Mapp and Lucia:Policy

These rules of conduct are common to virtually all Wikia pages and contain the basic behavioral norms of civil conversation between people. Therefore users are invited to take these into account.

## Grounds for blocking

Users who are clearly disruptive to the chat or who fail to behave appropriately towards other contributors may be blocked. The possible reasons for blocking include (but are not limited to):

1. Personal attacks, harassment, sexual harassment, insults or bullying.
2. Racial bigotry, sexually degrading language, or other hate speech.
3. Extreme use of profanity/cursing or directing it towards another user is not permitted.
4. Violation of personal privacy. Don't ask anything about another user's specific location.
5. Linking to external sources, such as websites, which violate the aforementioned rules. Notably, publicly linking to websites such as Facebook or MySpace that violate personal privacy, is not permitted without prior consent from the user whose privacy might be violated.
6. Trolling or general irritation or disruption of other users. This often includes, but is not limited to; excessive usage of capital letters, punctuation marks, deliberate distortions of the English language and excessive usage of languages other than English. Making arrangements to troll or otherwise disrupt another chat room or service is not permitted in our chatroom. This does not prevent you from joining another chatroom, linking another chatroom, or encouraging others to visit if the topic of conversation is likely to be of interest.
7. Being a dick. As a guideline, don't go out of your way to irritate others. (And especially do not try to test the admin's and/or chat moderator's patience and/or limits.) Vicious abuse is grounds for sanctions.
8. Whining. Users who ask for something from another chat user and are refused it should not stoop to complaining. It is acceptable to be persistent, but in a mature manner.
9. Discussion of real world issues and events is generally permitted. However, before raising any of these points or joining a discussion on these you should remember that your fellow chatters may hold strong views in these areas. Where a particular subject appears to be causing distress, offense, or is otherwise disrupting the ability for others to enjoy chat, a moderator at their discretion may direct that a conversation either be closed or moved into private chat. This may be done either by request to a mod, or by the mod's own initiative, when those factors are present. In the event of mods disagreeing to end a discussion, the decision to ends takes precedence unless there are more active mods who disagree with the decision than agree. Moderators should avoid closing discussions outside of a publicly made request when they are involved in the discussion (unless they are the only active mod).
10. Spamming. The meaning should be obvious. Don't say the same thing six times because no one is responding to you. Don't keep yammering on about a subject nobody cares about. Meaningless and/or random posts can also be considered spam, alongside disruptive internet memes.

## Caps

The usage of capital letters and caps lock is frowned upon. Using capital letters to write a word or a whole entry is typically perceived as yelling. Using excessive capital letters once will often result in a courtesy warning by an administrator or chat moderator, and persistent usage of capital letters may lead to a kick or ban, depending on severity.

## Topics of discussion

Off-topic discussions are allowed and are the norm, as long as you keep the conversation polite and do not give rise to disputes and violent arguments.

However, *Mapp and Lucia* (by extension the collection of EF Benson novels) remains the main theme topics so off-topic should still be in some way connected to the show. Last night's results of a footbal match comments are not tolerated, same for personal issues unless the user speak voluntarily of them another willing to listen user's message wall.

About the pages, it is ***preferable*** that the comments are related to the contents of the page itself (eg. talk about an episode in the page of that episode, about a certain character development in his/her page etc) to avoid confusion and to avoid posting a question on the wrong page ignoring that the same question has been the subject of discussion in the right page, and therefore there is already an answer to this question, or more than one.

## Consequences

Moderators have a wide discretion relating to the issuing of warnings and bans which infringe on these rules. The content of messages will greatly impact on the severity of the punishment. In certain particular cases, exceptions may be permitted, although these are infrequent.

Typically, the following hierarchy will apply to infringements on the above regulations (with the exception of specifically implied consequences).

* First offense: Warning
* Second offense: Kick

Following this, the block duration is usually:

* Three days for the first offense
* One week for the second offense
* One month for the third offense
* Any additional offenses may result in a permanent ban.

These are just guidelines for usual cases. Blocks and their duration are generally up to the discretion of our administrators and chat moderators.

Further offenses will result in an extended ban, at the discretion of the administrator or chat moderator administering the ban.

Administrators and chat moderators use their discretion when applying these rules, and understanding of the rules depends on the moderator's perception of the rules. Particular exceptions may be granted by specific administrator or chat moderator approval. These rules and regulations, however, should be followed strictly by users at all other times.

Moderators are reminded that they have the freedom to deal with situations with a less firm hand if required. If someone intends a bit of good humor, realizes their mistake, and apologizes, there may be no need for a kick or ban if the moderator feels the apology is genuine and the lesson has been learned

The use of kicks and bans for "joke" purposes is not permitted.

When you enter the chat, you are expected to have prior knowledge of all these rules. Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse as they cover common courtesy to others.

## See Also

**Mapp and Lucia:Manual of Style****:** tips and advice on how to edit.