Age Restrictions

Membership is limited to individuals who are eighteen years of age or older.

This is non-negotiable. Any minor found on this site, its forums or Darcyfic will be banned immediately. Their internet provider and consequently their parents will be notified. It should be noted that the pond's administrators have proven to be very good at detecting minors.

UserIDs

Firthness has been very lucky in that it has attracted a very mature, agreeable membership. We'd like to continue to foster the feeling of community here on the site and especially at the forums. To that end, we're asking that all members select a userID that is either their name or name-like. We would prefer that members choose their own names to represent themselves, but we will approve userIDs that are more towards the name-like end of that spectrum.

To make the whole process easier in the end, the administrators will be reviewing each userID as it is registered. Please anticipate a slight delay in your membership being approved to allow for this additional step.

Communication

Please direct all communications concerning Firthness or Darcyfic to either the administrator (admins at Firthness dot com) or moderator (mods at Firthness dot com) addresses instead of individual admins or mods. This will allow us to provide better, faster service to our members.

For a question, comment or concern that pertains to a specific forum, topic, or post, please e-mail the moderators: mods at Firthness dot com.

For a question, comment or concern that pertains to the site, forums at large, or Darcyfic, please e-mail the administrators (admins at Firthness dot com). Questions relating to Darcyfic may, however, be forwarded to Darcyfic’s moderators.

There are, of course, two exceptions to these guideline: 1) questions, comments or concerns that relate to an administrator or moderator should be e-mailed to melly (melly at Firthness dot com); and 2) authors with questions, comments, concerns, or a new chapter should e-mail the story hotline (stories at Firthness dot com.)

Any communications regarding Firthness, its forums, or Darcyfic that are received via any other channel will be forwarded to the appropriate group.

Copyright

Firthness claims no copyright for any information posted by its members to the site at large, the forums, and/or Darcyfic. The author of any post or story retains absolute ownership.

Honesty

Trust is of the utmost importance in the maintenance of a healthy online community. So, all joking aside, any instance of willful misrepresentation that the administrators deem harmful to the community or its members will not be tolerated. Any member engaging in deliberate misrepresentation will be subject to immediate deactivation pending investigation and the member’s account may be suspended or revoked.

Please Note: When we say willful misrepresentation, this does not refer to the common, online practice of declining to give your exact real name, location or similar such information. Rather, it is to deter individuals who may be interested in defrauding the community or its members emotionally, monetarily, or physically. It is our aim to create a community that is safe for all of our members and this cannot occur when individuals choose to manipulate the site and its members for their own purposes.

Interactions

I. Lively discussions are always welcome at Firthness but sometimes something is said that may cause feelings of hurt or anger. While most likely unintentional, this occurrence is not unusual due to the limitations of online communications. If you have an issue with a fellow member or something they have posted, please discuss it with them via e-mail or private message. If the moderators or administrators can be of any assistance in the situation, please don’t hesitate to e-mail either group at mods at Firthness dot com or admins at Firthness dot com.

II. The same courtesies that are extended to your fellow members should also be offered to those who are not members of Firthness. Regardless of whether they are present or not to read any negative comment concerning themselves, there is a very good chance that they will soon learn of it.

III. Please do not denigrate any other Jane Austen site. If you have an issue with another JA web-presence, bring it to the attention of the site’s administration.

IV. Please remember that when you post, in speaking for yourself, the tone of your remarks reflects on and impacts within this community. And while we take no point of liability in any comment a member may make, nor concede that any specific member view reflects that of the administration, it is our intent to foster a community that is tolerant and respectful.

The members of Firthness and Darcyfic have developed an admirable tradition of behaving with both tolerance and respect towards the site, the mailing list, their fellow members, and the Jane Austen community as a whole. We have had very few problems with inappropriate behavior and salute our fellow Firthlings for helping us make Firthness a great place to visit.

Links

We ask that Darcyfic and Firthness members refrain from posting links to any site that may be considered pornographic, inflammatory, or generally offensive. Any member concerned that a link they wish to post may fall under one of these three categories is very welcome to query the moderators (mods at Firthness dot com) via e-mail.

We also ask that our members refrain from posting links to Firthness on sites that are intended to be safe for minors. While we restrict membership to those eighteen or older, we would rather not run the risk of a minor slipping though our net. Please think about whether you would like your child, niece, nephew, young neighbor reading some of the scenes we recommend to adults?

Marketing

Any member interested in marketing a good or service via Darcyfic or the forums is obliged to receive prior permission from the site’s administration. Permission can be obtained by contacting the administrators (admins at Firthness dot com) via e-mail.

Multiple Identities

Each member is permitted one and only one account. An account created with the specific intent of making the members, moderators, or administrators believe the owner is someone other than their primary online persona is considered to be a sock. Sock accounts are subject to immediate deactivation and the account owners will be contacted.

We realize that in the past members have lost their username and/or password and have thought to make a new account and bypass the process of determining the specifics of the old one. If this should happen to you, and you are unable to receive help from the forums themselves, please email the admins at (admins at Firthness dot com) and we will reset your password for you.

Ratings

Stories posted to Darcyfic and Firthness must be rated NC-17 or lower, in the terms outlined by the MPAA . The administrators reserve the right to remove any story we deem to be of a rating exceeding NC-17.

We have, however, revised the story ratings we have implemented on the site to avoid any issue of infringement. Recommended stories now fall into three categories:

Rated for general audiences, rated for beings over the age of thirteen, and as containing content intended for mature audiences.

Any questions regarding ratings will happily be answered by the administrators (admins at Firthness dot com).

Real People

Unless the author has received prior, written permission from the individual in question, stories featuring a real individual are not allowed on Darcyfic or Firthness.

Relevance

We ask posters to please remain on-topic within a given thread and forum. Darcyfic is restricted to the posting of Jane Austen fanfiction, story comments, list and site queries appropriate for the group at large, and administrative announcements. The Firthness forums are restricted according to the specific forum and topic. Two forums are available for off-topic discussion: beakers and the Pond.

Topics

I. Prior to posting a new topic, please do a quick inspection of the forum in question. If a previous topic on the same subject exists, please post your comment there.

II. Topics older than three months are subject to either archiving or pruning. The destination of these topics is determined by site administration; topics we feel members may want to refer to in the future are saved.

Archived topics are available only via a search of the forums and are read-only. If a member would like a topic re-opened for the purposes of posting, a quick e-mail to the moderators (mods at Firthness dot com) will result in the topic being reinstated to the forum of its origin.

Any or all of the above listed guidelines are subject to change. It is impossible to anticipate situations that may arise in the future and as such the site administration reserves the right to amend these guidelines as needed.