***Member Application Rules and Guidelines***

Hello there! Thank you for taking an interest in the Alliance of Independent Nations. To ensure our future members have only the highest quality city journals we have put in place a number of rules and guidelines to make the tough job of scrutinising the many applications we a month easier and to promote better city building skills. Follow these guidelines and there is a good chance you will be accepted as our newest member both swiftly and easily.

The Process – How our system works

There are a number of steps in the application system, please be patient as the length of this process varies(so long as you have abided by all of the rules and guidelines).

1. The first step is ensuring you have everything on the essentials checklist and at least four on the supplementary checklist; along with abiding by the forum rules and these guidelines before posting your application, not only will this make a better impression for your application but will also speed up the whole process.
   
2. The second step is posting your application, there is no required way to organise your application - so long as you have the essentials and four of the supplementary prerequisites. Simply name the topic with your nation's full name and an admin will update this as to the current status of your application. Although if you are struggling you are free to use or modify the template application.
   
3. Your application is now Pending, an administrator will post the essentials checklist and review that you have all of them. The list will be colour coded (see below).
   
4. Once you get all greens and an administrator is satisfied, the supplementary list is posted in the same fashion as the essential list, get four greens/oranges and a poll will be added to the application.
   
5. Your application is now 'Voting', member will make a choice in the poll and confirm it by posting what they voted, unconfirmed votes will not be counted.

Colour Coding of Criteria

• Green means you have completed this to a good standard and no improvements are required to progress
  
• Orange means you have completed this to a reasonable standard but this will need to be improved on whilst you are a junior member (in other words, this must turn green before applying for full membership)
  
• Red means this has been completed to a poor standard and will need to be improved before your application can progress
  
• Bolded black means that this has not been included in your application and therefore you will need to provide evidence before your application can progress. In the secondary list, you will only have to provide evidence if you have not provided four other greens/oranges

The Checklists

Only once the checklists have been completed as outlined below may a poll be posted and voting commence...

ESSENTIAL PREREQUISITES (YOU MUST HAVE ALL OF THESE GREEN)

Spoiler:

SUPPLEMENTARY PREREQUISITES (AT LEAST FOUR OF THESE MUST BE GREEN)

Spoiler:

Full Membership Checklist

• A minimum of ten in-game pictures of your nation
  
• Before and After in-game pictures
  
• Completion of the entire Junior Membership Checklist Essential Prerequisites

Rules for Applicants

• All people using these forums are expected to abide by the Forum Rules (Section 2.0) and treat others using the forums politely and with courtesy
  
• Plagarism will be dealt with seriously, it is very easy to pick out plagarism and you will be caught out eventually
  
• You are permitted to participate in the forums whilst your application is pending (or even before you apply if you so wish), although you cannot use the trade centre, participate in events or see certain threads
  
• This forum does not allow double posting (except by event organisers or in city notebooks - by their author), please use the edit buttom if you wish to add something
  
• If you wish to re-apply with a different nation please contact an admin first before posting a new application
  

Getting Accepted

A few tips that can help improve your application:

• Avoid showing areas without any development (i.e. nothing growing or plopped - just blank tiles)
  
• Press 'g' to get rid of the grid before taking a print screen
  
• Base your nation on a RL country that is as similar as possible to your fictionous nation
  
• Look at how RL cities develop - this improves realism
  
• Show us a variety of images - miles of skyline is all well and good, but where do your citizens go to escape the hustle and bustle of city life?
  
• Check out our city building summit for more ideas and inspiration

What's Next?

Once you get a majority of Yes votes, you will receive a welcome message from the president. Try your best to participate in the forums as often as possible and get to know us (promise we don't bite) and get a few updates to your city notebook so we can see how your nation is progressing.

Full Membership

During the period when your Junior Membership application is in voting, or after it's accepted, the administrators will each post four points for improvement. Once all of these are fulfilled you can apply for Full Membership. This is not a crucial part of being in the AIN - junior members are treated equally with full members.
When you apply for Full Membership, only the administrators can vote, although full members can suggest what they think. If six full members do not think your application should be accepted, then it will be vetoed and your application closed until it is improved. Each administrator will look closely and review your City Notebook section, so unless they see improvement or quality images, then you are likely to be turned down. The focus of full membership applications is mainly on your City Notebook production skills. Once at least three of the admins say "Yes", you will be accepted.

If you, unfortunately were not accepted you are very welcome to try again after a few weeks of improvements.

If you have any further questions/concerns please go ahead and PM an administrator (their usernames are displayed in dark red) or email administrator@aoinmail.eu

UPDATED.