OpenRoleplaying.org Frequently Asked Questions

The following document details our most commonly asked questions and tries to give you an answer. If you don't find this all that helpful...deal. OK. OK. Fine. If you don't find this helpful or need more information, use our contacts page to contact us and get additional information or clarification.

Sorry, but the list is not particularly well-organized at the moment. We hope to remedy that in the near future.

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Contents

• Q: What's this site all about?
• Q: What's with calling me "Peasant"?
• Q: Who is Nameless Rabble?
• Q: How do I put links in discussion posts?
• Q: Why are some discussion messages in bold and others not?
• Q: Can you see my answers to survey questions?
• Q: Do you have a privacy policy?
• Q: Why can't non-members vote in surveys?
• Q: Can I put HTML in messages?
• Q: Do you have a cross-linking policy?
• Q: What are these little "i" icons?
• Q: Why are there ads on your site? I thought it was free.
• Q: I forgot my password. What do I do now?
• Q: What do those strange characters on the home page mean?
• Q: How do I do X in the chat?
• Q: Do I still have copyright on things I post to the site?
• Q: Why do I have to be a member to post to things?
• Q: I signed up for e-mail notification, but where's my e-mail?

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Q: What's this site all about?

A: OpenRoleplaying.org's Statement of Purpose is outlined on our Statements and Policies page.

If you have any additional questions about the site's purpose, feel free to contact us or ask around in the Discussions or Chat.

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Q: What's with calling me "Peasant"?

A: Each membership has an associated access "class," primarily used to identify site administrators, directory screeners, discussion moderators, and the like. By default, everyone begins with a class of "Peasant." The following table outlines the classes and what they can do (because, it's good to know who you can piss off...). We tried to use class names appropriate to the site. Oh...it is possible for someone to be "multi-classed."

Access Class	Description
God(dess)	Anyone with this level is one of the site's or system's administrators. They can pretty much do anything.
Demigod(dess)	This level indicates someone close to or well-trusted by the Gods; they can almost do whatever they want.
Scribe	A scribe is someone who writes articles (columns or reviews) for the site; scribes are also responsible for reviewing columns and reviews previous to their release. Scribes who start stories on the Storyboard are made moderators of the story.
Wizard	Wizards are moderators of one or more site features (such as a Discussion forum, a Chat room, or the Character or Plot Gallery). A wizard has nearly total control over his or her demesne, but has little (additional) power outside of it.
Paladin	These are members who have come to be dear to the Gods, and have thus been charged with vanquishing evil across the site. They have the ability to police discussions and chats and can see information about you and can even "censer" your posts.
Knight/Lady	A knight (or lady) is nothing more than a normal user we think is cool. They can't do anything special, but they get the cool title next to their names.
Peasant	The average commoner...I mean member. Full access to all publicly accessible site features.
Leper	Hopefully you will never achieve this level, but a leper is someone who's ticked off the Gods and is therefore restricted from doing much. They can read/view all features, but can't add to them, post to discussions, etc.

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Q: Who is Nameless Rabble?

A: Nameless Rabble isn't a member of ORP. It is the handle used on the site when something is posted anonymously or by a user who has not logged in before posting.

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Q: How do I put links in discussion posts?

A: All URLs and e-mail addresses in a message are automatically turned into links when they're displayed. This is done both as a convenience and as a security precaution. As always, use caution when clicking any link to off-site addresses that you do not recognize or trust.

Note: Only complete, valid URLs are auto-linked. Thus, your URL must have the attached "http://", "https://", "ftp://", etc.

Note: E-mail addresses that are auto-linked like this are not obfuscated to prevent spam-harvesting as your membership's e-mail address is when displayed. If you want to be very safe, write out the address in English, for example: "craig at openroleplaying dot org". If you really want the address to be a link, you can try sticking in text that the end-user will need to remove (a common trick on Usenet), such as listing an address as "craig@remove-this-part.openroleplaying.org".

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Q: Why are some discussion messages in bold and others not?

A: If you have a membership with us, we automatically keep track of all messages you read to allow us to signify which messages are new to you. All messages in bold are new. Messages in normal text have already been read. Since this information is stored in a database, the messages you've read will be remembered no matter what computer or Web browser you use, so long as you've logged in.

If you're wondering about privacy, all we track is the identifier of the message you've read and nothing else. This data is only used to mark unread messages in our forums.

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Q: Can you see my answers to survey questions?

A: Nope. The only thing we track is which surveys you've participated in. Even the Gods have no idea what your answers are.

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Q: Do you have a privacy policy?

A: OpenRoleplaying.org's Privacy Policy is outlined on our Statements and Policies page.

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Q: Why can't non-members vote in surveys?

A: Simply, because the Web was never intended for half the things it's used for, this is the only way we can be absolutely certain an individual can vote on a survey only once. Many of the alternatives allow for only partial security in this.

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Q: Can I put HTML in messages?

A: In most places, only limited HTML is allowed to prevent malicious use. In general, except in the Discussions,r this is usually noted. Additional HTML support may be added in the future. The following HTML is allowed:

• <i>Italics</i>
• <b>bold</b>
• <u>underline</u>
• <em>emphasis</em>
• <strong>strong emphasis</strong>
• HTML entities (i.e., &amp;, &copy;)

See also FAQ Question 3.

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Q: Do you have a cross-linking policy?

A: There's no official cross-linking policy; if you want to link to us just do it. However, it's good etiquette to ask first, and in those situations there's a good chance that we'll link back to you too. Feel free to use any of the following banners, if you wish. Links, if possible, should go to the OpenRoleplaying.org home page directly, http://www.openroleplaying.org.

Oh...don't link to the images directly, save them locally and upload them to your web site's server. Thanks.

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Q: What are these little "i" icons?

A: This icon -- -- indicates that the member has a published profile. You can click on the icon to view that member's profile information. If you have no idea what this is, you need to be a member to view another member's profile.

If the icon looks like this -- -- it means that member is currently in the Chat.

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Q: Why are there ads on your site? I thought it was free.

A: We don't make any money on the site. The ads are all part of free banner exchange programs with other related web sites. Primarily, the more banners we display, the more times our banner is displayed on other sites--the idea being to get exposure and, in return, drive more traffic to the site. At least, in theory.

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Q: I forgot my password. What do I do now?

A: Luckily for you, we have a password reminder feature. You can get to it on the failed login page, or by clicking here. If that method fails to get you your password, use our contacts page to contact the Webmaster and see if he can help track it down for you.

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Q: What do those strange characters on the home page mean?

A: The characters on the home page are primarily alchemical symbols we're using to mark each section of the site. Basically, a site update will be associated with a site section, and thus, the symbols help to indicate the section for which the update is relevant. The symbols and their associations are as follows:

Unfortunately, we haven't bothered to do the research yet to figure out what the symbols actually are (OK. The "Special" one is a Runic "Z"...), but if you happen to know feel free to drop a message to BlackFog and let him know.

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Q: How do I do X in the chat?

A: The best place to look is Chat Help which goes into detail about all the Chat features.

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Q: Do I still have copyright on things I post to the site?

A: Copyrights to anything you post always remain as yours. However, by posting the information to a public forum, you are stating that others can freely use your material. The issue is a bit fuzzier with regard to using it for commerical purposes, but technically, you retain the copyright on anything you post, so you are free to persue that through legal channels as required. We generally make it possible for you to remove or change any posted content as well, thus giving you as much control over your intellectual property as possible. You may also want to look at the OpenRoleplaying.org Copyright Statement.

If you have any specific questions regarding this, feel free to contact us.

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Q: Why do I have to be a member to post to things?

A: Simply, because we've had problems with anonymous posting in the past. Thus, you need to be a member to post to the Discussions, Storyboard, and Gameboard.

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Q: I signed up for e-mail notification, but where's my e-mail?

A: All the e-mail does get sent, but it doesn't always arrive. This can be for a variety of reasons such as a DNS problem, an error in your e-mail address, an out-of-date e-mail address, if your e-mail account is over quota, or if we've added you to our Do Not E-Mail or E-mail Bounce list(s). We check the e-mail bounces all the time, so if you would like us to check into why your e-mail isn't going out, please contact us.

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