For those wondering, this whole guideline was stolen borrowed from the lovely Iron Galley on his RP group. The original post can be found here. Please know that these rules are not mandatory for anyone to follow, I simply reposted this in hopes that it reaches a broader audience. That being said, these rules are fairly reasonable and really aren't that hard to follow, but I can understand if you happen to break a few rules here and there (Luna knows I did! )

1) Respecting other OCs and Original Posters.
First things first. Mary Sues are annoying. You can't fight them, you can't talk to them, you simply can't interact with them in any way. But what is a Mary Sue? Is it a character with no flaws? Well, yes. In writing, a Mary Sue is a character with no flaws. And in RPs? A Mary Sue is both that, and the author's desire to keep his character above others.

The problem: People don't like to see their characters losing, so they find every excuse to keep the fight in their favor. How is this done? By narrating your character's action, and the recipient's reaction.
Here's an example:
Iron unsheathes his sword and thrusts his blade forward. (This is good)
Iron unsheathes his sword and thrusts his blade forward, utterly murdering *insert other OC name here*. (This is bullshit)

You do not control either the other character, nor the world. You cannot say what happens with either. The original thread poster controls the world, and the other player controls his OC. You merely control yours. It is up to the Original Poster to decide how a fight is resolved, regardless of skills or whatchamacallit. It's also the Original Poster's decision as to what happens to the world. You can say you planted a massive teh uber poison of doom, but if the OP decides that the poison is harmless because the detonator didn't work, then nothing happens.

Concessions, people, concessions. Learn to play fair. OP controls the world, players control their OCs.
Now, if you have reason to believe either the OP or another player is being an ass, then tell me. I'll check it out.

2) Keeping the threads clean and easy to read.
This is simple. When RPing, it can get difficult to maintain all comments organized and easy to read, but it becomes much more easy if there is an established guideline to follow. I shall give you this guideline.

At the beginning of an RP, the very first players will usually form a small group that dominates the thread from then onward. New players have a hard time incorporating themselves into a thread because of this, and it is very easy to avoid if we keep the thread clean.
Keep a thread clean by doing the following:

a) Only post one reply, and wait for several others to reply to it. Once you believe enough people have joined, reply back.
b) If you replied to a post, and when refreshing the page you discover that a new post has been placed, and your previous post no longer applies, delete the old post, and reply to the most recent one.
EX: Pony 1 jumps off cliff. Pony 2 jumps off cliff too. Pony 3 also jumps. Pony 1 lands safely. Pony 4 yells to Pony 1 not to jump. Pony 4 was about to yell to Pony 1, telling him not to jump, but was glad when he landed safely.

c) DO NOT go back in time, or break continuity, to reply to another post. You are IN-CHARACTER. Act accordingly. You can't be talking to four people at the same time about entirely different subjects in four distinct places. If the other player wants to join the conversation, then he/she has to walk over to you, and start talking. Your current conversation would then stop, and you'd have to either include the new guy, or tell him to buzz off.

3) Post Length.
These are one of the most annoying problems an RP can have. Seriously bad, and very easy to avoid. When replying to someone, your post has to include dialogue, an action, and description. So, unless there are environmental or particular reasons your character can't do any of those, they have to be included. No excuses. Short replies are a big no-no.

1360241
Thanks for posting this here, it's pretty helpful for people just getting into RPing.

1360241 Okay. Understandable Rules? Check. So now that we have that out of the way, what about people like Spez? (God knows no one can read a sentence he makes typing...) And, let's not ignore the fact the Ciel and Bastian are the principle and Vice and you really can't kill them unless they say otherwise. Which then leads to the next question, what are we going to about villains/just plain bad characters?

1365722 Yeah... but Spez is nice and technically not breaking any rules...

1365722
We make it so they either have to change their characters or not have them in the college. I've been telling Spez this whole time to do something about his grammar, but he barely ever listens.

1365722 1365784 1367523 Okay i'll work on my grammar.