This rule should be fairly straight forward. In essence, please refer to the golden rule; treat others the way you yourself would like to be treated. Which means don't be rude. Be polite. It's unrealistic of us to ask that you like everyone in the community -- either IC or OOC -- but we're not your parents. We're not here to make sure you all get along, so we ask that you behave like mature adults and be polite.

RP drama is inevitable. In fact, a little drama is what keeps us all interested. But please, keep it realistic. Did your guy take a spill on his motorcycle? Great, we'll send a fruit basket. Is he in a coma when he should have suffered a broken leg at best? Not so great. If you have an idea for a storyline that might be a little more dramatic than is normal for day-to-day life, then we ask that you run it by the mods first. If what you have in mind would be at home in a trashy soap opera, then chances are we'll want to hear about it before you carry it out. This goes for all pregnancy storylines, too.

There are a few things to to ask yourself when picking a face to go with your character. They are as follows;

• Are they fairly well known? Will they be recognized by the mods?
• Are they still alive and kicking?
• Are they famous for something other than being cool on the internet?
• Is their age appropriate to the age of my character? Specifically, are they within 10 years, and look it?

The journal you apply from needs to be your character's journal. It's free to make a journal, so on the chance that your application is rejected, you won't be out anything aside from the two minutes it takes to register. Your journal name must contain all or part of your character's name. Example; if your name is Timothy Jones, timothyj is acceptable, while xx_ilikeducks is not.

AIM is an excellent way to get to form character relationships and get to know your fellow players. Unless you are unable to use it, we ask that you do. And again, the screenname should have something to do with your character. Example; if your name is Timothy Jones, Jones soda is acceptable, while lolbananaphone is not. I know it's getting hard to get good screennames these days, but there's got to be something out there.

Gone are the days when you can just fill out the application and be done with it. These days, we like to know a little about your character before he's in. This biography is mandatory as part of the application process, and will be linked to in the character directory for others to read, so make it good! It can be written in the traditional form, or in no less than fifteen (15) descriptive bullet points.

Writing examples should be long enough that we can get a feel for how you write. While we agree that quality > quantity, it takes more than *goes to the fridge and pulls out a beer* for us to see how you do your thang.

If you've followed the rules so far, your application shouldn't be rejected. But on the off chance that it is, you will be contacted by one of the mods who will tell you why they reached that decision. You're more than welcome (in fact, we encourage it!) to reapply after making the necessary changes.

At this time, the character limit for ~vancouverbc is four (4) characters per person. While we're aware that some people may be more than capable of handling more than that, some won't. To keep those who can't from apping more than they can handle, a flat limit of 4 is in place at this time. Please don't app for more characters under a different name. That's shady.

Everybody dreads sweeps, but they are a necessary evil to keep communities active and well maintained. Thusly, we require each character to post, on a monthly basis, one journal update and one of the following; a thread in our threading community, a narrative to be posted behind a cut in your character's journal, or an RP session from AIM.

If you fail to meet these requirements by the twentieth of the month, you'll receive a reminder in your character's journal. If by the end of the month you still have not met them, your character will be removed.

Yes, this is a rule. It shouldn't have to be, but sometimes things get out of hand, and players wind up not enjoying themselves anymore. This ties into rule number one. If we all make this a pleasant environment to play at, then we should all have fun.