Policies

If you have not yet read over our charter and our game server rules, please be sure to read them below. For future reference, this information can also be accessed from links in the menu on our site.

Our Code of Conduct

This code of conduct applies any time a member is wearing the "[OSF]" tag in front of their nickname and in turn representing the Outlaws of Sherwood Forest as a community, whether they be playing on one of our own servers or on another server somewhere else. This also applies any time members are participating in any area that falls under the direct jurisdiction of the Outlaws of Sherwood Forest such as our own forums, Discord server, game servers, etc. What members do when not on one of our servers while not wearing the "[OSF]" tag is their own business, but at all other times they must adhere to these guidelines.

This community is centered around good sportsmanship, fair play, and having a fun-loving, good-natured attitude. In general, this means having a mature, mutual respect for all members and non-members as well as having a willingness to go along with what the majority desires. In terms of playing games, this means focusing on team play in always putting your teammates before yourself. In contrast to this, an example of poor sportsmanship would be a failure to consider team balance (in terms of raw numbers or skill) or any focus on individual skills and score rather than team success. In general, behavior that goes counter to what is listed above would include an adamant or contentious unwillingness to accept the majority's wishes or an exclusive promoting of the individual's enjoyment at the expense of the majority. Along with this, we do not tolerate cheating of any sort. This includes any action which defies or overrides the game designers' presumed intentions such as taking advantage of a flaw in a map that gives one an unfair advantage over others.

All members should treat others in or out of the community with respect and civility, using no offensive language or demeaning comments in the spirit of friendly, relaxed gaming and having fun. This community is a diverse group representing a wide variety of physical characteristics, personal and moral philosophies, political and religious beliefs, and more. All members should respect the other members' views and beliefs refraining from actions that any member finds offensive or upsetting. Nicknames, avatars, signatures, language, or anything else visual or verbal in general that is intended purely for shock value or have some possibility of being found offensive by even a small group of individuals are discouraged. The well being of others should always take priority over personal satisfaction and prerogatives, and we have to be willing and able to compromise as we know we are never going to be in complete agreement on every issue. This community strives for peace and unity within and outside of itself and will not put up with unresolved conflicts and constant disruptions and negative distractions.

Usage of the [OSF] Tag and Registered Nickname

Only official members of this community may use our tag within our domain of resources including our game servers. We also expect members to always use only the "[OSF]" tag and their registered nickname together (with no other names or tags included) while using any of our resources whether that be the website, Discord, or game servers (unless there are not enough characters for the name in which case the most recognizable abbreviation should be used). This is for the benefit of other members who are likely to be confused by someone wearing our tag with an unfamiliar nickname or tag. Should a member wish to change his registered nickname (though this is discouraged as it tends to confuse other members), he should contact the administrators.

The Advisory Council

The advisory council serves as the management of the community in all areas including administration, policy decisions, and discipline. All website and game server administrators, moderators, and welcome committee members (discussed below) are a part of and are selected from the pool of advisory council members. Advisory council members are nominated and selected by the current council members to perpetuate a style of management that is consistent with that of the original founding members who created the council only out of necessity to help to manage things by selecting those whom they had developed a higher level of trust with.

To be eligible for the advisory council, a member must be at least 25 years of age, must have been a member for at least one year, and is expected to be one of the most mature and level-headed individuals in the community. In extraordinary circumstances where great dedication, high character, and maturity is displayed over time, the age requirement may be set aside in considering those younger than 25 years of age.

If there should be instances where conflicts can not be resolved amicably between parties within this community or between parties inside and outside of this community, the advisory council serves as best as it can as the mediator and is responsible for policing all areas of member conduct within what is defined above. The advisory council is also responsible for the supervision of admins on our community game servers within the guidelines set in our admin guide. A chosen set of advisory council members also serve as moderators supervising the the conduct of visitors to our forums. With all of this, it should be understood that these individuals are not trained facilitators and are doing the best that they can volunteering their time and efforts.

All decisions handed down by the advisory council are kept private to the members directly involved along with the advisory council members except when it comes to expelling members where the end result and report is made public to the entire community. It is the prerogative of the member on the receiving end of any discipline (other than expulsion) as to whether to make it public knowledge or not. If the member does choose to make it public knowledge, the advisory council will present the evidence and facts of the matter to the entire community. The identity of anyone making complaints to the advisory council is kept confidential.

There is nothing glamorous about being a part of the advisory council, and there are many factors that are involved in whom and when someone is enlisted. For those whom are not chosen to take on those additional tasks here, it should be seen as a reprieve from the more tedious and mundane tasks required to keep things running smoothly and an opportunity instead to take advantage of the fun things that this community offers without the added worries. There are plenty of ways to be involved here and make a positive contribution for the good of all whether it is by constructive posts on our forums, by playing on our game servers, by making monetary contributions to keep things going, or by simply having a good attitude. All of these things improve the environment and increase our level of success overall.

Membership

In order to be considered, potential members are required to follow all of the steps outlined on the membership page. Once they have completed this process (filling out an application, posting a testimonial, waiting for one month, completing the online Q&A, and playing and posting frequently), the collective community of current members makes the final decision via a discussion and democratic vote. The potential member will be notified of the results within a few weeks after responding to the interview. The "welcome" committee is heavily involved in this entire process of taking on new members.

Simultaneous Membership in Other Communities

If a member wants to participate in another gaming-related community, clan, organization etc. while still remaining a member of this community, that is perfectly fine as long as all mention of the other group is kept off of our website, our Discord server, our game servers, and all of our resources in general and as long as the other group does not make it a point to be at odds with and antagonistic to our own community. Should a member wish to align themselves with another group and make that obvious within our domain of resources or with one that is contentious with this community, they will be asked to resign their membership here.

Members Resigning from the Community

Members who resign on their own should forward that request to the administrators. A reply will be made to confirm this and 24 hours given before any further action is taken. Any member who decides to resign and make posts relating to this without using the procedure above will have his posts locked and moved, will have a temporary moderator preview imposed on him, and will be temporarily banned from our Discord server to prevent him from creating any further problems while departing. As there is no requirement for maintaining one's membership, members who leave of their own accord should realize that this is a permanent condition with slim possibility of being reinstated in the future, so the decision to resign should be considered seriously. Only in rare circumstances will reinstatement be considered and only after moving through the membership process again.

Expelling Members from the Community

This will not be done without a prior history of problems and without great consideration, discussion, and a majority consensus by advisory council members. In the event that this becomes necessary, a note should be sent to the member with an explanation of why they are being expelled. An explanation should also be posted and locked in the Members-only forum listing the basic reasons why this is happening including a brief history of the problems that inevitably led to the action being taken. The member should also be banned (at the least temporarily) from Discord, the game servers, and the chat room to prevent them from creating a hostile atmosphere in any area as well as having an indefinite moderator preview imposed on them on the forums. In addition, expulsion is a permanent condition with no hope for reinstatement as expulsion should be an absolute last resort that is the result of an obvious divergence from what the community deems as acceptable and of an unwillingness to conform to that which would make it unlikely that things should ever be different.

Game Servers Hosted by Members

Any game server hosted by a member of this community that uses our tag in the name of the server must abide by our charter, use our basic server rules and configuration, and fall under the jurisdiction of our admins (meaning our members who are admins must have access to admin on the server). To be listed in our status menu and server network page as an official server, a game server hosted by a member must be a full-time (24/7), dedicated server that has a maxplayers larger than or equal to 16 players (unless the game only supports less than 16) and must be for a game or mod that is not currently hosted officially by our community. This does not include listen servers (hosted on the same machine you are playing from) nor does it include part-time servers or small servers with less than 16 maxplayers.

Community Nights

Official community nights are hosted several times per week on specific days and times for certain games for the purpose of encouraging our members to play together. However, anyone can organize informal community nights at any time for any game that they might find interesting and that might interest others as well.

These rules are to be followed on our game servers (and Discord server) at all times with no exceptions and serve to maintain a fun and friendly environment that players of all ages, genders, races, creeds, etc. will be able to enjoy. A player will put themselves at great risk of being kicked and/or banned should they fail to adhere to this set of rules on our game servers.

• No cursing in game voice chat and Discord voice channels
• No cursing in game text chat or Discord text channels
• No offensive nicknames or status (including abbreviations for offensive words)
• No spamming text/voice messages or flooding the chat in any way
• No insulting or harassing other players or admins
• No publicly questioning the actions of admins on our servers at any time whether in the chat on the server, in Discord, or on our forums. If you have a problem, privately email or PM the admin in question or email the moderators.
• Teamwork comes first! Be polite, wait your turn, support your teammates
• Play with good sportsmanship and keep the game competitive and fun for everyone
• Keep the teams balanced! No switching teams to unbalance the game or team-stacking!
• [OSF] tag is for members only
• No taking advantage of game or map glitches/bugs or cheating of any kind
• No spawn camping/killing in or around any spawn that has no objective
• No deliberately shooting teammates for any reason
• No deliberately impeding and blocking teammates' movement in any way
• No deliberate team killing or wounding (if FF is on)
• No entering uncapturable bases of the enemy (Battlefield games)
• No stealing vehicles from teammates (Battlefield games)
• No offensive weapon names (TF2)
• No camping T's at spawn on bomb defuse maps (CSGO)
• No camping CT's at spawn on hostage rescue maps (CSGO)

Click ACCEPT to agree to the above policies