Community Code of Conduct

This is the code of conduct for every official LecternMC community space, on any platform we run one. Chat servers, forums, voice rooms, comment threads and anything we open in future are all covered by this page.

It applies to everyone equally, including staff and administrators. A moderator breaking these rules is a more serious problem than a member doing it, not a lesser one.

Two things it does not cover. Minecraft servers listed on LecternMC are not our spaces and are governed by the Server Listing Guidelines and by their own staff. Your LecternMC account is governed by the Terms of Service.

Most rules here are absolute. A few are judgement calls, because the line between lively and disruptive depends on the room, the moment and who is in it.

Rules marked [*] are ones an administrator may apply with discretion. That is not a loophole, and it does not mean the rule is optional. It means an administrator can weigh context rather than being forced into a single outcome.

1. No sexual or explicit content. Sexual, graphic, shock or otherwise explicit material is not allowed anywhere, in any form, including avatars, usernames, links and audio. This is a general-audience community and a large share of the people in it are minors.

2. No hate speech or discrimination. Racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic or otherwise derogatory remarks about race, gender, gender identity, sexuality, nationality, religion, disability or appearance are prohibited. Slurs are prohibited regardless of who is saying them or how they are framed.

3. No harassment. Do not target, insult, intimidate, follow around or repeatedly bother anybody. Disagreement is fine and disrespect is not. Continuing after somebody has asked you to stop is harassment on its own, whatever the original subject was.

4. No threats or encouragement of harm. Threats of violence, wishing harm on somebody, and encouraging anybody towards self-harm or suicide are not allowed under any framing, including as a joke.

5. Respect privacy. Do not share personal or sensitive information, yours or anybody else's, without their consent. Real names, addresses, schools, workplaces, photographs, IP addresses and account details all count. Publishing somebody's information to direct attention at them is treated as harassment.

6. No spam. Do not flood a channel, repeat yourself, or send unsolicited advertising, chain messages or mass invitations. Advertising a Minecraft server belongs in a server listing rather than in chat.

7. No impersonation. Do not present yourself as LecternMC staff, as another member, or as another server or brand. Nobody from LecternMC will ever ask for your Microsoft password, and any account that does is not us.

8. Nothing illegal. Do not share, request or link pirated software, stolen accounts, malware, or anything else the law where you are does not allow.

9. No ban evasion or organised disruption. Returning under another account after being removed, coordinating raids or brigading, and organising any of the above elsewhere to carry it out here are all treated as deliberate acts rather than lapses.

10. Be respectful of others. [*] Treat people with basic courtesy. This covers messages, reactions, usernames, nicknames, profile pictures and how you behave in voice.

11. Avoid unnecessary notifications. [*] Do not tag people or roles unless it is relevant and necessary. Staff will see your message without being pinged repeatedly.

12. Keep voice usable. [*] Screaming, soundboards, earrape and bass-boosted audio that make a shared voice room unpleasant for everybody else are not allowed.

13. Use the space for what it is for. [*] Keep conversation roughly on topic for the channel or room you are in, and follow any additional rules posted in that specific space.

You must be at least 13 to use LecternMC or to be in our community spaces, and older where the law where you live sets a higher minimum. We remove accounts we learn belong to somebody under that age.

If you believe a child under 13 is in one of our spaces, tell us at [email protected] and we will deal with it.

Administrators decide what a situation calls for. In most cases that starts small and escalates only if it needs to:

• a warning
• a temporary mute or removal from a channel
• a temporary removal from the space
• a permanent ban

Most people who break a rule get a warning and that is the end of it. Enforcement is not a fixed tariff, and an administrator may go straight to a ban without any warning where the breach is serious enough.

Some things are removed on first occurrence, with no warning and no second chance: sexual content involving minors, credible threats of violence, publishing somebody's private information to target them, malware, and ban evasion. Sexual content involving minors is also reported to the relevant authorities.

If you think a decision was wrong, write to us at [email protected] from an address we can connect to you and say what happened. Bans are reviewed by somebody other than the administrator who issued one wherever that is possible.

Coming back under another account instead of appealing removes the option, and turns a temporary removal into a permanent one.

Tell an administrator in the space, or write to [email protected] if it is sensitive or involves a member of staff. Include enough for us to find it: where it happened, roughly when, and who was involved.

Reporting somebody in good faith never counts against you, even if we conclude no rule was broken.

We update this page when the rules change, and the date at the top is when the wording last changed. Continuing to use our community spaces after a change means the current version applies to you.