Last updated: 7/26/2020

• Short and Sweet - a brief summary of the rules
• Statement of Purpose - what our rules aim to achieve
• Community Philosophy - our vision for our community
• Moderation Policy - how we moderate
• Moderation Trajectory - our vision for moderation
• Section 1: Rules of Conduct
• Section 2: Content Rules
• Section 3: Policies
• Section 4: Live Chat/Discord Rules

Here is a condensed version of our rules of conduct, content, and policies. We recommend using this as a reminder, but expect you to read the more in-depth version of the rules if you aren’t already familiar with them. Community members are expected to follow the rules, and moderators enforce rules regardless of if they have been read by the individual or not.

• Be excellent to each other, even when you disagree.
• Set an example in the way you participate.
• When you see a problem, report it using our reporting tools.
• Follow instructions given to you by a moderator.

• Writing must be decipherable by our staff team.
• Thread bumping is allowed in moderation.
• Post new, original content.
• Tag all mature content.
• Post only acceptable types of content (click for list of unacceptable content).

• You are allowed one Mycena Cave account; no multi-accounting is allowed.
• You must keep your password private.
• You must be at least 16 years of age to use Mycena Cave.
• You may not automate or utilize outside programs to play our games.
• You should use our trade utility for maximum security against scams. (click for a list of other trade policies)
• You may cross-site trade as long as you follow cross-site trade policies (click for list of cross-site trade policies).
• You must only contact a player about a trade if they have the asset publicly listed for trading.
• You must only trade Mycena Cave property for non real money/non real money equivalents.

• Report bugs and exploits privately to admin.

The rules serve to make Mycena Cave a place where community members can positively and safely interact with others in the community regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, physical ability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, or religion. The rules also serve to make sure that our community members have similar access to site privileges, with none gaining an unfair advantage through the misuse of site mechanics. Transparent and readily available rules help to ensure that all community members are aware of how and why these regulations exist, and encourages active contribution to our community philosophy.

All members of Mycena Cave are bound by this set of rules. This is a living document and we will update it as necessary. If any major changes happen, you will be notified via announcement in the announcement forum. Use of our website or official discord constitutes agreement to our rules.

Forum-based sites like Mycena Cave can be heavily impacted by problematic behaviors of individual players. If unaddressed, these behaviors can have a long-term effect on the community’s overall health. This is why it’s important to have moderators, moderation tools, and community and staff who know, understand, and promote our goals.

To ensure that problematic behavior doesn’t go unaddressed, we have moderators who help deal with incidents. Breaking the rules can result in consequences such as an account warning, an account restriction to site privileges, or an account ban depending on the severity of the incident. Our rules do not detail every scenario and case of problematic behavior, and we reserve the right to evaluate and determine consequences for incidents on a case-by-case basis.

We aim to create a space that celebrates diversity and creativity. We want our community members to participate in the creation of art and writing, to develop a wide variety of characters, to discuss different topics, and to participate in games and community events all in a constructive manner alongside and together with fellow members.

We can’t do that without the support and involvement of our community. When interacting with the site and with others, we ask you to be excellent to each other. At its heart, this means being respectful, courteous, inclusive, and kind to other community members.

When responding to and investigating incidents and problem behavior, the moderation team aims to understand the situation and its context. When determining a course of action, moderation takes into account the severity, impact, surounding information/contex, time needed to invest into the situation, and if the reported account has a history of past incidents and problematic behavior. Moderators may give account warnings, restrictions, or bans, and reach out to affected parties in order to mitigate damage caused and prevent further problems and damage.

Moderators face pressure to make fast, high-impact decisions about a wide range of player behavior and subject matter. Our moderators are essentially a volunteer team, receiving little compensation, and do this job because they care about Mycena Cave and its players. We recognize that moderation can be an emotionally exhausting job, and deeply appreciate their dedication and the work they do for us.

A moderation trajectory outlines Mycena Cave’s philosophy and path of what good moderation looks like. The result of good moderation is the promotion of our community trajectory.

Our philosophy is that moderation policies and techniques have a large impact on the overall tone and health of a community and thus should be considered carefully. Studies find that differences in moderating techniques and amounts can create communities with different tones. Based on our research, we believe that consistently and regularly utilized good moderation techniques will result in a community that can interact safely and positively on Mycena Cave. We believe our overall philosophy and trajectory need to be communicated with players in a more proactive approach that aims to be transparent rather than a purely reactive, less transparent approach.

Good moderation techniques should: Model goal behaviors; promote and recognize commendable behaviors in players; be swift and sensible; identify and communicate problem behaviors to the player; stop undesirable behavior; prevent problematic behavior from reoccurring; allow for issues to be communicated by players to moderators; and allow for reflection and growth of moderation approaches. Specifics about about each of these are outlined in the spoiler below:

• Be excellent to each other:
  • Be respectful, courteous, and kind.
  • Be direct and forthright.
  • Do your best to be aware of how your words may appear through text — avoid harsh, mean, or aggressive behavior
• Be excellent to each other, even when you disagree:
  • Disagreeing with an idea or sentiment is fine, but focus your critique on the content rather than the person. Provide reasoned counter-responses and do not resort to inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks.
  • In the event of a dispute (e.g. a trade gone sour, taking offense, etc) resolve it outside of public spaces such as, but not limited to, the forums or official discord.
  • Either resolve the issue with the person in question directly via private message, or contact a moderator.
  • Do not engage parties not affected by the dispute (e.g. “I told all of chat and they totally agree with me!”).
• Your participation is valued
  • Your conversations and input are an example to others, and help set the tone of the overall community.
  • You can influence the trajectory of our community’s vibe by choosing to engage in and creating interesting discussions, and avoiding those that do not.
  • We know a lot of you are more comfortable lurking and not posting publicly, and that makes you no less valid.
• When you see a problem, report it
  • Report bad behavior rather than engaging with it
  • Reporting rather than engaging saves you time and energy, and helps prevent escalation and bigger problems.
• Follow instructions given to you by a moderator
  • Moderators may try to intervene and de-escalate a situation on the forums or in discord so that the topic can continue to be discussed.
  • Listening to and learning from moderators instructions prevents the need for more severe actions to be taken.
  • Moderation is a high pressure and stressful job. Aggression and/or harassment toward a moderator can result in a temporary or permanent loss of forum privileges.

1. Writing must be decipherable by our staff team.
   • Submissions to official activities, roleplay, events, and games must be in English because that is the language our staff team understands most comprehensively.
   • Casual discussion may be in other languages, but must be easy for our moderators to decipher through automated translation methods (e.g. Google translate), as English is the primary language of most of our moderators.
   • Different written dialects, and non-standard forms of grammar and spelling are welcome.
   • English language learners are welcome.
   • If staff are having trouble deciphering the content of your posts, our moderators will reach out and give you information on how to clarify your posts.

    

2. No spam (this includes real life things and trading threads).
   • Posts you make should fulfill at least one of the following:
     • It starts a rational discussion or conversation.
     • It is relevant to and/or contributes to an on-going discussion or conversation.
     • It does not impede or derail an on-going discussion or conversation.
   • Links to places where you sell things are fine, as long as it’s not done in a spamming way.

    

3. Thread bumping is allowed in moderation when:
   • A major change has occurred to your thread.
   • Your thread has been inactive for three days.

    

4. Post new, original content.
   • Copy/pasting material such as your old stories or old roleplays from other sites to our paid forums is not allowed.
   • If it is important to your current characters that an old roleplay or other content is moved on-site, contact a moderator.

    

5. Tag mature content.
   • Untagged content:
     • Anyone on Mycena Cave can view an untagged forum thread or pet profile. An untagged thread or pet profile should be safe for the majority of our community to view.
     • May contain mild violence, infrequent use of strong language, and/or minimal suggestive content/themes. Liken a public, un-tagged thread or pet profile to a conversation in a crowded restaurant, where people of many different ages and backgrounds would be likely to overhear..
       • Example of use: If your character gets hit, don’t go into graphic detail. If they curse, then it’s only a couple of times.
     • Avoid topics surrounding anything illegal.
     • Avoid overly controversial or sensitive subjects.
   • Tagged threads and pet profiles (content descriptors and notes):
     • Anyone on Mycena Cave can view a forum thread or pet profile tagged with a content descriptor, but the viewer is informed that it may contain sensitive content, whether it be topic, themes, or language.
     • If you tag a thread or pet profile with a content descriptor, we recommend filling in the content notes to detail why it is tagged with a content descriptor, so that other players can make an informed decision about viewing the content.
     • Strong language, heavy violence, and/or sexual content/themes are allowed when appropriately tagged. Liken a tagged thread or pet profile to a hushed, private conversation in a semi-public setting.
       • Example of use: Your character curses like a sailor and injuries are detailed more explicitly.
       • Must adhere to the acceptable content rules in section 5-6.
     • Respectful discussion, roleplay, art, or creative writing involving controversial or sensitive topics is allowed.
     • Be careful to not sanction illegal activities in discussions or roleplays.
       • I.e., just because your character does drugs does not mean you, personally, are welcome to promote drug use on our forums.
     • Be cautious and respectful when discussing or roleplaying controversial topics.
     • If you do want to broach a controversial topic, your thread must be appropriately tagged.
     • If you submit potentially offensive content, you agree to proceed carefully and are ready to respond with respect and sensitivity to any opposing viewpoints.
       • Understand that our moderators’ jobs are primarily to keep the peace, not to provide a place to express potentially inflammatory views.
       • Understand that what is not offensive to you might be offensive to others.
       • Profanity is allowed in moderation, but it may not be directed at another player.
     • It is the responsibility of the thread creator to select tags appropriate to the thread
     • If your thread has been posted for you by the Bone Monster (such as is the case with Adventures and some official activities), reach out to a moderator to have the appropriate content tags and notes applied.
   • Err on the side of caution with tagging. If you think your thread falls “in between” a category, or if you are unsure of which category, it is best to pick the category that promotes the more restrictive viewing.

    

6. Post only acceptable content. The following are unacceptable for Mycena Cave community members under any circumstances, including, but not limited to, echoes and the official discord:
   • Anything illegal under U.S. law.
   • Plagiarism.
   • Prolonged, unproductive arguments between two or more opposing parties.
   • Intentionally spoiling something without using spoiler tags.
   • Sexually explicit content.
     • This means no descriptions or depictions of genitalia and/or sexual acts (e.g. pornography).
   • Pedophilic material of any nature.
   • Any form of intolerance towards racial, sexual, gender, religious, personal identity, or physical ability, appearance, body size, or age.
   • Incitements or promotion of violence, self-harm, abuse (human, child, animal, etc).
   • Abusive reporting:
     • Falsely reporting other community members due to e.g. personal dislike or for revenge.
     • Inciting others to create reports on a specific person.
     • Combing through someone’s content to try to find something reportable due to e.g. personal dislike or revenge.
     • Threatening to report or announcing intent to report.
   • Trolling:
     • Personal attacks.
     • Writing that is inflammatory, digressive, and non-productive.
   • Bullying, harassment, defamation, or discrimination of community members, including staff members:
     • This applies anywhere your identity as a member of Mycena Cave may be inferred, including off-site.
     • Anonymous bullying/harassment/defamation/discrimination is investigated and may be pursued through legal avenues, and results in a permanent ban when we determine who the anonymous bully is.
     • If you believe someone is breaking the rules, report it to a mod instead of inciting other people to treat them badly.

1. No more than one account per person. One person with multiple accounts will result in a site ban, and the closure of all of their accounts.

2. Account sharing is allowed under the following circumstances:
   • You inform the administration ahead of time.
   • The shared account is your only account: neither of you may have a separate account of your own, share a different account with someone else, etc.
   • If you both already have accounts and want to “move in” together, contact an administrator.
   • We generally recommend not sharing an account, because it’s safer in terms of password management, privacy, and accountability. If you do choose to share an account, you are choosing to be a single entity on Mycena Cave: you will share a games cap and event rewards, you will only be able to link one Discord account, and you will be responsible for each others’ behavior and actions.
3. Non-shared account password sharing is not allowed.
   • If an account’s password is known to multiple people, the account is considered shared with all of the restrictions noted in section 3-A.3.
   • Should you need to give someone temporary access to your account, generate a Guest Key from your Account Settings page.
   • Logging in with another player’s password is strictly forbidden.

4. Trading accounts is not allowed

5. You must be 16 years old or older to register an account at Mycena Cave.

6. Site bans are not merely for the account itself but for the person (or people if it is a shared account) behind it, and ban evasion is a bannable offense.

1. You may not under any circumstances access the games in any account other than your own.

2. You may not automate the playing of any game. This includes:
   • Software or extensions that automatically click things for you
   • Software or extensions that send requests
   • etc.
3. You may not use outside software or computer programs of any kind. This includes:
   • Sudoku solvers
   • Anagram generators
   • etc.

1. You may not under any circumstances access raffles or events in any account other than your own.
2. Unlike with site games, use of external tools or software to complete event tasks is allowed (as long as these tools conform to the rules in section 3-E.2)

1. Trades completed entirely through our Trade utility are guaranteed by Mycena Cave.
   • If something goes wrong, we’ll fix it.
2. Trading by any other means (“gift for a gift”, etc) is done entirely at your own risk.
   • If something goes wrong, we may or may not be able to help you.
   • If the goods you traded for were illicitly generated and need to be removed, you will not be compensated.
3. Prices are what you agree upon.
   • There are no list prices for many things on Mycena Cave. It is perfectly fine to try to find a general consensus of what the price for something should be, but it is entirely up to the seller as to whether they will sell and for how much. Ultimately, the seller decides on the price. If you agree to pay a given price, then you agree that whatever it is that you are buying is worth equal or more to you than the price you are paying.
4. Each party is responsible for verifying that they are receiving what they expect.
   • The trade system on Mycena Cave requires both parties explicitly accept a trade since it was last modified before it can go through. As such, once a trade has taken place, it is final. If you are dissatisfied with a trade and you both come to an agreement, you may agree to reverse a trade by trading back, but this is not required from any party. If you do choose to reverse a trade and trade fees were involved, it is up to you to agree on how to resolve them.
5. Trade agreements involving Paw Prints IOUs are not supported.
   • We do not support or endorse these kinds of deals: Paw Prints should only be traded to orders existing at the time of trade.
   • If a situation arises where a deal involving future-order Paw Prints is not held up, Mycena Cave staff will not intercede.
6. Strings attached trades are not supported.
   • As a seller, you relinquish any and all rights to whatever it is that you are selling. Mycena Cave staff will not intercede in any post-trading agreements between buyer and seller. You may for example have an informal agreement that a pet should be RP’ed, but if whoever ends up with the pet chooses not to, that is entirely within their rights.
7. Resolve trade-related disputes privately, or with the help of a moderator.
   • If you are dissatisfied with a trade for whatever reason, try to work it out with whoever you traded with. Once a trade has completed, your responsibilities to each other are over, but if assume that they have not wronged you purposefully in your exchange, you will likely find that they are willing to to work with you. If this does not work out and you feel wronged, take your concern to a moderator. It is inappropriate to complain publicly on the forums or in chat.
8. Cross-site trading (trading for goods or services on another website) is allowed, under the following conditions:
   • The site you are trading with explicitly allows cross-site trades in their Terms of Use.
   • You understand that a cross-site trade is entirely at your own risk (see section 3-D.2)
     • An off-site trade is any trade which does not take place entirely within the Mycena Cave trading system. Since they are not governed by the mechanism in which both parties need to put up all parts of the trade and accept them, they are by definition risky. If you choose to engage in off-site trades, you do so entirely at your own risk. Our moderators will try to ensure that all parties live up to their agreements, but we will not refund goods or currencies lost through such a trade, and cannot compel members or administrators of other websites to do likewise.
   • You are not trading for anything which can be readily exchanged for real money.
     • We must take this seriously because it is a direct violation of our Payment Processor agreement/TOS: we are prohibited from selling anything which can be readily exchanged for real money.
   • The site you are trading with does not allow you to trade things for real money.
   • The site you are trading with is in full release. Cross-site trades with sites still in testing (alpha, beta, early access) are not allowed.

9. Do not inquire, publicly or privately, about a player’s pets or items that are not explicitly listed or marked for sale.

10. Transactions involving real money or equivalent (pre-paid visa cards, gift cards, etc) are permissible only in the following scenarios:
    • Purchasing from Mycena Cave:
      • Players may use any of the official on-site shops with a debit or credit card.
        • The exception to this is players located in the EU or UK purchasing gems, which must be done via Paypal.
      • Players needing to use Paypal can do so through our Paypal page.
      • Mycena Cave staff will never ask players for their credit card details.
    • Purchasing from another player:
      • This is permissible if and only if ALL of the following are true:
        • No part of the sale involves Mycena Cave instruments or property.
        • The entirety of the transaction occurs through an official merchant service.
        • The transaction incorporates all aspects of the sale, and offers dispute functionality to the buyer.
        • The merchant service used properly reports tax information to the IRS when applicable.
        • Both parties agree to handle any disputes through the merchant service used.
      • Some examples of acceptable inter-player sales:
        • Informing players of your Etsy shop, on which you sell physical objects.
        • Directing the buyer to DeviantArt to perform the purchase of digital art.
        • Sending the buyer an official Paypal invoice, and then sending the goods to the buyer when the invoice is paid.
      • Some examples of unacceptable inter-player sales:
        • Anything that involves Mycena Cave items, gems, nuggets, pets, mock-ups, etc.
        • The buyer pays for their purchase via Paypal’s “send money to friends or family” feature.
        • Anything where Mycena Cave staff may need to get involved in the case of disputes.

1. Mycena Cave is a developer-friendly area.
2. If you want to use or make an extension or user-script, go for it! Such tools are allowed as long as they follow these rules:
   • It may not make requests on behalf of the player (e.g. autorefreshers, auto-forum-posters, etc).
   • It may not provide any unfair advantage.
   • It may not interact with site games in any way.
3. Sharing your tools or extensions with the community is encouraged.
   • If you make something really cool and we actually build some of your functionality into the site, you’ll get something nice from us. :)

1. Report bugs and exploits directly and privately to the administration.
2. Any intentional action which results in you having an unfair advantage over other players is considered exploiting the site. Some examples of things we consider to be exploitative include:
   • It was briefly possible to mine tiles after one of the Summer events ended by going directly to the mining page.
   • It was possible to get multiple starter pets by collecting your free pet, putting it in a trade, getting another one, then canceling the trade.
   • Private staff information was briefly visible in some staff members’ “recent posts” page.
3. We reward people who report exploitable bugs to us (usually a number of gems, depending on the severity) under the following conditions:
   • Player has exploited it minimally, for testing purposes only.
   • Player reported it privately to administration, not e.g. in discord or on the forums, etc.
   • Player did not tell other players about the bug until after receiving confirmation that it was fixed.
4. Unless told otherwise, feel free to tell people / brag about exploits that you find after they have been fixed.
5. If you inform another player of an exploit before it is fixed, you will also be held responsible if that player exploits it.
6. Repercussion for cheating or exploiting bugs range from a warning echo to a permanent site ban, and depends on:
   • Whether what you did can easily be rolled back
   • How much you (would have) gained.
   • Whether you impacted other players.
   • How important it was that we drop whatever we were doing to clean up after you.
   • How much time we had to spend cleaning up after you.

1. All site rules apply to the official Mycena Cave Discord server.
2. Follow instructions given to you by a moderator.
   • Aggression and/or harassment toward a moderator will result in a temporary or permanent loss of chat privileges.
3. While in the official discord server, remain peaceful and friendly to other players.
   • If a topic/word makes you uncomfortable, politely request that it is dropped.
   • If a player states that a topic/word makes them uncomfortable, try to not bring the topic/word up around the player, and be receptive to reminders if you forget.
   • Utilize the report feature when needed; do not escalate a tense situation with aggressive confrontation.
4. All chat inside the official Mycena Cave discord should adhere to the untagged content standards described in section 2-5.
   • This includes avatars. If your avatar is not appropriate by these content standards, you will be asked to change it. If it is deemed particularly inappropriate, you will be removed from the server until it is changed.
   • Any content that exists outside these standards should be kept private between yourself and the other player.
   • If you are uncertain if something you wish to post crosses this line, err on the side of caution and don’t post it publicly.
5. Keep discussions about specific topics to the appropriate channel.
   • Example: extensive discussions around other games should be held in the ‘other games’ channel
   • If necessary, a moderator may ask that you move your conversation to a more appropriate channel.
6. Concerns and/or issues should be reported to a moderator via the ticketing tool.
   • You can find more information on how to use this tool in the report-an-issue channel.
   • Only issues that arise within the official Mycena Cave discord should be reported via this method. All on-site issues should be reported on-site.
7. Breaking official chat rules or problematic behavior will generally result in moderator action. Repeated moderator actions against you will lead to temporary or permanent loss of chat privileges.
   • When you are warned, muted, or banned by a moderator, the moderation bot we are using will send you a private message detailing the action taken against you, the length of the consequences if applicable, and a note as to why.
   • If you have your personal settings set to disallow private messages from server members, you will not receive this message. All moderator actions will stand regardless of if you have seen the message. You are free to reach out to a moderator on site or via Discord ticketing if you’d like any information to be repeated.