Code of Conduct

All players must comply with the rules below. Please read them carefully and ensure that you understand what is and isn't allowed. As explained in the Terms of Service, breaking any of these rules may result in a range of possible punishments including loss of account privileges, removal of content, warnings or even suspension or permanent banning of your account.

1. Community Interaction
2. Accounts & Trading
3. Cheating and other inappropriate gameplay

1. Community Interaction

   This part of our Code of Conduct describes what we expect when it comes to community interaction including, but not limited to: forums, chat, your public den page, any shop or trade description, wolf bios or private messages.

   1. Be respectful towards ALL members of Wolvden, including moderators and admins.
      1. Name calling, accusations, fighting, harassment, begging, spamming, and flooding the forums or the chat box are all inappropriate behaviours and may not be exhibited on the site.
      2. Users may not abuse, harass or in any other way purposely offend other users on the site.
   2. Do not spam the boards or chat. Examples of spamming are as follows:
      
      1. Posting the same topic on multiple boards
      2. Posting the same topic multiple times on the same board
      3. Posting the same reply multiple times in the same topic
      4. "Private" or 1-to-1 conversations (please utilise the Private Messaging system for this)
      5. Bumping topics (please utilise the Bump Thread button for this)
      6. Excessively posting in chat
      7. Linking to a forum topic or wolf page in Main Chat more than once per hour
      8. Excessive capital letters in consecutive posts
      9. Excessively advertising in chat, e.g. posting ads for the same asset or service more than once per 10 minutes
   3. Users must follow board-specific rules on the forums. They hold as much weight as this Terms of Service agreement if you decide to use the forums. Board specific rules may be found on the Forum Rules board.
   4. Do not outright ask for items/currency/wolves that do not belong to you and are not offered for sale.
   5. Do not send unsolicited, bulk or indiscriminate messages to other users, whether or not for commercial purposes.
   6. Do not write content in any other languages on the site except English.
      1. This excludes poems and quotes, and situations where permission has been granted by a staff member.
   7. Do not post topics, replies or post in chat with the intent to troll. Trolling includes:
      1. Posting a comment, sometimes controversial, with the intention to draw out negative reactions and emotional responses
      2. Posting a comment for shock value
      3. Derailing topics from their original purpose
      4. Personal attacks against any individual or Wolvden
      5. Baiting members into breaking the rules so that you can report them
   8. Do not post topics with regards to medical advice, either for yourself or on behalf of someone else. This includes:
      1. Requesting or providing medical advice
      2. Requesting or providing mental health advice or counselling
      3. Requesting or providing medical advice for pets
   9. Do not post offsite advertisements. This includes:
      1. Links to, or posts about, other browser-based games
      2. Personal item sales or trades
      3. Services that are not directly related to Wolvden
      4. Links to GoFundMe, KickStarter, or similar fundraisers
      5. This EXCLUDES: Art portfolios, such as Deviant Art. If a portfolio has no mature content filter (and there may be mature content), it may not be posted in chat but may be posted on the forums with appropriate disclaimers
   10. Do not post content or links relating to other user's accounts, sales, raffles, wolves etc.
       1. Do not solicit other users to advertise on your behalf.
       2. This excludes linking specific wolves or threads for solely informative reasons, for example to share a game guide or a new mutated wolf that was born. Excessive linking of the same topic will be considered advertising.
       3. This excludes "stud collaboration" threads where every stud listed in the compilation has a corresponding entry in the thread itself from the owner of the stud.
   11. Do not solicit Help board post votes from other users. For example:
       1. Asking other members to vote a specific way (either Yes or No) for your post
       2. Offering rewards for voting a specific way for your post
   12. Do not use bright or light font colors which do not show up in contrast to the background of the site. 
   13. Do not make threats against other members.
       1. This includes referring to violence or death in relation to Wolvden, moderators, admins, or members - individually or as a group
       2. Do not use any part of the site to communicate with members on the topic of encouraging, promoting, endorsing or inciting any kind of legal action against the company or any individual.
   14. Do not use insults or make personal attacks. This includes:
       1. Back-handed compliments
       2. Singling members out, or accusing someone of breaking rules (please report the member instead using the Modbox feature)
       3. Blacklisting, naming and shaming, character assassinations
       4. Passive-aggressive remarks that clearly criticise other members
       5. Linking to, or alluding to, offsite content that contains any personal attacks against Wolvden members
   15. Do not create topics or discussions solely to discuss religion or politics.
       1. Wolvden is a game, and games are supposed to be an escape from the real world. We understand that religion and politics can come up in regular discussions and we will monitor those independently, but any topic or chat posts created to discuss either of these topics is liable to removal without warning.
   16. Do not use profanity in a harmful way
       1. We are a 16+ site and so we do allow mild profanity. However, it must not be used in a harmful way towards other members or groups of people. Discriminatory words, including racist and sexist remarks, are prohibited - even if presented in a joking manner.
   17. Do not ignore staff requests.
       1. If a moderator or administrator requests you to drop a subject or do something on the site you should follow this guidance immediately.
   18. Do not engage in personal attacks against any moderators and admins.
       
       1. This includes direct attacks, sarcastic, passive-aggressive, or patronising remarks, and threatening language
       2. Should you feel you have been treated unfairly by a moderator or a moderator is behaving in a way that you feel is unacceptable, you may provide us with information about this via our contact form.
   19. Mini-modding is prohibited. This includes:
       1. Attempting to control what other members post
       2. Issuing warnings to other members
       3. Threatening to report a member, or telling a member they have been reported
       4. Telling a moderator how they should moderate
       5. Trying to bribe a moderator to take action against another member
   20. Do not discuss moderating decisions.
       1. You are more than welcome to privately message any moderator or admin if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of a situation in which you are directly involved
       2. The discussion of other members' punishments is strictly prohibited
       3. Any content alluding to the discussion of moderating decisions is liable to be removed without warning
   21. Do not share personally identifiable information. This includes:
       1. Full Names
       2. Addresses
       3. Contact Information
   22. Do not use game features for anything other than what they are intended for. This includes, but is not limited to:
       1. Using the trading center as an advertisement board or voting system.
       2. Posting sales posts in the chat anywhere other than on the Sales channel. This includes posts that may hint at potential sales.
       3. Posting roleplay related posts in the chat anywhere other than the Roleplay channel.
       4. Posting links to suggestion threads anywhere but the "Main" channel of the chat.
   23. Be patient when awaiting a response.
       1. Sometimes the chat room moves fast and it can be difficult for a staff member to reply to your concern in a timely manner.
       2. Alternatively, staff members may not be available to respond to your enquiry at that time. We ask that you be patient and wait.
       3. In some cases, a reply is not obligatory at all.
   24. Do not post petitions, demands, conspiracies or topics on circumventing the rules. 
   25. Do not post on behalf of a member who has lost their forum, chat or other account privileges. 
   26. Do not scam players.
       1. We have a strict anti-scamming policy. If you conduct a sale, raffle, or any other transaction that involves the verbal agreement of two (or more, including yourself) players on the game without using the game's in-built systems and you fail to hold up your side of the deal to the letter of your terms, you may have the entire transaction forcibly reversed by moderators. You may also be permanently banned from the site.
       2. Some transactions may have unenforceable terms and will not be protected under this rule.
       3. You may not list something as "free" or "without charge" if it requires a payment or other investment beforehand.
   27. Do not post content or link to content with leaked game information. 
   28. Do not try to control what other people do, or how other people play the game.

2. Accounts and Trading

   1. Do not create more than one (1) game account.
      1. Our staff use IP addresses to check for violations of this rule. If other members of your household wish to play, please message a moderator as soon as possible to avoid penalty which may include a permanent ban.
      2. There cannot be more than four accounts linked to users in the same household.
      3. We do not grant exceptions to households which already have four or more accounts.
      4. Should we discover more than four accounts in the household, we may impose an embargo on all accounts in that household to stop trading.
   2. Do not transfer or share game accounts, or create an account on behalf of someone else.
      1. Game accounts are for your personal use only.
      2. You must not transfer or allow someone else to use them whether or not in exchange for something.
      3. You are responsible if you lose anything (e.g., game currency or virtual items) as a result of illicit account sharing or transfer.
   3. Take reasonable care to keep your account log-in details confidential.
      1. Staff members will never ask you for your password.
      2. You must tell us immediately via the contact form of any apparent breach of security such as a password request.
   4. Do not log into game accounts that don't belong to you or request user passwords.
   5. Do not trade any game currency or virtual items for real money or any other form of non-Wolvden currency or asset.
   6. Do not trade any game currency or virtual items outside the trading functionality provided in the Trading Centre.
      1. We do not offer any support to "promise transactions". This is a type of transaction that doesn't take advantage of the implemented game's trading system or studding system to conduct a trade, studding, "reverse studding", or other action which involves an exchange of game assets.
      2. We STRONGLY advise that you do not transfer anything to other members on the promise that they will do something in return, e.g. breed your wolf and send her back, reserve future-bred pups for you, etc. If you do partake in a "promise transaction" then it is completely at your own risk.
      3. If you get burned by not getting your game assets back, we will not intervene.
      4. "Promise transactions" include refusal to use the trading center, in-game breeding system (trading studdings for items, for example) or any other method of secure transaction on Wolvden.

3. Cheating and other inappropriate game play

   1. The usage of scripts to play or cheat at the game is prohibited.
      1. "Script" on this website is defined as any program used to automate processes on the site, usually written in, though not limited to, javascript, PERL, CGI, PHP, or ASP.
      2. "Auto-refresher" systems where a user uses a program, script, browser or otherwise to repeatedly refresh the site are also strictly forbidden.
   2. Do not cheat or attempt to damage gameplay for other users by excessively using resources. This includes, but is not limited to:
      1. Auto-refreshing.
      2. Repeatedly hitting F5 or refresh and opening hundreds of tabs at once to load several pages at the same time.
      3. All pages should be fully loaded before being refreshed.
   3. Do not funnel items/currency between accounts. Wolvden reserves the right to place an embargo to any accounts considered to be funneling. This includes but is not limited to:
      1. Excessively transferring game items, currency and wolves between two accounts usually for the purpose of directly benefitting one account to receive an unfair advantage.
   4. Any group collaborations (e.g. member partnerships) must be mutually beneficial for each member involved.
      1. For example, if items are being collected, all members must be able to use those items and not have the items all for exclusive use of a single account. The promise of pups does not equal all items being concentrated onto one or two studs.
   5. Do not exploit bugs, glitches or loopholes.
      1. Users are obligated to report any bugs, glitches, or loopholes immediately.
   6. Referring a friend using the in-game referral feature to receive points should not be incentivised in any way. This includes, but is not limited to:
      1. Offering in-game or off-site rewards for signing up and rolling over enough to earn the referral points.
   7. Due to GDPR regulations and the need to protect our members, we cannot allow any outside script that detects and stores user activity and private user data. We cannot guarantee that the sites which harvest this data are using it appropriately and therefore we cannot in good conscience allow them to be used on Wolvden. This includes, but is not limited to:
      1. User tracking scripts
      2. Hit counters