Interested in partnerships, and just want to see our partner agreement? Skip to the Agreement.
As of 23 July 2024, Offetstine invites partnerships with other online communities, which enable cross-promotion between their respective Discord servers. The goal of accepting partnerships in Offetstine is to enable cross-pollination, to allow members of either community to more easily find spaces that represent their interests and that they feel comfortable and are inspired in.
Rationale
Offetstine has allowed its members to advertise their creations, including Discord servers, since it first became a public community. Since a large portion of Offetstine's audience has always been artists, whose livelihoods depend on visibility, we have always been open to allowing artists to use our platform to promote themselves. We have allowed owners or admins of Discord servers to promote them with invites; however, until recently, we have not allowed Discord server partnerships in our community.
Following a recent referendum, we've decided to open up partnerships; but we still want to make sure that partnerships are not detrimental to our members or yours. Just like with advertisements, we want to spotlight independent creators' works and help our members find communities that might interest them.
Communities, especially roleplay communities, are often more fun to participate in when they're bigger and more active. Because of that, we hope that through partnerships, we can help people more easily find where they want to be. Our rules for partnerships are somewhat stricter than our rules for advertisements, since partnerships (much more like sponsorships) are direct endorsements that we make, and we don't want to use our influence to direct anyone somewhere they will feel uncomfortable or be endangered.
This document aims to capture all the information that prospective partners might want to know about working with us at Offetstine, and all the information that our members may want to know about how we choose partnerships and work with partners.
Agreement
As an ambassador for an online community interested in partnership with Offetstine, we ask that you agree to the following agreement (hereafter: the Agreement). Prospective partners are allowed, and encouraged, to bring their own contracts to the table. The partnership will be effective when all contracts, including the Agreement, are signed by both parties, until either community decides to terminate the agreement.
The Agreement outlines a series of bilateral terms that help us ensure a safe and inclusive environment, both for members joining Offetstine, and for members joining your community from Offetstine. In addition to that, the Agreement outlines a series of unilateral terms that we'll uphold, because we personally believe it's the right thing to do.
TL;DR: Before asking for a partnership, make sure you're an established member of your community. Make sure your community is safe and inclusive, and allows minors. Each of us can send a staff member of our community as an ambassador, and post our advertising copy in a prominent location (e.g. #partners channel).
- Bilateral terms: We pledge of our community, and ask of your community, (hereafter: the Community) that:
- The Community identifies a staff member (hereafter: the Ambassador) to join their partner server for the duration of the partnership.
- At least one of the Ambassadors is an established member of the other community. For Offetstine, we require that any incoming Ambassadors either have an approved character in roleplay, or have been a spectator member for more than two weeks. This serves as a simple litmus test to sift out members that join only to partner.
- Ambassadors are required to be in good community standing. We promise of ourselves, and request that, Ambassadors will act respectfully and uphold the principles of the communities they join. We'll try to participate actively and positively rather than just watching from afar.
- The Community is safe and inclusive for all people, regardless of their background. The Community disallows all inherently intolerant mentalities (racism, sexism, etc.) and protects members from shock media (unwilling exposure to pornography, gore, etc.)
- The Community's primary demographic is not adult/NSFW, and minor members may join.
- The Community has reason to believe that partnership will be mutually beneficial for members of its partner. Nobody on the Community's staff objects to the partnership.
- The Community posts the relevant advertising copy of its partner, and updates the posting in a timely fashion when their partner revises the copy. See our ad copy here.
- The Community identifies a staff member (hereafter: the Ambassador) to join their partner server for the duration of the partnership.
- Unilateral terms: We pledge, without demanding reciprocation, that:
- You don't have to be a roleplaying space. As long as you think our communities could benefit from each other, feel free to reach out about partnership.
- If your community is a roleplaying space, we'll try to promote and endorse the community for material (characters and stories) that are better suited to it than our own, including material that we don't allow but you might (for example, established-universe works).
- If you're interested, we'll reach out for potential collaborations with your community (such as art contests, and rewards available to members of both communities) especially if we believe it will help encourage participation and grow our communities even more.
- We'll give Ambassadors in our community a special, hoisted role to commemorate them for their service and collaboration.
- We won't hold it against you if you decide to discontinue the partnership after a decision made behind closed doors. You have the right to terminate a partnership with us for any reason; we'll delete any advertising copy and stop promoting your community.
If we ever need to update these terms, we will reach out to all partners who have signed this contract for any nontrivial changes. We'll provide clear and comprehensive documentation of what changed, and request that all parties reaffirm the contract. We may correct minor errors that don't change the semantics of the agreement (spelling and grammar mistakes and the like) on our own with no notification.
Advertising copy
Formatted in Markdown, we request that you post, or that our Ambassador is able to post, one of the following messages in your Discord server, in a prominent and non-ephemeral location. Either the full copy or short copy is acceptable, especially if one fits better than the others next to existing partner listings. We're also willing to write bespoke copy for a community if there is any technical need. We request that the copy is not modified except to suit the format of its posting.
The copy, including accompanying media, is provided under a CC BY 4.0 license to all people. That means you can copy and remix it to your heart's content (for example, to write your own ad copy) as long as you attribute it to us. If you join us as a partner, you are also required to reproduce it verbatim, according to the above paragraph's terms. This means you're bound to both the Creative Commons license and our own.
Full copy
*Nature is the best keeper of secrets, and there is no secret more powerful than what lies here...*
# Offetstine · Urban Fantasy RP
There is untold magic in our world. Magic that, to you and I, may seem obvious—but humans don't know about it. They can't know. Fantastical creatures that with grand powers that weave through the human masses undetected, flit through the night upon papery wings, or lurk menacingly in the shadows. The few who know us call us demi-humans and mages... there's no guarantee we can be ourselves in that world. But, by god, is it something incredible.
There's a world we cannot believe waiting for us beyond the thickets and the trees. I've been there once before. I hid my ears with a hat, used just enough magic to take their language from their lips... it was not enough to quite fit in, but they thought I was just another traveler. There are billions of them, so many that they simply ascribe my oddity to merely being born of a foreign ethnicity. Their world is tremendous, and terrifying. But we can't stay here for much longer.
And there are little pockets. Places where creatures like us still survive... thrive, even. We might still be able to find a place to call home. We've made it through hardship before, and we can do it again.
**Featuring...**
🌍 A familiar yet exciting *turn-of-the-millennium urban fantasy setting*
🧙♂️ *Unlimited character slots,* for mundane and magical characters alike
👋 Leisurely, welcoming, and *open community* with varied interests
🌐 A *rich and comprehensive wiki* (beta) at https://offetstine.eunakria.com/
(invite link)
Short copy
*Nature is the best keeper of secrets, and there is no secret more powerful than what lies here...*
# Offetstine · Urban Fantasy RP
Do you want to hear it? Listen close, now... this world's deepest, darkest secret is the world of demi-humans—fantastical creatures with grand powers that weave through the human masses undetected, or lurk in the shadows. Powerful magicks that could tear us apart if we glanced at them wrong. Now, you hold within your hands the key to that world. Do you think you have what it takes to make your mark on this world—or even survive it?
**Featuring...**
🌍 A familiar yet exciting *turn-of-the-millennium urban fantasy setting*
🧙♂️ *Unlimited character slots,* for mundane and magical characters alike
👋 Leisurely, welcoming, and *open community* with varied interests
🌐 A *rich and comprehensive wiki* (beta) at https://offetstine.eunakria.com/
(invite link)
After updating our ad copy, we'll reach out to any partner community to inform them of the update.