Our name policy is pretty simple. First though, we should get some of the basics out of the way.
This should all go without saying, however, it has recently become necessary to specify some things.
A nick and avatar are your public face that everyone sees whether they talk to you or not online. As such, if someone willfully chooses to have something on either that is deeply offensive or divisive in some way, it communicates this intent to the world. The intent that one is trying to cause a problem, like going around a Jewish community wearing an "I ❤️ Hitler" t-shirt, says more about you at that point than anything you're going to ever say.
Avatars and Nicks should not be vulgar (swearing, names of various genital areas, offensive terms for various races/sexual orientations/genders/lifestyle choices). Most everyone knows what is in bad taste for a nick or an avatar. However, if it is unclear, our staff will be happy to enlighten anyone who needs advice about a particular nick or avatar. This also includes references to common triggers for people, such as references to suicide, murder, rape, and other violent and distasteful crimes. There is no reasonable explanation for having a nick saying "Kill Yourself" or "Rape the Bitches" except to cause problems and offend people. In other words, trolling. This will not be tolerated.
Staff will change your nick for you if it violates policy and you do not change it yourself. Avatars: you will be asked to change the avatar, and you will be reported if you do not comply, subject to being kicked or banned from the server.
Character names in a nick can be helpful, however, it is also confusing when playing more than one character. As such, when a single character is being played, the nick can contain the character's name, but when multiple characters are being played, it should contain only the user who is playing.
Another bonus to not using character names in nicks is that it doesn't become habit to refer to people, OOC, as their characters. This promotes a clear separation between OOC and IC chatter and thus between players/characters.