Furry Community Rules | Safer Participation

Mission and shared responsibility

A home needs an open door and dependable walls.

Mello Zone exists to help adult furries, pups, LGBTQ+ people, creators, gamers, VRChat users, and friends find lower-pressure belonging. Inclusion means newcomers can learn without embarrassment and established members do not need to prove status to be heard.

Inclusion does not erase boundaries. Consent, privacy, creator ownership, safety, and the ability to say no are part of the welcome. Rules are interpreted through their purpose and the available evidence, not used as shortcuts for personal conflicts.

Belonging without performance

Join, contribute, pause, and return at your own pace.

No status test

Gear, spending, platform activity, follower counts, creative output, and time in the fandom do not determine who deserves ordinary respect or access to routine community help.

No forced disclosure

Members do not owe the community a legal name, private relationship details, medical history, trauma history, sexuality, gender history, or explanation of harmless identity and subculture interests.

Participation with impact

Useful participation includes welcoming someone, sharing credited work, joining a confirmed event, reporting a broken path, helping with a project, offering constructive feedback, or simply returning for conversation.

Proportionate moderation

Response follows conduct, risk, evidence, and context.

Moderation is not a game counter. Staff choose the least severe action that can reasonably restore safety and clarify expectations, while retaining authority to act immediately when credible harm cannot wait.

Consequential decisions should record the relevant conduct, rule, available evidence, action, reviewer, and review path. A moderator with a personal conflict should recuse when another qualified reviewer is available. Eligible decisions may be appealed through the public appeal route.

Orient

Staff may explain a rule, redirect a conversation, or ask for a small correction when the issue is low-risk and can be resolved through clear guidance.

Restrict

Repeated, intentional, or higher-risk conduct may lead to a documented warning, temporary restriction, event removal, or another proportionate limit while the situation is reviewed.

Remove

Credible threats, exploitation, doxxing, severe harassment, predatory conduct, scams, ban evasion, or other serious safety risks may require immediate removal without progressing through earlier steps.

Consent and contact

Private contact requires a clear, current boundary.

Respect the DM state a member communicates and stop when asked. Consent to one conversation does not create permanent access or permission for unrelated content.

DM Open

The member welcomes direct messages within the normal community rules. Openness is not consent to sexual content, pressure, advertising, interrogation, or repeated contact.

DM Ask

Ask in an appropriate shared space and wait for a clear yes before starting a private conversation. Silence, an emoji, or prior contact is not current permission.

DM Closed

Do not start a private conversation. Use a public channel or the official staff route when a legitimate community matter still needs attention.

Unsolicited sexual content, romantic pressure, repeated contact after a no, harassment, scams, credential requests, or direct-message advertising may lead to restriction or removal based on severity and evidence.

Personal information

Keep private information private.

Do not publish or threaten to publish a person's address, legal name, private contact details, identity documents, private images, workplace, precise location, financial information, health information, or other sensitive records without clear authorization.

Preserve relevant evidence through the platform or private report process. Do not repost prohibited material more widely in the name of warning others. Credible doxxing or exploitation risk can require immediate protective action.

Promotion and exchange

Creative exchange needs consent, clarity, and useful attribution.

Use the designated path

Post commissions, services, events, raffles, and community promotions only where current channel guidance permits them. Do not join only to advertise or move unsolicited promotions into direct messages.

State the terms

Identify whether a request is paid, unpaid, collaborative, or promotional. Do not hide material terms, misrepresent ownership, pressure a purchase, or collect credentials and payment information through unofficial forms.

Credit and permission travel

Public availability does not grant permission to repost, edit, merchandise, train on, or relicense creative work. Keep approved credit and usage boundaries attached to the work.

Shared-space conduct

Disagree without turning another person into a target.

Harassment and threats

Threats, stalking, dogpiling, targeted humiliation, slurs, discriminatory harassment, sexual pressure, and encouragement of violence are not acceptable. Report credible danger privately and contact emergency services when immediate physical safety is at risk.

Conflict and venting

Use the designated context for heavy topics without naming or mobilizing others against a member. Staff and peers can listen and route support, but they are not emergency responders, therapists, or substitutes for professional care.

Spam and disruption

Do not flood channels, abuse mentions, evade moderation, impersonate others, disrupt events, or repeatedly derail a space after clear redirection. Context, intent, repetition, and impact inform the response.

Adult membership and public content

18+ membership does not make shared spaces NSFW.

Adult membership

Mello Zone is for adults age 18 and older. A person known to be under 18 cannot remain in adult community spaces. Do not help another person bypass an age boundary.

Safe-for-work shared spaces

Do not post explicit sexual content, pornographic imagery, fetish solicitation, or sexualized profile assets visible in shared SFW spaces. Mature topics require the appropriate context and must remain within platform rules.

Recordings and screenshots

Follow event and platform recording expectations. A public avatar or message is not blanket permission to publish a person's voice, private conversation, or identifiable image outside its original context.

Current adult-access process

Follow only the official platform instructions.

The current public website does not collect government identification for age verification. Do not upload an ID, selfie, legal name, account password, recovery code, or payment information through a general Mello Zone form or unsolicited direct message.

The official Verification page describes the current private Discord ticket path for members who choose document review. Keep requested evidence in that ticket, redact unrelated fields, and never post it in a public channel. If an instruction appears unusual, stop and use the public verification or help route.

Any future website upload, reusable age credential, or external age-assurance provider must publish its provider when one is used, required data, access limits, retention and deletion, alternative path, and appeal process before collection begins.

Data minimization

Collect less, limit access, and delete on schedule.

Minimum necessary information

Reports, appeals, applications, and contact requests should include only the information needed for the stated purpose. Do not send regulated records or unrelated private history through ordinary forms.

Restricted review

Sensitive reports should be available only to people who need them for response, appeal, security, or a lawful obligation. Consequential access and actions should be accountable.

Retention and requests

Published privacy notices describe retention and request paths. A documented safety, fraud, dispute, preservation, or legal hold may delay deletion; routine collection should not become indefinite storage by default.

Several platforms, one baseline

Platform rules and local community rules both apply.

Follow the applicable Discord, VRChat, and other platform terms at all times.
Use official Mello Zone links instead of copied invitations or unverified private messages.
Platform blocks, reports, privacy settings, and safety controls remain available in addition to Mello Zone support.
An independent partner community keeps its own staff authority and rules; partnership does not create automatic shared moderation power.
Public policies may be corrected as systems change. Significant updates should remain visible and dated.

Quick expectations

Behaviour

Follow the platform terms that apply to the space.
Mello Zone is an 18+ community with SFW shared spaces.
Respect consent, DM states, privacy, and creator ownership.
Do not harass, threaten, dox, scam, impersonate, or evade moderation.
Use designated channels for promotion, heavy topics, and media.
Stop when a reasonable personal boundary is clearly communicated.

Conversation

Keep conversation relevant to the channel and accessible to the people present.
Disagreement is allowed; targeted hostility, slurs, threats, and pile-ons are not.
Label sensitive or AI-generated media when context could otherwise be misleading.
Use private reports for evidence and safety concerns instead of public callouts.
Take a pause, mute, block, or ask staff for routing help when a conversation stops being constructive.

This quick view is an orientation aid. The complete sections above control when a short phrase lacks necessary context.

Back to the manifesto start

Mello Zone Community Manifesto & Rules

Welcome home. These are the shared standards.

18+ SFW

Proportionate Response

Immediate Action

Fair Review