We will now be asking that all members log on to the forums once every 14 days. We will also be extending the once every 14 days rule to our vent server as well. The new policy will be phased in starting on 1st March 2010 and will effect members differently.

Those who are full members prior to 1st March

Full members prior to the above date will be expected to log onto the forums and vent once every 14 days. A number of factors will be used to judge your activity, so it is best to make sure you are actually active as opposed to just logging in and out again. Assessment will work as follows:

1. A guild wide activity check will be undertaken on 15th March 2010
2. Those members found to be inactive on either the forums OR vent will be sent a warning message
3. A guild wide activity check will be undertaken on 29th March 2010
4. Those members found to be inactive on either the forums OR vent will have their forum permissions removed and will have to provide a reason for inactivity if they wish to reacquire member status
5. After the system has been phased in - from the 29th March onwards - members will receive one warning for inactivity for their first offence and will be flagged as inactive for their second

It is worth noting that we will not accept increased forum activity to make up for a lack of vent activity, or vice versa. Members who have their permissions revoked will go through the same two week trial that all inactive members go through on return; failure to pass this trial will result in total expulsion from the guild, with the need to reapply if you wish to return. Also be aware that we may chose to withdraw the first offence warning at some point in the future. Members will be given at least 1 weeks notice prior to this happening and all activity checks will be reset.

Those who are not full members prior to 1st March

This group includes all applicants and members on trial, regardless of whether your trial began on or before 1st March. The trial period will still be 30 days long and you will be required to log on to Vent during this period as often as you can in order for us to register you to the server. You will also be expected to maintain a high level of activity to prove to us that you are going to be an active and rewarding member of this guild. The Trial process will work as follows:

1. You will be placed on trial once a Division Leader or Guild Leader is happy with your application
2. Your membership within the guild will be assessed after your 30 day trial
3. If you are made a full member you will be expected to abide by the 14 day activity rule as outlined above

It is worth noting that we do not have a set list of criteria for our trial members to tick off. We encourage our trials to decide themselves what they think activity is. However we can tell you that logging on to vent and the forums once or twice over your 30 day trial period will result in your application being declined.

Declaring Inactivity

We are aware that under certain circumstances members will need to take a period of greater than 14 days out of active participation with the guild. As such we have - and have always had - an area for the deceleration of inactivity. If you wish to declare yourself inactive, simply head to that section of the forum and outline why you are going inactive and for how long (guess if you aren't certain). The following is important to note:

1. We will acknowledge inactivity on an individual basis
2. Periods of inactivity should be no longer than 3 months. Anything longer than 3 months will result in the removal of forum permissions
3. Declaring inactivity and not returning on the given date will be monitored. It is your responsibility to update your declaration if you are going to be away for a longer period of time than originally stated
4. Spamming the inactivity thread will NOT be tolerated. If you go on extended periods of inactivity regularly, we will either mark you as inactive or - in certain cases - expel you from the guild

You can find our new Inactivity Policy here. The area to declare your inactivity is located here. When declaring inactivity, please use the form layout provided here.

We have removed the following games from our GoI section:

• Aion
• Stargate Worlds

We have moved the following games to the RTS/FPS Community section:

• Heroes of Newerth

We have added the following games to our GoI section:

• Mortal Online
• Global Agenda
• World of Warcraft

We have also created a new archive area for older threads and sections that we remove from the main boards. This section is open to every member of the guild but is set to read only.

We will be removing the Call of Duty 4 server information in the very near future and replacing it with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 server information. The Call of Duty 4 server information will no longer work. BC2 is will be the only FPS that Animosity will provide support for upon its release.

Midnight Squadron have now put up the latest edition of MSInformer, featuring none other than one of our esteemed leaders - indelible - as well as our Eve Division leader - huojin.

We talk a bit about us, a bit about SWTOR and I generally rant a lot ;-)

You can check out Episode 4 of the MSInformer podcast by clicking this part of the post. Not this part.

And don't forget: Animosity will be launching our very own podcast very, very, very soon ;-)

We have recently come under attack from private message spammers. These spammers are creating accounts on the Animosity website and then posting various messages to users, some claiming to be admin users on our boards or from other boards. Some messages are just the standard spam messages you get in your email accounts. Some of these messages contain links and others ask you to reply to them to get links to websites etc.

Over the past few weeks we have tried various methods to curtail the actions of these users in order to protect our genuine members. We have diligently banned accounts as and when they are discovered as well as changed our CAPTCHA method on registration. Neither of these methods have impacted the actions of these unwanted users and we have decided to take a more direct approach to dealing with the problem.

As such we have now revoked the right for any user who is not a Member, Senior Member, Moderator, Officer, Division Leader, Guild Leader or Retired Guild Leader to use various functions on the site. Previously we were very relaxed in our approach to non-guild members on our site but the security of our members has always come first. As of this moment non-guild member users will not be able to send private messages or emails or view personal profiles, as well as being restricted in the content they can access and participate in on our site.

We realise that this solution is not ideal as it prevents potential candidates from contacting members of the leadership team with questions about Animosity prior to applying and also prevents guest members who we are friendly toward from accessing out site and participating in community orientated discussion. Over the next few days we will be bringing in an additional rank that will be given out on request to verified friendly members. We will also be creating an FAQ thread for applicants, which will contain contact information for people wanting to ask questions of the Animosity leadership team prior to applying.

We would ask that members keep an eye out for any continued abuse of our site as we move forward. This is hopefully the final nail in the coffin when it comes to unwanted spam on these boards.

Today we usher in a spam free age. An age where I can buy Viagra without fear of having my credit card details stolen. An age where I can sit at my PC and read my Private Messages knowing that each and every one of them is important.

Ladies and gentlemen of Animosity, welcome to the Age of the Righteous PM.

(Please note that this solution is going to be discussed within the Leadership and may well change in the future or be reversed entirely depending on various circumstances. Gotta love the bureaucracy<3)