This site is a place for me to share my opinions and my work. You can talk to me, too. Here are some things you should know about posting here and talking to me.
Imprint
Christopher Steven Sims
Villenweg 11/2
2824 Seebenstein, Lower Austria
Austria
Affiliate Links
Product links on this site sometimes support me through affiliation. What that means is that DriveThruRPG and amazon give me a teensy kickback if you buy something using a link on this site. This graf (and the note on my sidebar) is me being transparent about that fact.
Your Work
Don’t send me your unpublished work. I won’t read it. Any attachment from someone I don’t know shall remain forever unopened, consigned to the trash bin. If I begin to read your email and see it contains your work, I’ll delete it. I won’t respond. Any future emails from you are likely to be filtered into the same virtual circular file. This policy is to protect me and you, but mostly me and my time.
It’s also unlikely I’ll give you permission to send me your unpublished work. You can ask. When you do, my lack of reply should be translated as a negative response. See the email section.
Copyright and Trademark
I reference the intellectual property of others on this site. My mentions and editorial use of copyrighted and trademarked material are not intended as a challenge to the ownership of said intellectual property. Such mentions also constitute no claim of support or endorsement from the owners of such intellectual property. Any such material is the property of those who hold the legal rights and protections for it. No endorsement of such owners is claimed or implied.
I own the copyright to all content I create here. Unless otherwise indicated, this content is my intellectual property. You can use my content for commercial purposes only with my written consent. I grant permission for you to make copies of the content here for personal use. Otherwise, you can use my content only as governed by fair-use portions of copyright law.
Because of the way copyright works, anything you post here falls under mine. That means I can republish your comments if I want. I don’t plan to do so. However, if I decide to do so in the future, I can. I don’t have to tell you. If you think this situation means I should delete your comment, ask me. I might do so, as a courtesy.
All that said, I license the blog post text and comments here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. If you use my stuff, attribute it to me, Christopher Steven Sims. Any comment you reuse should be attributed to its author. This license does not apply to my products on this site or elsewhere. Each product has a specific license.
Some images and excerpts here are from sources to which I have no rights. Those rights belong to others. I try to give credit where it’s due.
“Open Gaming” Licenses
I don’t use open gaming licenses (OGLs) for any game, even when I publish mechanics related to that game or make references to that game’s content. That’s because doing so is voluntary, and for my original content, I do not so volunteer. Further, many OGLs (especially the most prominent one in the market) try to protect “rights” copyright holders don’t normally have, constituting more than mere unfairness to users. Game mechanics and small phrases, including unique names, can’t be copyrighted, and trying to protect them with an OGL is copyright misuse. Citing compatibility, even with a trademarked brand, isn’t an infringement of that trademark.
To reiterate, my mentions of copyrighted and trademarked material are not intended as a challenge to the ownership of said intellectual property. Such mentions also constitute no claim of support or endorsement from the owners of such intellectual property. Any such material is the property of those who hold the legal rights for it. No endorsement of such owners is claimed or implied.
Comments
You have the privilege to comment on and discuss my opinions and related topics. However, whether you retain that privilege is up to me. I want anyone who comes here to have a good time and feel respected. Thanks in advance for being and remaining courteous and erudite.
I read and respond in comment threads. I’ll treat you with respect if you do the same for me and others here. If I have a problem with something you say, I’ll tell you. However, if you post anything I find to be egregious, potentially illegal, or spammy, I’ll delete your comment. I won’t explain my decision (usually). If I’m particularly put off by something, I’ll label your posts as spam or otherwise block you.
Due to concern about spam, comments that contain links are held for moderation. If I can’t figure out where your link points by reading it, I won’t allow it to post. That means, for example, almost any shortened URL will be slain. Here’s an example of an exception: tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg.
Also, to be clear, I’m not a government entity. Therefore, it’s impossible for me to deny you your right to free speech. I can censor whatever I want to censor here.
You can email me. Give your email a high priority only if you know me and know I’d agree, or you’re making me an important offer that’s time-sensitive. Otherwise, the correct priority is low.
I’ll read your email as soon as a can, given my other responsibilities. If a reply is warranted, I’ll get back to you. You can assume I won’t reply to a given email if you haven’t heard back from me in five business days. Take that as my reply, or send me another if you wish.
Social Media
I’m on Facebook and Twitter. My career is detailed here and on LinkedIn.
On Facebook, you can follow me. I’m also likely to friend you if you ask, especially if we have numerous friends in common. However, I rarely respond to messages from people I don’t know. I moderate posts to my wall, and I like only what I actually like. That latter point means you can ask me to like your page, but I probably won’t because I don’t have the time or inclination to research whether I should. Similarly, I ignore app invites. In addition, if I don’t know you, and you tag me without my permission, I’ll delete the tag. Then, I’m likely to unfriend and block you.
With Twitter, I’m intermittently involved in chatter that I sometimes instigate. I retweet only what interests or moves me. My responses are frequent but unreliable because I’m not always paying attention to my feed.
LinkedIn floats out there without my paying much attention. I update occasionally. Unless you’re a recruiter or a professional with interest in me, LinkedIn is the poorest point of contact.
On all social media, like with comments here, I don’t tolerate disrespect or spam. I’m lucky, though. I’ve blocked or muted only a few people so far.
Sale!
I also ignore sales pitches. That’s because a) I don’t have time for them, and b) I seek what I buy. Charity might be an exception. That doesn’t mean you can’t send me sales pitches, just that I’m unlikely to pay them any heed. Most likely, I’ll delete them with a glance or less.
Liability
I have created this site to the best of my ability. But I assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of material here beyond that imposed by the law. I take on no liability for the comments of others on this site or material external to this site, such as third-party material accessed via links to external websites. As soon as I am made aware of any infringement of law due to content on this site, I take steps to remedy the infringement, up to and including removal of infringing material. My liability, if any, starts at the time I become aware of a problem.
Data Protection
Visiting this site might result in recording of information, on this site’s server or others, about your visit. This site records your personal data only with your consent, such as when you willingly comment or send me direct communication, using this site. I don’t share your data with third parties, but that fact doesn’t mean your data is necessarily secure here. I am not liable for damages arising from security vulnerabilities. Third parties may not use information found here to advertise to you. I reserve the right to take legal action against those who do so.
Chris S. Sims 