General Information

The dAmn (deviantART Messaging Network) is a real time chat system for reigstered users of the site. In general, administration of a room is left to the founder and the moderators that the founder chooses. The MN@ (dAmn Administrators) will not get involved in unofficial rooms except under certain conditions which I will cover later.

dAmn chatrooms are classified as either official or unofficial and are marked with a small fella icon.

All official dAmn chat rooms are supported and moderated by the MN@ and are subjected to deviantART policies and rules of behavior.

All unofficial chat rooms are the personal creations of other deviants. The rules and regulations of these unofficial, and personally created, chat rooms are set by the founder and their moderators. Any abuse which may occur in an unofficial, private, chat room should be reported to that particular chat rooms founder and moderators, it is their responsibilty to maintain the order of their room. If you experience extreme forms of harassment in a user created channel, please notify a member of the MN@.

deviantART staff will only take action in personal chat rooms in cases of extreme abuse, violation of these rules or where the integrity of deviantART or dAmn is at stake. Please contact the rooms founders and moderators before seeking to involve the MN@.

When taking action in unofficial rooms, the MN@ will always use deviantART polices as a guide for suitable action.


Use Of Official Rooms

Abusing Public Communication/Spamming

Avoid excessive shouting (use of all-caps), gibberish (random letters with no attempt at conversation) excessive word streeeeeeeetching or flooding (continuous posting of repetitive text) in public chat. We ask you not to do this as it disrupts the flow of chat for other users.

The posting of unsolicited advertisements for deviantART profiles, external web pages or large random copy / paste of texts is also considered spamming. It's rude to ask people to visit your page or website, also, large amounts of text are disruptive to the flow of chat.

Please do not ask ASL (Age, Sex, Location) type questions, this information is available on the users profile if they wish it to be known. This eliminates the need for it to be asked in channel.


Harassment/Inappropriate Language

Inappropriate language can include any language that in any way looks like, sounds like, or abbreviates any of the following: profanity, sexual content, explicit language, inappropriate references to sexual preferences, or offensive remarks (such as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual).

We may remove anyone who advocates or encourages expressions of violence, bigotry, racist, or hatred as we see fit.

Actions that either incite or encourage others to violate these and other policies will not be tolerated.

We encourage our members to treat each other with respect. Do not use any of the public channels to threaten, harass, stalk, or abuse others.

Other Things To Note

We expect the mood of rooms to remain civil at all times. For this reason we ask that you keep personal issues in private and that you not use official rooms as a place to fight and argue. If such an event should happen then we will step in and take whatever action we deem neccesary.

Because dAmn is a global community, people of many nationalities and languages can be found in the chatrooms. To help the deviantART staff, all official chatrooms are English speaking rooms only. This is so that we can moderate the rooms and help people where neccesary to the best of our abilities. There are lots of rooms for people to speak other languages in.


dAmn In General

Keep It Legal

Acting in an illegal fashion or discussion of illegal activities is not allowed. deviantART is not responsible for anything you say on dAmn or for any consequences that may arise from your words and actions. Those that break this rule will be the ones held responsible, not deviantART.

Asking for or providing assistance in obtaining pirated software or media is not permitted. Neither is the use of dAmn to circulate or distribute defamatory, obscene, sexual, or other illegal material, text, or images. The use of dAmn for chats relating to illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia is strictly prohibited and discussion or requests for help with self-mutilation or suicide will not be tolerated.

Also please note that the use of dAmn to link to external web pages that violate these rules is strictly prohibited.


No Thanks, We Don’t Want Any

dAmn is not to be used for commercial purposes without the express consent of deviantART, Inc. (this does not include the promotion of on site prints in appropriate channels).


Accept Responsibility

You are responsible for anything you say while you use dAmn, and for protecting your own system.

You are responsible for any actions you take based on information you receive online. Use your own judgment when evaluating information provided through the use of dAmn.

Please don't give out personal information like passwords and credit card details online. This type of personal information is not allowed in official chatrooms.


Punishment

Bans are set at the discretion of the admin setting the ban. The minimum period for any ban is 1 day (24 hours) and can be anything up to indefinate. If you have a query about a ban in an official room then you can enquire about it through +help.

The creation or use of existing accounts for the purpose of ban evasion is not tolerated and will result in the extension of the ban period, as well as a possible ban on all alternate accounts from dAmn and deviantART itself.


Unoffiical Chatroom Policies

dAmn is for everyone, and we welcome you to create a room for almost any reason you like; whether it be for music discussion, to find people in your area, or to trade art and photography. However, there are a few types of rooms that we do not allow:

Sexual Themes: We do not allow deviations of an explicit sexual nature on deviantART, and so we do not allow rooms that are for the discussion of explicit sexual topics. The use of rooms for "cybersex", or the acting out of sexual situations, is also not allowed.

Self-Mutilation and Suicide: Rooms for the purpose of discussing or glorifying the practice of "cutting", or any type of suicide, will be closed and deleted.

Warez/Cracks/Serials: Any room dealing with illegal software, serial numbers, or cracks will be closed and deleted.

File Sharing/Torrents: Rooms used for file sharing of any kind will be closed and deleted.

We do not tolerate any sort of organised bullying or harassment on dAmn. MN@ take these allegations very seriously and channels will be subject to investigation with appropriate administrative action should this be required.

Users who create a room that violates the above policy will have their room closed, and a warning issued. If they continue to create rooms that break policy, they could face a ban on their account. If you are not sure if your room falls within the guidelines, please feel free to talk to one of the Message Network Administrators.

The above list is not all-inclusive, and there may be situations where a room violates the etiquette policy in another way. In these cases, the MN@ will make the final decision regarding the channel. If your channel has been deleted, you may contact +help to file an appeal, and the situation will be investigated.

If you find a channel that is violating policy, please use the +helpDesk to report them or report it in #MNAdmin.

If you have any questions about these rules or dAmn in general, please feel free to Visit #MNAdmin and ask a staff member there.

We would also like to draw your attention to the devSAFE article which provides you with a comprehensive guide to your personal safety whilst participating in our community.

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_{Director of Community Operations
deviantART, Inc.
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Always the summers are slipping away.}