

Unacceptable Behaviours

The behaviours outlined in this section are not acceptable in this community, and will likely result in a time-out or ban, at the discretion of the moderators, and based on factors such as severtity and history of infringement.

Trolling

Trolling refers to the act of disrupting the chat, making a nuisance out of yourself, deliberately making others uncomfortable, or otherwise attempting to start trouble.

Any such behaviour is not acceptable and will likely result in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Discussing offensive / controversial material

This includes topics such as politics, religion, acts of violence, rape, suicide/self harm, school shootings, and other serious topics; as well as hate speech including racial, sexual or ableist slurs or derivatives thereof, sexist or homophobic statements, and other similar types of behaviour. 

Any such discussion is not acceptable and will be removed, likely resulting in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Elitism

Members should refrain from insulting or belittling others based on the equipment they own, the systems they use, or the projects that they choose to pursue.

Any such behaviour is not acceptable and will likely result in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Disrespecting Server Staff

Insulting the server moderators or becoming belligerent after being warned will not be tolerated and will result in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Incitement

Encouraging the breaking of rules, inciting others to be blatantly rude and offensive, or otherwise promoting and/or encouraging conflicts between other members.

Any such behaviour is not acceptable and will likely result in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Punishment Evasion

Users should not attempt to evade the consequences of their actions such as using an alternate account to bypass restrictions.

This behaviour will result in an immediate, irrevocable ban based on IP address or other such technology as may be made available by the Discord platform.

Inappropriate User Profiles

• For ease of communication and the comfort of those in chat, the profile picture, custom status, and display names (i.e., the name that shows up while reading the chat) of users should be in line with the rules of the server. Furthermore, the display name should also be easily readable, mentionable, and not attempt to imitate other users or game development staff or hoist you to the top of the server online list
• In effect, this also means that the user profile should be safe for work, not contain any offensive or illegal content, and not be used to harass others or spam/scam.
• “Hoisting” refers to using characters like exclamation points to make it so that you appear at the top of the online members list.

Maintaining an inappropriate user profile is not acceptable and will likely result in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Advertising

Similar but not quite the same as spam, this refers to users attempting to promote their own online stores, competing products, social media/discord servers/other content creation channels or other commercial endeavours.

While discussion of non-rosco-m68k projects is acceptable, commercial competition (such as advertising them for sale, commercial communications about them or attempting to divert users to competing stores, for either rosco or non-rosco products and services) is not permissable and will will likely result in time-out or a ban, at the sole discretion of the community operator.

If you have a commercial product you would like to promote here, please be sure to contact the community operator first to obtain agreement prior to commencing commercial activity.

Bans & Other Punishments

Where members of the community behave in a fashion not in accordance with these rules, the community operator and the moderators will utilise, on a case-by-case basis, any and all tools at our disposal to eliminate the unacceptable behaviour and maintain peace within the community, including but not limited to:

• Enforced time-outs
• Limited-time bans
• Permanent, irrevocable bans
• Reporting users to Discord
• Reporting users to relevant authorities

Where time-outs and bans are utilised, we reserve the right to use any and all technological and other solutions provided by the platform to enforce bans and prevent circumvention. You agreed to this when you signed up to Discord and accepted the platform's terms of service.