Code of Conduct

Members of House of Black Star are expected to conduct themselves in a respectable manner at all times. As such, the following Code of Conduct has been established to ensure that all members are aware of org expectations and therefore able to contribute to the positive legacy of House of Black Star:

Using Exploits is a direct violation of Anarchy Online’s Terms of Service agreement. House of Black Star in no way condones any exploitive behavior. This is also extended to scamming of other players in-game

OD'ing or attempts to OD another individual or team that was first to initiate an attack on a mob is generally frowned upon by House of Black Star

Excessive trash-talking, profanity and rude behavior is not allowed in org chat nor is it considered to be acceptable behavior in public areas. This doesn’t mean that if you “let one slip” that you’ll be kicked from the org but is a reminder that there are many different people in the org and the game. If you have a disagreement with someone and feel that it needs to be discussed in a more detailed manner, send them a /tell. In summary, try to behave in such a way as to not be offensive to others

Begging: There are many ways to raise credits in AO, begging others is not necessary. AO is a game that is meant to be challenging. When you overcome those challenges you are rewarded. There are times that others (in the org and out) will offer you money, services and items. If you are comfortable accepting those gifts, then that is fine, but soliciting for credits and items is never acceptable

Respect and Trust: House of Black Star is a family. As such, we often offer services and items to org mates at no charge (though we might charge others outside of the org for those same items or services). Be respectful of this fact. Just as you may receive assistance, you are expected to assist others when you can. Unless otherwise specified, if someone from the org passes on an item for you to use (items, weapons, ncu, etc) normally they do not expect you to return those items. You should, however, pass those same items on to other org members when you are done with them. House of Black Star basically follows a “Pay It Forward” system. What this means is that when you receive assistance from someone (normally a more senior member of the org) you shouldn’t feel the need to pay them back but pay it forward by helping another that can use your assistance more

If you’re getting a service or item from an org mate with the intent to sell (or sell it later on down the line), it is only polite to extend a tip to the person providing the item or service. An example of this might be if you’re gathering parts for a perennium weapon or even arul saba bracelets and obtaining parts from org members and services from an org tradeskiller. If you’re making something for yourself then that is one matter but if you are turning a profit then the people helping should profit as well


House of Black Star policy on PvP, PvT & BS

Player vs Player
PvP is strictly forbidden and by pulling an attack on purpose, would end mean a ban from House of Black Star!

Friendly duels are of course allowed. There are many ways to initiate/arrange friendly duels which do not include "baiting" (city pvp, 17.8 duel system which does not flag to name a couple). Friendly pvp is just about having fun with friends and can be used to practice for BS.

Player vs Towers
PvT is strictly forbidden and by pulling an attack on purpose, would mean a ban from House of Black Star! We do not have towers and do not join Tower battles.

Battle Stations
Joining BS is of course allowed. We join Omni raidbots for other raids and our official stance in BS is that we join Omni side. If you join Clan side and fight against Omni you can get banned from Omni raidbots.


House of Black Star is a neutral organization that have a neutral view on both omni and clan. Neither Omni or Clan are enemies to this house. We consider us neutral and always had a friendly cooperative relation to both sides since our creation in February 2003.


Policy on Alts

Please use !alts add <name> to add any alts to your HoBS main toon. These alts will receive the same trust and respect as your "main". Also, any new alts that join HoBS, where a member is UM or above, will be able to be promoted straight to UM. Your overall online active status can be checked to include your alts. Any alts that you do not add will not receive these benefits.


House of Black Star policy on Player Shops

HoBS tries to ensure that all players with AI expansion that can open a org player shop can do. You are allowed to open a second shop in the second room for one alt. However, if new members no longer have any free "shop to rent" please be prepared to close a second shop.

Shop Naming All shops must be recognisable as belonging to the toon that opened it. (The toon name is automatically included when first "renting".) Repeating this offense can result in a ban.

Shop Closing Shops will be cleared occasionally to keep "shops for rent" available. These include Incorrectly named shops, toons that have left HoBS and those long inactive.



CITY RAIDING

If a member of HoBS wants to organise a raid, he will become "Raid Leader" for that raid.

1: The Raid Leader must gather a team filled with HoBS members or applicants. If there are not enough HoBS members or alts of members, they can ask for friends of the existing raiders to be approached. Only as a last solution should people be gathered from LFT.

2: Teams should always be strong enough to take the aliens down quickly and not subject the City Controller Tower to heavy attack and possible draining to below 10%. It is accepted that this may, on occasion, happen to even the most organised and experienced teams. However, it happens too often, and involves the same Raid Leaders or Team Members or Raider Alts; further action may be taken against them.

Dropping the Cloak
If the Raid Leader is not of Squad Commander rank or does not have a Raider Alt, they will need to contact either someone of SC rank or someone with a Raider Alt in order for them to come and drop and raise the Cloak.

A list of our Squad Commanders together with a list of Raider Alts can be found here.

When the team has been fully assembled and the SC/Raider Alt present, the CC should be filled. The level that it is filled to must be high enough to stop the aliens draining it below 10%. It is the responsibility of both the Raid Leader and the SC/Raider Alt to ensure this happens. They should also ensure that there is sufficient low level CRU available to top the CC up after the raid, should the level drop below 10%.

Loot
One person should be nominated by the Raid Leader to receive common loot items for distribution later. ‘Nodrops’ should be rolled if more than one team member requests the item, the Raid Leader will nominate who will do the roll. All rolls and distribution should always be on the basis of “need not greed” Expensive loot items (Lead Bots etc) and unwanted items with value, should be placed in the Raid Leader’s shop at market prices. The credits from the sales should be distributed evenly to all members of the raiding team. At this time the organisation does not ask for a share from City Raids..

All non-HoBS members of the team should be made aware of these rules before the raid starts.

Raising the Cloak
The Raider or SC that dropped the cloak is responsible for raising the cloak after the raid, either by doing it in person or by agreement with another member with the ability to raise the cloak. It is never acceptable to rely on “someone on-line at the time” to raise the cloak

Write up the Raid
The Raid Leader must post an account of the raid in a special thread on the forums even if no items of value have drooped. This simple report should give date and time of the raid, names of team members, any items of value that dropped, name(s) of cloak dropper/raiser and level that the CC was left in.

Farm Raids
The organisation does not encourage farm raids in the City because they have many inherent problems: Two main issues surrounding farm raids are that they generally involve as few people as possible which leads to:

• A legitimate team having to wait for a raid
  
• The CC being emptied before the one/two man team can kill the Gen (loss of benefits to org)
  
• It also splits the org into those that can farm raid and those that can’t.

However, as there are periods when the city is unused and not many members are online. In these circumstances, and within the following restrictions, farm raids will be allowed.

The regulations laid down in para 1 and 2 above are always observed:

• Where possible HoBS members will be involved, and given preference in the raids.
  
• The raid force must be strong enough to cope with the General – remember if dual logging, always arrange to have someone standing by to help; before you start the raid, in case you LD.
  
• LD’ing will not be taken as an excuse if the CC is drained – If you take the rewards you also take the responsibilities.
  
• Loot or credz from the loot, will be shared equally with all the (small) raid force.

Monthly Meeting Protocol

• The purpose of this protocol is to insure that all organization meetings are conducted in an orderly fashion, the following meeting protocol should be observed at all official House of Black Star meetings. For the purposes of this protocol, the person that calls the meeting to order is being referred to as the "Chairperson" and the person responsible for maintaining order during the meeting is being referred to as the "Sergeant at Arms". Meeting preparation guidelines Following are preparatory guidelines for the monthly House of Black Star Main Meeting (MM), held on the first Sunday of each month:
  
  
  
• A request for New Business topics should be published on the House of Black Star forums no later than one week before the MM
  
  
• A Meeting Agenda should be published on the House of Black Star forums no later than 48 hours before the MM
  
  
• Attending the MM is mandatory for all Applicants/Members. It is however understood that situations arise that will not allow House of Black Star members to attend the meeting. As such, it is the responsibility of all House of Black Star members to provide advance notification of an absence from the MM. Additionally, it is the responsibility of all Applicants and their Unit Leaders (or next available commanding officer) to make arrangements for promotion (to Unit Member)
  
  
• Communication for the meeting will be held on the vicinity channel. (Type '/v'). Members should resist from using org chat and instead use /tell messages to communicate urgent matters to other members of the org. Members that log-in while the MM is in progress will receive a /tell message from the Sergeant at Arms notifying them to report to the meeting asap
  
  
• Anyone expected to provide a report at the MM (Leaders and/or committee chairs) should come to the meeting prepared. This generally will mean having a prepared scripted report
  
  
• (Optional) Org leaders may post their prepared reports on the forums (in the same thread as the current month's meeting agenda) so that members will be able to review the information prior to the meeting.
  
  

Meeting guidelines

The following guidelines apply to events that take place during the monthly Main Meeting:

• The Chairperson is responsible for calling the meeting to order, guiding the flow of the meeting dialogue and working with the Sergeant at Arms to maintain order during the meeting. It is suggested that the Chairperson and Sergeant at Arms maintain an open dialogue (/tell window) so that they can be in synch in regards to the flow of the meeting. The MM Chairperson, by default, is the org President. In the event that the President is not present at the designated meeting start time, the most senior member of the org leadership may temporarily assume the role of Chairperson
  
  
• The Sergeant at Arms is responsible for keeping track of members that have questions and/or comments and relaying that information to the chairperson as needed. They are also responsible for sending /tell messages to anyone that is not following the established meeting protocol;
  
  
• All meeting attendees are expected to arrive to the meeting on time, follow the published meeting agenda as closely as possible and uphold the established meeting protocol
  
  
• Only one person may have the floor (speak) at a time. That person will be either the Chairperson or someone that has been designated by the Chairperson
  
  
• If a member wishes to speak they should do the following: Question: type QUESTION Comment: type COMMENT
  
  
• It is the responsibility of both the Chairperson and Sergeant at Arms to keep track of who has requested to speak and the responsibility of the Chairperson to call on those people in the order that they requested the floor
  
  
• If the person on the floor has a question: They should stand, state the name of the person(s) they are addressing, ask their question (ended with DONE) and sit down. The person being addressed by the question then has the freedom, without prompting, to "take the floor" (stand) in order to answer the posed question. When they are done (ended with DONE) they should sit down and the floor is then returned to the Chairperson
  
  
• If the person on the floor has a comment they should stand, state their comment (ended with DONE) and then be reseated. The floor is then automatically returned to the Chairperson;
  
  
• At any time, the Chairperson may determine that a particular topic is not appropriate for the meeting and/or needs to be addressed outside of the normal meeting setting. In the case where further dialogue is needed, the matter will be "tabled" and automatically placed as an Old Business topic on the following months agenda
  
  
• A typical monthly meeting is expected to last approximately 90 minutes. As such, after the 90 minutes has elapsed, members may be respectfully excused from the rest of the meeting (if necessary)
  

Meeting guidelines

Call to Order

Leader Reports

1. President's Report
   
2. General's Report
   
3. Guardian's Reports
   
4. Divisions' Reports

Old Business

New Business

Adjournment