Article 4 of the Alliance Charter

Article 4 of the Alliance Charter (abbreviated A4) is the fourth official article of the Alliance Charter.

Section 1.	General Rules
P1.01	Members of the Alliance of Independent Nations forums and any chatrooms, including, but not limited to, the Skype group chat must adhere to the following rules. Ignorance of these rules may not be used to excuse violations thereof. P1.02	Members are expected to show proper conduct on the forums. (i)	Exceptions may be granted if a sufficiently good reason is given, which will be decided by the Alliance Staff (i)	Criminal damage consists of defacing, destroying, or making unauthorized edits to Alliance property, including (but not limited to) the AIN website, forums, wiki, or laws. (i)	Targeting a member includes, but is not limited to: flaming, jokes at a member's expense, discrimination based on race/sex/religion/creed/sexual orientation etc., defamation of any kind, or taking moderative or administrative action against a member due to a personal dispute (i)	Glorification of Nazism consists of: denying the Holocaust; displaying any Nazi symbols anywhere on the forums, wiki, or chatrooms except in a way that mocks Nazism; displaying a non-joke image of Adolf Hitler anywhere on the forums, wiki, or chatrooms; using Nazism or any part of its ideology in the formation of national identity; and any speech that favours Nazism.
 * C1.01(a)	Members must be at least 13 years of age when registering on these forums.
 * C1.01(b)	Members must abide by all laws passed by the Senate.
 * C1.01(c)	Members may not post malicious links.
 * C1.01(d)	Members should represent the Alliance on other sites with proper conduct.
 * C1.01(e)	Proper conduct includes, but is not limited to: showing respect for other members and their opinions, helping new members, offering constructive criticism, and any behaviour which may be classified as selfless, considerate, helpful or creative.
 * C1.01(f)	Improper conduct includes, but is not limited to: reacting to a member's out-of-character behaviour with in-character consequences, destructive or unconstructive criticism, rudeness, needless threats and ultimatums, selfish acts that lead to wider consequences for others, and ignorance.
 * C1.02(a)	Members may not share personal information of other members.
 * C1.02(b)	Members may not impersonate fellow members of these forums elsewhere.
 * C1.02(c)	Members may not advertise real-life products of any type on these forums without consent.
 * C1.02(d)	Members may not plagiarize.
 * C1.02(e)	Members may not cheat in Alliance events.
 * C1.02(f)	Members may not spam threads.
 * C1.02(g)	Members must follow all instructions, orders, etc. given by a forum moderator or administrator.
 * C1.02(h)	Members may not commit criminal damage.
 * C1.02(i)	Members under no circumstances may register two accounts or share account information.
 * C1.02(j)	Members may not make posts that target another member.
 * C1.02(k)	Members may not glorify Nazism in their posts, regardless of whether it is in roleplay or not.

Section 2.	Consequences for Violations
P2.01	Offenses to these rules will be placed into four classes: A, B, C and Negotiable. Classes of each offense will be determined by the Executive Council, as described in this Article.

P2.02	Class A offenses are severe offenses causing distress, major disrepute or direct/intentional damage to a member or the Alliance. P2.03	Class B offenses are less serious offenses causing a degree of irritation, some disrepute or indirect damage to a member or the Alliance. P2.04	Class C offenses are offences which cause minor annoyance to a user or a refusal to obey Alliance standards. P2.05	Negotiable offenses are minor incidents which admins or moderators will ask a member to correct. P2.06	The Executive Council shall determine the exact punishment to impose. P2.07	Violations shall automatically be removed from a member's record after a fixed period of time has passed since their punishment began, the length of that period depending on the classification of their offense as follows: P2.08	All users accused of a Class A or B offense shall have the following rights as part of the sentencing: P2.09	If any user accuses another user of a Class A or B offense, and the accused does not admit guilt, the Executive Council shall, at its earliest possible convenience, begin an investigation into the accusations to determine their truth or falsity. P2.10	Sentencing by the Executive Council will commence following the presentation of the findings of the investigation.
 * C2.02(a)	The following violations of the rules shall be considered Class A offenses: Registering multiple forum accounts, sharing account information, flaming, defamation, discrimination, sharing other members' personal information, impersonation of another member, cheating in Alliance events, criminal damage, glorification of Nazism).
 * C2.02(b)	Punishment for a Class A offense is a minimum one (1)-year ban; the maximum punishment is a permanent ban and withdrawal of a member’s membership; and the maximum punishment shall be reserved for only the most severe offenses, and shall require a unanimous vote of the Executive Council.
 * C2.03(a)	The following violations shall be considered Class B offenses: Posting malicious links, making jokes at another member's expense, abuse of moderator/administrator powers, serious spamming, plagiarism, refusal to obey instructions, and revealing sensitive AIN information to non-members.
 * C2.03(b)	Punishment for a Class B offense shall consist of a one (1)- to fourteen (14)-day ban. Two (2) Class B offenses within a period of 365 consecutive days will result in Class A action being taken.
 * C2.04(a)	The following violations shall be considered Class C offenses: Spamming, excessive profanity, advertising real-life products without prior consent, illegal voting, illegally applying to another unions, and membership in three or more unions.
 * C2.04(b)	Users who commit a Class C offense shall receive an official warning. Three (3) Class C offenses within a period of 365 consecutive days will result in Class B action being taken.
 * C2.05(a)	The following shall be considered negotiable offenses: Violations of most Alliance laws, oversized images, overuse of emoticons, inappropriate banners, double-posting, and failure to properly format roleplay text.
 * C2.05(b)	Users who commit a negotiable offense shall receive a polite request to change the post, or their behaviour.
 * C2.06(a)	The offender’s disciplinary history with the AIN, their contributions to the Alliance, and their defence shall be considered when determining the exact sentence.
 * C2.06(b)	All sentences shall be decided by a majority vote among the Executive Council and shall go into effect no less than 48 hours after said vote concludes.
 * C2.07(a)	Negotiable offenses shall not be entered into a member's record for any period of time.
 * C2.07(b)	Class C offenses shall be removed three (3) months after punishment began.
 * C2.07(c)	Class B offenses shall be removed six (6) months after punishment began.
 * C2.07(d)	Class A offenses shall be removed no less than one (1) year after punishment began, and in some cases, may never be removed,
 * C2.07(e)	Abuse of moderator/administrator powers shall never be removed from a member's record, but after six months, it shall only serve to disqualify that member from ever again serving as a moderator or administrator.
 * C2.08(a)	The right to know the charges against them;
 * C2.08(b)	The right to lodge objections with the Committee of Trustees against any executive, staff member, or Trustee whom they have reason to believe has a conflict of interest which would prevent them from being impartial in giving a verdict.
 * C2.08(c)	The right to know what verdict has been rendered on their case, and what sentence has been handed down no less than 48 hours before it goes into effect; and
 * C2.08(d)	The right to file an appeal before the Committee of Trustees if they believe the verdict or sentence against them is in error or unreasonable.
 * C2.09(a)	The President of the Alliance may conduct such investigations himself, or they may appoint a moderator to conduct them on a case-by-case basis, whichever they deem most appropriate for the specific case.
 * C2.09(b)	All such investigations shall attempt to determine the course of events that led to the accusations, as well as the circumstances under which those events occurred.
 * C2.09(c)	Once the investigation is complete, the findings shall be presented to the Executive Council, by the investigator.
 * C2.10(a)	Following the outcome of the investigation, the Executive Council will first of all decide if the accused is guilty or not guilty of the accused offense.
 * C2.10(b)	A majority guilty vote by the Executive Council shall be sufficient to convict the defendant.
 * C2.10(c)	If the defendant is found guilty by the Executive Council, then they will decide on the appropriate sentence.

Section 3.	Appeal Hearings
P3.01	All users of the AIN forums and chatrooms who are accused of committing a Class A or B offense, as defined in Section 2 of this Article, are entitled to appeal their verdict and/or sentence, as decided previously by the Executive Council.

P3.02	Appeal hearings shall proceed in the following manner: P3.03	A summary of each hearing shall be posted in a public forum as a notice to all members immediately after a hearing concludes.
 * C3.02(a)	Hearings shall take place in a new private forum, named the Appeal Court, which the jury, judge, and defendant shall be given access before a hearing begins.
 * C3.02(b)	An administrator, other than the President shall serve as judge, unless if they are the defendant.
 * C3.02(c)	The jury shall be the Committee of Trustees, excluding any Trustees who are defendants or are unavailable at the time of the Appeal. Another member(s) in good standing may replace any missing member(s), so that the jury is made up of the full five (5) Trustees.
 * C3.02(d)	The offender shall present their argument for overturning the Executive Council’s decision and specify whether they are appealing the verdict or the sentence.
 * C3.02(e)	The jury shall vote whether to uphold or overturn the original decision, a majority vote for either option being sufficient.
 * C3.02(f)	Decisions to uphold the Executive Council’s decision may not be further appealed.
 * C3.02(g)	If the Committee of Trustees votes to overturn the sentence (but not the verdict), the Executive Council must reduce the sentence by at least one full class level (e.g. reducing a Class A sentence to a Class B sentence). Such reductions may, themselves, be appealed if the offender so chooses.
 * C3.02(h)	If the Committee of Trustees votes to overturn the verdict, the defendant shall be acquitted of the charges against him, and shall not be tried again on the same charges.

Source
Article 4 of the Alliance Charter