UOSA Game, IRC, & Forum Policies

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Boomland Jenkins
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UOSA Game, IRC, & Forum Policies

Post by Boomland Jenkins »

1/8/2015: I've been working on consolidating all the random "rules and regulation" stickies we have across all the forums to make it globally accessible. This should clear up some confusion about what our rules are. The information in this thread is nothing new, but simply moved into a single thread for quicker reference.

This is a very preliminary list of the most basic, and sometimes obvious rules (and info) on Second Age.

Second Age is set in the T2A era of UO. These were very dangerous times in the land of Britannia; as such citizens who wander outside the protection of the guards do so at their own risk. Know how to protect yourself for you will be out of the reach of Lord British's assistance. Staff will not typically intervene in player affairs.
  • There is a three account limit on Second Age.
  • You should not be connected to Second Age on more than three accounts ever.
  • We allow unattended macroing with Razor only(dl)
  • No other software may be used for repetitive tasks.
  • You may not gather things unattended. This includes Mining, Lumberjacking, lockpicking in dungeons, cotton picking/sheep shearing, and fishing. You may also not sell items to vendors AFK for profit.
  • Non-EA/OSI Clients are not allowed.
  • If you suspect someone of cheating, you should report it to Staff through a private message or in-game, not post it publicly.
  • Reasonable character names are encouraged but not required.
  • Obscene names may be changed at staff discretion
  • House and Boat decay is 14 days if not refreshed.
  • All characters on Second Age may own one house.
  • There is no Young player status on Second Age.
  • Accounts will Never be deleted due to inactivity.
  • Respect the Staff. No one is being paid for their work here and we have gone to great lengths to find honest and competent staff members.
  • We also expect the Staff to respect the Players. If you have an incident with a staff member we will do our best to find a way to resolve it.
  • All staff instructions should be followed. You are welcome to voice objection after the fact.
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of rules. Other common sense guidelines may apply, but we do our best to leave the game to the players. Staff on Second Age do not play.

There is also a basic FAQ index here: UOSA FAQ

Here on UOSA, players are allowed to own and utilize up to 3 of their own accounts, and only those accounts. This means the following:
  • Accounts cannot be shared (e.g. using another players accounts when they aren't using them).
  • Accounts cannot be used to acquire extra holiday gifts at any time. Anyone found doing so will have any and all gifts stripped from them, warnings placed on the accounts, and extra or borrowed accounts banned.
  • Other accounts can only be maintained (see Derrick's response for what constitutes maintenance purposes).
Anyone found utilizing another player's accounts or extra accounts will have all accounts owned by the sharing player - or extra accounts - banned, and warnings placed on the sharer's accounts for using extra accounts. Multiple infractions will result in the closure of all accounts.



Forum TOS
(Taken from a post by Derrick...)

This post serves to remind all registered users of the agreement made when registering on these forums.
Terms of Service wrote: By accessing “UO Second Age” (hereinafter “we”, “us”, “our”, “UO Second Age”, “http://forums.uosecondage.com”), you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the following terms then please do not access and/or use “UO Second Age”. We may change these at any time and we’ll do our utmost in informing you, though it would be prudent to review this regularly yourself as your continued usage of “UO Second Age” after changes mean you agree to be legally bound by these terms as they are updated and/or amended.

Our forums are powered by phpBB (hereinafter “they”, “them”, “their”, “phpBB software”, “www.phpbb.com”, “phpBB Group”, “phpBB Teams”) which is a bulletin board solution released under the “General Public License” (hereinafter “GPL”) and can be downloaded from http://www.phpbb.com. The phpBB software only facilitates internet based discussions, the phpBB Group are not responsible for what we allow and/or disallow as permissible content and/or conduct. For further information about phpBB, please see: http://www.phpbb.com/.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “UO Second Age” is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that “UO Second Age” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, neither “UO Second Age” nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
It is specifically noteworthy that Slander and Fraud are bannable (and possibly illegal) offenses on these boards, whether done in public or private context. You may also not harass or intimidate other users outside of a role-play (read as in-game) context.

We will take any offenses to this TOS seriously.


Forum Rules

After the rather recent rise in uncivil posting behavior, I feel that it is time to re-post our forum rules which were lost some time ago. Please read these rules and keep them in mind when posting. We would like this forum to be a constructive place.
  • Posts within a specific forum should be related to that forum's intent (i.e. posts in Second Age Discussion should be about Second Age).
  • Posts specifically advertizing for another server are not allowed anywhere on the forums.
  • Intentional attacks on another forum poster based on their in-game or forum conduct should be limited to the Trash Talk forum. It goes without saying that attacking someone based simply on who the person behind the keyboard is not allowed as an extension of this.
  • Posts intended to derail threads or start a trash talking match between forum posters should be limited to the Trash Talk forum.
  • Profanity should be kept out of the indexed forums (everything except the "Other" forum), and kept to a reasonable level outside of the Trash Talk forum.
  • Posts that discuss controversial non-UOSA related topics are allowed in the "Other" forum, provided the discussion is handled maturely.
  • Scams may not be perpetrated in the Trading Posts section of the forum. This has been a rule for quite some time, but has been lacking on our general rules. See our guidelines for reporting a forum scam.
  • Racist, sexist, homophobic or other similar disparaging remarks used for nothing other that inflammatory comments do not have any place on the Second Age forums, including the Trash Talk forum.
  • Posting any personal information about another poster is strictly forbidden in any section of the Second Age forum, unless the information has been divulged directly on the forums by said poster.
  • Threads designed to attack unwilling participants based on personal information are not allowed anywhere on the forums. Threads for willful participation should be limited to the Trash Talk section.
  • Forum signatures will contain appropriate content for a family-friendly environment.
  • Posters will not provide links to locations that contain trojans or other malware/viruses.
  • As with the IRC rules, enforcement of these rules is up to the discretion of the moderator and may be retroactively enforced. If you should have a grievance regarding the way in which a moderator acted, please PM Derrick or another UOSA staff member.
  • To report a post, simply click the "Report Post" button (Image) and fill in the appropriate information. Please do not abuse the "report post" feature. Only report posts you genuinely believe to be breaking the listed forum rules, or if you feel that the post should be called to the attention of the moderators. Abuse of this feature will lead to forum account warnings, possible limited forum access, or forum bans.
  • At any time, any UOSA staff member may perform an addendum to the above rules.
Infractions of these rules carry a penalty ranging, at the discretion of the administrator, from a forum warning up to and including an in-game ban.

Last update: September 24, 2013
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Boomland Jenkins
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Re: UOSA Game, IRC, & Forum Policies

Post by Boomland Jenkins »

Harassment Policies
(Taken from a post by Derrick...)

These are the harassment policies of EA and Origin. As you can see, the burden is put primarily on the player to remove themselves from an unwanted situation. UO is not always a friendly game and has freedom of play qualities which do not exist in other MMORPG's. As such, you may find yourself in situation which you do not like. We will very rarely find cause to intervene in player interaction, but it is also not encouraged to take advantage of this and intentionally cause misery for others through the exploit of game mechanics.
EA Games Verbal Harassment Policy (abridged) wrote: If you petition in game with a complaint of harassment you are going to be presented with two harassment category choices; Verbal and Physical. This article will attempt to clarify for you what is considered valid verbal harassment.

Behavior that is dependent on circumstance and how you attempt to resolve the situation include most other verbal harassment situations such as name calling. Before you submit a complaint be sure you understand what constitutes harassment and that you have followed these steps:
  • You have asked the player to "please stop", and they have continued to repeat the offending behavior.
  • You have tried to remove yourself from the situation, for example, by recalling away or moving several screens.
  • You have done nothing to instigate or further encourage the harassment.
  • You have added the player to your ignore list, which is located in your UO options, under Filter Options.
  • Your account information is up to date, including a current email address.
Please note that profanity itself is not prohibited, as Ultima Online is a teen rated game by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. However, this does not permit a player to harass another player with profanity.
EA Games Physical Harassment Policy wrote: We'd rather not go into the specifics of all the actions we consider physical harassment, but we do want to make it clear that it is not okay to ruin the fun of UO for other players, specifically when that is the intent behind your actions. It is important to realize and accept that everyone plays this game differently, and everyone has different expectations from the game and from the other players. Ultima Online is a social setting, and as such, we expect our players to treat one another with the same respect and dignity they would use in any other social situation.

If your sole purpose and intent in any action is to continually upset, aggravate, or otherwise annoy another player, you may be a "grief player." Using game mechanics to cause grief to others can also be seen as exploitation, and will be treated accordingly by game staff.

If someone is using grief tactics against you, please report it to a Game Master using the Help button on your paperdoll. Once the Help menu appears, choose the Harassment option, and enter the exact name of the other player, and a brief description of his actions. For example: Jody keeps luring these poison ele's to us and hiding. Clearly luring!

The following are NOT considered physical harassment:
  • Res killing
  • Stealing or kill stealing
  • Legal player killing, such as takes place in guild and faction wars
  • Refusal to take turns at spawn points
  • Refusal to resurrect another player
  • Blocking a recall location
  • Area Peacing
Before you submit a harassment complaint, be sure you understand what constitutes harassment and that you have followed these steps:
  • You have asked the player to "please stop" (and then they have continued to repeat the offending behavior).
  • You have tried to remove yourself from the situation, for example, by recalling away or moving several screens.
  • You have done nothing to instigate or further encourage the harassment.
  • You have added the player to your ignore list, which is located in your UO options, under Filter Options.
  • Your account information is up to date (including a current email address).
EA Games wrote: QUESTION
How do I ignore another player or NPC?
Answer
To ignore a player or NPC, use the Options button on your paperdoll. Select the lower right tab with the globe symbol on it. Double-click on [new] under Ignore Players, then target the person or NPC you wish to ignore. That person's name will be added to your ignore list, and you will no longer see anything they say. Finally, click the APPLY button, then the OKAY button. To remove the person from your ignore list, click once on their name in the Ignore Players list, then press the Delete key on your keyboard. Their name will be removed from the list. Be sure to click APPLY and OKAY to make this change permanent. If you find the delete process is not working for you it is usually because of a delete key macro. Check UO and even UO Assist for a process mapped to the delete key, and disable that.
EA Games wrote: QUESTION
What constitutes an exploit?
Answer

It is hard to describe every incident which might be considered an exploit. Because the game changes, and systems change, new exploits appear as old ones go away.

Basically, an exploit is the ability to do anything in the game which you should not normally be able to do. For instance, if you aren't able to walk into a house with your character, but you discover a way for an animal to break in for you, you are obviously taking advantage of an exploit. It is obvious that thieving animals are not part of the game. It is obvious you should not be able to get into houses which have the door locked.

If you find a loop hole which allows you to duplicate items or create more gold, this is also considered an exploit. In each instance, the rules have obviously been broken and unusual gains have been made. Knowing what is an exploit is really a matter of knowing how the game works. Ignorance that you were using an exploit will not prevent removal from the game for committing such an exploit.
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Boomland Jenkins
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Account Security, Deletion and Hacking

Post by Boomland Jenkins »

Account Security, Deletion and Hacking

(Yet another thread taken from Derrick)

The purpose of this post is to specifically inform you of our policy regarding Account and Character deletion.

We will never delete your characters or accounts.

Beyond that, the security of your account, characters and items is entirely your responsibility. If your account is hacked, or your characters deleted we will be unable to restore it to it's previous state.

Just a heads up, this is not a new policy and precedence for this was set long ago.

It is especially ill-advised to ever use your account information for Second Age on any other shard, especially your password even if used in conjunction with another username.

Second Age stores all passwords encrypted, and no staff here have access to your passwords; however this may not be the case for all freeshards; it is advisable to always use a strong and unique password for any login on the Internet.

Good advice:
Choosing a Good Password wrote: First and foremost, NEVER give your password to anyone. ``Anyone'' means your coworkers, your spouse, your systems administrator. In the event of an emergency, the sysadmin can change your password. Your system administrator never has a need to know your personal password. ....
We will never ask for your password, and we also ask that you do not provide your password to any of our staff. if you need to change your password in game, use the [password command, the syntax is:
[password <new pass> <new pass>
(Do include the [ do not include the <>)

If you have a registered account, an email will be sent to you with a code that allows you to complete the password change yourself. In this case our staff including me never see your password change request.

If you use the password command with an unregistered account, and if you are not on the same IP Address that created the account, your password request can be seen by staff. This is very much less than desirable, and something we intend to disable. It would be our preference that all password management be done unassisted.

Other Potentially helpful information:
How to Choose a Secure Password
How to Pick a Safe Password

To reiterate, to log on to another freeshard or anywhere using your UOSA account username and/or password is probably not a good idea. We will not be able to compensate anyone for losses due to account infiltration, no matter the cause.


This topic is locked because it is not meant to be a list of people who have had their accounts looted (no this has not been something that is widespread). The advice above is sufficient to protect you. Apart from wiretapping, or trojans in your system, accounts cannot be infiltrated on Second Age if you use a strong password, and do not share it with others.
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