Revision as of 01/26/2010

1. Overall

Dokuga is a community and, like any other internet community, is comprised of individuals from all walks of life, all over the world. Yes, that's right, Dokuga is internationally loved! Communities of this nature, though, only survive and thrive when the members treat each other with decency and respect.

With that in mind, by posting anything in the public spaces of this site, you are agreeing to treat your fellow Dokugians with the respect that all deserve in all of Dokuga's public spaces. This includes:

Profiles

Profile comments

Forum posts

Chat rooms

Author's notes

Stories

Reviews

Personality differences will arise. What is harmless to some may be offensive to others. If you see something publicly posted that offends you, please feel free to contact a Moderator or Administrator. If you have problems with any of your fellow Dokugians, please handle them privately. Problems of this nature have no business being hashed out in a public forum. Please, keep the drama where it belongs... in the stories! Persons violating this agreement will be warned and, if repeated violations continue, may be subject to profile deletion.

By posting in any of the public places on this site, you also signify your awareness that all of your posts are subject to moderation, editing,* and/or removal by the Moderators, or Administrators if, in their opinion, such posts may be objectionable to others. This should not be viewed as a form of censorship; rather, it is a way to ensure that unpleasant differences do not color the Dokuga experience for those not involved in those differences. Those persons whose posts are edited or removed will be notified privately as to the edit or removal and the reasons for such. Continued violations may be subject to profile deletion.

*Stories are not included in the editing portion of this rule... only the author, unless they agree otherwise, is capable of editing their story.

2. Ratings

YOU MUST CHOOSE A RATING FOR YOUR STORY. This is non‑negotiable.

This is a site where all ratings are allowed. As a result of this, ALL Summaries MUST be rated K ‑ no explicit wording PLEASE!! Please obey the ratings. We take these rules very seriously and will take action if we know that a minor is writing or reading material in violation of the age guidelines. Action will include reprimand, story deletion, or profile deletion depending upon the offense.

K ‑ All users can read and post K rated fan fiction

Intended for general audiences 5 years and older. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.

K+ ‑ All users can read and post K+ rated fan fiction

Suitable for more mature children, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.

T ‑ All users ages 13 and up may read and post T rated fan fiction

Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

M ‑ All users ages 16 and up may read and post M rated fan fiction

Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with possible strong but non‑explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.

MA ‑ ONLY users ages 18 and up may read or post MA rated work

Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes.

3. Reviews

Readers:       There is a difference between constructive criticism and flames. If you do not understand the difference, do not offer either. Flames are subject to deletion and the offending party will be rebuked in private. Repeat offenses will result in profile deletion. If an author/artist states that they do not want critique, do NOT offer it in spite. That will be considered a flame.  In addition, you may NOT take an artist to task for the content of their picture via a comment.  If you feel that the content violates Dokuga's stated rule on offensive material, please inform a Site Administrator rather than leaving a negative comment.

Auth/Artists:  Try not to take offense to genuine critique. This is a learning experience. If you do not want critique, clearly state that on your profile and in an Author's Note inserted in the actual story, or in the Artist's Description.

Demands:      Review demands (i.e. holding chapters hostage for reviews) are not allowed. Saying that you need reviews in order to post the next chapter is viewed as a demand. Threatening to discontinue writing a story because one did not receive the expected number of reviews is also considered a demand. Stating that a certain number of reviews is necessary for story continuance is a demand. Violators will be notified of the violation and given seven (7) days to remove the demand, or face deletion of the story where the demand is posted.

4. Offensive material

Offensive material within stories is subjective, however, use common sense. Hate speech, offensive words intended to incite a reader to anger, or Author's Notes attacking other Authors/Artists, whether members or not, are not allowed. This will result in reprimand or profile deletion, depending upon the offense. In addition, please remember that our site hosts both visual and textual material that might be offensive to some.  As long as it does not violate the previously stated terms regarding hate speech, things intended to incite anger, or attacks on others, it will most likely be allowed on this site, despite the fact that some might find it offensive personally.  Please try to take this into consideration when reporting offensive content.

5. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is subject to profile deletion. Please learn what the words means, though, before complaining that another author stole your ideas. Shared cliché is not grounds for plagiarism accusations. Sequencing of plot, word‑for‑word theft, and so on, is plagiarism. If you have any questions, or wish to file a genuine complaint, please contact an Administrator immediately.

Taking or using fan art without the artist's permission is plagiarism as well. Some might view fan art as common property and assume it is fine to use in AMVs without permission from the artists. It is not. That is stealing the creative toil of another person for personal gain or fame. We all know who created InuYasha, so fan artists and authors all give homage to Takahashi. Claiming fan art for your AMV, or other purposes like icons or coloration, without permission and/or credit is tantamount to claiming you created it yourself. For those that would seek to throw accusations, all fan art and icons on this site's layout ‑ and used in award banners ‑ are used with full artist permission.

6. Trolling

Trolling will result in immediate profile deletion. If you wish to mock the fandom, or attack others anonymously, do it elsewhere.

7. Story Posting

YOU MUST CHOOSE A CATEGORY FOR YOUR STORY. This is non‑negotiable.

Categories: One‑shots/Drabbles ‑ These are stories that consist of one single chapter, of any length. Chapter minimums do not apply to one‑shots or drabbles.

One‑shot/Drabble Collections ‑ These are collections of one‑shots and drabbles under a single title. Individual chapters may be related to a single theme but are generally written as stories that can stand alone. Chapter minimums do not apply.

Chapter Stories ‑ These are stories that are told over the course of several chapters. Chapter stories are subject to a 700 word minimum per chapter. This may seem extreme, but this is to prevent people from splitting chapters into unfulfilling bits in hopes of more reviews. Stories that are categorized as Chapter Stories that do not contain the minimum word length, on an average, are subject to warning. The author will then have seven (7) days to revise the chapter length to meet these standards. If warnings are ignored, the story will be subject to deletion.

A/Ns:          Author's notes cannot be more than 300 words long. Do not respond to reviews or readers within Author's Notes. Please use the Private Messaging system for this purpose. Author's notes must also be attached to a chapter of some sort. They cannot stand alone as their own chapter. Authors with notes over 300 words long, who have notes as their own chapter, or have notes that are reviewer responses will be contacted and will have seven (7) days to edit or remove the overly long note, remove the note masquerading as a chapter, or remove the review responses. Failure to do so will result in story deletion. The only exception to this rule is A/Ns regarding historical content or research that is important to the general flow of the narrative and meant to provide background and understanding to the reader. This does not include personal notes.

Content: Typos, general mistakes, and things of that nature are not an issue. We all make mistakes and, as said previously, this is a learning process for many. That said, however, stories that have no spacing, use 'script‑speak' (Kagome: Let's go to the mall.), have Author's Notes littered throughout the story (rather than at the beginning or the end), or have the general, overall appearance of mud, are subject to warning from an Administrator. If not cleaned up after being contacted, such stories will be subject to deletion.

If you do not understand how to clean up your story, or fix the formatting on your own, post a message to the forum for help.

If you are contacted to clean up a story, you will have seven (7) days to do so. If not, the story will be deleted. If you continue to post stories with the same problems, you will be subject to profile deletion.

8. Fanart Posting

Categories:  Banners ‑ Banners made by any member of Dokuga may be posted here. Please attribute any fanart used on banners to the artist as they worked hard on the piece.

Doujinshi ‑ Fanmade comics/manga based on Sess/Kag. Create a subfolder within to store all of the pages of your doujinshi so they're stored in order together.

Fanart ‑ This section is for any art that features Sesshoumaru and Kagome, together or separate or with another partner. This means it doesn't have to be Sess/Kag, it just needs to feature one of them in it. Please note that anything with adult material should be labelled as Adult Content. You cannot upload fanart belonging to others without their expressed permission.

Other ‑Any art that pertains to a posted story but does not have Sess/Kag in it, or pertains to a member of Dokuga, Dokuga jokes, or Dokuga in general. They can also feature other Inuyasha characters that may or may not be Sess/Kag. Please note, this is not a place to upload your original art if it does not pertain to Dokuga in some way.

Tutorials ‑This does not have to feature Sess/Kag in any way, but focuses on teaching members new skills, whether it's site related, art skill, writing skill, etc. It may feature original art as long as it's teaching the skill.

9. Icons

There is an icon gallery in the profile section. These icons are free for you to use on this site. They were created by Quirkyslayer, who generously allowed us to borrow them. Please do not steal, or attempt to claim ownership, of said icons.

Please do NOT post pictures of your minor children as your profile or signature icons. This is for the privacy and safety of the minors in question. You are welcome to post pictures of your adult children, animals, inanimate objects, but ‑ please ‑ not the little human ones!

10. General

This site is run by donations. All of the Administrators and Moderators donate their time freely to help run this site; please accord them the respect they deserve! The Administrators do communicate with each other, thus going between Administrators to get different results will not work. In addition, refusal to fix issues brought to your attention as a member will cause more work for the staff, giving us less time to focus on site maintenance. Please keep this in mind and work with the staff to enable all of us to enjoy our community!

11. Chat Rules

We want chat to be open and welcoming to all members, so there are several rules that need to be followed in order to keep it the peaceful and fun environment that it is.

1. You must be at least 14 years old to enter chat.

2. There is to be no public trolling in chat, or negative comments made about other members. Members found bashing, flaming or hurting any other member in any way will be reprimanded and banned from the room. Everybody needs to feel welcome there. We do understand that a lot of personal relationships are formed in chat and you do wish to express opinions on things. If you think that your opinion might be contrary to the atmosphere, either: a) don't state it or, b) take it to a private message between you and its recipient.

3. The chat is PG‑13. We do have the GM room where adult and MA chat can take place. Keep in mind that the GM room is for those who are 18 and over. It is password protected and only the moderators are at liberty to hand out the password. We have a list of all those who have been given access and will find out if a member gives the password out to another member. If you are 18 or over, and would like access, all you need to do is ask the moderator in chat for the password.

4. Conversation hogging. Please keep the conversation light and fun. No one member should be completely dominating chat. There should be an exchange of conversation. Let others have their say. This is not the place to be the centre of attention. It is a fantastic place, though, for the free flow of ideas.