Rules of conduct

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Play as hard as you like — argue, accuse, bluff. Attack the play, never the person. This page says what is not allowed, what the table does about it, what you can do if someone crosses the line, and how to appeal. The binding text is in the Terms; this page says the same thing shorter.

• Insults, hate and sexual remarks: a warning on the shared screen, then fouls. 4 fouls — out of the game.
• Insulted? Mute them for yourself, never sit together, or block — silently. Or send it to the players’ court.
• Every decision can be appealed.

Never a reason for a penalty

• Criticising the game, its coach, its prices or us — in a review, a post, a letter or at the table.
• Losing, playing badly, or voting against everybody else.
• A report you made in good faith that was not upheld.

What is not allowed

• Insult — attacking the person instead of their play: name-calling, mocking, humiliating.
• Hate — attacking someone for who they are: origin, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.
• Sexual remarks — about someone’s body or sex life, propositions, harassment.
• Swearing at a player. Swearing that is not aimed at anybody is not a foul by itself.
• Threats outside the game, and anything about harming yourself or someone else — a person always looks at these (see “The hard line” below).
• Anything sexual involving a child — straight to a person on our team, never to an automatic tool or a jury.

Game talk is never a violation: “you are mafia”, “you are lying”, “I vote against you”, “the mafia will shoot you tonight”. Being harsh about someone’s play is the game.

We do not publish word lists or how sure the check has to be: the rule is about meaning, not about a word.

What happens at the table

• Every live table starts with one line on the shared screen: “Insults and threats are a foul; 4 fouls — removal from the game; repeat offences — account restrictions.”
• Our own check, on our own server, reads each turn a person says at a live table when the turn ends — never a bot’s.
• An insult, hate or a sexual remark: everyone sees a warning on the shared screen, for example “Seat 4 — warning: insult.” Only the seat and the category — never your words, never who complained.
• The 2nd such turn in the same game is a foul. A clear case is a foul at once. A foul needs two signals that agree — our model and either our word list or our live abuse check; if the model is alone, you get a warning, never a foul.
• These fouls count together with all others: the 3rd — your next speech is skipped (you can still nominate or press “Pass”); the 4th — you are out of the game, with no last word.
• You alone see why: the category, your line as it was heard, that the automatic check decided it, and the button “This is a mistake”. For the first 7 days after the check goes live a person on our team reads it; after that, jurors of the players’ court (no names, only with your permission; otherwise, or with no decision in time, a person). If they agree, the table sees “Seat 4 — the warning is taken back.” or “Seat 4 — the foul is taken back.”
• A turn heard badly, a very short turn, or one in another language than the table’s gets only a private note — never a public warning or a foul.
• The check gives one account at most 6 warnings and fouls a day.
• The check acts only inside the game. It never pauses, restricts or closes an account — that is for the players’ court or a person.

If someone crosses the line

• Press “Report” at the table and pick the reason. The table is never told who reported.
• Then choose, for you only: “Mute them for me”, “Never seat us together” or “Block: mute and never seat together”. Nobody is told — not that player, not the table. Undo any time in your account (the reports tab).
• Or “Send to the players’ court”. You see only that it was sent; whether measures were taken is in your account after the game — never the details.
• Sending to the court needs an account at least 7 days old with a confirmed email; at most 3 a day, 10 minutes apart. If 2 of your court requests in 30 days are not confirmed, you get one warning; at 3, sending to the court pauses for 14 days. Muting and blocking always work.

The players’ court

• A restriction on an account is never decided by a model. Players decide it — or, where the law needs it, a person on our team.
• When a case opens: the automatic check also acted on that player in that game, or at least 2 players with no link to each other reported them. Players in one club, invited by one another, or on the same network count as one. A case also opens by itself when a player has been removed from 2 games for fouls within 30 days.
• Who judges: random players with no link to the case (3 jurors) — at least 14 days on the site, 5 finished live games, no foul or restriction of their own in the last 30 days. Never anybody from that table, from a club with either side, invited by either side, or who played with either side in the last 7 days. That is while players are few; when there are enough players: 5 jurors, 4 votes of 5, 20 finished live games.
• What they see: the category and the line as it was heard, with every name replaced — a nickname, and a first name or a contact said aloud — never an account, a name, who reported, or what anybody chose for themselves. Jurors read your lines only with your permission — a separate, optional tick on the sheet before your first live table or in your account, off until you tick it; otherwise a person on our team reads the case. Before the first case a juror ticks one line, «I keep cases confidential».
• The decision: 2 “violation” votes of 3 are needed. No decision within 72 hours — the case closes and nothing happens.
• What a decision does: your voice is muted at public live tables — 24 hours the first time, then 3 days, then 7 days; the 4th within 90 days pauses live tables for 7 days. Club tables, private rooms and practice with bots are never affected, and you can always play with buttons and hand signs.
• Never to a jury: threats, harming oneself or others, anything about a child — a person on our team decides.
• Appeal: the main reasons are in your account. You can appeal once, within 14 days, to a new jury; if it clears you, the restriction is lifted at once. After that you can ask a person on our team to look at it.

The soft ladder — leaving, going silent, fouls

This applies only to live tables with other people. A table with bots is never paused.

• Leaving a live game — or missing your turn 3 times in a row, which counts as leaving — hands your seat to a bot until that game ends; a lost connection gets 120 seconds to come back to the seat, then a bot plays it; a lost connection counts as a leave only if you do not come back to that game before it ends, and if the game ends in those 120 seconds its result still counts. Leaving one game several times counts once. It is free the first two times in your last 10 games.
• The third time pauses live tables for 10 minutes; the next, 30 minutes; the next, 24 hours; after that, 3 days — and never more for this.
• At the table the host gives fouls for speaking out of turn: the 3rd is a minute of silence, the 4th removes you from that table, and a removal always counts toward the ladder — the two free passes do not apply to it. A moderator — a person — may give the same foul for insulting or swearing at players on a turn our check flagged or a complaint named; it counts on the same ladder, you are shown the line and the rule, and you can appeal with one tap. Our automatic check can also warn or give a foul by itself — see “What happens at the table” above.
• Every finished game earns a little of it back. Nobody stays at the bottom for good.
• Joining and leaving the queue for a live table 3 times within 10 minutes, before the table sets off, pauses joining live tables for 5 minutes. If it happens again within 24 hours after that pause ends, the pause climbs the same ladder — 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 24 hours, 3 days at most. Nothing else is counted against you for it.

You are always told what happened and why, in words — for example “you left 3 of your last 10 games” — never only a number.

The hard line — no warnings

• Cheating: sitting at one live table with two accounts, or passing your role to another player outside the game.
• Fraud: a card that is not yours, several accounts to take a free trial or a refund twice, or a payment charged back after it was used.
• Attacking the service: overloading, scraping or breaking it.
• Pretending to be someone else — a person, a club or a federation.
• Luring players to another service. A web address, an @-handle or a phone number said at a live table is shown to a person; by itself it is never a foul.
• A threat to a person. Live tables are paused for up to 7 days while a person looks at it. Automatic tools never go further than 7 days. A real threat points outside the game — at someone’s real life, home, address, family or personal data; “the mafia will shoot you tonight” is the game and never counts. A check reads each of your own turns at a live table for this: a threat typed as text pauses automatically, a threat said by voice goes to a moderator first, and a person looks at every pause. On the date of this page this automatic pause is switched on; whenever it is switched off, the check only counts how often it would have fired, with no name.

Closing an account is always a person’s decision, sent to you in writing with the rule and what we saw — never an automatic one.

How to appeal

• There is no deadline to lose. You do not give up your right to appeal by waiting, by playing on, or by accepting a pause. The one time limit is the players’ court appeal — see above.
• A warning or a foul from the automatic check: press “This is a mistake” in the note you were shown; a foul can also be appealed in your account. Who reads it is said above; after the jurors you can ask a person on our team.
• A foul, or a report of yours counted against you: press Appeal beside it in your account (the reports tab) and say what happened, up to 500 characters. A person answers without undue delay; we set no deadline of our own.
• A pause: write to the contact form with “Appeal” in your message. A person answers without undue delay. A pause for a threat, from the automatic check or from a moderator, can also be appealed with one tap — at the table, or beside it in your account (the reports tab); any other pause, through the form above.
• A suspended or closed account: the same form, “Appeal” in your message. A person answers without undue delay.
• If we got it wrong, it is undone: the foul is removed, the pause lifted, the account restored. You also keep every right the law where you live gives you — a court or a consumer regulator.

Reporting another player

One report per player per game, with a reason from a fixed list. The table is never told who reported. A report by itself punishes nobody — the host looks at what the table’s speech recognition caught in that turn and decides alone. A report that someone spoils the game on purpose is decided only by a person, never automatically. A report that is not confirmed costs you nothing. Only a pattern does: if 3 of your last 10 checked reports of an insult or profanity were not confirmed, against 3 different players, and none of them was confirmed, it is counted against you — you see it in your account and can appeal it. Something you believe is illegal — a name, a club page — can be reported by anyone, with or without an account: how to report it.

Blocking a player. Beside Report at a live table you can block a player. You no longer hear what they say, and it is not shown to you as text; when there is a choice of table, you are not seated together. They are not told. After a report you can also only mute a player for yourself, or only never be seated together — see above. Your list is in your account (the reports tab), where you can unblock anyone at any time.