Community Content Distribution and Behaviour

[MrXLink]

Greetings, Skylords!

A little word and some rules/guidelines here regarding community-made content (i.e. community-distributed news, streams, social media, etc.).
We, the SR Staff Members, have noticed that each and every one of you is very hyped about the project. First of all, my biggest thanks to you for being so enthusiastic and supportive regarding the project, that's absolutely great. 

However, it has also been noticed that many people have different ideas about the project, and a lot of these ideas are not in agreement with the information we have supplied all of you with. In a game community like this, misinterpretation is bound to happen and so information that is not actually true can be spread throughout the community like a juicy gossip. The problem with this is that many people will get the wrong idea of our past, present and future project work. We are hearing word of features being added that are not going to be added, decisions made that haven't been made, and just overall misinformation being spread.

Every community member has right of speech, right of interpretation and right of sharing their enthusiasm, sharing the news and information we distribute freely. You are more than free to spread the word about the project and its features or what you understand of it. However, we as the SR Team have decided that it is getting more and more important to point out that misinformation or misinterpretation is only human and can definitely occur within any community-made content. Therefore we have decided to enforce the following rule (this will be a new rule within the Global Forum Rules over here: http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/460-global-forum-rules/):

If you want to distribute community-made content containing any information or news regarding Skylords Reborn, be it streams, newsletters, podcasts, articles, videos, or any such medium, you are obliged to include the following disclaimer in your content. This can be through a watermark of some sorts, and has to be at the absolute least be placed in both your account and content description:

This content is made by the community, and nothing stated here is official. There is no guarantee that anything stated here is true, it may contain pure speculation or errors. The Skylords Reborn team is not responsible for anything stated in this content. For official news on Skylords Reborn, please visit https://skylords.eu/, or visit the forums at https://forum.skylords.eu/

Additionally, the SR team reserves the right to intervene with content distribution if they deem this necessary. If they see the need to shut certain community content uploading down they may do so without reason or warning. However, if any content will be a victim to this, these will most likely be provided anyway.

 

Secondly, we would like to lie some emphasis on community ranks, privileges and reputation, despite this being pointed out in the forum rules (http://forum.bfreborn.com/index.php?/topic/460-global-forum-rules/) 

It is very important to know that the SR Team consists of 4 kinds of ranks (all of them have sparkles): the Administrators, the Community Manager, the Developers, and the Moderators. These people are the official SR Staff members and any information on the project they provide, unless otherwise stated or corrected, is the truth at that time. However, anything they say is subject to change in the future. They can be trusted to supply you with accurate and valid information on the project and they know what is going on internally. A full Staff List can be found in the Global Forum Rules (#0) over here: http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/460-global-forum-rules/  and over here: http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/staff/

You might notice the presence of Alpha and Beta Testers and Skylords of Honour. They are regular community members with a special badge due to their good efforts or help with testing. They are not part of the SR team and should generally not be contacted for issues.

Alpha and Beta Testers are community members that have/had access to the SR Test Server. Alpha testers have been able to access our servers since the Closed Alpha testing phase (September/October 2015), Beta testers joined the servers later, when the game entered its Beta phase (Early-Mid September 2016). Alpha and Beta Testers do not have any superior forum privileges and rights, and they do not know a whole lot more than regular forum members do. Alpha and Beta Testers are not part of the SR Team, and therefore nothing they state is official, and they do not necessarily spread correct information (misinterpretation is only human). They are allowed to spread community content just as much as regular members are, and do not bear any additional formality within their content. Alpha and Beta Testers are not Moderators. Alpha and Beta Testers are in no way more important than regular members.

Skylords of Honour are community members that have been granted a shiny badge due to exceptional community help and activity. They receive their badge because they have done something exceptionally helpful, and therefore deserve some additional acknowledgement. However, they should not be mixed up with any staff members just because they have a badge. Skylords of Honour do not have any superior forum privileges and rights, and they do not know a whole lot more than regular forum members do. Skylords of Honour are not part of the SR Team, and therefore nothing they state is official, and they do not necessarily spread correct information (as I already pointed out above, misinterpretation is only human). They are allowed to spread community content just as much as regular members are, and do not bear any additional formality within their content. Skylords of Honour are not Moderators. Skylords of Honour are in no way more important than regular members.

Thirdly and finally, we would like to bring it to your attention that member-ating, or acting like a moderator (Rule #4 of the Forum Rules http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/460-global-forum-rules/) is against the rules and very much frowned upon. This is not only due to it not being your job to moderate, but it also causes a lot of confusion about the aforementioned ranks, and possibly misinformation on the topic. As much as you want to help the team with managing the forums, it is not necessary to give an official answer to a topic, since your posts are not official. You may suggest an answer we would give if you state that you think this answer is what the SR Team's opinion is. Leave official answers to topics to the SR team. You are allowed to refer to other topics, but please refrain from concluding an answer unless we point the answer out ourselves. If the thread in question has already been answered by staff, you are free to mention this and insert a link/URL to said answer in your post, though.

Take a less official and more subjective approach to responding to member questions. If an official answer is necessary, wait for an official answer.

If you see a reason a thread needs to be moderated, use the report button. Do not head in the thread and point people at the rules, denounce members or act like you have any form of forum authority. The aforementioned groups in green, blue, yellow and red are the groups with authority, and they can be contacted through the report button and PM. 

 

That is all for now, hope you have been informed well enough so we can make this community a better, safer, more efficient and friendly place.

TL;DR:

• Community content now requires a disclaimer
• Please have a look at forum ranks, know that Members, Alpha Testers and Community Ambassadors are not part of the SR team and their replies are not official or necessarily true
• Do not member-ate, and refrain from making your answers to topics sound official if they are not
• The report button is there for a reason