Zero-K:Code of Conduct

Summary

Treat other players with respect and do not lose your temper.

DO

• Be polite.
• Help new players.
• Be patient with new players.
• Play team games as if you will play to the end.
• Cooperate with your team.

DO NOT

• Be disruptive, rage or grief.
• Go all-in against the wishes of your team.
• Reveal information when spectating.
• Cheat.
• Dodge your penalties.
• Post or link to pornographic content or sites.
• Make multiple accounts needlessly

Code of Conduct - General rules of Zero-K community

Zero-K strives to create a welcoming and friendly gaming environment. This Code of Conduct outlines our expectations for members of the Zero-K community. We ask that you abide by this code in public games, in public chat, and in the public forums.

1. Respect Other Players

Be mindful of your language and tone when talking with others. Good-natured banter is tolerated; being hostile and abusive is not. Be especially polite with new players: do not insult them or otherwise make them feel unwelcome.

Don't be hostile or abusive when other players play poorly or ignore your advice. Don't blame others for a loss. Don't direct your frustration at others.

When spectating, respect the players' right to play without disruption. Do not heckle. Avoid excessive public commentary, and avoid all public commentary if the players want you to stop interrupting. When playing or in a battleroom, do not excessively call votes. Do not flood chat with messages or otherwise attempt to annoy others or disrupt games.

We do not tolerate language that is abusive, bigoted, racist or sexist.

2. Help New Players

Offer new players friendly advice. Help them with any issues they may have. Mentor them and teach them how to play. Be forgiving of their mistakes and be sympathetic when they fail to perform well.

When playing with new players on your team, offer them advice on how they can best help the team and improve their game. However, do not expect or demand that they follow your advice, and do not insult or abuse them if they do not listen to you.

3. Cooperate With Your Team

When playing in a team game, do your best to coordinate with your teammates and to work for the mutual success of the whole team. Communicate your intentions. Ask for help when needed and offer it to others when they need it. Understand that not everyone on your team will be willing or able to communicate and cooperate to the same degree; have patience with them and do your best even so.

Do not pursue all-or-nothing strategies without the consent of your team. Gambling the game on a risky move without their consent robs your teammates of their agency. You're free to try any strategy as long as you inform your team and they agree to it. The more risky, extreme, or unusual the strategy is, the more important it is to obtain your team's agreement before you start. Play as if you mean to play a full game.

Do not resign just because an early risky strategy failed (unless the entire team wishes to resign). Such failures are often salvageable but become much harder to salvage if one player resigns. If the rest of your team wants to try to salvage it, resigning would be disrespectful; they are counting on the whole team to play the full game.

Do not grief. Do not teamkill. Do not try to make your team lose. Do not sabotage your team or any of your teammates. Do not do things in a game just to cause problems for other players. Do not deliberately play poorly in order to ruin the game. Note that using strategies or tactics that others disagree with is not griefing and is allowed, as long as you are attempting in good faith to play well and are not trying to ruin others' enjoyment of the game.

4. Maintain Fairness

Do not cheat. Cheating includes using any method that would give you information that is usually obscured by the fog of war. Helper widgets that control your units, sound warnings, place marks etc. are fine. If you make a particularly useful widget it is nice to release it to the community. Zero-K is built on open source and this is one of the ways we receive improvements.

Avoid giving out information while spectating unless you are sure that all participants in the game would not mind. If you resign and begin spectating, leave your former team to play out the remainder of the game without your input. Even innocuous-seeming information can sway a game, so it is best to be cautious. Feel free to discuss the game in spectator chat (hotkey Alt + Enter).

5. Abide by Moderator Actions

Moderator arbitration is intended to resolve disputes, not prolong them; as such, we expect you to respect and abide by their decisions. Do not try to avoid penalties such as mutes and bans by using other accounts; mute/ban dodging of any kind is punishable by immediate banning of any alternate accounts used and an extension or increase in the original penalty.

Moderators use their best judgement in deciding when to impose penalties and how severe to make them. They consult with each other to ensure their judgement is appropriate and fair. When reviewing potential violations of this Code of Conduct, moderators apply the spirit rather than the letter of the law. Warnings are preferred over penalties, but penalties can and will be applied where warnings are ignored or the severity of the violation warrants it. New players are given the benefit of the doubt; repeat offenders and verbally abusive players are not.

If you feel a moderator has acted unfairly, you may file a complaint using the "Contact administrators" button or (if absolutely necessary) on the forum and explain your position. Please be respectful to all parties when discussing the issue. Rants are highly unlikely to lead to a productive outcome and will often simply result in a thread lock.

6. Avoid inflammatory forum topics

Due to their highly inflammatory nature, political and religious discussions are relegated to the semi-hidden "asylum" section of the forum and the "#off-topic" channel in lobby and Discord. Please avoid bringing them up elsewhere. Note that even in these subforums/channels the other parts of the Code of Conduct still apply.

7. Multiple accounts

Don't cheat the rating/balancing system to appear less skilled/lower ranked, e.g. by creating new accounts ("smurfs"). Side accounts may be used for testing purposes.