Rules

A quick rundown of the RULES verb

If you type Rules ingame and press enter, you will get the following list pop up. Please pay attention to them. (Someone else tidy this shit up, I don't know how to make wikis look good but I'm tired of people going "But it doesn't say that rule on the wiki".

• THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST. RULES CAN CHANGE ROUND BY ROUND. IF IN DOUBT, ADMINHELP BEFORE YOU ACT.

• Ensure your name is sensible (but we do like a good pun name). Please put a capital at the start of it otherwise byond gets a bit odd. Do not be stupid and name yourself "Syndicate Operate #3" or anything like that, or chances are you'll just end up dead quickly.
• Don't murder, injure or excessively harass other players when you have been given no permission to do so.
• Do not report ingame activities in the ooc channel.
• NEVER act on what happened during previous rounds in the current round.
• No racism, anime, furries, memes, whining, spamming, advertising, or creepiness. Even "ironically" or "roleplaying" it. No, we don't care that you're really gay / black / whatever in real life. Don't use bigoted language.
• Follow instructions given by admins, and answer any questions asked by them. When PMed by an admin, click their name to respond. Do it quickly. Don't ignore admin PMs or log off when being PMed by an admin.
• Don't tell the admins what to do, or demand that they do things.
• Don't dispute admin decisions. If they say it's not allowed, it's not allowed. The rules list is not a comprehensive set.
• Never log in with more than one BYOND account during one round.
• If something bad happens to you, adminhelp it. Do not OOC it.
• Don't dispute the rules or complain about bans.
• Don't make pointless adminhelp or prayer requests. Admins receive all adminhelps in the IRC channel, and will respond when they can. If you aren't an idiot.
• The Goonservers are light roleplay servers. Serious/hard RP is not required but Weedgoku420 will find himself in space very quickly.
• If you see a rule being broken, adminhelp it with full information - "Mark Henry is killing James in hydroponics" will likely be investigated. "zomg makr herni is griffing me" will not be.
• Memes from the internet will likely get you gibbed - "moar" "over 9000" "I can has toolbox" for example. Don't do it, even ironically.
• The rules list is not the be-all and end-all. Admin discretion will be exercised.

The Rules of the Goonservers are there to ensure an enjoyable and finely regulated RP experienggpffhfhahhahaha okay no. The rules are pretty much there so we can just weed out annoying fuckwits and other detriments to the server. I suppose the net effect of this is that the playability increases for good players after all!
Bear in mind that the rules are not enforced to the letter and only the letter!
The spirit of the rules is what gets enforced, so things that are not on any rules list but are undoubtedly shit will still get you punished/banned, so don't go trying to lawyer your way out of being shit - it won't work and you'll look like an absolute tool to boot!

The Rules

Don't Grief

Injuring or killing crew, sabotaging or destroying the station, uploading AI laws allowing the AI to murder people, and otherwise fucking shit up for other players without a good reason to be doing so is considered Griefing. There is a line between greifing and permissible shenanigans, but it is subjective and up to the presiding admin to decide.
What constitutes a good reason to injure, kill and destroy? One or more of the following:

• You are an enemy of the station and/or crew (Traitor, Operative, Wizard, Changeling, Zombie, Alien)
• An admin has given you permission or told you to do it.
• The guy you're killing is a confirmed enemy of the station (be sure before you kill!)

Note that monkeys are not enemies of the station, except in Monkey Mode.
The following are NOT reasons to engage in wanton carnage:

• You think the person is AFK or logged out
• RPing a psychopath/lunatic/malfunctioning AI/anything (aka the Mad Bomber Rule)
• One or more people (including yourself) think the round is boring
• The station is a wreck/everyone's dead/everything's going to hell
• The round is about to end anyway (this ceases to be applicable once the shuttle leaves)
• Self-defense (just call security or incapacitate them - exceptions made for Operative and Wizard)
• The victim has a potentially dangerous job such as Scientist, Clown, Janitor or Chemist
• NO REASON
• Any other reason that isn't on the list above this one

IC/OOC

IC in OOC

Don't say anything that's going on in the current round in the OOC or Goonsay channels, especially if it's sensitive info that pertains to the round mode. Don't try to wiggle around it by tacit or cute omission either - if it gets called out as IC in OOC, then it's IC in OOC. End of story. The following are all examples of IC in OOC:

• "Help, the traitor's killing me!"
• "I hate wet floors."
• "Who are those guys in the red suits?"
• "My screen went black, what happened?"
• "Oh god, Killer Tomatoes in Cargo Bay!"

Consider that people are not so stupid as you think - more info can be discerned from a statement than just the words alone. "I hate wet floors" may look innocuous, but it more than likely states that you just slipped over, and the Janitor is presumably at fault.
Exceptions will be made in some circumstances, mostly when the info given pertains entirely to yourself and no other players, and/or you need help with something. For example:
"I'm the AI!" - This is fine. Pretty pointless, but fine.
"I'm the Wizard!" - Not ok. Other players don't know it's Wizard mode, so you gave away round information.
"I'm the AI, how do I open doors?" - Fine, and encouraged - if you don't know how to play something normal, asking in OOC can get you pointed to the information you need more often than not. The AI is a normal job present in most rounds, so the players pretty much expect one to be present - thus announcing the presence of one doesn't leak any sensitive info. Since OOC is now off during the game by default, general non-spoilery gameplay questions like this can be asked over the radio.
"What does Knock do?" - Not ok. Again, you leaked the round mode by stating a Wizard spell, even if it was for a fairly innocent purpose. If you need info on something unusual, look it up on the wiki or adminhelp it - don't OOC it!

OOC in IC

OOC in IC comes up less often and isn't as bad of an offense as IC in OOC, but it's still not allowed for reason that it's pretty dumb. However, this goes beyond just words - using any information gleaned from outside the round itself is forbidden. This is kind of difficult to come up with examples for given how rarely this comes up, but the main application we see is grudging.
To give an example of Grudging, lets say Jimmy Poo kills you one round and it turned out he wasn't the traitor - that shouldn't have happened, but perhaps he slipped through the admin's fingers in one way or another. It happens. Or maybe it was a special situation(god told him to do it, he was a rev that was dereved or maybe the killer wasn't the real Jimmy Poo). Next round, you hunt down and kill Jimmy Poo because he killed you last round - this is not okay! Each round is it's own round, and nothing from past rounds should factor into it.
Another OOC in IC issue is using IC in OOC information. For an example, Jimmy Poo kills the captain, and the captain OOCs that. Do not use this as a reason to arrest/kill Jimmy Poo.
Also while saying "I was afk" usually isn't frowned upon, using OOC parentheses, such as "((I was afk))" or even worse, "((lol i'm new))" is not allowed.

Don't Be a Bigot/Creep

Bigotry of any form isn't acceptable on the servers. This includes all "in character" communication or actions—don't roleplay a homophobe, racist, sexist, or otherwise bigot. At minimum you will receive a warning or be gibbed, and if you do not stop, you could be permanently banned. There is no acceptable excuse for using bigoted language. We don't care if you are gay, black, Latina/o, etc. in real life—don't use bigoted language, period. This also applies to names, including spoonerisms (e.g. "Digger Nick").

Creepiness is also unacceptable. This includes rape jokes or roleplaying sex, sexual harassment/assault, or rape. Basically, if it involves your genitals, it doesn't belong here. You will be banned for any of these.

Don't Multikey

Using more than one account per round to play is forbidden. This is most often done when a player dies, so that they can hop on another account and just avoid being dead - death is death! Once you're dead, you're out of the round until you're revived/respawned or the next round comes about. Don't try to lie about it - we'll know.
If you have siblings or friends who are playing on different computers in the same house/network, please adminhelp it so there's no risk of you being accidentally banned as a multikeyer. Please note that even in these instances, using multiple accounts from the same computer is not allowed.

Don't Shit up Chat Channels

In any of the chat channels, ingame or otherwise, don't do any of the following:

• Talk about BYOND Medals
• Make anime faces (O_O >_> XD and so forth, but faces like =) and :S are okay)
• Talk about anything to do with anime, japan or furries
• Be bigoted, creepy, whiny, annoying or needlessly hostile - doing these "ironically" is entirely at your own risk
• Argue like a prick with other players (if you can somehow argue and NOT look like a prick, that's fine)
• Asking the admins to do things ("Let's have an alien round!" or the like)
• Acting like an attention whore in OOC or on Goonstation-related chat/forums, especially if you got banned
• Spam anything
• Advertise anything
• Constantly spam announcements such as the payroll

The last one is kind of metagamey. Spamming "JIMMY POO KILLED ME HES THE TRAITOR" over and over will get you banned in short order - saying it at all will probably get you a slap at the least. However, being obtuse and spooky like a stereotypical ghost such as saying "Beware the shitty one" is fine.

Don't Metagame

Don't operate with information you 'shouldn't' have or otherwise cheat the roundtype - clarification and more information here.

Don't Piss off the Admins

Somewhat subjective between admins, but doing anything that will piss them off is against the rules. This includes more direct applications such as arguing with admins, being snarky or irritating, and otherwise getting up in our faces about shit - this also includes less direct things such as taking doing anything remotely animey such as naming your character something japanese or "ironically" roleplaying a racist. This varies between admin to admin, but generally if it's not completely shit you won't get in trouble over it.

Don't Not Read the Rules

Admitting or otherwise displaying in any way that you didn't read the rules (including breaking them) is shit and will get you punished. This obviously comes up with it's own examples so there's no need to elaborate any further! This also extends to complaining that the rules are dumb or wrong.

Breakin' da Law

Oh dear, it looks like you decided to completely ignore the rules like a complete jackass! What will happen if you break the rules? One or more of the following:

Warning

Simply being told to quit what you're doing ingame, either by direct PM or a "voice in your head". Disobeying this is a pretty bad idea - you'll probably get punished harder if you ignore a warning.

Muting

Rarely used, but extant nonetheless. Muting just stops you from talking, both on ingame channels and in OOC/Goonsay. Normally used on people running their mouths in some way that isn't bannable.

Prison

Your character will be sent to the Punishment Dimension, where an admin (should) contact you shortly to interrogate you. Generally this is just a holding area and not a punishment in and of itself - if you can satisfy the admin that you weren't being shit, you'll be returned to the station. If not, banning will likely follow.
If you ever get sent here and an explanation or interrogation doesn't occur after a few minutes, adminhelp it.

Death and/or Humiliation

Usually reserved for things which are shit but not quite bannable, such as incessantly whining or doing a great impression of The Serious. If you're not reduced to a pile of mushy gibs or struck dead on the spot you can expect to be made fat, stupid, a lizard, or other horrible things such as Centcom marking you for the crew to beat down. In these cases, bemoaning your fate will only make things worse.

Job Ban

Usually reserved for piss-poor performances in certain jobs (usually the more sensitive ones such as Captain or AI), this will prevent you from playing as the banned job until your ban is lifted. You can also be job banned from things that aren't quite jobs but are important, such as Traitor, Wizard, etc.
If you don't like playing as certain jobs so much that you don't even want the risk of being randomly selected for them, you can request a job ban on the jobs you really don't want to be. Requested job bans are not punitive measures, so don't worry about them becoming a black mark against you or anything like that.

Server Ban

Makes you unable to log onto the server until the ban expires. Pretty self-explanatory.
Permabans will never expire - they're reserved for the worst offenses.

Things to Know

Finally, just some general pointers and advice on the rules and adminnery in general.

Warnings Aren't Required

Don't complain that you didn't get a warning before being hit with punishment. If you're being sufficiently shit or breaking rules then it's obvious you didn't read them - ignorance of THE LAW is no excuse!

Different Admins have Different Styles

Some admins enforce some rules more harshly than others. None of the admin crew really has much of a problem with this for the most part, unless permabans are being handed out like it's banmas and Banta Claus is in town. You should never break any of the rules of course, but if you do then don't whine that you were on the receiving end of a less lenient admin's wrath when you did.

Punishments are Case by Case

How much someone else got punished for the same offense is of no relevance to your own punishment. Unless there's a flagrant difference between the two (example: Jimmy Poo got 30 minutes for hitting someone with an extinguisher, and you got a permaban)

What to do about Admin Bullshit

The Appeal Forum exists so that we can detect any badmin activity going on and put a stop to it before we start losing good players. If you think you were banned or otherwise punished with shitty reasoning (or if you think someone else's treatment was bullshit) then go to the Unban Appeals section for requesting your ban be overturned, or the Admin Complaints section for calling out any other bullshit.
Bear in mind that your definition of bullshit may vary wildly from that of others - your circumstances will be called as what they are! Also read the forum rules or you'll be subjected to a viciously ego-shattering drubbing.

Hilarity Clause

Oft cited but seldom used these days. The Hilarity Clause basically goes that if you make a transgression against the rules but do so in a manner which is sufficiently entertaining or funny, you'll receive no punishment for your actions. Bear in mind that "funny" is entirely relative and it is purely up to the admins to decide if you were funny enough or not - also bear in mind that we've seen many things a lot of times before. If you're going to shoot for this rule, be original. Copycatting someone else's shtick won't end well for you.

Sploded Clause

If you are and have been a consistently terrible player for a long time, the admins can ban you purely based your history alone and do not need any further excuse or cause. The enforcement of this rule generally requires several admins to be in agreement that you are utter shit before taking any action, so you essentially have to be shit for a very long time and get on a lot of people's nerves before this will become applicable.
Named after Sploded, aka Dr. Von Overdose, a terminally shitty player who would constantly grief and fuck things up for other players while adminhelping anything that happened to him. This is not something to be proud of!

Lord Doom Clause

The rules do not apply to Lord Doom. This works both ways.
He can do anything he wants to you, but on the other hand you can also do anything you want to him with no fear of consequences. This only applies to Lord Doom and never anyone else.

My Little Pony Clause

Unless you turn out to actually be a 6 year old girl, visiting a Goonstation server with a character name from the My Little Pony series or in some other way alluding to your love of said television series will result in moderate to high levels of admin abuse followed by a ban of varying length. It's fine that you really like a television show but if you are unable to express yourself without referring to people as ponies, these are not the servers for you to be playing on.

Rules Clarifications

Confirmed Enemy Role

A confirmed enemy role is someone who:

• is caught with their own unlocked traitor PDA
• is named an obvious syndicate name like funkworks head or the like
• is a changeling confirmed with either a blood test or you, personally, saw them do something changeling-y
• is obviously a wizard (wearing wizard clothes, casting spells, etc etc)
• has traitor gear with their fingerprints on it (or no fingerprints at all if they're wearing gloves) and no believable story as to how they got it

A confirmed enemy role is NOT someone who:

• hits you with a Fire_Extinguisher and farts in your face
• picked up an emag that has like six other dudes' fingerprints on it (but now you have a list of people to hunt down and interrogate)
• gets pointed at in the centcom report - those are guesses, and are often wrong!
• says IM A TRATER LOL on the radio. Come on.
• really pisses you off like way bad oh my god that guy is such an asshole can we just kill him already

If they're not a confirmed enemy role, don't murder them! Yes, Chef, this means you, you can't just gib anyone who you can find. Stop stuffing living people in the fucking gibber argh

Metagaming

Metagaming has two distinct but equally shitty definitions here. First, don't use information you 'shouldn't' have or otherwise break the round. Here are some examples (not an exhaustive list):

• Rushing the Syndicate shuttle to steal the nuke as soon as you figure out it's a nuke round
• Tearing around the station stealing all the flashes as a head or security officer on the off chance it's a revolution round. Note that this is probably okay to do once you've figured out it's a rev round, but stealing the flashes 'just in case' is shit.
• Rushing the Wizard's shuttle to peek in the window and see if it's a wizard round right at the beginning.

If you're an important role - like the AI, one of the Heads, or one of the various enemy player roles - and you have to log out, please adminhelp it beforehand just so we know.

Second, don't talk to other players of the game outside of it. Chatting on Skype with your bros is OK, chatting on Skype with your bros when you're both playing on the same server is not. A huge part of the gameplay of SS13 hinges on lies and deception, and that goes all to hell when you've effectively got two pairs of eyes and ears. If you want to communicate with another player, use the radio, PDA messaging, or the mail system (nobody uses the mail system). Sure, we don't know what other programs you're running, but when one players starts getting robusted, and another one IMMEDIATELY comes to his rescue when not a word was spoken and the second person had no way to know the attack was happening - yeah it's not hard to tell what's up. Don't do this, it's one of the only ways possible to really CHEAT and it's shitty as hell.