So you want to play Secret Society Wars? You want to post in the SSW Forums? You want to chat with other hipsters from all corners of the galaxy? Well then, you are required by Imperial decree to read the rules first! Being a member of Secret Society Wars is not an entitlement. The Emperor has worked tirelessly to make the SSW Universe an entertaining and exciting place. His only command is that you respect the rules He has set forth below...

1. RULE #1: YOU AGREE TO FOLLOW ALL OF THE RULES
   The act of creating an account on secretsocietywars.com is in and of itself an acknowledgement that you have read, understand, and agree to abide by all of the rules listed on this page at all times. If you violate any of these rules, you are subject to summary exile or banishment at the sole discretion of the Emperor's appointed Mods. If you disagree with any of these rules, or if you don't like following rules or guidelines in general, then by all means: PLEASE LEAVE NOW.


2. THESE RULES CAN CHANGE AT ANY TIME
   The Universe is a constantly-changing place. Likewise, so is this website. As we develop new features and implement new functionality into the site and the game itself, the rules on this page may need to be modified from time to time. By creating a secretsocietywars.com account, you agree to follow all new rules that are added in the future, and that you will periodically visit this page so you are always aware what the rules are. You can access this rules page at any time from the main menu.


3. DON'T F@#K WITH THE MODS!
   The Mods and Admins have been given direct authority by the Emperor Himself to carry out His will throughout the Universe. Arguing with, insulting, contradicting, or annoying the Mods in any way whatsoever will always result in one of two things happening:
   1) You being exiled
   2) You being banned
   The Mods are here to ensure everyone has a good time by keeping the forums and chat orderly, and assisting players with legitimate game or site issues. However, they also have full unrestricted discretion over the interpretation of the rules and over who stays and who goes. Listen to what the Mods say, follow the rules, and you will be fine. Piss off the Mods, break the rules, and you will be gone. If you are ever in doubt about anything a Mod says or tells you to do, just remember that the Mods are always right, and the Mods always win.


4. SPECIAL BUGFINDER RULES
   We appreciate bug reports as they help us to fix things that are broken and to improve the site overall.
   DO NOT PUBLICALLY ANNOUNCE BUGS YOU FIND...EVER! The only appropriate place to talk about a bug is in the Bug Report Form, or in a private message to a Mod. If you publicize bugs you find, or brag about bugs you have found that have not been fixed yet, you will be banned. For a complete list of the BugFinder rules, rewards, and reporting guidelines, please visit the Bug Report Page


5. NO MULTIS
   We used to have a fairly liberal policy about multis, but some people just don't understand the concept of moderation, and it's because of them that we have instituted a strict NO MULTI policy: One Person, One Account! Be aware that if your household/school/workplace/country has more than one account that logs in from the same IP address, you will more than likely be caught up in the automatic multi sweeps, unless you inform a Moderator of the fact that you have more than one user for your IP, and why. If you get disabled in a Multi Sweep, you will get a chance to appeal to a Moderator to re-enable your account by convincing them that you are actually playing one person per account. Also be aware that players that trigger the multi filter will be subjected to increased scrutiny, and if you lie to a moderator in an attempt to keep your multis active, rest assured you will be found out fairly soon and ALL OF YOUR ACCOUNTS WILL BE DISABLED!


6. NO ACCOUNT BABYSITTING
   We used to have a fairly liberal policy about this too, but with the NO MULTI policy in effect, it's pretty pointless to allow account babysitting. There's no good reason for it anyway (we don't remove inactive accounts yet) and frankly, the difference between "I'm babysitting my buddy's account" and "This account that used to be someone else's is now essentially my multi" is so ambiguous that we'd rather not have to deal with it. Don't give out your account password to *anyone* for *any reason*. If you do, you both will trigger a multi filter and not have a good reason for it, and your accounts will be disabled.


7. SPOILERS AND YOU
   We don't mind people helping each other out but: DO NOT POST SPOILERS ANYWHERE ON THE SITE EXCEPT THE FAQ SYSTEM. It's OK to help other players out and give them hints, but if you post walkthroughs, tutorials, or any other content with specific information that could potentially ruin the game for people who haven't played it yet to the forums or elsewhere on this site (except for the FAQ System, where it is reviewed for approval and marked clearly as a spoiler), then we'll be unhappy with you.


8. DON'T BE AN ASSHAT IN THE FORUMS OR IN CHAT
   If you are a jerkoff or a whiner, you won't be around for very long. Harassing, abusive, or generally annoying behavior will not be tolerated anywhere on the site. This site is for adults. Please act like one.


9. NO LOW-QUALITY OR LOW-CONTENT POSTS
   Don't post in the SSW Forums unless you have something relevant, intelligent, interesting, or funny to say. A good post should normally contain at least two of these things. If you can't think of anything to say that contributes in some meaningful way to the forums or to the subject that is being discussed, then please do everyone a favor and DO NOT POST.


10. POST TOPICS IN THE PROPER FORUM
    Read the forum description located at the top of each forum before you post. This will tell you what the subject matter of each forum is. If you can't figure out how to put your post in the appropriate forum, DO NOT POST.


11. DON'T TROLL OR DERAIL FORUM THREADS AND CHAT CONVERSATIONS
    The intentional baiting of people in order to get a rise out of them (aka trolling), as well as interrupting the normal flow of a conversation by posting something completely irrelevant or unrelated to the subject at hand (aka derailing) is strictly prohibited. These two things greatly annoy the Mods. If you do either of these, you are very likely to be exiled or worse.


12. DON'T LEECH IMAGES/VIDEOS/ETC
    Do not embed images, videos, or any other large file that resides on external servers in your forum posts, on your homeworld/blog, or anywhere else unless it resides on your own server or domain. We don't need people getting pissed at us because you are stealing their bandwidth. If you want to directly embed pictures or whatever from another site, download the image to your computer and then upload it to a service like Imageshack or TinyPic. Note: Providing plain html links to external content is OK, as long as it follows the rest of the rules.


13. DON'T DRINK & POST
    The Emperor enjoys a good party as much as the average commoner...probably more since his parties are much more opulent and debaucherous than any average commoner could ever imagine. But one thing He can't stand is sloppy drunk posts. If you can't see the screen or figure out how to use the keyboard, then chances are you're also not going to be in a position to follow any of the forum rules. Indeed, nobody cares about how drunk/high you are. Posting about such things is stupid and does not impress anyone. If you're drunk or on drugs...DO NOT POST. If you are too drunk/high to follow this very simple rule, and you are compelled to post anyway, then for the love of all things blessed by the Emperor, DO NOT POST ABOUT BEING DRUNK OR HIGH!


14. NO WAREZ, PORN, OR LINKS TO OTHERWISE ILLEGAL CONTENT
    Posting any sort of illegal or overtly pornographic content anywhere on the site is grounds for immediate termination of your account. This includes, but is not limited to chat, in the forums, on your Homeworld page, or in any other area where you can input your own content. If in doubt, don't post it.


15. AVATAR & PHOTO GUIDELINES
    Any avatars you upload must be exactly 150px X 150px. Max file size is 100K. Animated gifs are acceptable. Don't upload something stupid, racist, highly offensive, illegal, or pornographic, otherwise your avatar won't get approved. The same applies to any Homeworld photos you upload, except for the size limitations (see the photo upload page for max size limits). Nobody wants to see your fat flabby ass, so refrain from posting homemade porn. Copyrighted images are also prohibited. Posting any of the above types of images will get you a free ticket on the express shuttle to Bansville.


16. MARK ALL NOT SAFE FOR WORK (NSFW) IMAGES AND LINKS WITH :NSFW: TAGS
    If you just can't resist posting a link to the latest shock-photo or shock-video circulating around the Internet, MARK IT WITH NSFW TAGS! This is easily done by simply typing :NSFW: immediately prior to your link (be sure to include the colons on either side). Some people have jobs and would like to keep them. If you don't do this, guess what will happen?


17. USE COMMON SENSE
    We want everyone to have a good time. Just use your brain, don't act like an idiot, and you will succeed and prosper!