Meritokrati

Preamble:
Meritokrati is formed to embody Unity of Purpose, Honor in Action, and Peace through Power. These three values are the core of Meritokrati, our motto and rallying cry. Meritokrati takes the form of an Authoritarian Meritocracy, and as such will strive always to recognize ability and loyalty and promote individuals displaying these traits. Sovereignty is of great importance to Meritokrati, but it is the goal of Meritokrati to use our Sovereignty to preserve peaceful relations with our friends and neighbors on Planet Bob. We strive above all to meet the highest standards of integrity and honor in all of our actions and interactions both internally and externally. Knowing that a breach of honor on the part of a member degrades the reputation and honor of the alliance as a whole, we will strive to instill our members with respect for others, and pride in their alliance. Together, we the founders of Meritokrati hope to be a symbol of the great things that can be accomplished when talented men and women of honor come together efficiently in the name of peace, with unity of purpose, and honor in action.

Article 1:
Members of Government: The government of Meritokrati is tasked with representing the best interests of the Meritokrati as a whole. The government is broken up into nine Regencies each of which is administered by a Regent and as many Vice-Regents as are determined necessary. In addition to these the government is lead by two Premiers who act as the physical embodiment of the Meritokrati community and have final authority in all matters, internal or external. The forums of Meritokrati are administered by the Premiers as well as a Second who will be chosen by the Premiers from amongst the Regents to assist in coordinating the Regencies and basic forum management.

Premiers. The role and authority of the Premiers are granted by the community of Meritokrati as a function of the social contract. The Premiers represent the community of Meritokrati in all their actions. As such, they bear full responsibility for the failures of the alliance, but have final authority in alliance matters as well.

1: The actions of the Premiers, as representatives of the community, have the force of law. As such any action or policy instituted under orders of the Premiers is legal.

2: This Charter and the Law Code of Meritokrati may only be amended by the Premiers. However, any member of Meritokrati has the right to propose an amendment to either.

3: In light of the terms of subsection A above the Premiers cannot be tried or punished by any member of Meritokrati for any reason.

4: The Premiers have sole authority to declare war or peace.

5: The Premiers have sole authority to expel members from the alliance under Meritokrati law.

6: The Premiers have sole authority to pardon the crimes of member nations.

7: The Premiers have sole authority to enter into or annul treaties.

8: The Premiers have sole authority to create or destroy Regencies.

9: The Premiers act as font of honor. As such all medals awarded by Meritokrati must be awarded on behalf of the Premiers with the approval of the Premiers.

10: No role may be created, or authority granted, which supersedes the authority of the Premiers in any matter. The Premiers may delegate authority, but that delegated authority may be rescinded or superseded by a Premiere at the discretion of said Premiere.

11: The forum permissions of the Premiers may not be edited by any other administrator. In addition, the forum accounts of the Premiers may not be warned, suspended, banned, or otherwise penalized by any forum member. However, the posts of the Premiers may be moderated by designated moderators in the same way as those of other forum members.

12: Upon the retirement of a Premiere that Premiere must either appoint a successor or amend this charter to remove that position. The appointee has the right to refuse the appointment.

13: In times of turmoil a Premiere may recall a former Meritokrati Premiere to help guide the policy of Meritokrati. The current alliance affiliation of said former premiere does not matter. The Premiere to be recalled may refuse the recall at his discretion.

Regents. Regents are the delegated firsts in command of the various ministries. The role and authority of the Regents of Meritokrati are granted by the Premiers in their role as representatives of the social contract.

1: The Regents are appointed by the Premiers to oversee specific Regency, and may be removed from this role only by the Premiers.

2: Each Regent has full authority to act on behalf of Meritokrati within the policy of his specified Ministry unless overruled by the Premiers.

3: Each Regent is tasked with appointing Vice-Regents and Interns to serve under him. These appointments may be vetoed by the Premiers.

4: Each Regent is tasked with managing the Regency staff, delegating tasks to them, and ensuring that delegated tasks are completed in a timely manner.

5: Each Regent is tasked with recognizing exceptional merit in his staff, or in the actions of members which pertain to his specified Regency. Such meritorious acts should be reported to the Premiers. Additionally, are tasked with recommending the decoration of individuals by the Premiers for actions relevant to their Regencies.

6: Each Regent is required to meet with a Premiere weekly to discuss their Regency. In the event that a meeting is not possible, the Regent is responsible to issue a written report via PM.

7: Each Regent is a full moderator of his Regency, and has authority to moderate the Regency as he sees fit. In addition, Regents are “Global Moderators” and as such have moderator privileges over forum discussion areas.

The Second. The Second is the delegated liaison between the Regents and the Premiers. The role and authority of the Second is granted by the Premiers in their role as representatives of the social contract.

1: The Second is appointed by the Premiers to, in addition to his duties as Regent, carry out those tasks delegated to him by the Premiers as liaison between the Premiers and the Regents.

2: The Second will be required to meet with a Premiere once a week to discuss the state of Meritokrati and the various Regencies. In the event that a meeting is not possible, the Second is responsible to issue a written report via PM.

3: The Second is a forum Administrator tasked with basic maintenance of the forums in the event that a Premiere is not available. Such tasks include: a. Masking b. Fixing errors in permissions c. Fixing errors in forum descriptions 4: The Second is not permitted to: a. Create or destroy forums b. Move forums c. Allow or disallow specialized permissions, in other words, permissions not inherent is their alliance rank.

Vice-Regents. Vice-Regents are the delegated seconds in command of the various Regencies. The role and authority of the Vice-Regents are granted by their respective Regent in their role as firsts in command of their respective Regencies.

1: The Vice-Regents are appointed by their respective Regent to perform those tasks delegated to them by their respective Regent.

2: The Vice-Regents are responsible to oversee the Interns of their respective Regency and ensure that the Interns complete their tasks in a timely manner.

3: The Vice-Regents are moderators of their respective Regencies, subject to the authority of their respective Regents.

Article 2: Nationals and Citizens.
The Nationals and Citizens of Meritokrati are the participants in the social contract who are not members of government. This makes up the community of Meritokrati, for whom the government exists.

Nationals. The Nationals of Meritokrati are the newest members of Meritokrati, relatively untested, and thus not possessing the benefits of Citizenship. However, they still enjoy many benefits and protections of membership.

1: Nationals are entitled to the full benefits of military protection under Meritokrati that any other member would receive.

2: Nationals are entitled to the full economic benefits of membership, including arranged tech deals and trade rings.

3: Nationals are entitled to the full benefits of mentorship and training, and are encouraged to make full use of the knowledge available to them through the various senior members.

4: Nationals are expected to pursue Citizenship through completion of classes and graduation from the Meritokrati Hall of Learning.

5: Nationals are expected to contribute to the community of Meritokrati by committing to an internship in one of the several Regencies.

6: Nationals are not permitted to hold government office.

7: Nationals are not permitted to serve as teachers or mentors.

8: Nationals are not permitted access to the Banking area of the Regency of Foreign Affairs, nor the list of banking nations. Additionally, they are not permitted to become a Bank nation themselves.

9: Nationals are not eligible to request a Writ of Certiorari, or serve as judges in trials.

10: Nationals may be subpoenaed for testimony in a trial, and may be themselves tried.

Citizens. The Citizens of Meritokrati are the experienced and trusted members of Meritokrati. They receive the full benefits of Citizenship in addition to the benefits and protections of membership. In addition to subsections one through three under nationals above, the following applies to Citizens:

1: Citizens are required to have either graduated from the Hall of Learning or received exemption from the Hall of Learning.

2: Citizens are expected to contribute to the community of Meritokrati through participation in an Internship or Government Position in one of the various Regencies.

3: Citizens are permitted to seek Government office.

4: Citizens are permitted to serve as Teachers or Mentors.

5: Citizens are permitted access to the list of Banking Nations and to serve as a Bank Nation themselves.

6: Citizens are permitted the right to request a Writ of Certiorari, and serve as a Judge in Trials (if authorized by the Regent of Internal Affairs).

7: Citizens may be subpoenaed for testimony in a trial, and may be themselves tried.

Article 3: Regencies.
There are nine Regencies of Meritokrati, each tasked with managing a different aspect of the Meritokrati community or policy. The Regencies are created by the Premiers in their role as representatives of the social contract.

Regency of Immigration. The purpose of the Regency of Immigration is to manage the entrance of members, diplomats, and friends into the Meritokrati Forums.

1: The staff of the Regency of Immigration are tasked with verifying the completion of mask applications and either welcoming them and approving them for a mask or instructing them on how to fix their application.

2: The staff of the Regency of Immigration is tasked with managing the Mentors and assigning a Mentor to each incoming National.

3: The staff of the Regency of Immigration is tasked with managing the Demask Requests forum, which means; approving damask, contacting Admin, and locking the thread.

Regency of Morale and Entertainment. The purpose of the Regency of Morale and Entertainment is to encourage and build community and friendship among the members of Meritokrati.

1: The staff of the Regency of Morale and Entertainment is tasked primarily with moderating and managing the public discussion rooms and encouraging enjoyable and edifying conversation.

2: The staff of the Regency of Morale and Entertainment is tasked with managing the Meritokrati Competitions, certifying winners, and confirming payment of the promised prize to the certified winners.

3: The staff of the Regency of Morale and Entertainment is tasked with running the Meritokrati Lottery and ensuring payout once every ten days.

Regency of Defense. The purpose of the Regency of Defense is to coordinate and oversee the military resources of Meritokrati for the common defense.

1: The staff of the Regency of Defense is responsible to maintain awareness of all conflicts the members of Meritokrati are involved with, and report any violations of treaties or Meritokrati Law as regards war to the Regency of Internal Affairs.

2: The staff of the Regency of Defense is responsible to assign a staff member to teach the military classes in the Regency of Education.

3: The staff of the Regency of Defense is tasked with organizing the members of Meritokrati into fireteams, themselves within battalions, and creating defense/fireteam policy, assigning, and overseeing officers of the various fireteams and battalions.

4: The staff of the Regency of Defense is tasked with creating, managing, and building a “special forces” legion tasked with acting as Meritokrati’s first line of Defense in conflict.

5: The Regent of Defense and his Staff do not have authority to declare Alliance War without the approval of the Premiers. However, they may authorize attacks against individual or unaligned nations who have broken Meritokrati Law, or antagonized Meritokrati in some way. For example, they may authorize military action against ghosts and aid thieves.

6: Tech raiding will never be authorized, and is strictly forbidden regardless of circumstance.

Regency of Finance. The purpose of the Regency of Finance is to coordinate and manage the economic resources of Meritokrati for the purposes of nation building, military preparedness, rebuilding, payment of reparations, and providing of emergency aid.

1: The Regency of Finance is tasked with establishing an organized banking system.

2: The Regency of Finance will help establish banking nations who will commit the majority of their aid slots to the banking needs of Meritokrati.

3: The Regency of Finance will coordinate its banking resources to develop the banking capabilities of its bank nations. This includes providing funds and tech for the purchasing of improvements and wonders useful to banking.

4: The Regency of Finance will coordinate a system of taxation under which each member will be “taxed” the use of one foreign aid slot. This aid slot will be used for the collective benefit of the Meritokrati, but will also profit the individual being taxed.

5: The Regency of Finance will coordinate with the Regency of Immigration to provide any “New Member Aid” to new members as needed.

6: The Regency of Finance will coordinate with the Regency of Education to provide any “Graduation Aid” to new Citizens as needed.

7: The Regency of Finance will coordinate with the Regency of Defense to provide aid to Spec Ops soldiers for the development of wonders and improvements as necessary.

8: The Regency of Finance will coordinate with the Regency of Defense to help augment soldier’s war chests prior to an offensive war as necessary.

9: The Regency of Finance will coordinate with the Regency of Defense to provide emergency war aid as necessary.

10: The Regency of Finance will coordinate with the Regency of Foreign Affairs to pay reparations owed by Meritokrati nations. Repayment by the offending member will be ruled on by the Regency of Internal Affairs.

Regency of Trade. The purpose of the Regency of Trade is to provide optimal, permanent, in color trade sets to the members of Meritokrati.

1: The Regency of Trade will coordinate optimal, permanent, in-color trades for Meritokrati members.

2: The Regency of Trade will assign priority to the eight bonus resource trade sets, providing the necessary trades for this set whenever possible.

3: The Regency of Trade will, whenever possible, assign trades which provide uranium as the wild-card resource in the eight bonus resource trade sets. This will be a requirement for all spec-ops military nations.

4: The Regency of Trade will coordinate with the Regency of Immigration to create optimal trade rings for all members completely new to the game.

5: The Regency of Trade will seek to fill trade gaps in the trade sets of experienced members.

Regency of Internal Affairs. The purpose of the Regency of Internal Affairs is to store and maintain the Law Code of Meritokrati, and to moderate, prosecute, and judge violations of the Law Code of Meritokrati.

1: The Regency of Internal Affairs will maintain and publish the Law Code of Meritokrati. As this will be the basis of all prosecutions, the code must be up-to-date at all times.

2: The Regency of Internal Affairs will prosecute all violations of the Law Code of Meritokrati or the Charter of Meritokrati on behalf of the state. Such prosecutions will be done with the highest levels of professional and legal ethics, and respect for all involved.

3: The Regency of Internal Affairs will assign punishments up to suspension of forum privileges in the case of conviction. These punishments will be executed by the Regent of Internal Affairs where possible, and by the Premiers where it is not. All punishments at the severity of suspension or higher will be assigned and carried out exclusively by the Premiers.

4: The Regency of Internal Affairs will manage all “Writs of Certiorari” and hear all eligible cases if at all possible. Their ruling will be binding on all members involved.

5: Citizens have the right to appeal on the basis of “error of legal procedure” to the Premiers. No Citizen may request appeal on the basis of “error of fact”, however, the Premiers have the right at their discretion to declare a mistrial on this basis and hear the case themselves.

Regency of Foreign Affairs. The purpose of the Regency of Foreign Affairs is to store and maintain the treaties of Meritokrati, pursue diplomatic relations with other alliances, moderate and negotiate diplomatic problems as appropriate between allies, maintain Meritokrati’s embassies abroad, and maintain Embassy Row.

1: The Regency of Foreign Affairs will be tasked with assigning Ambassadors to all foreign alliances with whom Meritokrati has Diplomatic relations.

2: The Regency of Foreign Affairs will, at the request of the Premiers, draw up and submit treaties to foreign alliances for negotiation.

3: The Regency of Foreign Affairs will manage Embassy Row, which will contain Embassies for all the foreign alliances with which Meritokrati has relations.

4: The Regency of Foreign Affairs will be tasked with overseeing all negotiations with foreign alliances related to the payment or receipt of reparations. Additionally, the Regency of Foreign Affairs will, at the request of the Premiers, conduct peace negotiations with foreign alliances, and draw up and submit surrender terms.

5: Where applicable, the Regency of Foreign Affairs will offer its services as a neutral mediator in conflict between two or more foreign allies.

Regency of Education. The purpose of the Regency of Education is to educate the membership of Meritokrati on matters relating to Cyber Nations, including but not limited to Nation Building, Military Preparedness, and Military Procedures. Additionally, they maintain the library of Meritokrati and the Help Desk of Meritokrati.

1: The Regency of Education will manage the “Meritokrati Hall of Learning”, in which new members will take classes on various aspects of Cyber Nations play and Meritokrati policy.

2: The Regency of Education will keep track of who has completed which classes, and is subsequently eligible for Graduation into the ranks of the Citizens.

3: The Regency of Education will maintain the “Library of Meritokrati” which will contain all Meritokrati guides and educational resources for the aid of new and experienced members alike.

4: The Regency of Education will maintain the “Meritokrati Help Desk” at which any Meritokrati member may ask specific questions related to Cyber Nations play or Meritokrati Policy. It is the obligation of the Regency of Education to respond to questions asked at the help-desk in a timely fashion, or, if they cannot answer a given question, refer the asker to somebody who can.

Regency of Special Tasks. The purpose of the Regency of Special Tasks is to accomplish those tasks delegated to it by the Premiers which do not clearly fall under the prevue of other Regencies.

1: The Regency of Special Tasks will be overseen directly by the Premiers with the cooperation of any Premiers whose Regencies are effected by Special Tasks activity.

2: The Regency of Special Tasks often deals with tasks of a sensitive nature; as such operations of the Regency of Special Tasks are classified on a “need to know” basis. Any information on Regency of Special Tasks operations disclosed by a member of Meritokrati without Premiere approval will be termed a breach of the member oath and prosecuted accordingly by the Regency of Internal Affairs.

Article 4: Treaties.
As treaties are a primary means of establishing peace, and peace is one of the three fundamental values of Meritokrati, treaties are of central importance to Meritokrati.

Ratification. Treaties will be ratified at the sole discretion of the Premiers.

Legal Standing. Treaties will have the same legal standing as the Charter Itself. As such, any breach of a Treaty by a member of Meritokrati will be treated, for the purposes of prosecution, as a breach of the Charter itself. This is in addition to any claims of reparation made by the offended alliance.

Sovereignty. As Sovereignty is of fundamental importance to Meritokrati, the wording of treaties will be carefully negotiated to preserve the Sovereignty of the signatory alliances. Additionally, Meritokrati reserves the right to annul treaties if it believes the treaty to infringe on Meritokrati sovereignty. Details of annulment procedure will be incorporated into the treaty language.

Article 5: Errata.
There are several minor issues which do not fit neatly into any other aspect of the Meritokrati Charter. As such they are stated here.

Tech Dealing. The buying and selling of tech is essential to the growth of both the buying and selling, as such tech deals are a fundamental aspect of Cyber Nations game play. However, they also affect National Security as the buyer receives a tactical boost when collecting tech. As such the following policies apply to Meritokrati tech deals.

1: Out-of-alliance sales. Meritokrati members are forbidden to sell tech to other alliances, regardless of aid status, unless authorized under another sub section of Article 5 of this Charter, authorized under terms of a treaty, or authorized in writing by a premiere.

2: Completing tech deals. Sellers are authorized, and in fact required, to complete any tech sales begun before receiving membership in Meritokrati.

3: Reparations. Tech may be sold to foreign alliances if part of a tech sale required under terms of the payment of reparations to a foreign alliance.

4: Buying. Members of Meritokrati are required to attempt to purchase all tech from Meritokrati sellers. If a Meritokrati seller is not available, they may buy tech from other allied alliances.

Resources. Because of the beneficial nature of optimal in-color trade sets, the preservation of such sets is of vital import to the well-being of Meritokrati as a whole. As such, the following policies apply to Meritokrati members seeking trade.

1: Trade Circles. All Meritokrati Members arranging trade circles are required to attempt to fill trade circle slots with other Meritokrati Circles. Such circles should be coordinated through and by the Regency of Trade. If all trades cannot be found, the trade circle may approach members of other allied alliances in accordance with the terms posted in the Regency of Trade.

2: Individual Trades. All Meritokrati Members seeking trades to fill gaps in their trade sets must first attempt to fill this slot with another Meritokrati member. The Regency of Trade must be made aware of this trade, and may be asked to arrange the trade, but the members are welcome to arrange the trade themselves if they wish. If no trade can be found among the members of Meritokrati, the trade may be filled by a member of an allied alliance in accordance with the terms posted in the Regency of Trade.

Treatment of Enemy Combatants. The treatment of enemy combatants who wish to surrender is an issue of morality, and fundamental values. As such, Meritokrati feels it necessary to stipulate Meritokrati policy regarding Enemy Combatants at the Charter Level. These stipulations may not be breached by any treaty or Charter Amendment.

1: Enemy Combatants. Any Enemy Combatant who does not use first-strike nuclear attacks against a Meritokrati Member will be offered the right to surrender on an individual basis at any point.

2: Surrenderees. Any Enemy Combatant who contacts his Meritokrati opponent and offers surrender will be granted a temporary cease-fire in which surrender terms will be offered. No Enemy Combatant wishing to surrender will be denied terms regardless of the position of our allies in the conflict.

Reparations. As reparations, either being collected or paid, are an inevitable result of war and affects the ability of nations to rebuild, Meritokrati feels it important to stipulate policy regarding the payment and collection of Reparations.

1: Payment. The payment of reparations to foreign alliance or player will be done on behalf of the community of Meritokrati by a Meritokrati Bank Nation. Individual alliance members will not pay out reparations on their own behalf; however, any repayment owed to the bank nation will be determined and enforced by the Regency of Internal Affairs.

2: Receipt. The receipt of reparations from foreign alliances or players will be done on behalf of the community of Meritokrati by a Meritokrati Bank Nation. Individual alliance members will not collect reparations on their own behalf; however, any disbursement of reparations to individual alliance members will be determined and enforced by the Regency of Internal Affairs.

Article 6: Amendments.
Charter amendments which are additions rather than revisions are listed below.

Laws. The following list outlines those actions which will result in a criminal investigation by the Regency of Internal Affairs. Keep in mind that any actions which are blatantly disruptive but not clearly included here may still be sanctioned (though likely simply as a verbal warning for a first offense). This list is subject to change at the Premier's discretion, but no ex-post-facto laws will be made. Changes will be announced in the Premier's office. ::ALL MEMBERS, BY APPLYING FOR A MASK HAVE AGREED TO THESE RULES::

1: In Character Offenses {IC}:

i. Unsanctioned Acts of War – Any unsanctioned war, tech raid, or spy operations against an aligned or unaligned nation on CN. ii. Treason – Any action taken to undermine, overthrow, or otherwise weaken Meritokrati is considered treason. Willfully concealing evidence of such treason is considered conspiracy to commit treason. iii. Espionage – The passing of secret or classified information to a non-member. iv. Nuclear Insubordination – Violation of any section of the. Such violation outside of a sanctioned war will also be considered an unsanctioned act of war. v. Insubordination – Blatent insubordination towards a higher ranking official. vi. Impersonation of a Government Official – Any form of impersonation of a member of any CN alliance's government, whether on an alliance’s forums, in IRC, or in-game. vii. Threatening a Member – Real-world or in-game legitimate threats towards a member; in other words, threats clearly made in jest don’t count. viii. Harassment – Forum users should not be stalking/harassing others on the forums. Anyone found stalking players from topic to topic, etc., will be subject to a warning. ix. Sexual or Racial Harassment – Any sort of sexual or racial harassment that is deemed to be very serious. x. Embezzlement – The embezzlement or theft of any amount of money from a Meritokrati program. xi. Theft – The theft of any amount of money or tech from any other CN player, whether Meri or not. xii. IRC Misconduct – Conduct on IRC leading to a legitimate ban (automatically filed) or kick (optionally filed by the kicker). xiii. Gravedigging – At least three gravedigs will earn you a trial on the matter – gravedigging is a form of spamming in which a person posts in a long dead thread with no clear purpose. Meaningful/necessary posts in old threads are permitted. Note that this will be tried exclusively at the discretion of a Premier or the appropriate Regent. xiv. War Mongering – Any attempts to urge a war moderator to sanction a war, or otherwise generate more wars than we need to have. War Mongering directly to other alliances is one of the most serious crimes that can be committed, and as such is also termed treason. xv. Mild and Explicit Language – Mild expletives (crap, d*mn, etc) are frowned upon and should be extremely limited in use, staff reserves the right to edit the use of such terms and verbally warn the user. Ad hominem attacks using more severe use of expletives will result in a warning. xvi. Harsh Expletives – Harsh Expletives (sh*t, f*ck, *ss, b**ch, etc.) are forbidden on all parts of the forum. Use of harsh explicative will be subject to warning from moderation up to and including forum access restriction. xvii. Namecalling – Namecalling is not an acceptable behavior on this forum no matter if it is IC/OOC unless it is CLEARLY in jest and accepted as funny by the general populace. Ad hominem attacks will result in a warn level raise.

2: Out of Character Offenses {OOC}:

i. Posting Language – All posts must be (primarily) in English. This will be handled on a case by case basis, but this forum is designed for communication in English, and the current staff all speak English as a first language. This does not mean occasional use of other languages for effect will not be tolerated, just that it is innapropriate (and punishable) to carry out an entire conversation, or series of posts, in another language. ii. Flame/Flamebait – Flaming is expressing anger at someone in uncouth ways. Flamebait are posts that are made with the aim of angering someone indirectly. Forum users should not be participating in either as in doing so will result in a warning and potentially prosecution. iii. Topic Hijacking – Hijacking is forcing the current thread discussion off of the original topic and usually results in spam or flame from either side. Forum users found hijacking threads will be given a warning, and depending on the content, hijacked posts will be deleted or split into a separate thread by moderators. iv. Trolling – Trolling is submitting posts with the aim of targeting/harassing/angering a group (as opposed to flaming which applies to individual). Trolling is not tolerated and will result in a warning. v. Repeat Topics – One topic is enough. Repeat topics will be locked and moved to the archives without mercy and the author given a warning. Users found creating repeat topics after others were locked by staff will result in a warn raise and/or temp-ban. vi. Double Posts or Self-Replies - Double posts or self-replies are not allowed, even in the Spam forum. If you forget something you should have posted simply edit your post. Double Posts and Self-Replies will be deleted. Repeat offenses will result in a warn. vii. Spam - Spam is only permitted in the Spam room. Users found spamming (posting contentless material of any variety) in other rooms will receive a warning. Examples include (but are in no way limited to) posts containing nothing but smilies, "+1", "QFT", "this" any other one to few word contentless combination, and/or quoting a post or posting an image and adding any of the aforementioned examples. viii. No Discussion Forums/Threads - There are forums/threads that are not for discussion and are used strictly for staff to address certain issues (such as trials). All such forums/threads will be clearly marked. Only moderators and the original poster or other specified relevant posters may post in a No Discussion thread. Users found disobeying this guideline will receive an automatic warning for each offense. ix. Filtered words - Any attempts to evade the word filter will result in a warning. The terms we have filtered are filtered for a reason and no excuse for evasion will be accepted. x. Signatures - Signature content needs to be of reasonable content and size. Unreasonably long or wide signatures will be "edited" by the staff and the user will be verbally warned. Inapropriate or ad-hominem content is not allowed. xi. Obscene Content and/or "Account Suicide" – Anyone caught posting vulgar material (including but in no way limited to pornography, "goatse," "tubgirl," "lemonparty", photos depicting RL illegal acts such as violence towards humans or animals, child pornography, death photos, and any other obscene or offensive material in either text form or picture form) will have their account(s) permanently banned, and their ISP contacted along with any other applicable internet and RL authorities. xii. OOC Threats / Revealing Personal Information – An OOC threat of any nature will equate to an automatic ban from the forums. Likewise, the publishing of personal information of any other player without their permission is grounds for warning and/or a ban from the forums depending on the severity of the offense. xiii. Death Threats / Death Wishes – A death threat or a death wish of any nature (including but not limited to telling another player to commit suicide) will equate to an automatic ban from the forums. xiv. Forum Names - With the exception of moderator accounts, all forum accounts must match up with the ruler name or nation name of your in-game country. Those found not matching up will be asked to change their username. Those who wish to have an exemption from this rule must PM a forum staff-member. Forum account names may not be profane or offensive. xv. Multiple Forum Accounts - With the exception of forum adiminstrators, multiple forum accounts are not permitted. Multiple forum account offenders will receive a varying percentage warn level raise and/or a permanent ban on a case-by-case basis. xvi. Avatars – Size for avatars is limited by the forum mechanics, therefore there is no size issue for a user to worry about. Avatars must be in good taste, and any avatar containing a picture that is too violent, disgusting, sexually explicit, insulting to another player or staff member, etc. will be removed. Avatars that are potentially seizure inducing will not be permitted. Players may not "borrow" the avatars of any moderator past or present without permission. xvii. Moderators – Claims of moderator bias should be directed to the highest level of authority--the Premiers. Claims of moderator bias without supporting evidence is grounds for a warning. Blatant disrespect of the moderator staff is strictly prohibited. This includes but is not limited to spoofing moderator accounts in any way, sig/avatar references, baiting, flaming, rude demands, mocking, attitude, and unsubstantiated claims of bias. If you have a problem with the way a moderator is enforcing the rules or the rules themselves please contact the Premiers. Do not ask about becoming or campaign to become a moderator or government member. This is annoying. Any such activity will decrease your likelihood of being chosen for that role. xviii. Questionable Actions and Content - The forum rules are not designed to cover every scenario. Any action that is seen to be counter-productive or harmful to the forum community may be met with moderator action against your account. The Meritokrati Moderation Staff reserves the right to take action against your account without warning for any reason at any time. xix. Advertisements – OOC advertisements (for games, programs, jobs etc. etc.) are not permitted. That's not what these forums are for (in fact, that's part of why we pay for our own website instead using a free site!). This will be handled on a case by case basis, but err on the side of caution.

THIS CONCLUDES THE CHARTER OF MERITOKRATI. THIS CHARTER IS BINDING ON ALL MEMBERS, AND IS THE HIGHEST OF ALL MERITOKRATI LAW. AS SUCH, ANY MERITKRATI LAW FOUND TO BE IN CONFLICT WITH THIS CHARTER IS VOID AND UNINFORCABLE.

Made binding by the Founders and Premiers of Meritokrati, and the architects of the social contract, Sir Glen of Noumenonopolis and Timitz of Blitzwehr on Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

Sir Glen

Timitz

Amended to include alliance law on Wednesday, December 10, 2008