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Sneaky Monkeys Forum _ Server Rules _ Old Clan Policies

Posted by: MonkeyFiend Mar 11 2010, 05:34 PM

Please note the latest policy and rules document is now located here:

http://www.sneakymonkeys.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1700

Please note this is a draft version for updated clan policies..

http://sneakymonkeys.com/Policies2.pdf

@Clan members: have a read, if there's anything that needs addressing/voting on, bring it up in the clan members area.

SneakyMonkeys.com
Policies, Terms and Conditions

Original Version: 07/06/2008
Updated Version: 11/03/2010

Contents

1. Clan Structure
1.1 Leadership
2. Server Rules
3. Recruitment
3.1 Recruitment Voting
4. Teamspeak
4.1 Abuse of Teamspeak
5. Website
6. General Admin
6.1 Reporting Abuse
6.2 Appealing Bans
6.3 Local Admin Bans
6.4 Complaints against Admins
6.5 Reporting the server to EA
7. Member Misconduct
7.1 By Vote
7.2. By Misconduct
7.3. Hacking/Server Attacks

1. Clan Structure

The clan operates two levels of membership:

Full Members
Trial Members

Trial members have the same permission and power as full members but are not eligible to vote on disciplinary matters, other trial members (or themselves!)

All votes, be it founding members like MonkeyFiend or the newest clan member carry equal weight. In the event of a tie, the clan leader will cast a deciding vote.

When possible, member votes based on majority will be used.

In future additional roles may be used, such as:

War Arranger
Recruitment Officer
Web Developer/Web Admin
Forum Moderator
Server Developer (as in developer of server security/mods)
Public relations

1.1 Overall leadership and Balance of power:

The current clan leader is Foxx_in_Socks who maintains day to day running of the clan and casts the deciding vote when votes are tied. As leader any administrative or social issues should be directed to her.

The servers are currently held by MonkeyFiend (as itï¿½s necessary for one person to ï¿½ownï¿½ the servers) ï¿½ the costs of the servers (and therefore any shortfall in donations/debt therefore fall on monkeyfiendï¿½s shoulders). For technical issues (relating to pcï¿½s/website/coding/servers/PB) direct them here

All major decisions relating to rules/policies should be undertaken by clan-wide votes.

Sometimes day-to-day running etc. decisions need to be made without general clan input, rather than bothering the entire clan for every small issue. We endeavour to do our best with this. If however you think something has slipped through that you donï¿½t agree with, please raise this issue to be voted on.

Some matters may require immediate intervention e.g. expulsion of a member caught hacking.

If members are dissatisfied with leadership, a clan-wide vote can be made to replace the leader. Be aware that votes of this sort likely carry more consequences than voting out other members, due to control of resources.

This type of vote is more appropriate if a divide within in the clan is likely to happen and the result will be the clan splitting into 2 separate clans.

The custom server configs/graphics/web-code will remain the property of MonkeyFiend or the developer/owner of the specific material.

2.Server Rules

SERVER RULES

General Server Rules

No Cheating/Glitching/Hacking - PERMANENT BAN & Reported to EA
No Abusive Behaviour (includes Racism and personal insults) - KICK/BAN
No Unnecessary TeamKills - KICK/BAN
No Uncap Baseraping - KICK/BAN
No Disruptive behaviour (includes forcing TK's/smoking own team etc.,) -KICK

General Rules

We allow ALL weapons; don't complain about 'nooby' weapons
Autobalance is on
Punkbuster takes auto screenshots and is streaming from psb/pbbans

Base Raping

Base Raping - This rule is to prevent people entering uncappable bases (as in the main deployment base that canï¿½t be captured) and killing people as they spawn.

This is common rule amongst servers. A bit of firing in the direction of an uncap is allowed, entering the uncap to kill people is forbidden. Please use common sense on where you think the uncap ï¿½ if you sit and drop mortars on an uncap or camp near the entrance for prolonged periods you are liable to be warned or kicked

Base Boundaries

Use common sense. If in doubt keep back a little or ask an admin.
A player may enter an uncap to steal a vehicle, however this doesnï¿½t give you to licence baserape

Locked Squads

We do allow locked squads however; please donï¿½t lock the squad with a single member

AutoBalance:

Our server has Autobalance automatically enabled. There is a threshold of 2 before it kicks in e.g. teams may be unbalanced by a total of 2 players before teams are autobalanced.

If you wish to be moved to another team you should be able to do this as long as the teams are still balanced (e.g. less than 2 player difference) - or ask an admin ( we can move players at our discretion and as long as game is fairly balanced)

Autobalance only switches players when they die ï¿½ some rounds may remain unbalanced for a little while before this is possible.

We do occasionally balance the teams manually - e.g. if the player numbers are balanced, but 1 team has a load of high scoring players while the other team are privates. This is to keep the general balance of the game.

* Note* currently autobalance is broken. We may ask players to switch teams. In the event of severe team stacking we may kicked players from the larger team to make space for new players to join.

Rounds per Map:

Currently our server plays all maps in rotation, with 2 rounds of each map. This may change at the discretion of admin

Reporting Players:

If you believe a player is breaking server rules or cheating, please contact an admin. If no admins are present please report it on the website.

When reporting a player you MUST provide a player name, itï¿½s very annoying to have players shouting ï¿½OMFG YOU CHEAT!ï¿½ into the chat.. never to be heard from again. Any accusations of cheating will be thoroughly investigated.

If players ï¿½cry wolfï¿½ e.g. make repeated unfounded accusations of cheating/rule breaking, they may be warned, kicked or banned.

Intentional TKï¿½s

While the server is currently running as Friendly Fire OFF, in future if we turn friendly fire on and a player intentionally TKï¿½s they may be warned, kicked or banned. TKï¿½ing is not acceptable for any reason so excuses such as ï¿½but the noob stole my vehicle while I was repairing it so I blew him upï¿½ is not an excuse.

If someone is playing in an anti-social way, please report them to the admins.

Weapons/Kits

All weapons/kits are allowable. We do not restrict weapons or kits regardless of team composition or numbers. Repeated moaning about things e.g. grenade launchers is liable to get you warned/kicked

Bunnyhopping

Our server allows people to use the jump key.

Language:

We don't mind some friendly banter (it's a 16+ game after all!) Please remember the rules regarding abusive behaviour though. Racists will be banned

Logging:

Chat logs are recorded for reference
Punkbuster screenshots are taken at random & regularly, we also perform manual PB requests.
The server is streaming the MBL (master ban list) from punksbusted and streams on the fly to pbbans.
We keep the hack .dll and MD5 checks up to date (normally weekly)
We reservce the right to log the hash and IP details of players on the server for the purpose of identifying cheats.

Rules are subject to change without notice.

3 Recruitment

If you're here you're probably interested in joining (or you're lost!)

First off you may want to read a little about the clan HERE or the
Server rules HERE

We do have some criteria for potential applicants:

1. We are a mature clan (although sometimes this is hard to believe)
- Mostly over 16's, we do occasionally make exceptions to this though.
2. Should have headset/teamspeak
3. NO cheaters/glitchers/statpadders

We do not recruit based on score, rank or skill, a good personality is
much more important.

Known cheaters are not permitted membership.

Still interested? If so:

ï¿½ Make a post here asking to join. Please post a little about yourself.
ï¿½ You're more than welcome to drop by teamspeak and just listen - weï¿½re mostly not that scary
ï¿½ Last (and most importantly) play on our server and get to know us!

Once you've posted on the forum, 2 clan members will need to accept you for a trial. If you've played on the server and people have gotten to know you then that shouldn't be a problem.

If youï¿½ve literally just found the site and asked to join without getting to know us or having played with us, itï¿½s unlikely an application will proceed.

Once your trial begins you gain full member access to the server/admin/website/tags etc., for a 7 day trial. If youï¿½re more of a social player and donï¿½t spend that much time playing, the trial may last longer than 7 days to give everyone a chance to play with you.

After the 7 days, clan members make a final yes or no vote to full Permanent membership. Youï¿½ll then be asked if you still want to join

We're not all for strict regimented gaming, formal practices, and ego-tripping admins - we're a laid back clan just here to play a game without cheats and have some fun. We won't bite (well, except maybe foxx_in_socks )

3.1 Voting System

The clan operates its rules and guidelines using a voting system.
All main aspects of clan and server rules are decided by clan voting. All clan members may vote and all votes carry equal weight. In most cases majority vote wins*

For example if you wish to change a server rules, a clan member may begin a vote. If the majority of clan members agree with the change, then that vote wins and the rules are changed.

Once a vote has been taken place, you may realise it was the wrong decision. Weï¿½d ask that new rules are carried for at least 7 days before a vote to revert them, unless the new rule is considered deeply unpopular.

All votes are either anonymous or you may choose to post your comments.

One thing to mention, threats to leave unless a rule is changed will always be ignored. This is not how a fair clan vote system works.

If someone insists on a rule being changed or they leave the vote itself may be voided. If a decision is made that you cannot abide then simply leave. Do not use the threat to leave a way of interfering with votes.

*the exception is to the majority vote is voting on new members, where an existing member can block (veto) a potential new member

4. TeamSpeak

Team speak guidelines are fairly straightforward ï¿½ We do allow ï¿½colourfulï¿½ language, as it is an over 16ï¿½s game with most clan members being over 18.

No Racism.

Keep it friendly.

Please do keep an eye out when younger members of the public are on the teamspeak server.

We kick to make room for people using our public teamspeak

4.1 Abuse of Teamspeak

Our TS server has been custom secured against most hacks by MonkeyFiend, so people coming online telling you they are going to hack it can usually be ignored or more amusingly can be mocked until they leave

All clan members are free to join unregistered e.g. no username/password. Once in TS any user is able to register an account to log back in with. Once an account is registered all clan members are allowed server admin status (just contact an existing clan member with (SA) after their name for them to grant admin) or contact monkeyfiend@gmail.com if no admin are online.

Server Admin (SA) provides admin powers. (to kick/ban users)

If someone comes online and is causing trouble, they can be kicked/banned from the TS server. Please do make a note of their IP address (right click on them and ï¿½get connection infoï¿½) though

Public teamspeaks such as ours are prone to troublemakers coming on and trying to get a rise. If this occurs and the player cannot be removed or keeps rejoining, simply move everyone in the ï¿½admin channelï¿½ ï¿½ this channel is passworded (same password as the server) and these troublemakers should be unable to join.

If someone asks you to click on them and press the E key, they are likely trying to exploit a shortcut in the Old TS where a server admin can highlight someone and press E to escalate them to server admin status (which they obviously want in order to cause mischief) ï¿½ please give them some abuse then kick/ban them ïŠ

5. Website

Our website is a co-located web hosting (1 main site and 1 backup site) for resiliency. Occasionally we will lose website connection ï¿½ we aim to provide access within 24 hours. We have additional satellite sites

1. Please try and keep language on the website/forums appropriate, if matters are clan related, please make these posts in the clan memberï¿½s areas.

2. Unwarranted, extreme or racist abuse will result in a ban from the website/teamspeak and game server. If a clan member is responsible, disciplinary action may occur

3. Attempted hacking of the website will result in banning from all services; we will also do everything in our power to prevent your future misuse of your computer & internet connection.

4. Post content or posts may be removed if they are deemed likely to provoke or offend.

Website attacks

We have become a target for a couple of the larger sites that manufacture cheats. (Including a bounty for people who can successfully bring our site down)

As such we do experience attacks frequently (usually incredibly poor attacks) From time to time this may affect website speed or uptime.

6. General Admin

Aside from following the usual rules that we ask of the public, we also ask that clan members acting as admins do so in a responsible manner.

All =SM= are admin. Details for the admin tool download and login details are in the members area. If you want access to restart the servers, there is section regarding access to clanforge or PM/mail monkeyfiend for more info ï¿½ everyone can have access to both the admin tools/clanforge if they choose.

If you are acting as admin, please try to keep personal abuse to a minimum and keep matters as fair and mature as possible when performing admin duties.

Our reputation is important to us and it doesnï¿½t look good if a player post a screenshot showing an admin giving them abuse.

Misuse of admin powers may result in revocation of specific or all admin abilities.

Admins should make sure that if they are kicking or banning it is done in accordance of the server rules ï¿½ admins should not kick players for things that are not covered in the server rules. Again this is covered under misuse of admin powers.

If you believe something is not covered in the server rules, please vote to amend the rules.

Please try and keep, large text (from bc2cc admin tool) down to a minimum (especially if you are in game, just use in game chat) this text is distracting to all players.

Kicks/Bans made by admins are left to their own judgement; please make sure they adhere to the server rules. No admin outranks another to overrule their decisions.

6.1 Reporting Abuse

If a player wishes to report abuse of the server/website/admin powers, please make a post on our forum detailing the problem or a PM (private message) to an SM member or monkeyfiend

If presenting a report of a non-clan member on the server, this can be done through the public forums or by private message if you prefer. Please try to be as specific and list as much evidence as possible. (including names/dates and times)

6.2 Appealing Bans

Appealing Automatic-Server Bans

If your name is on the PBbans/PsB/Evenbalance banlist you will not be able to play on the server. While you may have an excuse/reason for a ban, this rule is non-negotiable.

If you wish to appeal one of these bans please visit:

Pbbans.com
Punksbusted.com
Evenbalance.com

6.3 Local Admin Bans

Admins may find it necessary to ban you ï¿½ usually as a result of repeated warnings/kicks or extreme behaviour.

If you wish to appeal a ban of this nature, please forward as much information as possible to monkeyfiend via private message on the sneakymonkeys.com forum.

If the ban is in accordance with our server rules, it will not be lifted, regardless of which admin made the ban

The clan as a whole will examine any ban appeals and will endeavour to resolve the issue within 7 days.

6.4 Complaints against Admins

If you have a specific complaint regarding the actions of an admin, please provide all pertinent details. These will be referred along with our own assessment to an independent 3rd party to make an unbiased ruling.

Appealing to the Server Provider

Our server providers are Multiplay and KillerCreation, neither will lift any local bans issued by our admins. So feel free to give it a go.

6.5 Reporting the server to EA

In the time running our servers, we have never had any response from EA. Again feel free to lodge a complaint.. Maybe ask them for a new patch while youï¿½re there.

7. Member Misconduct

Members are free to leave at any time, simply make a post or PM/mail monkeyfiend and it can be arranged.

If a previous member who has left wishes to rejoin they must undergo the standard recruitment rules

Please do try and talk any issues you have over with Foxx or MonkeyFiend though before making a decision.

Ejection of Clan Members:

7.1 By Vote

We do expect members to do everything possible to resolve their differences.
If a clan member wishes to remove someone from the clan, it must
be backed by at least one other clan member.

The vote initiator are to make a post stating their case, the defender will also make a rebuttal. These posts will be moved to the member voting area and the members in question will be prohibited access while the rest of the clan discusses and makes a decision.

In practice, in order to start a vote to remove 'MonkeyFiend' from the
clan, at least two clan members are required to bring about a vote.

Majority will win. If vote is split, vote will be rejected.

No more than 1 vote in a period of 7 days is allowed, this is to help
deter reprisal votes.

7.2. By Misconduct

If a clan member is found to be in misconduct - action and punishment may be brought about by means of a members vote.

If core server or clan rules are found to be broken the member may be warned, punished or removed from the clan by the clan leader. Apeals go down to clan vote.

In more severe cases e.g. racism/hacking/attacks on server etc., - immediate action may be taken by MonkeyFiend to uphold server/website/clan stability.

7.3.Hacking/Server Attacks

In addition to above, if a clanmember is proven to be hacking/cheating or attacking the server, I will wipe you off the face of the internet ;-)

Posted by: Magik5 Mar 11 2010, 07:04 PM

All seems fine and fair although i have a few comments:

A player may enter an uncap to steal a vehicle, however this doesn’t give you licence to baserape

how do we admin this, i mean if you entered the enemies base to nick their chopper/tank/apc/quad and killed an enemy before they got in it so you could take it - do we class this as baseraping as youve clearly just entered their base and killed someone regardless of intent? should we have a rule that if you do enter their base to take a vehicle you cant shoot at anyone whilst there, and as soon as you commandeered the vehicle you should drive/fly it straight out and only start shooting when clear?

Also, the maps in rotation - the talk over teamspeak lately have pretty much concluded that everyone dislikes atacama desert, can we remove this from the rotation so we dont have to play it?

generally would like peoples opinions on this before i get the vote button out...

Posted by: kermit Mar 11 2010, 07:39 PM

my personal thoughts on the maps is that they should all stay in as we may have a preference but other players may like it. I personally like the desert map

Posted by: MonkeyFiend Mar 11 2010, 07:46 PM

well at least some people read it... the stealing vehicles was in there from the old days of BF2 apparently.. although I suppose in those days it was more acceptable since you'd get specops in there blowing assets.

I agree this is going to be very difficult to police so am actually not sure it's such a good idea. In BF2 vehicles spawned at the flags too e.g. MEC controlled 'square' flag on BF2 spawned a car and it was acceptable for anyone to steal that? but i think in BC2 vehicles only spawn in main uncaps??

As for the maps, probably the fairest way of doing things is either

multiple choice voice with votes to include maps and exclude maps (whichever gets more votes wins)
certain maps on rotation on certain days or to include a map pattern of the more popular maps on rotation twice followed by a less popular one

Posted by: Magik6 Mar 11 2010, 09:01 PM

I would say that being able to allow players to steal vehicles is a bad idea, for example the choppers are usually located at the back of a base and if someone comes in on foot and has to fight off a few people on his way from the entrance its going to look like baserape. It could also work the otherway around where someone baseraping could claim they were after a vehicle.

Posted by: MonkeyFiend Mar 11 2010, 09:33 PM

have to agree... does anyone have any differing opinions to put forward??

Posted by: fido77 Mar 11 2010, 11:52 PM

well, the snipers are perfectly safe from dying if we cant run in there and knife them. especially in the desert map. i'm not sure how we are gonna police the baseraping yet, but being able to go in and kill the snipers off is a good idea i think maybe only allow knife kills in uncaps

Posted by: Magik6 Mar 12 2010, 01:08 AM

That can't work, the idea of monitoring how something is done within a specific zone is much harder than monitoring people entering the zone instead. To run the server well you're better off leaving it as no baserape at all to give the gamers a fine line of whats right and wrong and an easier job for us to control the people who break the rules. I've had to return to the base so many times during a game to hunt down a baseraper, imagine what the game would be like if you had to minitor how people got killed in the uncap, you'd spend the entire game in there.

Posted by: K. Mar 15 2010, 10:05 PM

i know it's imposs to enforce, but i would like it in writing that all members (this goes to all the one's that are online and playing games with us regularly) at least do a bit of lurking on the forums

i'm not asking for everyone to post in every thread but if it's a habit to at least have a look through the forum every other day at least then the important threads can be responded to i.e. recruitment/clan direction/general beating down on MF +5

it's just nice when a important thread comes up and you know that everyone will stick their oar in, even if it is to disagree, or having to chase people up on steam to get them to reply to a major thread

from past clans a good active board promotes a lot of comraderie especially for people whom don't have all the same games.