Chat Rules

Verdant Valley Rules

“I didn’t know” is not an excuse. As a user of Verdant Valley, you agree to the following rules as outlined in this thread. Please read everything here carefully and take time to understand what is expected of you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to an administrator! We will do our best to clarify and answer any questions you have.
Rules are subject to change at any point.

Respect
First and foremost is respect. You know that catchy song from the 60s? R-E-S-P-E-C-T? Aretha Franklin knew what she was talking about. Respect your fellow user and the administration team. Remember that we are all human beings and hiding behind a computer screen to act cruel isn’t okay.

Black Lives Matter
That is the team’s and Verdant Valley’s stance. Black Lives Matter.

Age
Verdant Valley is for users who are 13 years of age and older. We have PG-13 content across the board.

Our “Second Chance” Policy
We have a second chance policy. This does not mean you can get away with breaking rules or being rude to others. Our policy is in place to prevent judgement on Verdant Valley. If you had a troublesome past on Chatlands, we will tend to overlook it as long as you weren’t breaking serious rules. A lot of us were children or teenagers when we were not kind online and it shouldn’t reflect on us as adults if we show we changed.

This means you will not find yourself judged by the administration team. Unfortunately, we cannot control how others view you as a user or person, but if you feel harassed or bothered by another user, please report it to the team. We all make mistakes and Verdant Valley believes that if you have acknowledged those mistakes and grew from them, then you deserve to be here.

Keep in mind that Verdant Valley reserves the right to not extend this policy to users on a case-by-case basis. While we encourage you to come on chat and be a part of our community, we also want to foster a safe environment for everyone.

Harassment
Harassment can be defined in a multitude of ways, but the Merriam-Webster dictionary has helped us out with a couple definitions. “To annoy persistently.” “To create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct.” As we are a chat, verbal will stand for what you type and physical conduct will not apply here.

Harassment on Verdant Valley includes but is not limited to:

• Going around an ignore on chat, ignore on forums or block on Discord.
  
• Constantly messaging, whispering, or talking to someone who has asked you to stop.
  
• Being belligerent toward another user, whether it be name-calling, degradation, or something else. This is also known as flaming in Internet terms.
  
• Instigating or encouraging fights and/or arguments, e.g. telling your friend to go bother another user.
  
• Saying bad things about a staff member, Verdant Valley, another chat, another chat’s staff, Underdog, Chatlands, or an old chat that no longer exists.
  
• Bigotry - such as homophobic, transphobic, biphobic, aphobic, etc. comments being made toward a user or other party.
  
• Cursing at another user in order to make them feel bad, using curse words in a negative way.
  
• Sexually harassing other users.
  

This list is by no means exhaustive. Verdant Valley reserves the right to define harassment, as does the Chatlands Overseers. Know that harassment is not tolerated and you can expect negative consequences to your actions. So just be kind. Rewind.

Threats
Honestly, this one is self-explanatory but we will go ahead and talk about it anyway. Don’t make any sort of threats on Verdant Valley. This includes but is not limited to: Hack threats, death threats, virus threats, threats of violence. This will not be taken lightly and you won’t only be banned from Verdant Valley permanently, you will also be banned from Chatlands permanently. Sometimes the proper authorities might get contacted. It’s not worth it.

Trigger Warnings
We require trigger and content warnings on Verdant Valley. Users are allowed to request a warning be placed on your threads. If you fail to do so within 48 hours, your post will be removed from view and you will be contacted by the administration team. Trigger warnings are necessary and making fun of people for asking for them will result in a warning and possible ban. Try to keep triggering content off chat or take it to whisper.

Art Theft
Art theft is not tolerated on Verdant Valley or Chatlands. If you did not create a piece of art, you need permission from that artist to use the artwork. This includes photography and tracing. Depending on severity, you could get a warning or a lengthy ban. We will always find out. We know what you did last summer.

Blacklists
We know you want to keep users from using your art but Blacklists have no place on Verdant Valley. It only leads to users getting upset and fights breaking out.

Artists TOS
Artists have Terms of Service (TOS) for a reason. Violating an artist’s TOS can have serious consequences, such as a lengthy ban. Respect applies here. If you disagree with a TOS, find a different artist.

Trolling
Trolling falls under harassment, but it needs its own separate rule. You aren’t a Homestuck character. Constantly harassing users, disturbing the peace, going around blocks/ignores (even on Discord), following people to different chats to bother them, messaging a user constantly, etc. constitutes trolling. Trolling will get you a cross-site ban.

False Reporting
Verdant Valley will always get all sides of a story and if something doesn’t match up, we will find out. We have ways of checking logs to see if any were altered. Trying to get someone you dislike in trouble by editing logs or screenshots is against the rules and is considered false reporting.