Acceptable use

This draft says how operators intend to judge behaviour. Nobody has approved it. Text in square brackets is an open decision.

Read this first

• Telnet is not encrypted and gives anonymous, casual-only guest play. It has no accounts and no ranked results.
• Ranked play needs an account on SSH. Guests race casual only. A ranked result can be rejected, and ranked access restricted, for the reasons below.

What is not allowed

• Assisted input: pasting text, scripts, macros or bots that type for you in a ranked run or race.
• Faking speed: replaying results, tampering with timing, or sending key events a person could not produce.
• Sharing an account, or using a second account to dodge a sanction.
• Abusing the service: flooding connections, scraping, probing for weaknesses, or attacking other users. Report security problems to [security contact: owner to supply] instead.
• Harassing others through handles, rooms or races.

How results are judged

Results are checked for signals such as pasted-input markers, impossibly regular timing, sustained implausible speed and replayed results. One weak signal never settles a case. A low-confidence result stays personal and unranked. A higher-confidence one goes to review. Thresholds are not published.

In a ranked race, a racer who disconnects and does not return within the reconnect grace is rated below every finisher, so a losing racer cannot dodge a rating loss by dropping. A stable connection matters for ranked play.

Actions operators can take

Invalidate a result, restrict ranked access for a set time or with no end, or suspend an account. Invalidating a result and restricting ranked access each record a reason from a closed list: assisted input, implausible speed, replayed result, shared account, sanction evasion, repeated abuse. A suspension records a ticket reference instead of a reason. A person must make the decision; automated detection alone imposes nothing. Operator notes stay in the ticket system and are not public.

Appeals

You can appeal a restriction or an invalidation. [Appeal contact and response time: owner to supply.] A granted appeal reinstates the result.

Email

Sign-in emails are sent only on request. Do not request codes for addresses that are not yours; request limits apply.