Participant Agreement
YOU MUST READ THIS ENTIRE PAGE BEFORE SIGNING UP FOR THE HSWC.
Contents
Anti-Wank Policy
If you've never experienced wank, consider yourself lucky. For those unfamiliar with the term, wank is a special type of fandom drama bred from intentionally inflammatory or nasty remarks. Obviously, we want to avoid that, so we have implemented a strict Anti-Wank Policy.
Wank: How to Avoid It
It can happen to any of us: we're chillin', snacking on some delicious Fruit Gushers, and suddenly boom! there's a comment that just rubs you the wrong way. First off, take a breath and relax. We can all get overexcited and say things we don't mean or read things wrongly. Is your reaction to such-and-such comment a valid concern or are you in a mood where everything is just hitting you wrong? While we doubt that any of you will type out a rash response and get into a flame war, we also know that it can happen. If you've taken a mental (or even physical) step back and the comment/whatever is still annoying you, this is your easy 3-step process.
Do NOT under any circumstances reply to it or make a snide remark somewhere or anything of the sort. The mods do not appreciate or condone this and we don't need anyone to fight anyone else's (or even their own!) battles here. We understand that this can be a passionate subject and nobody likes to see their ship/whatever being bashed, which is good! Neither do we. But the best thing you can do is ignore the comment and move onto step 2.
Inform your friendleader and, if necessary, a mod. You can contact your friendleader by whichever means they have given you, and they will contact the mods on your behalf. If after 24 hours you haven't gotten confirmation that a higher-up is looking into the situation, please contact the mod team directly.
Go back to chillin' and eating your delicious Fruit Gushers. You have done your duty and the wanker will be taken care of. We don't want you involving yourself in wank that could get you banned! (And trust us, if you do not follow these steps and take it upon yourself to show someone who is boss or go past anything but friendly/fun discussion you will suddenly find yourself at Strike One.)
About Trash Talking
For our peace of mind, we would like to suggest that trash-talking, especially trash-talking directed at specific people and teams, be primarily confined to private spaces like chats and locked dreamwidth posts. The internet is extremely public, and folks who don't know the people involved in banter can often interpret things wrongly. This will not be monitored or penalized except in the following cases:
Any threats of violence against specific people, ships, or teams, even jokingly (and we don't expect anyone to be even a little bit serious about this topic), will land the person who made the threat at Strike One no matter where these sentiments are expressed. If we see it, it's too public.
Absolutely no trash-talking directed at specific people, teams, or ships will be tolerated on any posts on official HSWC DW communities (including team communities), the HSWC chatroom, or the "official" HSWC tumblr tags ("HSWC", "HSWC [Year]", and "Homestuck Shipping World Cup"). Acceptable threats include "We're the best team and we're gonna take you all down!" but not "Team XYZ is gonna eat our dust!", "Ship XYZ is lame!", "People who don't ship XYZ are jerks!", or "Team XYZ destroys the rainforest and eats babies in their spare time!" Even if your joking tone is visible from outer space and you have a signed affidavit from all parties that states nobody is serious. If you talk like this anywhere on the official HSWC channels, you will be contacted privately, the thread will be frozen (when applicable) and you will find yourself at Strike One.
Wank: A Punishment
We all know that despite all the best intentions and warnings, etc., stuff does happen and so does wank. So our 3-strike system is detailed below. We will usually try to talk privately with the involved parties beforehand, but if a person is not listening/back-sassing/refusing to take it to a more private place to be dealt with by the mods, then this is what happens.
STRIKE ONE: WARNING. The thread/comment will be frozen/screened, where applicable, and the reason for it will be given by the mods freezing the thread. We will not delete the wank comments unless they are deliberately bigoted/incredibly inflammatory/nobody needs to see that crap/etc., otherwise it will be left as a warning to other people, i.e. don't let this happen to you. The wanker will be given one warning by the mods to stop their behaviour. The incident will also be noted by the mod team.
STRIKE TWO: PROBATION. If the wanker persists past the warning, all their points from the current bonus round will be struck from the record and they will not be allowed to participate further in that bonus round. In addition, they will not be allowed to submit content for the main round that is open at the time, nor will they be allowed to participate in any voting for one week.
STRIKE THREE: PERMANENT BAN. If the wanker keeps persisting after the one week ban, they are full out banned. No more warnings, chances or anything of the sort.
All in all, avoiding wank is an easy and painless process—just follow Thumper's good example (GIF warning for that link) and remember that everyone participating in this event is a real person, not just a screen name and an icon. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Be happy, have fun, be willing to listen to someone else's POV, and above all else remember that this is not a fight to the death.
Anonymity Policy
It is absolutely vital that team main and collab round entries remain totally anonymous until their voting periods are over. Revealing who did what on your team’s entry invites favoritism and bias.
Your team will receive a 50 point penalty every time a member of your team breaks an entry’s anonymity.
To avoid this penalty, until a round’s voting period is over, do not:
- Say who did what for an entry in any way, shape, or form.
- Claim creatorship or reveal creatorship of any part of an entry, either through posts, comments, reblogs, tags, etc.
- Talk about the creation process for your entry.
- Have “credits” for your team’s entry. (You can add credits once the voting period is over.)
- Have creator-revealing signatures or watermarks on your entry’s pieces. (You can add them once the voting period is over.)
- Post or discuss something created for your entry that your team did not use.
- Do anything that in any way jeopardizes your or your entry’s anonymity.
If in doubt: just don’t discuss your round entry at all until voting is over. (exceptions: friendleaders can post advertisements for their round’s entries on tumblr, etc. as long as they maintain anonymity, and teammates may reblog it without commentary. Friendleaders and vice-friendleaders can also reply to comments left to their main/collab round entry on behalf of their entire team, as long as they use neutral language.)
Can you discuss your round entries privately (locked entries, IM chats, etc.)? Well, it's not like we can stop you, though it's still not recommended.
After that round's voting period, you can talk about your entry as much as you want and post works that your team made for that round anywhere and everywhere.
We encourage all participants to enforce the importance of this rule with their teammates, and all friendleaders to double-check their entries and make sure that they do not have any revealing watermarks, credits, or notes on them. Please don't make us penalize you! Thank you!
Commenting Policy
Some posts demand to be commented upon. They incite thoughts, ideas, emotions, FEELS, and all sorts of things that demand to be said. There is, however, a time and place for everything, so you should make sure to abide by the following rules and guidelines about commenting on posts.
Important Announcement
DO read all of these. They're a major way for the mods to keep you abreast of new developments.
- The sort of comments allowed on these will probably vary, so just use your head and play nice.
Voting Posts
These posts will be comment locked. If we somehow forget to lock the post when making it, send the mods a message and they will take care of it.
Standings Announcements
DO feel free to announce your pleasure at how well you placed!
DO congratulate or console others if you feel so inclined.
DON'T attack other teams, whether it be for scoring well or poorly.
End of HSWC Party Post
DO congratulate the winning teams! They worked hard and so did you!
DO post your thoughts and good memories about HSWC as a whole!
FEEL FREE to offer vague, non-violent boasts such as "You may have won this time, but we'll be back!"
Main/Collab Round Prompts
DO post your questions about the prompts on these posts. Chances are, someone else may have the same question.
THINK before posting your comments and feedback on the prompt. These posts exist mainly to share what the prompt is.
DON'T post about what you plan to do for the prompt.
DON'T post things that are unrelated to the main round prompt in question.
Round Entry Posts
DO post comments! Everyone loves getting feedback on their hard work.
FEEL FREE to offer criticism, as long as it's framed constructively and isn't just "this sucks" or "would have been better with pairing XYZ."
DON'T break anonymity! Friendleaders can reply to comments made on their team's round entry as long as they follow this rule.
- You don't have to comment on every post you read/view, but as said before, everyone loves getting feedback.
Bonus Round Prompts
DO post prompts and fills on these posts.
DO comment on other fills!
DO NOT post questions or comments about the prompt itself; use the Mod Contact instead.
While we're on the subject of commenting, this seems like a good place to mention a very specific comment we'll want you to make! When you submit your application to join, you will be asked to fill in a text block to make sure that you have read this post. In that space, please post:
I certify that I have read and will abide by the Rules and Regulations of the 2014 HSWC.
Please copy and paste this phrase directly, as we will be using an automated system to check if you have entered the right phrase and would not want your application disqualified.
How to Contact the Mods
To contact the mods, please refer to the Mod Contact. Always try to work with your friendleader first before coming to us directly, as this will help us help you more efficiently and quickly.
Thank you for reading all of this. If you have any further questions, just browse through the other pages of this wiki. Have an enjoyable HSWC and a wonderful 2014! Sign Up?