Forum Rules

Yes, welcome. Please remember a couple things at all times as you become a part of our community:

1. The authors and staff are not paid. What donations we receive via Patreon cover most of the costs of running the site (and we went to donation support instead of advertising, so please donate if you can or we'll have to return to the more intrusive way of sustaining the site) but by no means the time and effort put in or the content created. So please be courteous and respectful of the time and effort put in, don't make demands of staff and authors, and remember that this all can 'go away' at any time. We can post stories without providing forums or any support to the community. We've had bad experiences in the past with toxic 'fans' that resulted in a loss of community members AND loss of authors. We'll close off public access before we let that happen again.

2. Your participation on this site comes with an agreement to abide by site policy and rule. The 'simple' version of those policies is to treat this like a sandbox in a public park. You come here to participate, to build sand castles, or have fun in some way. So does everyone else. If you damage it, it doesn't just affect you. If you take a crap in it... not only do you prevent other people from having a good time, someone has to clean that up. No one wants to do that. If you feel the need to troll, go to a gaming forum. If you're a jerk here, we have no problem waving good bye to you. We understand mistakes. But respect the effort of keeping a writing project going for nearly 20 years... or find somewhere else to be.

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Need to know more about how these Kunena forums work?

Kunena Documentation: www.kunena.org/docs/en

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Kunena Downloads: www.kunena.org/download

Kunena Blog: www.kunena.org/blog

Follow Kunena on Twitter: www.kunena.org/twitter

  Below is the full list of rules that we follow and enforce that are designed to protect and help ensure strong and active communities. These terms apply to all content posted and uploaded to our sites and to the online social media forums or applications that we administer, including comments and other written submissions, photos, audio recordings and videos.
 
Before you post content, you must agree that you:

• Are 18 or older;
• Won’t post content that is:
  o Defamatory or libelous;
  o Harassing, threatening, or violent;
  o Illegal;
  o Obscene, pornographic, or otherwise offensive;
  o Religious; and/or
  o Political;
• Won’t post:
  o Advertisements;
  o Charitable solicitations;
  o Materials that belong to someone else (including photos, videos, music, trademarks or other copyrighted material), unless you have permission from the owner;
  o Professional photos or videos, unless you have permission from the owner;
  o Images or recordings of anyone other than yourself, unless you have that person’s permission;
  o Information about anyone other than yourself, unless you have that person’s permission;
• Won’t post personal contact information, including last names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers or any other information that would individually identify you or anyone else;
• Won’t impersonate someone else;
• Won’t post false or misleading information;
• Won’t post messages containing hidden or disguised meanings, or which are off topic or out of context;
• Won’t transmit or post anything that contains viruses or any other harmful content.

Also, before posting content, please make sure you understand and agree that we:

• Have rights to edit/format develop future works based on anything you post that is related to the Whateley Academy Universe property. We can use the content (or any ideas or elements contained within the content) however we see fit, such as by copying or modifying it for use elsewhere. We will seek to attribute credit where due, but do not guarantee this.  We can choose to not allow (or remove) any posting at any time.
• Reserve the right to change any of these terms at any time. All changes will be effective upon posting and by continuing to use the website, forum, social media page, or application following the posting of such changes will mean that you accept those changes.
• Offer our websites, forums, social media pages, and applications only to those who acknowledge and agree to the following disclaimer that we make:

DISCLAIMER. THE CRYSTAL HALL / WHATELEY ACADEMY AUTHOR GROUP WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE COMMUNITY RULES OR USE OF ANY WEBSITE, FORUM, SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE, OR APPLICATION MADE SUBJECT TO THESE RULES, WHETHER IN CONTRACT OR IN TORT, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF (OR KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF) THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IF ANY PORTION OF THESE LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY IS FOUND TO BE INVALID OR UNENFORCEABLE FOR ANY REASON, THEN THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE CRYSTAL HALL / WHATELEY ACADEMY AUTHOR GROUP SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).

By using the website, forum, social media page, or applications, you are affirming that you’ve read and agree to all terms of the Privacy Policy, Copyright holdings, and these Community Rules, and that you specifically agree that all information, images, suggestions, ideas or other materials you provide to us (for posting or otherwise) are usable by us without compensation to anyone and are within our rights to manipulate or control until such time as they are removed from our site.

There are three, maybe four, levels or types of copyright involved in the Whateley Academy Universe. 

The stories
Each Canon story is the intellectual property of its author. Rights of ownership of the story and its characters rest with that author. However, all Whateley canon authors have agreed to share editorial freedom, distribution rights, and the use of story elements and characters in derivative works with the members of the canon group. This gives the Canon team the authority to make format and restricted changes to the text of stories for the purposes of presenting them to the reading public and to create further stories within the context of the universe that reference or include events and characters owned by other members. All Whateley Academy stories are authorized for publication by the Canon authors via a designated site. For a number of years, that site has been located at the domain crystalhall.org, first owned and maintained by Bob Arnold and more recently controlled by the owners of Bigcloset. The official site will move to WhateleyAcademy.net on readiness of that site to handle the hosting demands (which crystalhall.org may be redirected here or maintained as a mirror). Some stories have also been released to other locations by their authors. Any such agreement is between that author and the site where the story is available. But only stories released specifically to other sites are authorized to be published elsewhere. Publications/distributions rights ARE held by the author and Canon group and stories may NOT be shared publicly by any other individual without violation of copyright law. 

The Whateley Academy Universe
The Universe itself is an intellectual property owned collectively by the Canon author team. Use of the Concepts and Resources of the Universe in creative work is limited at (currently) three levels. Full access to resources and planning information about the universe and the creation of canon stories in the primary timeline is strictly limited to the canon team. Inclusion in the Canon team is by invitation only. There are policies in place to allow for the inclusion of 'new blood', necessary due to 'retired' or 'absent' authors after more than ten years of project activity. The second level of access to the Universe is that of the 2nd Generation Canon team. These authors are primarily responsible for the development of a second timeline for the Whateley Academy, beginning with the Fall 2016 school year. These authors work as needed with the original canon team to develop a continuity accurate alternate story series, but do not personally have access to the full original planning resources or authorization to write in the original timeline. 2nd Gen Canon membership is also by invitation only.

The third tier of participation is that the WA Canon authors welcome the participation of authors who are not canon in the creation of stories about the universe. While Fan Fiction authors do not get direct access to the backstory or canon details, most canon authors welcome a certain amount of questioning about the world and people to help Fan Fic be as close to canon as possible, without releasing years of planning into the wild. As a result, some of the fan fic is as good or better than canon stories. It is also possible for fan fiction authors to be offered the opportunity to re-release a story as fully canon (where a single story hits just right and we feel that it needs to be a part of the canon) even while not bringing the author in as a full canon member. Fan Fiction stories remain fully in control of their author, though if they choose to publish on the site; they are asked to give us some level of control to handle editing/publishing details. Fan fiction authors ARE required to indicate that their stories are fan fiction at the top of each story. This prevents outsiders from mistaking fan fiction as something officially in the timeline... something along the lines of:

"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out Whateley Academy at ( whateley.academy )" 

The Crystal Hall
A great deal of time and effort go into developing a functioning web site and its associated web community. At no time is the theft/copy of a web site and its material... or the diversion of its community by posing as a mirror or alternate source of their material a viable way of handling web business. Just as the Universe and the Stories are protected by Copyright Law... so to is the site. At this time, the only site not at either crystalhall.org or whateleyacademy.net or whateley.academy that is officially connected with us is the status page maintained by our staff at  status.whateley.academy which is technically offsite at Kristin's wisdomsprice.com domain, offering a valuable reference point if for some reason the main site is down (if you can't access this site, that one will tell you how to contact us and if we're already aware of problems, some details on what we know and when it'll be fixed).

Other than that? Bigcloset has supported us for a number of years and deserves both the recognition and respect for rescuing the site when its former owner and our friend passed away. And Sapphire's Place was the original home of the stories in 2004 when they first released. But even these two sites do not have any special recognition regarding Intellectual Property control over the WA Universe. Anyone else trying to convince you they are 'official' Whateley... is breaking the law.

The first rule of fight club is... no... wait...

The first rule of our Forums and Moderation policy is simple. It is even common sense. Unfortunately, the internet is not known for its copious numbers of people basing their lives on common sense. So let's break it down even more simply than it needs to be: Show some respect when you discuss things with other readers and the authors of the stories. Even when you don't agree with them... or like them... maybe even especially then. No one is making money for doing what they do here. Readers, writers, artists... we're doing this because we enjoy it. Remember that when you have a different opinion that someone else and you want to correct them, or challenge their way of thinking. They're not here to learn. They're not here to become a better reader. Or a better writer. They're here because they enjoy doing what they do... and if you take away their enjoyment of it, they're not going to want to be here anymore.Sensitivity There are people who believe professional authors and artists should be thick skinned. Able to take criticism. Not insulted personally when someone tears into their work. To some degree, those people are right. But they are also usually wrong, because they believe that ANYONE is able to 'professionally' review and critique the work of an author. And I can assure you that there are far fewer professional critics than there are professional authors among web publications. If you don't know what you're doing, don't try to 'review' or 'critique' stories. Join a discussion about the story. Or make a simple comment about what you liked or what you didn't understand. Kicking the authors in the 'nads is not cool. Even if you think they should know to be wearing a cup.
 
  Our rules and policies are mostly pretty abstract. We want the community to enjoy their time here. We want to keep our authors protected so they go on writing the stories everyone loves. You may feel that something you are doing is completely ok and justified... and suddenly a moderator is telling you to stop. Just stop. Drop the conversation. If you don't understand what you did that resulted in being called out, PM the moderator... or better yet, PM a DIFFERENT moderator. Mostly, our moderators are also authors. That means they have inside details on the shitstorm hitting one of the other authors in real life that you know nothing about... and while you aren't aware of it, what you are doing it hurting someone, or at the very least, making them want to say "f--- it" and leave. We might not be able to explain... not our story/details to share. But we don't drop the hammer often or lightly. So just save everyone a lot of hassle and don't argue about it. More than likely, any punishment that we apply after you argue is going to be far more painful than one where you respond with a simple "Sorry, my bad. I'll PM you in a bit to figure out where I went off the rails" and take a little break.
 
   
Don't break things: If you try to hack the site, database, or disrupt the operation of the site in anyway; you need to find a different community to be a part of.

Don't snoop: It's not going to hurt anyone if you get access to stuff you shouldn't... unpublished stories, canon backstory, and so on. But it very well could ruin a lot of people's enjoyment of stories that have not yet been published... or even written... yet. So... don't.

Don't abuse the mail system or our bandwidth: Yes, you could theoretically subscribe to every thread and get hundreds of emails from the site every day... but please don't. We don't have to pay anything as long as we stay below 25000 per month... but it won't be long before we have 500+ registered members. And it won't take long for that many people to get a lot of notifications. Same with harassing our poor Google hosted VM... things should be relatively inexpensive to run, here... but if someone is uploading dozens of video clips and everyone's watching them, it could run up the bill quickly.

No flaming or trolling: For obvious reasons. The site is for our community, flaming and trolling are not a valid part of an intelligent community.