Rules

Rules and Laws - Who enforces what?

Moderation is an important aspect of keeping our network a welcome and inclusive environment for everyone to enjoy. Below, we’ve included some guidelines that apply on all Minecraft Cities Network platforms.

Staff maintain full discretion in their enforcement of rules and general moderation.

Feel free to ask questions on our Discord server if you have any questions or concerns.

Respect the spirit of the rules. These rules are here to protect you - not for us to come after you!
You will never be punished for raising a concern regarding rules, regardless of whether it is about yourself or others.
Something may not be explicitly defined here, that doesn’t necessary make it okay. If you have to consider whether it is allowed, ask!

1. Respect

• Any form of harassment or discrimination, including (but not limited to): racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, antisemitism, stalking, and bigotry are not acceptable ever.
  • Our Staff members are players who, in their own time, volunteer to help. Politicizing staff actions, for the sake of roleplay or otherwise, is strictly prohibited. There must be an undeniable separation between staffing and state and this is heavily policed.
  • Examples of harassment include (but is not limited to):
    • Targeting a player or group of players through means of stalking, destruction of property or killings.
    • Repeatedly attempting to communicate with a player or groups of after they have explicitly expressed they do not wish to communicate with you.
    • Any other acts which in either frequency or act causes loss of enjoyment of the network on the basis of being an individual, or group, beyond conventional gameplay mechanics (i.e. politicking and running campaign ads against parties etc is still acceptable behaviour.)
• Discussions about controversial topics such as real world politics and world religion are not permitted in public channels.
• You are not allowed to impersonate, mimic, or make malicious doctored images of other players/staff members.
• Tickets must be used for assistance purposes only.
  • Be truthful always. We rely on your honest recount alongside our evidence to keep our community safe.
  • Trying to lie or misrepresent facts intentionally may result in additional disciplinary actions.
• All content on this network must be appropriate for minors. This includes all skins, language, and actions on all our platforms.

2. Chat

• Please do not excessively repeat phrases, use profanity, and/or capital letters in your messages.
• Profanity or strong language is permitted when used to express emotion or opinion about a situation, but not when directed at or used to insult another person.
• You are not permitted to communicate in any other languages than English in public channels.
• If your speech is altered by in-game drinks, you are not permitted to speak in public channels.
• You must use the #➕ | Create VC channel on our Discord when you are streaming or recording.
  • Inform people who join your voice channel that you are recording.
• Platforms, such as Discord servers, are split into different categories for the purpose of moderation.
  • Official. Owned by the Network and moderated by staff. If it is a Government platform, it may be managed by the Government and reported to staff for moderation.
  • Affiliate. Associated with the Network and moderated by staff (i.e. business, political parties, or group which exists for which the primary purpose is the Network). It is managed by private players and reported to staff for moderation.
    • Owners of these platforms must make sure that the platform complies with network rules and remove banned players from their platforms.
    • There is no registration requirement, just a values and responsibility alignment. Affiliate platforms are entitled to benefits such as advertising your platform on official and other affiliate platforms.
  • Non-affiliated. Not associated with the network. Not able to be advertised to network players or shared on affiliate or official platforms.
  • Private conversations. Will only be moderated when there is a blatant necessity for us to intervene.
    • The government cannot penalise players for refusing to provide private messages.

3. Advertising

• Advertising must be kept to /ad in-game or appropriate advertisement channels on our main Discord network.
  • You must not advertise player-run casinos using /ad
• You must not advertise non-affiliated platforms to network players for any reason.
• You must not actively encourage other players onto other major games where it would decrease their engagement in the network (excluding minor team/individual games like Discord games, Among Us, Jackbox).
• Non-affiliated platforms and Minecraft networks that are not allowed to be advertised anywhere.

4. Property

• Lava casting and flooding is not permitted anywhere.
• Stealing is not allowed inside regioned areas such as urban plots and wild claims.
• You may not use lockable items (e.g., doors, buttons, etc.) to protect whole or partial structures.
  • It is acceptable to lock barrels, doors, etc for normal gameplay purposes.
• You may not destroy, obstruct, or otherwise disturb property that you do not own, unless it is in the Wilderness/End/Nether.

5. Lag Prevention

• Redstone clocks are not permitted in any builds. There must be a player interaction to activate the redstone circuit on each occurrence.
• All farms must either be manual or semi-automatic and are required to have player interactions.
• You must avoid using excessive tile entities (chests, hoppers, item frames) or regular entities (mobs) in builds and designated spaces.
  • Item frames must only be used to display non-vanilla items. This applies especially for ChestShops

6. Fair Play

• Permissions must be used strictly for the reasons you told you can have them for.
  • Many Government jobs contain additional features or access. It is your responsibility to use them responsibly and only for appropriate reasons.
    • Government announcement channel discussion is strictly prohibited.
• You must not use x-ray. Any proceeds from x-ray will be confiscated.
• You are allowed to use client modifications from our Client Modifications only.
• Any methods to avoid being kicked for being away-from-keyboard that is not genuine gameplay is not allowed.
• Any form of exploitation is not permitted for any reason.
  • This includes using bugs in network features.
• You can only play on this network with one Minecraft account across all network platforms.
  • Any activities that occur on this account are your responsibility.
• If your account is compromised, report it! We will try to help you out, and keep the account banned until you regain access to it.
• Punishments are not linear. Depending on the severity of rules breached, your remorse for actions and compliance with Staff will affect disciplinary action.
  • On the lower end you may simply be told not to repeat the behaviour again (verbal warning). On the higher end however, you may be deported (banished to the wilderness) or banned.
• Any form of attempting to breach, exploit, scan, or otherwise gain access to systems, bots, accounts, or data without permission.

Issuing Punishments

Punishments are not linear, and depend heavily on the circumstances of each contravention of the rules.

This means the following factors typically get considered prior to issuing a punishment:

• Severity of the contravention - how serious the behaviour was and its impact
• Intent - whether the action was deliberate, negligent, or accidental
• Context - what was happening at the time, including any provocation or misunderstandings
• Player history - any previous warnings, notes, or prior contraventions
• Attitude and cooperation - whether the player was honest, respectful, or attempted to evade responsibility
• Impact - whether other players or backend systems were affected, and to what extent
• Mitigating or aggravating factors - anything that reasonably reduces or increases culpability
  • e.g., attempts to fix the issue vs. attempts to conceal it
• Behavioural patterns - whether there is recurring misconduct, ongoing negativity, or persistent disruptive behaviour
  • This is not to be confused with player standing, only the player’s conduct and documented history may be considered

Where it is possible and reasonable to do so, we try to enforce punishment parity.

• e.g. if you are warned on our network's Discord platforms, you may be warned in-game as well

Punished Players

Permenant Punishments.

• Banned from all network and affiliated platforms.
• Cannot participate in network courts, events, or have assets distributed per their wishes.
• Ban is indefinite; appeals via formal process only.
• Must be removed from all official/affiliated platforms.

Semi-permenant Punishments.

• Banned from in-game servers and official Discords only.
• Not required to leave affiliate or unofficial platforms.
• Assets remain unless otherwise specified.
• Can participate in network courts (forums only).
• Considered politically incapacitated for the period of their punishment.

At the end of the day, our rules are here to foster safe and inclusive gameplay, accordingly Staff have discretion on how to enforce rules as they see fit.