User:Bwburke94/Hosting Guidelines

The following is a set of hosting guidelines that all potential hosts must abide by.

=Before the Game=

"Twists" that cannot be used
The following twists cannot be used in a season due to radically changing the game of Survivor.
 * Anything involving public voting: This includes challenges, tiebreakers, Tribal Council, et cetera. The public should NOT have a vote in the way the season progresses.
 * Mergeless seasons: All seasons must have a merged tribe of five or more members.
 * Anarchy twist for entire season: All seasons must have the contestants divided into tribes at some point.
 * Automatic elimination for finishing last in a challenge: This includes allowing a one-person tribe to compete for immunity and eliminating them for losing.
 * Fake "final" immunity challenge: The Final Immunity Challenge must occur on Day 38 and be clearly stated to be such.
 * Day 38 double elimination: The contestant voted out on Day 38 must be the last contestant voted out.
 * Fake buffs: Once a contestant has been handed a (virtual) buff, they are officially a member of the tribe.
 * Tribal Council with no advance warning: Contestants cannot be sent to Tribal Council without advance warning at the previous challenge. Immunity challenges cannot be disguised as reward challenges.
 * Contestants with access to the viewers' lounge re-entering the game: Once an eliminated contestant is added to the VL, it is understood that they will play no further role in the game. In extreme circumstances, VL-access contestants can be added to the jury and removed from the VL, but this is not to be pre-planned.
 * Fake jurors / hidden jurors: The first member of the jury must be stated to be such when they are eliminated. If this statement is hidden from the other tribe(s), they must be informed of the jury's presence the next time they visit Tribal Council.
 * "Jokers": Once the first challenge has started, no additional contestants can enter the game. This does not ban the identities of the returnees from being hidden in one-returnee-per-tribe seasons, as long as they join their tribes before the first Tribal Council.
 * Surprise "superidols": If a Panama/Cook Islands-style Hidden Immunity Idol is in the game, the contestants must be informed of that fact.

Offers
The following twists can be used in a season, but cannot be revealed to the public in an offer:
 * Outcasts re-entering the game via vote: Redemption Island and Redemption Battles can be revealed, but revealing outcasts would defeat the purpose of the outcast twist.
 * Whether your season has a Final Two or Final Three: An exception is given for 16-contestant offers revealing a Final Two.
 * When a tribe switch or merge occurs: Real contestants do not know when a switch or merge occurs.

=During the Game=

Evacuations/Quits/Disqualifications

 * If a contestant is evacuated from the game because they are physically unable to continue, they cannot re-enter the game under any circumstances, but can serve on the jury if they indicate they can return by Day 39.
 * If a contestant quits the game, they cannot re-enter the game or serve on the jury under any circumstances.
 * If a contestant is disqualified for failure to vote, they cannot re-enter the game under any circumstances, but will be allowed to serve on the jury if the jury has already started. Contestants disqualified for failure to vote with ten or more contestants remaining cannot be the first member of the jury.
 * If a contestant is disqualified for cheating in a challenge, they cannot re-enter the game or serve on the jury under any circumstances. If this occurs during a tribal challenge, their tribe automatically loses the challenge.
 * If a contestant is disqualified for sockpuppetry, they and any of their alternate accounts cannot re-enter the game or serve on the jury under any circumstances.
 * If a contestant is disqualified for knowingly allowing a form of cheating to occur that they did not themselves commit, they cannot re-enter the game under any circumstances, but their participation on the jury is at the hosts' discretion.
 * A contestant cannot be retroactively disqualified. If a contestant is disqualified at the final six, they are considered to have placed sixth regardless of their non-participation on the jury.
 * If multiple disqualifications occur at the same time as a result of sockpuppetry, the sockpuppeteer's "main" account will be given the higher placement. If neither account was the main account or no main account can be distinguished, all sockpuppets will be considered to have placed in the lower placement.
 * If main account A and sockpuppet B are discovered to be the same person at the final six, A places fifth and B places sixth.
 * If A and B are discovered to be sockpuppets of non-contestant C at the final six, both are considered to have placed sixth.
 * Jury votes can be retroactively negated if it is discovered that the contestant was a sockpuppet. However, no contestant can lose the title of Sole Survivor unless they were themselves the sockpuppeteer and their sockpuppet's jury vote affected the outcome.
 * In the extreme case of the Final Two/Three consisting entirely of sockpuppets of the same person, the title of Sole Survivor would be deemed "vacated" and no Sole Survivor would be recognized. All finalists would be considered to have finished 2nd in a Final Two/3rd in a Final Three.

Tribe Switches/Merges

 * A tribe switch, dissolve, or absorption should not occur unless at least two episodes have passed and at least one contestant has been voted out within the current "tribal layout".
 * A switch, dissolve, absorption, or mutiny offer (even if not accepted) changes the tribal layout. A "buff-less" exiled contestant joining a tribe does not change the tribal layout.
 * A merge should not occur unless at least two challenges have occurred, one of which must be for tribal immunity, and at least one contestant has been voted out within the current tribal layout.

Challenges

 * Challenges must be reasonably fair to all contestants/tribes, and must not have a breaking strategy that allows one contestant/tribe to win regardless of the actions of the others.
 * The 21 Flags challenge, when played with two contestants/tribes, has an example of a breaking strategy. The first contestant/tribe can win by always ensuring that the number of remaining flags is a multiple of four after their turn.
 * If the goal of a team-based challenge is to have the highest cumulative score, contestants who do not submit scores get a score of 0.
 * If the goal of a team-based challenge is to have the lowest cumulative score (e.g. golf) and an uneven number of contestants from each team submit scores, the highest score from the team(s) with more submissions is dropped.
 * When a challenge is posted, it must be clearly stated what the conditions are for winning. This includes the scoring method used and how many contestants/tribes win the challenge.
 * If an initial "tribe sorting challenge" includes a reward, this must be stated when the challenge is posted.

Tribal Council

 * Once a tribe loses an Immunity Challenge, they must vote one of their own members out unless they lose one of their own members to outside circumstances.
 * If a member of the tribe attending Tribal Council quits or is evacuated, the vote must be canceled. A second elimination may take place if a double elimination was planned.
 * If a member of the tribe attending Tribal Council is disqualified, the tribe may be forced to vote out another member depending on the severity of the offense. This does not apply to disqualifications caused by inactivity, as the disqualification technically does not occur until the voting deadline.
 * Under no circumstance can multiple contestants be eliminated as a result of a single round of voting. It is permissible to eliminate two contestants at a single Tribal Council, but only as a result of two successive rounds of voting.

Hosting Errors

 * Once the votes are read, the decision is final, except in the case of hosting errors.
 * If a hosting error causes the wrong contestant to be eliminated and no further events have occurred in the game, the error is correctable and the hosts must post a correction.
 * If further events have occurred that make the error not correctable, the host responsible may be replaced if necessary.
 * Awarding immunity to the wrong contestant/tribe is not correctable after the voting results have been posted.