Introduction
Welcome to Canterlot Avenue!
Before participating in our community, it is important to understand and follow site terms and conditions. Please read each section carefully. If you have any questions or concerns about any of the guidelines set in place here, please feel free to contact one of our administrators. Rules are subject to change at any time and Administration reserves the right to the final interpretation of these rules. Users are responsible for periodically checking this page for any changes. Being unaware of the rules is not an excuse to break them.
Hope to see you around!
Administration Clause
Unfortunately new situations can occur and thus may not be covered by the current rules. We reserve the right to create new rules in the interim if the situation is deemed necessary to make amendments to the current rule set for the betterment of the community. Any new rules or amendments created under this clause will be added to the rule set once finalized by the administration.
NSFW Content
NSFW Content is not allowed publicly on Canterlot Avenue, as the site is designed and intended to be age 13+ friendly. We know that some rule-breaking content may not be considered NSFW by everyone, but we still ask that you respect the rules and keep it off-site. Posting NSFW content will result in its removal and an official strike.
If you would like to know if your content is suitable for sharing, please contact a staff member and they will determine its appropriateness.
Canterlot Avenue defines NSFW content as any of the following:
- Suggestive and/or sexual content:
- Art containing suggestive poses such as an obvious focus on the bottom, breasts or crotch.
- Lingerie that is being worn in a provocative way to define bodily curves such as bottom, breasts or crotch.
- Images that are designed to provoke a sexual response.
- Any characters specifically associated with pornographic content (Including the SFW variant images) are not permitted to be used on site.
- Sexual acts, Impending sexual acts, or obvious sexual tension, including:
- Sexual toys, masturbation, or any references thereof
- Wing/Horn play
- The usage of words like porn and sex are taken on a case by case basis
- Sexual assault, implied or otherwise
- Heavy innuendo
- Reference to genitals or other inappropriate areas of the body
- Violent content, including:
- Excessive gore/blood, or visible internal organs
- Torture or abuse
- Mutilation, self-inflicted or otherwise
- Suicide
Foot note: In regards to nudity specifically, "Barbie Doll nudity" (a form of nudity lacking anatomical details such as nipples and genitals) used for the purpose of showing details in character design such as scars or fur patterns will be permitted.
Provocative imagery, content and scenarios that display private and sexually intimate contexts is determined by the admins or those reporting it. Staff are allowed to remove any content that is meant to cause harm, or expose sexual depiction upon unsuspecting users.
Screenshots/cropping
Screenshots of characters that are clearly taken from a NSFW image are not allowed. This means anything that provokes a sexual response. Reverse image searching is not strictly required in order to remove a crop. If image searching does not work but the source image is deemed by the staff to be too risque, the crop/screenshot will be considered NSFW under this rule.
General OOC Behavior
Everyone is expected to have good behavior on the website. There are certain types of behavior that are not tolerated or appropriate on Canterlot Avenue.
This is including but not limited to:
- Hostile or overly aggressive behavior, such as:
- Insults and slurs based on race, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or political views.
- Using religion as a reason to discriminate against others.
- Threats or harassment of any kind directed towards other users or staff. This includes begging for harm against oneself.
- Trolling, spamming, or acting in an otherwise disruptive manner, such as:
- Abuse of the report system
- Excessive profanity
- Encouraging users to engage in rule-breaking behavior. This is not limited to just usage of Canterlot Avenue, but also promoting activities that break rules on other sites, such as organized spamming or raiding.
- Custom text or languages aside from English
- Mini-Modding (When a Non-Staff member takes the job of any member of staff to try to enforce the rules, warn or punish users). This applies to artists who have had their content stolen, and/or modified. Please refer to the Copyright/Plagiarism Policy section for instructions on how to report art theft and please take a moment to review our art theft policy.
- Bumping posts:
- Purposefully commenting on a post to bump it up in the feed. Bumps occur when a user intentionally pulls up a status to the front of the site for it to be seen by users. This can be classified as spam and is not allowed. For example, commenting a single word on a post with no meaningful context.
Exceptions include if you he been active on the site for a long period of time and you are commenting on the post for the first time. Official staff business posts are exempted from this rule, if the post is related to events that require further reminders.
- Publicly sharing private information on the feed or with users not involved without permission of the owner of said information. This is including, but not limited to:
- Real name
- Physical Address
- Private Message Logs (Including off-site Private Messages such as Discord)
- Photos of users in real life
- Real life selfies (images which have the admin of the character as the focus point) are not allowed on the public feed, profiles/profile pictures, pages, contests, forums, or any other sections, except the Private Messaging System of Canterlot Avenue; however, photos such as scenerios, or images utilized for casual photography purposes are allowed.
- Impersonating other users (without permission) or staff (with or without permission). Impersonation may include copied traits such as Username/Display Name or Profile/Avatar.
- Statuses, images, videos, music, links, events, pages, contests, and polls containing referencing to any of the following:
- Illegal content
- Racism (Slurs, Supremacy, and Racial Issues) applicable to the real world.
- Political views (for example, views on individual politicians, views on sexuality, derogatory slang for a certain political view, political memes, etc) applicable to the real world.
- Past events that are likely to cause drama (for example, 9/11, mass murders/genocide, etc)
- Offensive names
- Self harm and suicide
- Religious views
- Mockery of potentially inflammatory subjects such as race/religion/disability, etc
- Mockery of disabled individuals
- Other questionable content (subject to staff discretion)
- Mention of alcohol & drugs outside of RP:
- Posts discussing alcohol, drugs, vaping and tobacco products of any kind are not allowed in an OOC setting. If the substances are not the central focus, they are allowed in an RP setting, so long as they’re not being abused or used to cause distress to users.
Positive messages such as "Black Lives Matter" or "Trans Rights!" are of course always allowed. This is not considered discourse or politics. Only messages negative or discriminatory in regards to these topics will be removed.
Arguments that do not violate the rules are not likely to be subject to any disciplinary action. Having an opinion or disagreement does not constitute a strike, so long as things are kept civil and respectful. If you have an issue with another user, please resort to using the Block User button instead of causing a scene on the website. The staff is not responsible for maintaining harmony between users on the site, but is responsible for maintaining public civility.
You may also contact any Administrator using the private message feature if it is an emergency. Taking matters into your own hands will not be tolerated.
General Roleplay Behavior
You are free to roleplay in Canterlot Avenue, but under the following guidelines:
- Private Erotic RP with users under the age of 18 is NOT allowed.
- Wall RPs and character images may not contain or have references to:
- Racial slurs applicable to real life
- Illegal content
- Illicit Drugs
- Real Life political views
- Past events that are likely to alarm (i. e. Terrorist attacks, Genocides)
- Offensive names
- Self harm and suicide
- Real religious views
- Content that mocks disabled individuals
- NSFW Content
- Disrupting public role plays with OOC discussion
- Custom text or language aside from English are not allowed.
Staff takes no responsibility for whatever occurs between users on Private Messages, unless the issue is reported. It is the user’s responsibility to know their legal age and consent laws. Grooming is not tolerated in and out of roleplay and will be investigated upon accusation.
Pages & Groups
In this section, we want to provide a set of guidelines aiming to aid user understanding of the limitations of content that is not allowed on pages and groups that are created and/or promoted on Canterlot Avenue.
Content
Statuses, images, videos, music, links, events, pages, contests, and polls containing/referencing to any of the following is disallowed:
- Illegal content
- Offensive names
- Mention of alcohol & drugs outside of RP
- Racism
- Politics
- Religion
- Conspiracy Theories
- Past traumatic events (ex: 9/11, Holocaust, Tiananmen Square Massacre, etc.)
- Disabilities
- Fan pages and groups for non-pony celebrities
- On-site musicians are allowed to have pages or groups (Non-pony related songs created by site users are fine)
- Out of character personal experiences with situations that may be constituted as disturbing such as:
- Violent public disturbances (Riots and Mob activities)
- Shootings
- Witnessing of illegal activity in general
- Witnessing suicide
- Law enforcement misconduct
- Posts about self harm and suicide
- This list is non-inclusive, and may be applied to other extraneous circumstances as disturbing content is redefined with changes in culture.
- Any links or videos that redirect to pornographic content.
All other site rules are global and still apply to the Pages & Groups section. Before creating a group or page, please make sure to look over the entirety of the site rules to ensure that the page or group you want to create does not contain content listed on this page.
Copyright/Plagiarism Policy
No content is allowed which may infringe on intellectual property rights of others, or whose source(s) explicitly prohibit distribution on other sites.
Before uploading content that is not yours (including recolors), we ask that you:
- Review our Art Theft Policy.
- Confirm that the original artist or copyright holder allows distribution and/or modification of the content
- Include any credits or links back to the artist or copyright holder of the content
Content posted without following these rules is subject to removal.
When dealing with stolen or infringing content, do NOT harass, spam or otherwise attempt to "correct" the user suspected. Doing so will be treated as harassment according to our rules of conduct. Instead, follow the instructions given below to report the content, and allow our staff to handle the situation.
If you are the original artist or copyright holder:
- Send an email to [email protected] with the following information:
- State the claimant's name and address
- Identify the copyright material that is alleged to have been infringed and the claimant's interest or right with respect to that material
- Specify the location data (e.g. the web address or Internet address associated with the alleged infringement)
- Specify the infringement that is alleged, and
- specify the date and time of the alleged infringement.
If you are not the original artist or copyright holder:
- Report the infringing artwork.
- Please keep in mind that action will not be taken pre-emptively, and that full proof of a violation of any sort is required before we will take action.
If you have any questions about the Copyright/Plagiarism Policy enforced in Canterlot Avenue, please refer to the following link which explains in detail the Canadian Copyright Act.Click Here
Art Theft
All AI generated images must be tagged as such and not to be claimed as original content or drawn by said user. Action will be taken to warn users who do not respect this rule and action thereafter will be removal of AI images posted and strikes.
If an image is reported as suspected art theft, the user reporting the image must provide a link to the original image of the stolen art, as well as provide a means (Email, Deviantart, Instragram, etc.) to contact the owner or artist, if they can. Staff will try to get in contact with the original artist to confirm if their artwork or characters are allowed to be used or posted on other platforms. If the artist does not respond within a week, the art will be removed and warning distributed.
Forums
Canterlot Avenue has various places to freely socialize and roleplay, and the forums are divided into many sections to choose from; however, much like the general site, they too contain their guidelines. The guidelines for forum use are as follows:
- OOC chats are meant for OOC discussion of the RP
- Keep chat that is not relevant to the RP to a minimum
- Disruption of roleplaying forums by entering without authorization is not allowed
- The thread creator is responsible for moderation of their thread
- They are also responsible for making sure the members and the content follows the rules of the site. In any case that staff figures out without a disclosure from the thread creator, they are subject to receive a strike.
Moderators and admins are also available in the event that a thread owner requires the assistance of the staff.
- Global website rules apply to the forums as well.
- Content in the forums must be relative to the topic of the thread at all times.
If you have questions or concerns about these guidelines, please contact a member of staff or administrator for assistance.
IMs/Chat Rooms
Canterlot Avenue provides users with the option to access our Instant Messaging system, as well as Chat Rooms. Keep in mind that having access to these features is a privilege and not a right. Canterlot Avenue staff has the right to revoke a user's ability to use this system if the user has repeated offenses which violate the following set of rules.
Advertisement
- Discord servers [ Allowed on personal profile information ]
To avoid your Discord server advertisement being drowned out in the news feed, we advise advertising on your profile information or using pages.
- Commission sheets [ Perfectly fine on Pages & Journals ]
Using Pages and Journals to write and post your commission prices for art is more useful for you and other users to access, edit and search for. Posting in the news feed will more often than not be drowned out, difficult to edit and refer to, hard to search for and link to users.
- Open requests for art [ Perfectly fine on Pages & Journals ]
Open requests for art is more typically appreciated when advertised using Pages and Journals. It is not likely that a post in the news feed will result in being lost, however it comes at your own risk (And by meaning lost, it means being pushed down in the feed so users can't see it).
- Role Play [ Fine on all platforms ]
Advertising that you are open for role play and are seeking certain types of RP and partners is okay. Asking for/ suggesting ERP is NOT allowed.
- Competing websites [Ask staff permission or on Journals & PMs]
If you wish to advertise another website that proposes a means to draw more user attention away from Canterlot Avenue, staff should be notified first and spoken with. Creating pages dedicated to competing sites can be taken as a means to herd user base somewhere else. We understand if the site is shared discretely and is perfectly fine to share a link in a description on a personal information page. Public sharing in news feed is very low brow and will result in removal.
- Partnerships [Ask staff for potential site partnership ]
If you believe you are ready to partner up with Canterlot Avenue and work together to advertise each other, we encourage you to contact our administrators to discuss further.
Disciplinary Action
Users who disobey the rules will receive a punishment based on the context of their issue.
This is down to the judgment of the staff; these punishments can be one of the following:
- Verbal Warning
- This is sent by our staff to try and educate you on what rule was broken, why it is a rule, and what you can do to avoid repeating your mistake. These messages are always meant as an educational tool and are never an official warning.
- Official Strike
- This will be sent via the "bot" account, which all our admin systems are linked to. It will explain in a more professional way what you did wrong, why it is wrong, and what you can do to avoid it happening again. Depending on the severity and frequency of strikes, a user may be allowed between 1 to 3 official Strikes.
- Infraction
- This will be sent via the "Sunshine Serenade" account, which our moderation system is linked to. An infraction is the next step after an official warning. It is a very severe form of punishment and is just one step away from a ban. Receiving one of these places you in a direct line to your next issue resulting in an account ban. Infractions have a 90 day limit.
- Ban
- Banning is split into two different types. Account & IP.
- Account bans are given to accounts that have proven to be serious offenders in their usage of the site, that it warrants their removal.
- IP bans are given to IP Address that are being used to disrupt the site, and/or avoid bans on accounts, and/or other related offences.
If the user is found frequently breaking the rules (within the staff own interpretation), then they can be placed under probation. Probation periods can make a user jump to a more serious offence within their next strike. Probation periods typically last 30 days, but the length can be shortened or raised. During the duration of the ban, it is not permitted to create additional accounts. Any accounts created during that time will be permanently banned along with an extension of the punishment on the original. Should the staff feel it's justified, your IP access may also be banned. If for any reason a punishment was made unfairly, you did not agree with it or you felt you wanted more information on said punishment; send an email to [email protected]
During the duration of the ban, it is not permitted to create additional accounts. Any accounts created during that time will be permanently banned along with an extension of the punishment on the original. Should the staff feel it's justified, your IP access may also be banned.
If a user intentionally breaks the rules after a counselling from staff, the user is subjected to a 3 day ban
If for any reason a punishment was made unfairly, you did not agree with it or you felt you wanted more information on said punishment; send an email to [email protected]
Be sure to include all important information such as the username, the action being committed, and a reason why the account should be reinstated. These appeals will be reviewed by our appeals team.
- An apology is not an appeal, it can be used in an appeal to help us show that you understand the rule breaches you committed, but it cannot be an appeal.
- Appeals should also be done both professionally, and calmly. Whilst the staff understand that you may be upset; or angry by a ruling, our staff have the right to deny an appeal should you threaten, attack, or lash out at them.
- The appeals team do not handle your punishments, and as such are not responsible for the punishment you have been given.
- Depending on the type of punishment you are appealing, your appeal can be looked at by either the appeals team or by a higher admin of staff.
If at any point in time during work on your appeal you feel you need another viewpoint on the situation, you are free to request one; and another staff member will come, and review your appeal.
If you have questions or concerns about the guidelines given above, feel free to reach out to one of the staff members or contact an administrator by sending them a Private Message.
Naming Policy
Canterlot Avenue allows the ability to create usernames for your profile, along with Display names. Names must be alphanumeric, which means letters A - Z, and numbers 1 - 9. The following name usage is not allowed, including, but not limited to
- Names with racial slurs.
- Names associated with degrading, or offensive content.
- Names containing Soviet Communism, Nazism, extremist political views, religious beliefs, gender/sexuality, past events, or sensitive topics.
- Names containing symbols that are not accessible on a standard keyboard.
- Names with invisible/unreadable text.
- Names using Zalgo text font or other obfuscated fonts
- Names containing the use of alternative (Ä, ì, etc) English letters.
- Names containing symbols such as “! @ # $ % ^ & *†etc.
If you have any questions or concerns about these guidelines, please contact any member of staff for assistance.
CSS, BBCode, Unicode, Custom Languages & Bugs
Your cover & CSS are exempt from the general rules in what content can be applied to them, providing that they do not break our rules on mature and NSFW content. As such, you are generally free to customize your profile to a large degree to make it feel more at home for yourself.
There are, however, certain restrictions to what you can do with your CSS:
- CSS that rotates the page in any orientation other than default is not allowed
- No CSS that hinders the ability to contact a user in any way
- CSS that removes the ability to add/remove or report a user.
- CSS that hides or alters the membership of users
- CSS used to hack or hinder the performance of the website
- CSS that could potentially cause seizures or trigger light sensitivity.
Use of BBCode is allowed for the purpose of customizing your profile, blogs, forum posts, and PM's. BBCode is allowed on status posts and comment threads with the exception of the following.
- Rainbow text
- Text size
- Text color
- obfuscated text
If you use BBCode on your profiles, you are solely responsible for the issues it may cause to your profile, thus making you, the user, responsible for fixing the issue.
Custom Text/Languages (aside from English) are not permitted in all areas of the website (outside of Private Messages.)
This is in place because Canterlot Avenue's standard language is mainly English. While we do understand that there are users from many countries, we also understand that many users would not appreciate having the global feed filled with statuses and comments of different languages that they will not understand and may report them as Spam.
Unicode, with the exception of Emojis and accents, is not allowed across the site, except in Private Messages.
Keep in mind that the staff reserves the right to remove all CSS from user profiles if it is found to be in violation.
With any website, there is always the possibility for bugs. Choosing to exploit bugs or vulnerabilities found within the software of the site is against the rules and will be punished.
If you find any bugs or exploits that affect the user experience at Canterlot Avenue, please contact a member of the Development team from our staff page, or email us at [email protected]