General Communication

Overview

Be polite and considerate in voice and text. Keep it focused on Cloud 9 groups and official CIG content. Keep real life out of it.

Details

All communications occur through Cloud 9 Chat and, when applicable, directly in the 'verse through party and ship 'verse channels.

Do not suggest or ask to move communications to another service. Do not share links to individual or other group social media platforms.

Our channels are not for discussing the activities of other individuals or groups or content created by others that has separate servers or other platforms of any kind.

Each Cloud 9 server member agrees to being held accountable for upholding the chat platform's content and behavior standards to the best of their ability. It is the responsibility of every server member to not post offensive or obscene content and to report any such violations to our chat moderators.

'Verse Life & Real Life

Real life:

• What happens in real life stays in real life.

• Do not buy, sell, or trade items or anything involving real money or comparable currencies.

• Voluntarily sharing some real-life information is okay within reason; do not reveal personal or private information. Do not share any potentially controversial, offensive, or identifiable information or images.

• Do not share or address topics that may be associated with favor toward identity politics such as "assigned at birth", "identify as", or "preferred pronouns". The uses of invented and identification-based pronouns have been banned. Within the space of this framework, no one has the right to determine that other people use such language.

• Never ask someone their real name, age, ethnicity, location, job, finances, religion, political stance, sexuality, identity, or any potentially personal or private information.

• If anybody attempts to find out this information or force their perspectives or beliefs, then change the subject and let leadership or Neighborhood Watch know via direct message.

'Verse life:

• What happens in the 'verse stays in the 'verse.

• Legally buy, sell, and trade applicable items in the 'verse as deemed fit.

• Only Nebula 9 and our groups in that network participate in illegal and extralegal activities.

• Topics in the 'verse may optionally include human or alien species, politics, religion, and identity within the context of lore and characters.

• When discussing topics, be very clear that you are referring to 'verse characters and lore and not real life. By default, we are not a roleplay org or community, although if you want to pretend to be your character—which may be noticeably masculine, feminine, or neither, for either a male or female character—we have RP opportunities, including an area dedicated to roleplaying subgroups.

• If anybody attempts to blur the line between real life and 'verse life, change the subject to only 'verse-specific topics, then report it to leadership or Neighborhood Watch.

Usernames

Users with usernames, nicknames, and similar identifications that do not adhere to the following will be asked to update their usernames or will be removed.

Match names between chat and 'verse:

• Names in Cloud 9 Chat must match exactly with names as displayed specifically in the 'verse.

• If name changes occur in the 'verse, update them in chat or they will be updated to match.

• Frequently changing usernames is no excuse for mismatching them between chat and 'verse.

• Permission to change name in chat may be removed if not updated.

A user with a username that represents or resembles the following will be asked to change it:

• A real life person. Any name or username that would be considered used for fraud or misrepresentation.

• Any potentially controversial or offensive subjects or words.

• Any other groups in Star Citizen or other communities.

A user with a tag or similar in the username like the following will be asked to remove it:

• Org tags. The Cloud 9 tag will be made available via org features by SC 1.0 and we will use it then. No orgs or groups outside of our own orgs and groups should be in a username or in anything with similar effect.

• Pronoun tags. If nontraditional alternative pronouns are preferred, do not ask to be called by them, simply ask to be called by username via profile. Do not try to find a way around it.

• Titles, roles, ranks, positions, or similar. Example: Captain. Those words are reserved only for individuals who have them as C9 designations.

If a username might be difficult to pronounce:

• Provide an easy pronunciation via profile and mention it to others.

• Using the International Phonetic Alphabet can inform others of the pronunciation.

Regarding titles, roles, ranks, positions, and similar honorifics:

• Participants not in crews, committees, teams, or other subgroups should only refer to others by names.

• All citizens who are also in crews or other structured C9 subgroups must use honorifics appropriately.

• Honorifics are unnecessary while in C9 chat and not currently in SC unless deemed necessary by context.

• Honorifics are unnecessary during direct one-to-one communication between individuals of equal levels.

• Honorifics are required while in SC during group communication between individuals of any level.
  There are exceptions.

• Exceptions are up to the discretion of leadership and only apply on a per crew or subgroup basis.

• The term "sir" applies to men and women when addressing individuals of authority or higher rank.
  (Same as with Squadron 42.)

• Rank level numbers and tiers are omitted when addressing individuals by rank titles and names unless deemed necessary. For example, Qorkilius, a Cloud 9 Citizen Crewmate who completed the Preliminary Professions Program and earned the level 1 rank of Ensign would be addressed as "Ensign 1, Tier 3 Prelims Graduate Qorkilius" in formal cases, generally only in written form, and simply as "Ensign Qorkilius" in most other cases.
  
  

Sharing Information

Information about Star Citizen and various online games:

• Share only correct Star Citizen information provided by CIG via CIG sources like the RSI site and open builds in Live and PTU environments.

• Be prepared to provide evidence from CIG to prevent misinformation; if unable to, say it's a guess and unverified information. Never share disinformation.

• Do not post evo leaks, data-mined content, or content that has yet to be openly released by CIG.

• Considering people spend thousands of dollars on Star Citizen and/or put countless hours into it, along with a lot of money and time in various online games that we have covered in the past or may cover in the future through Cloud 9 Games, we maintain that the information we share adheres to our rules so that people can rely on it without receiving misinformation, disinformation, or potentially misconstrued impressions of original source materials from the opinions of others that may also attempt to persuade or influence others. In other words, we stick to the official content.

• Any posts that are informative may become outdated, especially CIG project developments.

Do Not Share Personal Information

Never share personal information on our public chat server that is using the Discord application.

We provide secure chat through private chat services separate from Discord.

With regard to our public chat server via Discord:

In their Terms of Service, they specify that they "retain and display certain data". In their documentation on how long information is retained, they retain is as long as they see fit, even after user-controlled deletions. They provide a contact, privacy [at] discord [dot] com, with which requests may be sent to delete data, although they may still retain it.

In their Privacy Policy, they specify that they collect information that you provide, they collect information automatically, and they receive information from other sources. Examples of information that they acquire include account credentials, email, phone, birth date, posted and uploaded content, the possibility of voice and video calls, full name, billing address, payment information, bank account information, tax identification information, copies of government-issued identification, use of and activities on the services, information pertaining to added friends and bots, app engagements, servers and other communities joined and participated in, roles in servers, moderation decisions made, information about purchases or sales and what is purchased and sold, "other related actions", information via third-party integrations, device information, IP address, OS and browser information, device settings, microphone and camera data, information from cookies on device and "similar technologies", social media information.

Information they acquire is used for multiple purposes, some of which include auditing, legal claims, and with consent being assumed while using services, where consent may be revoked only through direct contact with them and by no longer using services.

They share information with their vendors, including payment processors and their host provider, Google, all of which introduce additional terms of service and privacy policies.

They also disclose information to their related companies, including parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, and "other companies" under common control and ownership.

Details on these topics are available at discord [dot] com.

Never ask for or make any attempts in any way to acquire any personal information about other users.

Behaviors

Keep it positive:

• Avoid nagging.

• No drama.

• Frustrated with a bug or an issue with SC?
  - Post it in the RSI Issue Council.
  - Then share the IC link in Cloud 9 Chat.
  - Contribute to the ICs of others to help CIG resolve issues.
  - The above linked RSI page has occasionally required not being on a VPN to access it.
  - The Cloud 9 Session Council is a unique form created just for us. Feel free to use it.

General behaviors:

• Do not communicate or interact in ways that might make others feel uncomfortable.

• Do not use what may be interpreted as distractingly exaggerated feminine/masculine language/tones.

• Do not attempt to control any aspects of group activities without first being granted a lead role.

• Condescending, manipulative, and any similar behaviors will not be tolerated.

• Do remember the golden rule.

Voice chat:

• Voice activation, or voice-operated exchange (VOX), which is the ability to use voice without push-to-talk (PTT), is a privilege. If necessary, push-to-talk will be enforced.

• Use the noise-suppression feature. It should be enabled by default. Ensure it remains that way.
  - Settings (gear icon, lower left in window), voice & video, scroll down to audio features, and ensure noise suppression is toggled on.

• Do not use soundboards, meme sound effects, voice-altering effects, or similar sounds in voice chat without the explicit permission of all current participants.

• No background noises, audible breathing, eating, drinking, or typing sounds.

• If those sounds are heard by others, use push-to-talk (PTT).

• If using Voice Attack, use it in combination with push-to-mute or otherwise mute yourself when using it.

• Be considerate of others and their interests.

• Do not interrupt.
  - Before speaking, listen and wait for a pause.
  - Don't always talk. Share the channels with others; let them talk.
  - Use another voice channel if necessary.

Text-based channels and forums:

• Posts that do not align with the rules will be removed at any time with or without notice or explanation.
  - Refer to the rules for the reasons.

• This rule is strictly enforced: Help build C9 orgs by not redirecting to other places.
  - Keep it focused on Cloud 9 and official CIG topics unless it is a channel about a specific topic.

• Adult behavior is expected while helping to maintain family-friendly chat. Do not frequently post curse words or any particularly vulgar curse words. Do not post any potentially offensive topics.

Any communications channels:

• Do not ask people for credits or money, either in voice or any text-based channels.

• We have a ship share program; if someone has openly stated that they are sharing their SC vehicles, then it is okay to ask them to get them out.

• Blanket rules for not posting certain content have been added due to past drama with some posts by some people resulting in complaints from others.
  - In order to maintain the rules, they must apply to all content of certain types, unless otherwise specifically approved on a case-by-case basis.

• Our priorities are with our content and other approved content produced within the context of Cloud 9.

• Help us produce and share our own Cloud 9 content instead of content from other sources, unless official and from Cloud 9, CIG, or the developers of various online games.

• Help maintain focus on our topics and official content directly from official sources.

• Do not post links to Reddit or other communications platforms except the RSI spectrum platform and official sources for various online games.

• To avoid future drama, we do not post fan-made or otherwise third-party content except within a separate section of the server.

• Do not use Cloud 9 as a means of redirecting to your own sources, YouTube, Twitch, website, etc.—be they individual or otherwise separate from Cloud 9—either as an attempt to accumulate followers, to try to distract the C9 community from Cloud 9, or for any other reason.
  - We are here to be here, not there. We use our own chat server, stream by screensharing in our channels, and help contribute to the Cloud 9 content creation process through official Cloud 9 sources.
  - When streaming, use direct screenshares of Star Citizen or the online game (family-friendly). Do not use a webcam, faces, or other real-life content.
  - If you are going to record anything, first be explicit in asking for permission from anybody that may be in the recording, and do not record if anybody declines. That includes audio from voice chat, anything else from chat, and video from screen shares.
  - While sharing your screen, do not reveal real-life information. Obscure real-life identities, images, or any potentially private or personal information.

Change Proposal Process

• A change proposal process is available to Cloud 9 Citizens.

• Ask about it if you are interested in using it. It may be used for a variety of topics and can be especially useful with how crews run ops in the 'verse.

• All rules remain in place while only the Founder and a few members are moderating communications.

• During times of higher activity levels, more help will be needed, including with chat and forum moderators, before updating some of the additional rules.

• The first five rules will remain in place at all times.

A few key points:

• Help maintain a safe and enjoyable environment. Use common sense, good judgment, and be nice.

• Focus on our topics and official information without redirecting to other places.

• Do not post offensive or obscene messages or content.

Disclaimer of Liability: Under no circumstances whatsoever shall Cloud 9, its Founder, or its elected or appointed leadership be responsible to other parties for any incidental, special, consequential, or indirect damages of any kind whatsoever; any negative outcomes from any assistance provided by anybody within the Cloud 9 Framework, being all associated groups under Cloud 9, Inc., as with but not limited to technical or related support, are the sole responsibility of the recipients of said assistance, and recipients accept said assistance at their own risk. This disclaimer of liability is not limited to the topic of general communication; this applies to all contexts of Cloud 9, Inc. (cloud9inc.net).

Rules | First Five | Communication | Etiquette | Ethics | PVE/PVP | Outlaw Activities | Response