There are a fair amount of rules here, but most of it is just so we're transparent with how things are run. However, I've bolded key words so you can skim through and read everything easier.

Pretty much, treat everyone with respect and ask questions if you have them and everything will go smoothly. (: The main rules we're really serious about here are about not harming others or the site - ex. stealing, harassment, being cliquey, etc. So treat everyone with respect and communicate civilly and everyone will have a great time here. (:

But in a nutshell, these are the most important ones:

Be respectful - Treat everyone (member or staff) with respect and decency. This is the #1 rule.

No stealing.

No cliques. If that's the vibe you want, you can go elsewhere. No hard feelings. (:

Consistency - We've been roleplaying out the last 25+ years, it's hard to just insert a major plot into the history that never actually happened on site. If you want to do something big, do it in the present!

Development - TB is about development. Our time moves by quickly, which is why our characters start young. Instead of having a backstory, you roleplay it out!

Don't try to skirt around the rules - It's very obvious when you are. It's hard on us, honestly. Just don't do it. From now on, if we see anyone doing this excessively (again, it's very obvious when this is your intention), we may ask you to leave. It's far more trouble than it's worth and we want to have time to roleplay too, not policing people constantly trying to bend the rules to their liking.

Questions are great! Feel free to ask questions about the plot, rules, etc. But also do try to read up on it first. Our rules are always evolving with what the community needs and will be adjusted here.

Below, you can see all of the rules divided into sections. And the titles summarize them too so you can skim through pretty easily.

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RESPECT EVERYONE EQUALLY.
Equally respect the staff as well as the members. No impersonating others. No use of IP proxies to make alternate aliases to get around the character limits and activity rules. No taking out ooc hang-ups on people in character. No treating anyone as anything less than a human and a writer who wants to roleplay. In a nutshell, be kind, courteous and have fun.

DON'T ADVERTISE OTHER SITES.
No advertising other sites will be accepted anywhere other than the designated advertising boards. This means no linking to other roleplay forums other than in the advertising boards.

NO STEALING.
No stealing of any plots, graphics, characters or anything from the site that doesn't belong to you. The staff has worked hard over the years with many ideas and evolutions to get TB to the point where it is now. Direct stealing or heavy inspiration (stealing systems/ways we do things that are unique to TB*) will get you banned from the forum.
* For example: Having threaded applications is not unique to TB but our Quidditch system is.

DISPLAY NAME IN ALL CAPS & HOW THEY ARE KNOWN.
Your display name must be in all capital letters. It should be how they are known. So if they have a nickname, make that their first name. Ex. 'Ajax Flint' is known as AJ so his display name should be 'AJ Flint'. Don't do quotations for a nickname in the middle of their name.

BE INCLUSIVE, NOT CLIQUEY.
We are an all inclusive forum. We are not the place to roleplay with 1-2 people and ignore or be rude to everyone else. We also have a very wide spectrum of writing skills here, so please respect that as well.

FREE CUSTOM TITLE FOR POSTS!
Not really a rule, but a notice that once you reach 500 posts, you will get a free custom title for that account. An admin will PM you once you reach this, but if we haven't caught it, you can PM us too.

C-BOX ETIQUETTE
Be respectful. No advertising. Keep the conversation open for everyone to chat. If you want to post an image, LINK to it. Don't post it to display as an image in the chat. It can use up extra data for those who mobile view.




ROLEPLAY IN THIRD PERSON.
All roleplaying here must be done in third person. No double posting in roleplay. No one liners - try to write a couple of lines at least.

NO GODMODDING OR POWERPLAYING
No godmodding (which is controlling other characters than your own).
No powerplaying (which is when your character is all knowing/powerful or might know things that you read in a post that your character would have no reason to know).

ALL ROLEPLAYING POSTS MUST BE WRITTEN BY YOU
All of your posts should be written by yourself - not stolen or written by a friend or something else. We have no word count so there's no need to go to lengths to not write your own posts.

TREAT ALL CHARACTERS AND PLOTS WITH RESPECT
Do not treat others' characters like stock or static characters only there to suit your plot. Everyone has their own character and plots that they want, not just you. Do not pressure people into changing their character to suit your own plot or thread either. If they say that their character wouldn't do that, do not pressure them into it.

DO NOT LIVE OUT OOC ISSUES THROUGH YOUR CHARACTERS
If you have a problem with a member, do not ruin their plots or try to cause negativity to them through roleplay. There is a difference between this and having a mutually agreed upon enemies plot. If you're caught doing this, you will be warned once and then asked to leave. It makes writers very uncomfortable when they are receiving negativity from other members publicly and being masked behind a character.

KEEP IT PG-13
We are PG-13, so keep the subject of your posts appropriate. This includes the applications/history logs, etc. as well as roleplaying posts. Mild profanity is allowed, but don't go overboard.

WE STICK TO THE POTTERVERSE CANON
Keep true to the canon. We are only AU in terms of plot, but all of the world of Harry Potter is strictly canon from the books (not movies and the wiki isn't 100% reliable either. When in doubt, just ask).

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A MAJOR PLOT...
Major plots and changes that affect many characters must be approved by an admin first. For example, attacking Hogwarts, enacting a new law, etc. Most likely, the admin will approve it unless it's completely out of character or would negatively affect the site as a whole.

IF YOU WANT TO DO AN EVENT OR MASS THREAD...
You will need admin approval as well. It may not be accepted just depending on what the site needs at the moment. Some may unfortunately have to be denied entirely if it doesn't work for the site at all, or others may need to be delayed and start at a certain time (ex. November will likely never be accepted because we have a Quidditch game then, so it likely would have to be October or December).

BEFORE YOU KILL A CANON,
You must get admin permission before killing off a canon.

YOU CAN NPC CANONS, BUT KEEP THIS IN MIND.
You may npc canons who are not currently being played. However, they must remain in character and what is roleplayed cannot deviate from what is in their history in the canon claim (ex. if the claim says their job is a Potions Master, then you can't npc them working at the Ministry). You cannot npc any major changes to their character (ex. having a baby, changing jobs, turning into a vampire, etc.).

FUTURE & PAST THREADS
Future threads are allowed up to 6 months from the current date. So if it's January 2008, then you can roleplay a future thread up to July 2008. This is because any further would make inconsistencies with your threads and character development.
Past threads are allowed with no limit to the date. Make sure to include the year in the title so we know where to archive it, however.

STAY IN CHARACTER
You may not use your character or a roleplaying thread in general to lash out at someone you might not like OOCly or otherwise try to ruin their plots/threads. If you don't like someone, then don't plot or roleplay with them. Don't go out of your way to make their time here a miserable time. You may get one warning if this occurs, or if serious enough, you will be asked to leave.

BE INCLUSIVE
If you are seen as being too exclusive/cliquey, we will remind you that we are an inclusive forum and that we have many members for you to roleplay with. There are a couple of guidelines to help you know if you're being inclusive or not:



While some of these behaviours are fine on other sites, they're not what TB is about. So if you want to just write with your friend, then this site might not be the place for you. We're all about community and group involvement with many writers. You don't have to write with absolutely everyone, but if you're being cliquey/exclusive with 1-2 writers, it's very obvious and makes others on the site feel upset and uncomfortable.

Also, we normally have 30+ writers here, so there are plenty to roleplay with.




CHOOSING A HOUSE
If you're unsure of what house you're character will belong in, just leave that section blank in your application. An admin can figure out the right house for you if you fill in enough of their personality in the application. (: [This is especially for Firenze, Xanadu and Dahshur students. <3]

WHILE WAITING TO BE ACCEPTED,
Once you've filled out your application, please wait to be accepted before roleplaying. You may post in the Out of Character boards (games, introductions, etc.) and post in the claims and sign ups (Celeb Claim, Quidditch Sign-Ups, etc.) while you wait.




CHARACTER LIMIT

We no longer have a character limit. However, there are limitations on how quickly you can create new characters and how active you need to be with your current ones before you can make more. Please keep in mind that these requirements apply to re-sorting characters as well.

-- Currently have 0-4 characters: There's no waiting or activity requirements (therefore you can make 5 characters right away).

-- Currently have 5+ characters: All your characters must have at least 2 roleplaying posts each on their account; Wait 1 week between character creations; Be actively roleplaying with at least 1 roleplay post in the past 3 weeks with each character.

-- Currently have 10+: All your characters must have at least 5 roleplaying posts each on their account; Be actively roleplaying with at least 1 roleplay post in the past 3 weeks with each character; Wait 2 weeks between character creations.

-- Currently have 20+ characters: Wait 2 months between character creations; Be actively roleplaying with at least 1 roleplay post in the past 3 weeks with each character; You must have roleplayed during the last month as many times as characters you currently have (ex. Now is November and you have 20 characters, then you must have roleplayed at least 20 times in October).

Please note that the whole purpose of this is to show consistency and that you can handle a large amount of characters and actually roleplay with them. If you suddenly post a lot of open threads or all your posts are just from the last few days, we may ask you to show more consistent activity before your new character can be accepted.

CHARACTER RESTRICTIONS

-- We allow as many students as the dormitories can hold. This means we can only have up to 10 females, 10 males and 5 non-binary characters per year per House (in total, 592 students).

-- We only accept 1st - 6th year original characters. If you want to play a canon, you can claim a canon from any year.

-- If you want to play an original 4th year or higher, you must have a 1st-3rd year first.

-- We have unlimited slots for 1st and 2nd years but for now are only accepting up to 10 students in each higher year (3rd - 7th years).

-- You may only have up to two (2) students in each year (exception: first and second years are unlimited).

-- You can create THREE (3) adults. The rest of your adults will be characters who started out as students. Our time moves by quickly, don't worry. It'll take only 2 real years to go from 1st to 7th year.

CHARACTER PERMISSIONS & CONSISTENCY

-- If you take a wanted ad, make sure to get the poster of the ad's permission first before you can be accepted. Also make sure you're transparent with them if there are big changes you want to make to the character if they conflict with what's in the ad.

-- If you take a canon, you don't need permission. But you do need to stick to their history and details (age, name, etc.) in the Canon Claim if there is any. Their future is up to you, however.

-- If you take a wanted ad that was already played by someone on site before, it's the same. They should have the same age, name, job, kids and marriage (if applicable), and blood status. But everything else is up to you including their future (they can change jobs, get a divorce, etc.). If they had plots with current characters on site, it's up to you if you want to continue them or do something different going forward.

-- If you no longer play the canon or wanted ad, you agree that their history will remain on site (just if they had any kids, job, etc.).




FIRST & LAST NAME, UNLESS CREATURE
Your character must have a first and last name unless they are a creature that only have one name (ex. Centaurs). We do not have a rule against having the same first or last name as someone else, but you may not have the same whole name as someone else (ex. you could both be Smiths without being related, but if we already have a John Smith, then we can't accept a second John Smith).

POTTERVERSE CREATURES ONLY
We only accept beings and creatures from the Harry Potter verse. Make sure to read the species & abilities thread too - We have been around since 2006 and Rowling didn't specify all her canon information then (it's before Deathly Hallows, even), so some things may differ. Also, We do not accept characters from other fandoms (ex. Bella Swan, Frodo Baggins, etc.). If we find your character is too close to a character of another fandom, you will need to modify them to being original.

NO MARY-SUES OR GARY-STUS
No Mary-Sues or Gary-Stus. Those kinds of characters are characters that are too perfect and don't have any flaws {and no, being too perfect isn't a flaw}. Everyone has their quirks and the most interesting you make your character with flaws and quirks, the more fun it will be to roleplay with and the more people will want to roleplay with you.

NO ORIGINAL OFFSPRING OF CANONS FROM THE PAST
We do not accept original offspring or long lost relatives of canon characters. It's confusing to the current members if someone suddenly has an offspring who didn't before and creates inconsistencies in multiple storylines. We also are not accepting new canons from The Cursed Child.

BEING A SPOUSE OR CHILD OF A CANON = BEING A CANON
If you have an original character who marries a canon or play a newly made (via roleplay on here) child of a canon, you agree that they will remain on the canon list even if you leave the site. However, only details of their name, House (if applicable), blood status & financial status will be kept as well as other major life changes (ex. job, joined the Order, etc.). However, all of the personality and development you did with them will not carry on. That is strictly your's.

MAKING OR TAKING WANTED ADS
If you post a wanted ad, you agree that the person who you allow to take the character may play them however long they want. You may not force them to change or delete the character if you leave or otherwise. However, if you do leave, they are not allowed to request a wanted ad for your original character the ad was for.

If a character from your wanted ad gets unsorted and you would prefer someone more active play them, you do have the right to deny them the ability to play your wanted ad again. If this is the case, simply PM an Administrator.

If you take a wanted ad, you must get permission to kill off that character from the person who posted the wanted ad. If they are no longer on the site, then the choice is your's.

DELETING CHARACTERS IS DISCOURAGED
We discourage deleting characters because there's so much you can throw at them to try and develop them better, get more muse, etc. However, we do understand that sometimes you've tried everything but they just aren't working out. We no longer have a rule where you can't make a new character right away. But if this becomes a frequent habit, then that rule will return. So try to only do this when absolutely necessary.

RE-CREATING CHARACTERS
You now can use the same account to re-create a character. Ex. If you want to re-create them from an adult to a student. Though there are things to keep in mind. The previous version isn't erased from existence. They would have had plots and threads with other characters on the site and you cannot erase the development and memories of others' characters. So essentially you would be creating a second character with the same name, and altered history, age, personality, etc.

Also, you would have to re-create them entirely like described above. You cannot change an active character to suddenly having a twin, or going from 5th to 2nd year, or changing their history drastically, etc. without fully re-creating them.

Also keep in mind that once you do this, any plots you had would now be gone, and any threads will be archived as they would be about the previous version of the character. If you only want to change their personality, there are various life experiences or events you can throw at them to develop their personality differently. If that's all you want to do, you can always ask us for ideas on how to make that happen.




PG-13 GRAPHICS
Please keep your signatures and avatars appropriate. No nudity, etc. If an admin feels that your graphics are inappropriate, they will contact you. The graphics on your profile must be of the play-by you have claimed in the Celebrity Claim thread.

PHOTOS USED
All photos in graphics to represent your character should be from actual photoshoots, screencaps, promotional shoots, etc. Aka no candid real life photos from people's Instagrams, etc. We may be lenient with this sometimes, but we will NOT be for anyone under 18.

AVATAR & SIGNATURE SIZES
All signature sections may be up to 500px in width and 350px in height. All avatars are 200x300 maximum.

RESIZED IMAGES
If you resized an image and the resizing was wonky, it won't be allowed on here because it gives some people headaches. If you need graphics or help resizing, just ask. If you just want to resize an image, you can also do that with coding. Just ask how. <3

IF YOU WANT SOME GRAPHICS...
If you want some graphics and don't have any, just go down to our Graphics board at the bottom of the main page. There are many graphics artists who would be happy to make you some graphics!




2 PROFESSORS PER WRITER
Each writer may only have up to 2 Hogwarts professors at the same time. This is to allow more to be professors and also so we don't have a ton of professors inactive if one writer goes inactive. However, if you really like having characters who are professors, there are many other schools (and even a small college in Hogsmeade). Please note that if you have 1 Hogwarts professor who isn't active, you likely will be denied to have a second one.

PROFESSORS MUST REMAIN IN THEIR POSITION FOR AT LEAST 3 TERMS
There tends to be a high turnover of professors, which can clog up our lists and also make things difficult for the students with constant new profs for all their classes. So now, all professors will remain in their position for at least 3 years. If you go inactive, they will still NPC hold that position, just as a name on a list. Other active professors may substitute teach that class once per year just so there's an active lesson. This rule includes changing classes, so make sure it's the class you really want to teach when you sign up. Changing classes or jobs from a non-Hogwarts school will likely be accepted, however. Just PM an admin.

CANON PROFS MAY NOT BE REPLACED OR CHANGE JOBS
To reduce the turnover, we have a few classes that are taught by a canon character and may not be replaced by an original, quit or change classes. But you can play that canon character if you really want to teach that class. (:

LESSONS MUST BE ACCURATE
If you're a professor posting a lesson it must NOT conflict with book canon or the spells list or potions list we have on site. It must also be appropriate for the age. Meaning, first years should not be learning 6th year spells. If you are ever unsure if it's right for the year, just ask! Also the spells list does list the year it should be taught. Because we do age ranges, it's okay as long as it's within that. Ex. a 3-5 class can learn a 5th year spell. But a 3-5 class shouldn't be learning a 6th or 7th year spell.

AT LEAST 1 LESSON PER TERM
Professors are required to post at least one lesson per term for each age group required (mandatory classes such as Potions require classes be split up like 1-2; 3-5 & 6-7, while elective classes such as Muggle Studies require classes be split up like 3-5 & 6-7). If you're not sure how your class is split, make sure to check out the House Points board (only viewable by those in the Professor group).

EXAM QUESTIONS MUST BE SENT IN - MULTIPLE CHOICE
Professors are also required to submit multiple choice questions and answers for the exams at the end of term. They must be from the lessons, so this makes it easier - you don't have to come up with any new content. Professors are PMed about this when it's time (May in character time).

IF YOU DON'T POST A LESSON...
If you don't post a lesson within one real month of the start of the school term [or one month after getting accepted as a professor if the term has already started], your character will become unemployed (this only applies to Hogwarts). We are currently testing out a different system where as long as we overall have enough lessons for the students, then no one gets fired. But if there isn't, then the previous rule applies to all those who didn't post one. Please note that even if we overall reach the minimum number of lessons for students to participate in and you don't get fired for not posting any, you can't coast forever. You do need to post lessons at least once every 3 years. Lots of members would love to be a professor and post lessons. If that's not something you want to do, take a position at another school instead. <3




YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN SHOPS
However, this is by admin approval now. We have SO many shops already and the boards and lists are just clogged with it. The wizarding community is rather small in Britain (about 4,500 witches and wizards), so having 50 shops is a little unrealistic. If there is a similar shop already, it likely won't be accepted, unless you open it up in another country. Some popular locations for roleplaying are Italy, France, and Norway.

THERE IS A SOFT AGE REQUIREMENT,
18 year olds aren't going to open up their own business in a shop right away and be successful. Keep in mind that the Weasley Twins were extremely lucky - the timing was good because the world was terrible and people needed some joy, and they also had been developing their product for years.

Your character needs to be at least 20 years old, but preferably 25 or older to create a new shop or take over ownership of one that's available in the job claim.

OWNING A SHOP WITH ANOTHER JOB

If you are starting your own business, you may NOT have any other job for 3 years. It takes a LOT of resources and hard work to make a business work from scratch. However, if you are opening a business with another character (on site, not NPC), then you may also have another job that isn't a full time requirement (not a Ministry employee or professor).

If you are buying a business, you may have one other job that isn't full time requirement (not a Ministry employee or professor).

YOU CAN ONLY OWN UP TO 5 SHOPS
Spread the love. You, as a writer, can only own up to 5 shops in character. If you have a character that owns 2 shops, that counts as 2. It's not per character who owns a shop, it's 5 shops in total.

IF YOU WANT A CHARACTER TO OWN MORE THAN ONE SHOP,
You must also get admin approval. Please note that while this is fiction, there needs to be a degree of realism/remote possibility. No one is going to open up multiple businesses at the same time. There must be at least five (5) years apart between opening businesses. The first one needs to be established so you actually have money coming instead of losing money before you make another business. However, if they sell their business and open up a different one, that would be fine, though serial rotations of various new businesses every year will not be approved.




WE SOMETIMES HAVE ACTIVITY CHECKS
We don't have scheduled Activity Checks monthly. But keep in mind you should be roleplaying at least once every 6 weeks to be considered active (with each account of course). Sometimes we may have an Activity Check or we may just unsort if you've been gone for 6+ weeks.

ACTIVITY REQUIREMENTS
You are required to post a roleplay post at least once every 6 weeks (42 days) to be considered active. That really is a long time to not roleplay at all with a character. At that time, the account will be unsorted and the claims re-opened.

Once they are unsorted, you have 4 weeks (28 days) to come back before they are deleted. To be re-sorted, you can either PM a staff member or post in the Resorting thread in the Questions board.

We don't watch this every day, so sometimes people may be unsorted later than 6 weeks of inactivity. Sometimes we'll also have Activity Checks as well, but they aren't very often (once every 3-4 months). However, anyone playing a character super important to the main plot (ex. Golden Trio) will be unsorted once they reach 6 weeks of inactivity. There will be a PM reminder if you are active with other characters.

UPON BEING RE-SORTED
Once you are re-sorted, remember to post all your claims again. We won't know who your play-by was, what clubs you were in, etc.

IF YOU JOIN AND NEVER POST ANYWHERE
If you make an account and don't post anywhere for one month, your account will be deleted.




Kind of sad that we actually need a section for this, but apparently we do. But in general, just treat others as you would like them to treat you and be a decent human being. That's all we ask.

DON'T BREACH THE PROBOARDS TOS
Any content that breaches the Proboards Terms of Service will be removed without warning. This includes but is not limited to rated R threads and racism. If you are unsure, please ask before posting.

RESPECT EVERYONE
Behaviour wise, follow the first rule in this thread: respect everyone. Do not harass, pressure, slander or threaten any staff or member here. Follow the rules and don't try to enforce your own rules (ex. Don't tell members they have to post a certain amount of words or expect people to follow stricter activity rules than we have).

IF RULES ARE BROKEN...
If caught breaking a minor rule, you will be reminded of the rule. If it continues, then more action will be taken. If caught breaking a major rule (like stealing or threatening), you will be banned. We have only had to do so to 5 members in the past 14 years, so it doesn't happen often, but we will not be afraid to protect our members and the site if the situation calls for it.