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ANNOUNCEMENT (11/2008): Changes to Teams Place Rules, Effective Immediately.

Started by SC4D_Staff, November 23, 2008, 08:44:27 PM

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SC4D_Staff

As part of the ongoing upgrade and fine-tuning of the SC4D forum sections, the staff has been looking at the "Teams Place" section.  The rules for this section have never been expressly published, and the way teams have been handled has remained the same since the early days when there were just a handful of teams through today's almost 20.  There has pretty much been the approach that, if members wanted to form a team, we would rely on folks to handle the privilege of having a team place responsibly.  By and large, this has worked fairly well, but we feel that, with the large expansion in the number of teams over the past year, the time has come to implement new guidelines and criteria for all current teams here, as well as for teams opening in the future.  For most existing teams, this will not change to any great extent the way things are done from day to day.  Several teams will find there are new requirements with which they must comply in order to maintain their status.  Unfortunately, there are several teams: Batters, Lotters and Modders (BLaM), the Sim City Remodeling Team (SCRT) and Team Grater (TG), that will lose the ability under the new rules to continue as teams at SC4D.

The new rules are set forth in the form of criteria intended to make sure that each team remains focused on the creation of custom content for the game, as follows:

Criteria for All Custom Content Teams

All custom content teams at SC4D must:

1. Active Members.  Have at least two (2) active members, with all members of the team being required to be registered as a member of SC4D.  The SC4D staff can, on good cause shown, vary in its sole discretion the requirement for each team member to be registered here.  "Active" is defined as making a reasonable number of substantive posts on the team threads within the past 60 days, and otherwise directing efforts in support of the team's projects in a manner reasonably apparent to SC4D staff.

2. Good Standing of Team Members.  Have no more than one (1) member suspended or terminated from current SC4D membership at any one time.  The staff reserves, in its discretion, the right to take action against a team based on just one member being suspended or terminated under exceptional circumstances that reflect directly on the team as a whole.

3. Ongoing Work on Projects.  Have current projects in progress--either at SC4D or elsewhere--for producing quality custom content.  These projects must, in the reasonable view of the staff, be more than just "talk."

4. Team Liaison.  Have a team member who is designated as the Team Liaison (TL).  The TL shall serve as the team's point-of-contact with the SC4D Staff. It is the responsibility of the TL to ensure that all members of the team are in ongoing compliance with all SC4D Rules and the TL will agree to be individually responsible (up to and including the possibility of suspension or termination of membership of the TL for any unreasonable failure on his or her part) for enforcing that compliance by whatever means reasonably necessary.

If, at any time, a team fails to meet and be in compliance with all of these criteria, following a warning the team shall forfeit its team status at SC4D.

In addition to the new criteria, the Teams Place forum section shall be reorganized.  This shall be done as follows:

The SC4D Teams Place will be divided into two (2) sections: the "Certified" section and the "Other Teams" section.

1. Certified Teams. This section is reserved for those teams that have one or more active team members with uploading rights to the LEX, and have requested and gained approval from the SC4D staff to be a Certified Team.

2. Other Teams. This section is reserved for those teams that do not have an active member with uploading rights to the LEX.

Certified Teams shall be listed first in alphabetical order in the Teams Place forum section, then "Other Teams" are listed, again in alphabetical order.  Placement in these sections is not permanent--if a Certified Team loses its last member with LEX uploading rights, it will revert to being an "Other Team."  Conversely, an Other Team that gains a member who has LEX upload rights may request that the staff change its status to a Certified Team.

Each existing team, regardless of the section it is placed in, shall be required to complete a written questionnaire that is expected to be furnished to it by or before December 1, 2008.  This questionnaire will thereafter be completed by any new team seeking to be included in the SC4D Teams Place forum section.  This questionnaire shall request information such as the SC4D member names of the members of the team, the member name of any team member who is suspended or terminated from SC4D membership, the purpose for which the team is organized, representative work of the team to date, if any, whether the team currently intends seek status as a Certified Team, and the member name of the Team Liaison.  It will also contain a statement that each team member has reviewed and is currently familiar with these rules and criteria and the SC4D site rules and intends to abide by them.  The TL will submit the completed questionnaire and it shall be deemed to be a binding agreement between the site and the team, as represented by the TL.

The initial Certified Teams shall include the AC Team, the BSC, the HK Team, the NAM Team, the NHP Team, NDEX, the NUTS, the RTMT, the RAM Team, and SFBT.

The initial Other Teams shall include the ITC Team, LBT, the SMP Team, the SCAG, and the TSC Team.

As noted, the BLaM Team, the SCRT, and TG do not and cannot meet the criteria, and their team status at SC4D is accordingly terminated.

It is noted that the intention of these rules and criteria, while perhaps seeming somewhat harsh in application, is to maintain the focus of SC4D as a website on the serious SC4 player, and on the creation of the highest quality possible custom content for that player.  The site, even though we pride ourselves as being sociable, is not a social site.  We intend that the teams we host here would mirror this.  Teams are not about the egos of their individual members, or about the bureaucracy that it takes to run one, or about badges, or status, or any of that.  They are about creative minds working together to bring into being the highest quality custom content possible.  We don't apologize for setting our standards high.  Thank you for understanding our need to make these changes

Jeronij and The Staff