Kongregate's Discord Community Guidelines

Welcome!

If you haven't joined us on Discord yet, click here to join the server.

First things first: using Discord means agreeing to follow Discord's Community Guidelines. Secondly, when using Kongregate.com, Kongregate games, or participating in Kongregate communities, we ask that all users follow Kongregate's User Code of Conduct.

---

Moderation

Moderators are present in chat to help keep the vibes chill and the chat clean. They do this by enforcing the rules laid out on Discord, all of which are aimed at keeping the server positive and constructive.

To make sure there is a feeling of fairness, our moderation system relies on a system of warnings: when a rule is broken, the person breaking it will receive a warning from a moderator.

If a person acquires several warnings, they may receive a temporary mute. As more and more mutes are acquired, the mute duration is increased, eventually resulting in a ban from the server.

We ask that our members follow and our moderators enforce the "spirit of the rules" which purposefully leaves room for interpretation. Moderators may remove messages or issue a warning at their discretion, even for items that aren't explicitly included in the rules. But again, it will only be in the interest of keeping members safe and maintaining a positive community.

 

Server Rules: Explanations and Examples

Be Polite

• Share feedback respectfully. We love hearing your thoughts about our projects, the community, and more... but be aware that you're more likely to be heard (and avoid moderation) if you can share criticism constructively.
• Don't be toxic. Toxicity can take many forms, but most people can agree that toxicity drains the fun out of everything and everyone around it. Sometimes toxicity can mean being excessively negativity: never having anything positive to say, always framing opinions in the worst and negative light. Toxicity can also be needless, unprompted aggression: jumping to disagree with anyone or attack a person who said something the toxic person doesn't like. Please keep in mind that someone else acting toxic first does not give you permission to be toxic in response.
• No personal attacks, doxxing, or any other form of harassment. Like toxicity, harassment can take many forms making it difficult to clearly define. Typically the difference between harassment and banter is how much both people are enjoying the conversation. We understand that without additional cues such as body language and tone it's easy to misread such a situation. Our suggestion is to be mindful of how often you make a specific community member part of a joke; too frequently can often lead to someone feeling harassed. Additionally, try to maintain a healthy balance of poking and fun and showing kindness to keep the overall tone positive.
• No dirty laundry here, use DMs. If you do have a personal level conflict with another member of our server, we ask that you keep it personal. Such conversations can take a while and often require a lot of typing until they are resolved. We respect the need for people to resolve conflict between them, but doing so on one of our public channels pushes all other conversations to the wayside. Please limit these kind of conversations to private, one-on-one messages. If you would like help from a moderator or community manager in dealing with a problematic community member, please send private message or use the moderation button on our create a support ticket channel.
• Don’t be rude to new people. We were all new to the server at some point! Newcomers will have plenty of questions and make plenty more mistakes before they adjust to the culture of our community. It may be tiring to repeat the same answers over and over, but your expertise and your kindness can go a long way in keeping our server welcoming to everyone. Please remember, Kongregate's Discord server is part of our efforts to modernize the chat features of Kongregate.com. Many of the people joining our server are joining their first ever public Discord server.

Keep the chat ~PG13

• No NSFW Content. We have a wide variety of games which means we also have a diverse community of all ages. Please avoid using profanity, crude slang, or sharing any overtly sexual, vulgar, or generally-NSFW content on any of our channels.
  • Rule of Thumb: use the language you would if you were talking to a 14-year-old niece/nephew. It's fine to drop some light swears, but don't overdo it and avoid any unsavory topics.
• No offensive or triggering content. If someones finds a specific topic uncomfortable, we ask that you respect their feelings and discuss the topic later or not at all. We won't immediately come down on you for an honest mistake, but we also won't tolerate ignoring requests to stop.
  • "but I didn't say anything wrong" - Just because something isn't directly said; doesn't mean it can't be (or even just feel) implied. This rule is about creating a comfortable environment for everyone present.
  • "but my freedom of speech" - We are a private organization trying to give the fans of our games a relaxing place to hangout. We will remove any one person if their actions are ruining that experience for multiple other people.
• Do not glorify violence, murder, incest, etc. These topics are never okay for our server. Violence is present in a lot of games, and therefore, a certain level of "fantasy" violence is permitted as long as it isn't TOO graphic. Real life examples however are not allowed. We understand that the real world is a violent place where these things happen, but our server is not the place to bring them to the forefront of our thoughts.
• Don't filter dodge. We have a lot of games, but our chat filter is not one of them! Just because you outsmarted it, doesn't mean that what you did is okay. Using the word "duck" as an example, the kind of filter dodging that would get you in trouble might look like:
  
  • duk
  • duc
  • d |_| ck
  • d🇺ck

Post Quality Content

• Stay on topic. Not everything has to be about Kongregate, but be aware that some rooms are topic-specific. Before you message, check the description and pins of the room.
• Don't spam. Our channels only have so much "bandwidth," so to speak. Excessive messaging clogs up that bandwidth and makes it more difficult for others to participate in the conversation. Active participation is highly encouraged, but f you have a lot to say, we just ask that you keep it concise, relevant to the specific conversation that is taking place, and that you make sure you're giving others a chance to chat as well. Examples of spam can include:
  • Distracting or excessive use of GIFs, images, emojis, stickers, ascii art, etc.
  • Attempts to evade bots/moderation, such as using ascii art in place of prohibited content.
  • Saying the same thing over and over again, especially when it serves no purpose and has no contribution to the community.
  • Sending multiple messages in rapid succession
• Be Honest. Don't pretend to be other players or devs. We know it can be funny, but it  also can confuse people and cause harm. Additionally do not state assumptions as fact, make up quotes, or engage in any other behavior meant to spread false information and disrupt the community. Impersonation of a moderator or Kongregate staff member will result in an immediate ban.
• Help limit the impact of harmful content. This can include information about hacks, cheats, and account selling. We ask that you do not post ANY details in any of our channels. Instead, send the details directly to [e-mail] or our use the create a support ticket channel. We take these issues very seriously and ask that you do as well.
  • Irregardless of how good its intentions are, harmful content also includes posts about protests, boycotts, review bombs, server raids, or other disruptive behaviors.
  • Advertising is fine as long as it is in the appropriate channel. However, we may remove your link if we find it suspicious.

Chat Filter

We have a chat filter in place to automatically remove messages containing words we feel are inappropriate for our community. Triggering the chat filter can often be accidental and so the system will not automatically log a warning against you if you do. However, a moderator may still issue a warning if the attempted message or the context breaks any of our other guidelines. 

Judgement

We trust the judgement of our moderators, and ask that you do not harass them with messages such as, "What did I say? Show me which message broke which rule." These issues are often too "gray" to respond with such black and white answers. Our moderators primary responsibility is to keep our community inviting to people of all backgrounds. If you feel like a moderator has overreacted, feel free to reach out to one of our community managers. We will take the time to look into the incident and double check the moderator's decision. However, any judgements made by the community managers will be final.

If you are interested in becoming one of our trusted moderators, the application can be found here.