Griefing

## Grief

Part of the third Rule of Rhapsody, Griefing is listed as against the rules.

### What is Griefing

Griefing refers to the action of breaking, destroying, damaging, or altering someone else's placed blocks, structures or builds. This can happen both intentionally and unintentionally, but it is typically easy to spot when it happens on purpose.

## What is considered grief?

**It IS considered grief when**:

(*All of these offenses are logged- staff can see if you've done this*)

* **You break blocks of a player-built structure that is not yours for any reason**.
	+ Breaking blocks placed by another player;
	+ Breaking paintings, item frames, armor stands, or leads;
	+ Breaking and subsequently replacing blocks in order to gain access to a locked building.
* **Breaking any natural blocks that can be reasonably said to form an integral part of another player's construction.**
	+ Breaking logs or other naturally-occurring blocks that are used as part of buildings
	+ Breaking purposefully-planted trees or grass or other plants used as decoration
	+ Breaking natural walls of underground dwellings;
	+ Removing or blocking decorative water/lava blocks
	+ Digging up ground under houses.
* **Placing any blocks on or around another player's work that affect it undesirably.** (*desirability is determined by the owning player*)
	+ Blocking entrances;
	+ Placing dirt or other undesirable blocks on buildings;
	+ Placing ladders or stacks of blocks to bypass walls;
	+ Building bridges to bypass moats;
	+ Placing water or lava buckets on others' work or near their work in such a way that the flow of lava or water affects their work;
	+ Placing torches or other blocks to impede the construction of a build;
	+ Surrounding a town or structure with unsightly builds.
* **Destroying 'abandoned' buildings not owned by you without specific staff permission**
	+ Creations owned by players who are now banned
	+ Creations built in a town you created. You still did not create that building. (see "Permissions in relation to cooperative builds or towns" below)
	+ Creations built by players who have not been on the server for a long time
* **Breaking a block and then putting it back afterward.**
	+ Removing blocks to allow access through walls or floors or ceilings and then replacing them;
	+ Removing and then replacing any block not originally placed by you.
* **Using pistons to "move" a block not owned by you.**
	+ Using a piston to open a doorway through a wall or ceiling that isn't yours,
	+ Using pistons to modify, move, shift, damage or in any way alter someone else's constructions.
* **Fishing items out of places**.
	+ Using a fishing rod to pull items out of frames.
* **You kill pets (named animals within an enclosure or private space) that belong to another player for any reason. (including if they attack you.)**
	+ You murder a tamed mob;
	+ You murder a mob named with a name tag;
	+ You murder a mob that had an inventory containing items. (donkey with a chest, mule with a chest, alpaca with a carpet, horse with armor ect.);
	+ You murder a mob tied to a fence or wall by a lead.

## What is not considered grief?

**It is NOT considered grief when**:

* You are cleaning up someone else's long vacated starter structure or a random noob pole.
* You are breaking/modifying a naturally occurring structure like a stronghold or a village. (as long as nobody has obviously claimed those structures to live in)
* You are passing through or traveling through someone else's area. (protected or not)
* Changing mob spawner types.
* Eating cake, even if it is the last slice.
* Killing players during PVP.
* Using anvils, even if it breaks the anvil.
* Breaking or placing boats and minecarts.
* Harvesting crops, so long as crops that are not naturally occurring are subsequently replanted.
* Connecting to a piece of public infrastructure, such as a road or pathway. (Note that this means simply placing blocks to directly connect to the road. Breaking blocks or placing blocks/obstructing the road is grief.)
* Activating or deactivating redstone creations (via levers, buttons, pressure plates, ect.)
* Opening and closing doors.
* Adjusting repeaters and the orientation of objects inside item frames.
* Assisting other players in building with their consent.
* Approved modification or takeover of confirmed abandoned buildings, only when staff has given prior approval for the action
* Attempting to break or modify blocks within protected areas. However, if you are not sure if it is protected, and it breaks, you will face the consequences for grief as normal. If in doubt, it is a good idea to leave it alone.
* Cleaning up after addition-grief a griefer caused to your own build. If someone adds to your build without your permission, you are, of course, permitted to break the unwanted blocks without penalty. However, it is much better to report grief you find on your builds/structures and leave it intact until an auxiliary can roll it back for you, as it makes their job much easier.
* Placing and breaking your own Shulkers to access its contents. The nature of a Shulker requires it to be placed to access its contents, unless it is intentionally left behind then it is not grief to temporarily place a Shulker.
* Killing farm animals contained in pens, as long as they do not have a name or an inventory, and you breed them before culling. (horse, mules, donkeys, and alpacas all have inventories.).
* Taking from any unlocked container.

Bear in mind that many of the destructive actions listed above, such as breaking minecarts - while not strictly grief - are broadly considered "a dick move". If a player persists in carrying them out with malicious intent, that player may attract staff intervention of some form.

## Permissions in relation to cooperative builds or towns

In terms of permissions within a town or a settlement, the title of “mayor” or “town owner” carries no weight in light of the server rules, as they too are regular players that must abide by them. In general, if the “town owner” wishes to remove a build that is not theirs in their town, then they cannot modify that build in any way as that would be grief, nor could they ask another player who is not the owner of the build to demolish it. The next step in this would be to contact the player who built it to ask for permission. If they so choose, they can contact an administrator who may or may not decide to move the build.

The most clear method that allows a “town owner” to get **tangible permission** to modify the player’s build for both players and staff to identify permissions within towns would be signs stating who has ownership/permissions to which builds. A town member can place a sign, which can be verified by an admin if a dispute were to arise, stating that they give the “town owner” permission to remove or modify the build.

## Why not use editing protection?

We would rather have a server with players we can trust to respect each others' work, than force players to protect their work in neat partitioned boxes to avoid grief. Therefore, we choose to invest in building up an amazing community and highly reliable moderator team, rather than using such artificially restrictive modifications. As a result, we choose to permanently exclude harmful elements from the community, and ensure we maintain a trustworthy playerbase with whom you can enjoy sharing a world.

We have occasionally had players log on and break blocks, then claim they were "helping" us by checking to see if something was protected so they could warn the owner. As we don't commonly utilize editing protection (with the exception of the spawn areas), obviously they'll not find much that is protected, and we don't need or want this kind of "help". This is not a valid exception to our Grief rule because our rule does not have exceptions. Regardless of your claims of intention, breaking others' blocks without permission is still grief and still bannable. Don't do it.

## Consequences

* If you break the No Griefing policy**, you will not be warned** (especially if you are offline). **You will be permanently banned**. In the rare case that it was accidental and you happen to be online at the time, we will not immediately ban you- but we will kindly direct you to this page while giving you a good chance to explain yourself.

## What can I do if somebody griefs me?

If you have any problems in-game or in chat, please immediately inform an auxiliary (staff). This can be achieved by typing "*@Auxiliary*" into chat.