What is a Citizen?

The City and the rank of Citizen was implemented in Spring 2003 for several reasons. The administration was receiving several applications a day and was going through the process of adding them to the Who's Who, assigning mentors, and other paperwork associated with new Community Members of the Tower, but only a fraction of the people who applied stayed. This resulted in a lot of frustrating work for our administrators. We also found that we had several Community Members who didn't want to be incredibly involved with the community; they wanted a place to play, to discuss the theories, and to hang out, but they didn't care about taking on the strictures involved with being a Novice or Recruit or about moving up in the ranks. To give people a chance to figure out whether or not they wanted to fully join the Tower, and to help administrators reduce the amount of work which proved unnecessary, we created the rank of Citizen.

Anyone who is over the age of 13 is eligible to become a Citizen. Children of Tower Community Members may apply to be Citizens prior to the age of 13 by sending in a petition to the Director of Membership. Community Membership will be granted provided that the application is truthful and filled out completely, and the applicant appears to understand the nature of the community they are about to join and has agreed to the Code of Conduct. Admission into our membership shall never be determined by gender, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or any other status federally protected by the United States of America and commonly held as human rights globally.

How do you become a Citizen?

If you have read the Membership Manual about our Community in their entirety, are at least 13 years of age, filled out the Citizen application, created an account, posted at least 25 times on our boards, and replied with a link to your board profile to the confirmation email that our Mayor sent you, you will shortly be added to the Citizen usergroup. You are considered a Citizen from the time the Mayor receives your registration email. However, email glitches can occur, and you may have to re-send your registration. If that occurs, you will be considered a Citizen from the time the Mayor receives your application.

Please note that just filling out an application to be a Citizen is not enough; our Mayor will send you an email that will need a response. Please follow the instructions in that email to be added to the Citizen usergroup. If you have not received an email in your inbox within 7 days, please check your spam box. If the email is not in there, then you should contact the Mayor to inquire as to the status of your application. If you have not been added to the Citizen usergroup within 7 days of sending your response email, then you should contact the Mayor to politely inquire as to that status. Please remember that the Mayor and his/her staff are volunteers who donate their time and have many tasks to fulfill, besides also having offline responsibilities not related to the community. Due to the special attention given to every application which comes through, the response time might not be immediate.

Why was my application denied?

There are four main reasons why an application for Citizenship would be denied:

1. The application is incomplete. Fields are not filled out or are answered with one or very few words.
2. The applicant is under 13 years of age and is not the dependant or ward of an older member of the site.
3. The applicant has lied on their application.
4. The applicant has not agreed to follow the Code of Conduct or has clearly not read them.

If your application has been denied, you will receive an email from the Mayor detailing why.

What now?

Now that you are a Citizen, there are several things for you to do. Before you start posting on our boards, please view our Posting Guidelines and Pseudonyms, Avatars, and Signatures. Both of those portions of the Membership Manual are very important for those who are just starting to post on our boards!

If you haven't posted a thread in our Introductions forum introducing yourself, please do so now! Once you have been added to the Citizen's usergroup, you will gain access to all forums in the Community, City, and Library headings, so please have fun perusing those forums and getting to know the community better. You will also be able to see the Classroom. Participation in this forum is reserved for Community Members of the Tower, but Citizens may watch classes in action to get a feel of what it will be like if you choose to go to the Tower. If you happen to have joined during one of our Freeweeks, please jump right in and join in our fun. Enjoy our chatrooms, look through our Library, and enjoy other aspects of our website.

While you're getting to know our community, please be sure that you read our these Membership Manuals and the stickied threads in our Introductions and Ask the White Tower forums. These will have the information you need to know in order to integrate into our community smoothly.

Some people join and immediately want to get involved. Citizens, particularly those who have been here for a little while, are eligible for staff and some administrative positions. You're also now eligible to attend our unofficial real life functions immediately, and after two months as a Citizen you'll be eligible to attend our official real life functions as well. Start watching to see if you want to join in our offline frivolity!

Resident Citizens

As mentioned previously, we have many members who never wish to progress beyond the rank of Citizen. However, they are contributing members of the community who are not "newbies." As such, we have created the rank of Resident Citizen, which denotes that the Citizen has been a Community Member for at least 6 months. The only benefits of this rank are that Resident Citizens have access to a forum called "The Apartments," and the rank under their avatars is changed.

Who is my Community Membership administrator?

As per the Chain of Command, the Mayor is the Community Membership administrator for all Citizens. He or she may be reached by email or private message on our forums.

The next level of Community Membership

Entrance to the Tower as a novice or recruit is the next step for Citizens, should they wish to take it. Before applying for entrance to the Tower, please think carefully as to whether or not you want to take that step. There are more rules and guidelines for those who enter the Tower, and not everyone is inclined to prefer this.

If you wish to apply for entrance to the Tower, you must first meet the following requirements:

• You have been a Citizen for four weeks.
• You have found two Senior Members to sponsor you.
• You are at least 14 years old.

If you meet those requirements, and you have decided that you are ready to become a Community Member of the Tower, please send an email to the Mayor with the following information:

• Tower Name:
• Full Real Life Name:
• Url to avatar:
• Join date:
• Date of Birth:
• Location: (you must at least provide your country of residence)
• Url to profile on the boards:
• Gender:
• Senior Member Reference #1:
• Senior Member #1 email address:
• Senior Member Reference #2:
• Senior Member #2 email address:
• Why do you wish to join the Tower/Garrison? Please note that one sentence is not enough here. Go into depth about why you wish to join the Tower. You want to meet people? That's great! But why do you want to do it as a novice/recruit rather than a Citizen? Do you want to be able to contribute more to the site? What do you think you could contribute? The Hall wants to know who you are and what your motivations are, not just that you've been in our community for a month.
• Do you have anything you wish to add/share? (such as community service work or volunteer efforts you are involved with)

The Mayor will then contact your references. Once the Mayor has statements from those references, your application will be put forth to the Hall. If it is approved, the Mayor will post a thread in City Hall calling you to the Tower. Do not post in this thread! As soon as you have been called to the Tower, you are no longer allowed to post in the City forums until reaching the rank of Accepted/Soldier.

If you are not a good writer, or English isn't your first language, don't worry. The Hall isn't grading your answers to the above questions. They just want to get a feel for who you are.

Please view Sponsorship to the Tower for more information about sponsors.