Chat and CauldronMUX Rules

The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum currently has two chat areas. Our primary chat area in a MUX (CauldronMUX). Our secondary chat area is a private, Flash-based chat room available only to members of our message board. All scheduled and/or moderated chats will be held in our Flash Chat or in the Cauldron Lounge on CauldronMUX unless otherwise announced. Guest access to CauldronMUX will be open to all (sign on as a guest), but with a few exceptions only Full members of our message board are eligible for accounts (see How to Obtain a CauldronMUX Account). CauldronMUX can be accessed from any MU* client and from a Java client from most JAVA-enabled web browsers. Any member of our message board can use our Flash Chat -- is loads via a Flash-based client that will work with most modern browsers.

Remember that using The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's MUX or Flash Chat is a privilege, not a right. If you abuse this privilege, you can lose it. The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's site hosts have set the following rules for The Cauldron's chat areas and have given the Chat Coordinator, chats host and MUX staff the power to limit or deny access to those who insist on violating them.

1. All Cauldron Community Rules apply to our chat area, so be sure to read them. Any behavior that would not be acceptable on our message board is not acceptable in our chat areas.

2. The decisions of Cauldron Chat Moderators are final unless overruled on appeal as described in rule #3.

3. As chat is not the main focus of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum, problems in the chat areas are not to be brought to the message board or directly to the Hosts. If you have a problem with a chat moderator decision, you may email the Cauldron Chat Coordinator (chatcmdr AT ecauldron DOT com) describing the problem and await a ruling (which may take 24 to 48 hours). Note that the Chat Moderators ruling stands and must be followed until it is overruled. Do not contact the Hosts directly over chat problems or post chat problems to the message board -- doing so can result in a permanent gag or lockout from chat and the message board. If you still object to the decision of the Chat Coordinator, you may ask the Chat Coordinator to bring the matter before the Hosts.

4. Please be nice to newcomers with misinformation from Pagan 101 books or who have seemingly basic/silly questions. Remember that on The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum, no seriously asked question is stupid or silly.

5. Chats may be logged and chat logs may be mined for forum ideas or to identify problems. By posting in our public chat areas, you are irrevocably authorizing the royalty-free use of that message or edited material from that message in The Cauldron's newsletters, message board, announcement lists, web sites and other online venues. In other words, if you don't want it read by forum staff (and perhaps by the entire world in rare cases), please don't say it at all.

6. Please keep discussions and jokes to "PG-13" levels if there are minors (or people whose age you are not sure of) in the room. Lying about whether or not you are a minor is grounds for losing chat privileges.

7. The following are examples of chat behavior that are considered rude and/or annoying in The Cauldron's chat rooms. Note that this is not an exhaustive list and it is in addition to the list of examples given in our message board rules.

* Age/Sex/Locations checks.
* Attempts to "hit on" people.
* Typing in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, in eLiTe LeTtErS, or the like.
* Excessive use of "Netspeak" or "cute" grammar or spelling, especially when asked not to use it. (For example: writing "R U Wiccan?" instead of "Are You Wiccan?").
* Bothering people with whispers or private messages if they ask you not to.
* Doing anything that makes the chat hard to use for others (e.g. rapidly scrolling the screen, pasting huge amounts of text, etc.).
* Attempting to always be "the center of attention."
* Repeated attempts to change the subject of ongoing conversations you are not interested in to subjects you are interested in.

The following rules and information really only apply to CauldronMUX:

1. Do not be rude and annoying in the way you code and use objects on this MUX.

2. Public areas of this MUX, including character and object descriptions, should be PG-13 rated.

3. Guests on CauldronMUX should remember that they are guests here and not cause problems. On the other hand, members should be nice to our guest visitors. Members who do not want to deal with guests should have conversations in areas that are locked against guests.

On many MU*s, the Wizards are powers to be feared, able to do whatever they want and change the rules at will. This is not true on CauldronMUX. Our wizards are our MUX's maintenance staff, they have authority over the server, MUX coding, and the maintenance of our MUX. Like other MUX staff, they can also enforce our chat rules if necessary, but they are not the ultimate authority on CauldronMUX. Wizards report to our Chief Wizard (who is an Assistant Chat Coordinator). The Chief Wizard works with our Chat Coordinator on MUX issues and both are responsible to the Hosts.