Rules

	1. Interaction With The Community
	1.1 Do not engage in any form of trolling and/or cyberbullying
Unlike the majority of fan art hosting sites, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO TOLERANCE for trolling or bullying of any kind. This is a place for artists to share art and mingle, not trashpost and cause trouble. Mind your manners
WARNING: WE AIM TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE THAT TROLLING WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED. BREAKING THIS RULE AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON WILL RESULT IN AN INSTANT PERMANENT BAN.

	1.2 Do not discuss illegal activites or intent to commit illegal activities
Do not discuss details or experiences of committing, illegal acts involving sex, violence, or abuse against any creature, living or dead. Recounting and taking responsibility for past history may be allowed at staff discretion provided that harmful or illegal acts are not cast in a positive light. 

	1.3 Do not host or participate in any form of gambling.
Gambling or games of chance are defined as requiring participants to pay an entry fee for a chance to win a prize but are not guaranteed to get a prize. This may include raffles, sweepstakes, or lotteries. Contests where entry is free or where all participants are guaranteed to receive a prize are allowed.
	1.4 Do not encourage or engage in animal cruelty.
While you may openly debate the validity of current laws, you may not promote, encourage, engage in, plan, post or link to content or activities that may constitute animal cruelty, or anything that could be used as directions for committing animal cruelty. Animal cruelty includes, but is not limited to: Torturing or beating an animal, confining or transporting an animal in a way that is inappropriate for its welfare, killing an animal in an inhumane manner, failing to provide appropriate or adequate food or water for an animal, failing to provide appropriate treatment for disease or injury, and failing to provide appropriate living conditions.

	2. Other Users and You

	2.1 Do not share or try to obtain private information.
This includes attempting to obtain through deception or posting privileged/personal information of other individuals or businesses, such as social security numbers, unlisted contact information, addresses, credit card numbers, and correspondence (logs, emails, notes, etc).
AVANTGARDE FROWNS HEAVILY UPON THIS. BREAKING THIS RULE CAN AND WILL RESULT IN REPORTING YOUR ACCOUNT TO AUTHORITIES.

	2.2 Do not threaten anyone.
This includes both physical and financial harm (theft or vandalism), alluded or explicit.

	2.3 Do not stalk anyone.
Stalking is the willful and repeated harassment of another user. This harassment may also come in the form of repeated communication, following, and gifts to an unwilling recipient.

	2.4 Do not harass anyone.
In this context, harassment includes creating an account with an offensive name, impersonation of another user, and remarks which discuss personal grievances, quarrels, malicious rumors, negative statements about, purposefully misgendering or deadnaming other individuals, and attempting to address or contact a user who has blocked you or whom you have blocked, including soliciting other users to pass on messages or otherwise make contact on your behalf. This does not include civil discussions about topics of public interest such as celebrities or government officials, but does include 'bewares' and similar content that do not have valid proof. If a particular type of content does not appeal to you, then do not seek it out to make disparaging comments. Users with a pattern of this behavior may be cited for harassment.

	2.5 Do not promote, glorify, instruct, or encourage anyone to hurt themselves.
Do not encourage other users to engage in harmful behaviors, including suicide, eating disorders, or other forms of self harm. Do not give other users medical or veterinary advice that could result in harm coming to them or their pets. This does not apply to fictional works when used as part of a narrative.

	2.6 Do not engage in malicious content.
Do not make derogatory use of caricatures, slurs, nor disparaging remarks about others' race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or similar, or make maliciously misleading statements about cultures, religions, etc. This does not apply to fictional works when used as part of a narrative or if created for historical purposes.

BE WARNED, USING THE EXCEPTIONS AS A MEANS OF BYPASSING THIS RULE TO ENGAGE IN MALICIOUS CONTENT WILL RESULT IN A PERMANENT BAN. NO EXCEPTIONS.

USERS MUST PROVIDE PROOF OF THEIR CLAIMS VIA ARCHIVE.TODAY.

2.7 Do not shame other users
Shaming is strictly forbidden on AvantGarde. Shaming is the act of bullying, ridiculing or insulting based upon appearance, likes, lifestyles, wealth, etc. In addition, anything that eludes to responses like “I want to die”, “I need to bleach my eyes now”, “WTF” and other negative responses. Users come to AvantGarde to indulge in art based on what they like and not to get into fistfights.

THERE IS ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SHAMING. ANYTHING THAT VIOLATES THIS RULE WILL RESULT IN A PERMANENT BAN.

	3. Avantgarde and You

	3.1 Do not disrespect site staff or abuse the ticket system.
Our staff is currently made up of volunteers who perform duties that are difficult and time consuming. Please refrain from needless harassment, insults, and arguing as it interferes with the ability for staff to perform their duties. Keep contact with staff concerning issues with Fur Affinity to the ticket system. Do not misrepresent site policies or staff actions, suggest that you have special privilege with staff, or retaliate against other users over staff action.
Trouble ticket abuse includes opening multiple tickets for the same problem, using the prospect of a report as leverage against another user, and encouraging other users to create additional reports for the same violation. If you disagree with a staff member's ruling you may ask to have an issue escalated but may not re-open the escalated ticket after a ruling is made.

	3.2 Do not engage in Mature/Adult Rated activity in General Rated or public areas, such as profiles, journals, and shouts.
Prohibited content includes erotic role-play, but excludes discussion of adult themes, provided they aren't explicit. You may review content ratings by accessing the AUP under section 1.1.

	3.3 Do not post links to content prohibited by AvantGarde's policies.
If you are not allowed to upload or discuss the content on Fur Affinity, then do not link to it, tell users how to find it, or encourage users to seek it out elsewhere. Violating this rule may also result in citation under the site rule the content violates.
Mature/Adult links are prohibited on General-rated or public areas unless the content requires a login or age verification. This includes advertisements visible on the target URL.
Exemptions: AUP 2.8, 2.9, 4.1, and others by staff discretion.

	3.4 Do not spam.
We do not allow messaging with unsolicited advertising, promotions, or repetitive content that are unintelligible or intended to clutter pages with unwanted content.
Users engaging in excessive spamming as defined above risk having all comments, shouts, and/or notes deleted and receiving a final warning or permanent suspension.

	4. Additional User Rights & Privileges

	4.1 Freedom of Speech
AvantGarde is a site that respects the first amendment and general freedom of speech. However, we will not tolerate anything that causes harm to another user. Hate speech IS NOT free speech and AvantGarde will strictly enforce this.

	4.2 Creative Commons is a cornerstone

AvantGarde does not believe in the herd mentality that using another users IP without permission makes them a thief in any way, as all fan artists use well-known characters all the time regardless of permission. However, reposts of on-site art is not allowed without the original authors permission. By using AvantGarde, you agree that your IP may be used in submissions provided that the artist using them credits you as the original author.

	4.3 Blocking is a privilege here
AvantGarde aims to shift away from the current unregulated form of blocking other users by making it a tool for administratorss and moderators. Only these two can establish a block between users.

The only action users can take is muting. AvantGarde believes this to be a more non-destructive form. Comments, PMs and shouts will be hidden unless the user chooses to view them.