Fandom High OOC

LJ has released the final version of their policy document, and there are a couple of things that could potentially impact on game journals.

Fighting and Sexing

Because of the journal deletions awhile back, we'd advised that locking sexing posts was a good idea, particularly where one of the characters was underage. Based on the new policy on adult content and child pornography, this is no longer a necessary precaution. Now, if matter contains explicit sex (or violence), it can be flagged as containing adult content, but the journal and post will stay.

Journals can be set by the owner as containing adult material, or, if someone flags a post or journal, it can be marked that way by the LJ team, which will limit access to it. More information on what that means is over here: FAQ 281.

So, you don't have to lock your NWS posts, and it was never a rule of the game, but it still might be a good idea, if only to limit access for potential flagging.


Disclaimers

The new policy on impersonation explicitly excludes journals which exist as satire of, or for the purpose of role-playing as, a public figure, though LJ requires a standard disclaimer to be placed on both the info page and the journal itself. While it technically shouldn't apply to any of Fandom High's character journals, given that they're all fictional, a lot of characters are represented in game by public figures, whether it's the actor or because a public figure has been chosen as the PB.

Given this, using a similar disclaimer is still a really good idea. Putting it on the info page is easy, and if you utilise a forward-dated voicepost entry, adding it to that entry as an OOC note would meet the requirement that it be added to the journal itself.

The LJ disclaimer is, "In creating this journal, the author has assumed another person's identity for the sole purpose of entertainment, without intending to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud either the person whose identity the author has assumed, nor any reader of this content.", which doesn't really fit what we do with ours.

This disclaimer will cover you off on both the impersonation and copyright issues:

In creating this journal, the author has assumed the identity of a fictional person for use in the role-playing game fandomhigh, for the sole purpose of entertainment, without intending to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud either the person who created the fictional person, or any reader of this content. The author does not purport to be the creator of the fictional person, or to be affiliated with the creator, or with any person or entity with an interest in the fictional person. The author does not claim to be the person who is being used as the graphical representation of that fictional person, nor intend to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud that person by use of their image.

You can use this disclaimer, or another disclaimer that covers the same points, but it must be placed in the userinfo of every character journal, and somewhere in the actual journal, either in the body of the journal (e.g. the sidebar) or in a forward dated post that will sit on the front page.

Any questions or comments will need to be provided in triplicate using the appropriate forms, which are kept in a locked cupboard in a dark room, somewhere off in the Alpha Centauri sector.

...or you could just leave them in a comment.