General rules

1. If a staff member asks you to stop a topic, leave an area, or change your behavior — do it. If you feel a request is unfair, open a ticket in our Discord and Management will review it.

2. Don’t follow, stalk, or target other players. Harassing behaviour includes griefing nearby towns, false reports, exploiting vulnerable players, or anything we consider disruptive.

3. Lava casts, cobble monsters, mass terrain destruction, or messy fires are not allowed in Overworlds. You can do those things in the Resource Worlds only.

4. Do not use anything that gives you an unfair edge over other players. This includes, but isn’t limited to: auto-clickers, taping down your keys, x-ray, baritone, fly hacks, kill/mob aura, and similar cheats. Check our Allowed Modifications List — if your mod isn’t listed, ask a staff member or open a ticket before using it.

5. Scamming players out of in-game money or items is not allowed. This includes false sales, renaming items to deceive, failing to pay after a trade, or manipulating prices through lies, collusion, or alt accounts.

Note: This rule only applies to trades involving items or currency. Personal agreements (e.g. avoiding a player or not joining a town) are not enforceable by staff.

6. Trapping other players without their consent is not allowed. This includes teleporting them into lava or deadly falls, luring them into PvP zones to kill them, or using redstone/builds to trap them. Play fair—don’t set malicious traps for unsuspecting players.

7. Inappropriate skins, usernames, or builds are not allowed. This includes NSFW content (sexual, gore, drugs), hate speech, or anything promoting discrimination of any kind. Let’s keep the server safe and welcoming for everyone.

8. Players are allowed up to two Java accounts each. If you live with someone who also plays and may share the same IP, please open a ticket sproutyourworld.com/ip-share to avoid issues with account limits.

9. Using an alternate account to bypass a punishment on your main account is strictly prohibited. All linked accounts may face further penalties if used to avoid a ban, mute, or other disciplinary actions.

10. If your actions show no intent to genuinely play and are clearly meant to disrupt, harm, or upset others, you will face severe punishment without warning. This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Advertising other Minecraft servers to steal players
2. Spamming offensive language, slurs, or hate speech
3. Doxxing or leaking someone’s private information
4. Attempting to lag/crash the server with machines or exploits
5. Abusing bugs or glitches for personal gain
6. Trading in-game items for real-world currency or goods (outside the SYW store)

Towny Rules

1. If you're outlawed from a town, you must leave immediately and stay at least 100 blocks away. If a player asks you to leave their plot, you must respect that and remain outside their plot borders.

2. Do not set warps in a town you don’t own without written permission from the mayor or an official resident. If asked by staff, you must be able to prove you had permission. If permission is revoked, you must remove the warp. Without permission, warps must be set 100+ blocks away from the town.

3. Do not exploit town roles or permissions to steal or sabotage. This includes:

1. Draining the town bank
2. Making the town fall/ruin on purpose
3. Stealing from plots
4. Raising taxes without notice
5. Kicking players for no reason
6. Using permissions that were given by mistake

4. Do not interfere with another town’s growth or builds. This includes:

1. Joining or gaining trust just to grief
2. Destroying builds without permission
3. Ring-claiming around towns
4. Ruining the outskirts with walls, TNT, lava/water pyramids, or grief builds

5. Do not spam town invites or invite players who haven’t shown interest. Always message first and ask if they’d like to join — respect their answer.

Please keep in mind that towns can have their own set of rules, as long as they don’t go against the official SYW server rules. If a player breaks a town-specific rule that isn’t covered by SYW’s official rules, staff will not take action — it’s up to the town to handle it.

Chat Rules

1. Maintain chat quality by avoiding spam, excessive capitalization, countdown posts, repeatedly asking for items/currency, using abnormal spacing, typing gibberish messages, or using unusual fonts.

2. General chat requires English communication. While brief expressions in other languages are welcome (such as "bonjour" or "gracias"), full conversations in non-English languages should be kept to private messages.

3. Keep moderation matters private. Discussion of any current or past disciplinary actions taken against yourself or other players on SYW is prohibited, whether these occurred on the game server or Discord.

4. Respect promotional boundaries. Only use designated channels like /advert for unprompted advertising. When directly asked, you may share your locations or services. Disguising advertisements through renamed auction items, public container placements, or direct distribution is not permitted.

5. Stay relevant with promotions. You may only promote content directly related to SYW, such as your SYW livestreams or SYW-focused Discord communities. Sharing personal social media or unrelated content is prohibited.

6. Maintain appropriate content standards. Our community includes players of all ages, so refrain from sharing sexual content, explicit drug references, detailed substance abuse discussions, violent imagery, or any other mature themes.

7. Practice respectful communication. Harassment in any form—including bullying, continuing to message players who've asked you to stop, or any verbal aggression—is prohibited.

8. Avoid direct personal attacks. Name-calling, targeted profanity, and deliberately hurtful remarks toward other players are not allowed. If you're joking with friends, please use private messages to prevent misunderstandings.

9. Keep divisive topics out of chat. Discussions about political affiliations, election choices, religious critiques, or related controversial subjects should be avoided to maintain a positive atmosphere.

10. Represent yourself honestly. Don't claim to be a staff member, imply you have administrative authority, or suggest you can issue penalties to other players.

11. Embrace diversity and inclusion. Discriminatory language or behaviour targeting any identity, including but not limited to homophobia, transphobia, sexism, or racism, will result in immediate action.

12. Accept moderation decisions. Don't try to circumvent communication restrictions through alternative methods like signs, books, block arrangements, renamed items, or secondary accounts. All issued penalties must be served as assigned.

Please be aware that rules 1-9 are not automatically monitored in private messages unless specifically reported. If you experience harassment or receive insulting messages in an unwanted manner (beyond friendly banter), and the sender continues after you've asked them to stop, please submit a report through our Discord. However, violations of rules 10-11 regarding staff impersonation and discrimination in private messages will be enforced regardless of whether they were formally reported.

Actions that create a hostile environment for others will not be tolerated, even when coordinated outside official SproutYourWorld platforms. If you spread rumours, misinformation, or negative gossip about another player on external platforms (such as other Discord servers or private groups) that leads to them being targeted, excluded, or isolated within SproutYourWorld, you will face appropriate consequences.

For example, distributing harmful falsehoods about someone and encouraging others to avoid them or ban them from towns with the intention of damaging their gameplay experience will be treated as harassment.

If you have legitimate concerns about another player, report them through proper channels rather than discussing them publicly. Personal disagreements that don't violate SproutYourWorld guidelines should remain private—allow other community members to form their own opinions without your influence. Issues that do violate our rules should be handled by staff through the reporting system rather than community gossip.

Remember that SproutYourWorld is designed as a place for creativity and enjoyment. Our community thrives when we focus on positive interactions rather than spreading negativity.