These rules and guidelines apply to all players in the Wordsteal English Rated Room 1. The sanctions for disregard of the rules are given below. Repeated breaking of rules by the same player will result in more stringent penalties being applied.

• Insulting, harassing, or making negative innuendos or comments about, other players in the lobby, at tables, or in private messages
• Swearing or using any offensive language in the lobby or other public posts. This includes the use of mispellings, alternate spellings, or letter substitutions to avoid writing the "real" term.
• Complaining about hosts or host decisions in the game lobby. (The reason for this is not to stifle such discussion, but because such discussion in the lobby almost always goes off the topic, and leads to arguing and name calling.) Please use the forum if you have complaints about hosts, or email directly to the host team.
• Posting inflammatory messages that disrupt discussion or upset other players. (This is generally known as trolling. Note that you should not 'feed the trolls' by responding to these messages. Doing so may result in your being muted.)
• Inappropriate user names: Includes names containing swear words and offensive terms, obvious sexual innuendos, and names chosen to look like other users' names (clones). Should a username be disallowed for any reason, the player may send email to the host team giving reasons why it should be allowed.
• If muted, logging in under another name.
• If banned, logging in again with any name before the ban is lifted.
• Posting a large number of messages in a short period of time (flooding) - this results in an automatic kick. If this is done using multiple names, or by multiple players, a host may take action against all the names involved.
• Posting a large number of ads for (or urging players to visit) internet sites, or other content, outside of wordsteal.com and markbyers.com without prior approval from the host team. "A large number" in this case means more than four per day. Notwithstanding this, ads for sites considered not appropriate for the lobby will not be allowed at all.
• Ratings cheating - this means playing against yourself, or against some other person, in a manner designed to artificially raise your rating. Usernames determined to have done this extensively, whether the activity takes place in Rated Room1 or any other room, will not be allowed in Rated Room 1.
• Any other inappropriate or disruptive behaviour.

Hosts will usually warn players, either in the lobby or in a private message, when they first break a rule. However, any instance of blatent breaking of any rule may result in muting or banning without warning. After a warning, a player should not break the same rule again. If the same player repeatedly breaks a rule even when warned, an appropriate action will be taken by a host. Interpretation of all rules is the prerogative of the hosts. Any player who has a dispute with a rule is urged to post it in the forum, or send email to hosts, giving reasons for the dispute and suggestions for change or improvement of the rule, in a clear and logical manner.

Please note that the above list is not exclusive. Just because something is not on the list does not mean that it is all right to do it.

These rules and guidelines are subject to modification at any time.

Mute: prevents a player from conversing in the lobby, game, or private messages. Initial mutes will generally last only a few minutes. Any player who is muted more than once for any reason can expect stronger actions.

Kick: the player name is removed from the lobby. The player can log back in right away, unless there have been several kicks in a short time. In that case, there will be a delay of several minutes before it is possible to log in again.

Ban: the player name is removed from the lobby. A ban will be for a minimum of one day. Banned players should contact the support team if they wish to be unbanned, giving reasons why the ban should be removed, and saying how their behaviour will be different. Bans will not be removed until that is done. The player should not attempt to log in again until the ban is lifted. Banned players who log in with any name before the ban is removed will have the length of the ban increased.