The Pariah Project Bylaws

revised 5/16/12

I. Membership

(1) Expectations of Recruits

Recruits are expected to adhere to the same patrol frequency and absence policy as full members, as stipulated in Section III of the Bylaws. Further, a recruit is expected to make efforts to interact with other members. It is the members who will collectively review the recruits and decide whether they are to be promoted to full member or dropped from consideration. Voting is done at the monthly team meetings, thus the duration of recruit status will vary, depending on when the individual applies for membership. For example, if the recruit joins a week prior to a team meeting, it is unlikely that many members will have had enough time to interact with the recruit, so the vote would be postponed until the following meeting.

(b) Promotion

The process for advancing from Recruit to Member is a matter of duration and observation. It is based on interaction, both professional and personal, between the Recruit and Members. Recruit status is reviewed at each monthly member meeting, at which time recruits are either promoted to full member or turned down for membership. In some instances (e.g., due to having been too recently recruited), the decision may be to defer this vote until the following meeting. However, such deferment may only be done once per recruit.

While the Project does not have a limit to the number of Members permitted in the group, attention will be paid to the proper functioning of the group. At each monthly business meeting, Members will voice their assessments on whether the Project has reached its "limit," i.e., that threshold beyond which the group becomes dysfunctional. Should the group agree that such a limit has been reached, a recruitment freeze will go into effect, to be lifted only by group consensus at a later meeting. At any given time, the Project will have no more than ten (10) members at Recruit level.

II. Decision-Making

The Pariah Project will use unanimous consensus until such time as there are eight (8) voting members. It will thereafter use “Unanimity Minus One” until such time as its voting membership reaches fifteen (15) voting members, after which it will use “Unanimity Minus Two” for its decision-making process.

Most matters will be voted upon during monthly meetings. Members present will vote (and constitute the "voting membership"). If a member is not present for a meeting, he/she will be considered to have abstained from the vote.. (Abstentions will not, however, alter the consensus requirements as determined by the number of members in the group.)

III. Member Activity

(b) Vacations and Other Announced Absences

Members who will be off patrol for a period of a week or longer are expected to make their absences known to the group ahead of time. This may be done by posting to the appropriate forum on the website, by emailing the group, or any other effective means of communication.

IV. Disciplinary Actions

Should Members violate existing policies, e.g., activity requirements, the Member may be subjected to disciplinary action. As stated in Section II, the decision to apply disciplinary action, and the degree of same, will be done by consensus. Disciplinary actions may consist of warnings, placement on Probationary status, dismissal from the group, or anything in between, as the group decides.

V. Coalitions

The Pariah Project may form alliances – known as Coalitions – with other Paragon City supergroups. The purposes of a Coalition are to provide a larger base of heroes from which to draw when needed and to engender good relations between the heroes of Paragon City.

VI. Meetings

(b) Attendance

Regular attendance of group meetings is expected. Failure to meet this expectation without just cause may result in disciplinary action, as mentioned in Section IV. Meetings are for full Members only and are closed to those still in Recruit status.

VII. Gaming Code of Conduct

The Pariah Project is not a “classic” supergroup, along the lines of the Avengers or the Justice League, but neither is it an ultra-modern, “anything goes” sort of group. Although we do not have a particular theme for the group, there are some guidelines regarding the type of hero who is not Project “material.”

Themes: Blatant “homage” characters to another hero will not likely be considered. For example, if a character’s backstory is clearly inspired by that of Batman and/or brings Batman to mind, the character will probably not be considered for the Project. We also do not consider those with a nationalistic image (of any sort), as nationalism and extreme patriotism are not concepts in line with the Project. Excessively or unnecessarily violent heroes (e.g., Wolverine, the Punisher, etc.) are also unlikely to be Project material.

Names: Those with names containing gross spelling constructs such as “SuPeRmAn” or “B4tman” will not be considered. Nor are those whose names are obviously made with crass humor in mind, such as “Yo’ Mama” or “Big Johnson” likely to be considered. Spellings that are obviously done to use names already in use by another, such as including a random punctuation mark or substituting a numeral 1 for the lower case L, will not be considered. An "alternately spelled" name such as “Sooper” instead of “Super” would almost certainly be rejected, but “Pynk” instead of “Pink” would not necessarily be. (If there is a convincing reason for the alternate spelling, consideration will be given.) As suggested above, nationalistic/patriotic names are also not in keeping with the Project’s image. Overtly “evil” names such as “The Purple Rapist” will be rejected outright, but something along the lines of “Demonessa” would not necessarily be. Other factors will be taken into consideration in these cases.

Origins: Superhero literature is filled with many sorts of characters, including magical, alien, or supernatural characters, not to mention pirates, immortals, time-displaced characters, and those of fantasy races such as elves. While none of these are off-limits, the Project does aim to keep such types to a minimum. There are plenty of teams out there that specialize in such characters, and since the Project is meant for characters who feel they don’t fit other teams, there should be a good reason why these characters are applying to the Project instead of those other groups.

As with most things in life, there are always “gray areas.” It is possible that some characters that fit the examples above may be exceptions to those guidelines, but they will certainly be a small minority.

(b) Role-Playing

The Pariah Project encourages additional features to further the in-character role-playing experience. Each member will, upon request, be granted a pariahproject.com email address. Members are also encouraged to use blogs. If needed, web hosting space will be provided.

Each player is permitted on "alt" on the team. However, that alt must be the same character as the existing member of the team, e.g., different builds, for example. Also, this courtesy is not available until a character reaches full membership, i.e., not recruits.

(d) Behavior

Abusive behavior, “griefing,” or similar conduct will not be tolerated. Such behavior reflects badly on both the player and the group, and can result in immediate dismissal from the group. This behavior also extends to player actions, including spamming.

VIII. Revisions to Bylaws

Any member may propose changes to the Bylaws, which will then be discussed and subjected to consensus approval during meetings.