Moderation Warnings
What earns a chat or Message Board warning, how timeouts and bans escalate, when strikes wear off, and how to ask for a review if the filter got it wrong.
Everything you write on MiroPets is checked automatically before anyone else sees it, so the game stays friendly for players of every age. Most of the time a message that breaks the rules just does not go through. In live chat and on the Message Board, though, a blocked message also counts as a warning (a strike), and warnings add up to timeouts and bans. This page explains exactly how, and what to do if the filter gets it wrong.
Where to find it
Where warnings count
There are two separate warning counts:
| Where you wrote it | What a blocked message does |
|---|---|
| Global Chat, MiroHomes hangout chat, MiroTown chat | Chat warning. All three share one count. |
| Message Board and Den boards | Board warning. A separate count. |
| Everywhere else | Blocked, no warning |
"Everywhere else" means Mail, guestbooks, profile and pet bios, pet names, den messages and notices, Haggle Hut listings and messages, Newspaper comments, Road Map ideas, gift notes and so on. There, a blocked message just shows an error and nothing is counted, so reword it and try again.
A chat warning never affects your Message Board count, and a board warning never affects chat.
Chat warnings
Each blocked chat message moves you one step along this ladder:
| Warnings in the last 7 days | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1st | A warning. The message is not posted. |
| 2nd | A 1-hour chat timeout. |
| 3rd | A 24-hour chat timeout. The next one is a ban. |
| 4th | A permanent chat ban. |
- Warnings wear off. Only the last 7 days count. Each warning stops counting 7 days after you got it, so a clean week puts you back at the start.
- One count for all three chats. A warning in a hangout or in MiroTown counts toward your Global Chat timeout, and the other way round.
- Timed out, not locked out. During a timeout you can still read Global Chat; the message box shows a countdown until you can post again.
- In a hangout, a banned player can stay in the house but cannot talk.
- MiroTown shows a shorter notice ("That message was not allowed."), but it counts exactly the same.
Spam timeouts
Sending the same message over and over, or flooding the room with lots of messages very fast, earns a short automatic timeout of 5 or 15 minutes. These are not warnings and do not move you up the ladder. They do apply to all chats at once, though: a spam timeout from a hangout also silences you in Global Chat until it ends.
Waiting for the chat cooldown (one Global Chat message every 10 seconds) is never a penalty.
Message Board warnings
Thread titles, posts and replies are checked on the public Message Board and on every den board. Editing a den-board post counts too.
- First warning: the post is removed and you get a Message Board Warning mail explaining why.
- Second warning: a 24-hour posting ban.
- Third warning: a permanent posting ban.
Board warnings do not wear off on their own. They add up over time, and each warning mail tells you which number it is. A posting ban also covers den boards. You can still read everything.
A heads-up, not a warning
If a message in Global Chat shares personal details about a real child (a name together with a school, an address, a birthday and so on), it is quietly removed and you get a friendly mail about keeping personal details private. It says so itself: it is not a warning, and nothing is put on your account.
Think it was a mistake?
The filter reads words, not intentions, and occasionally it gets one wrong: a cat breed or a pet nickname that happens to look like something else. If you got a warning, timeout or ban for something harmless:
- Go to /contact and pick Account Issue.
- Say what you wrote, where (Global Chat, a hangout, MiroTown or the Message Board) and roughly when.
- The team looks at the real message and can remove a mistaken warning, which also takes it off your count.
Please do not try to post the same thing again with the spelling changed. The filter sees through swaps like 0 for o, and each blocked try is another warning.
Players under 13
Global Chat, hangout and MiroTown chat, Mail and posting on the Message Board and den boards are not available to players under 13, so there is nothing to be warned for. See Rules and Safety.
Good habits
- If a message is blocked, reword it in plain language rather than retrying.
- Mute or block someone rather than arguing: it is instant and cannot earn you a warning.
- Report a rule-breaking message instead of replying to it. Replying in kind is how two people end up with warnings instead of one.
- Keep an eye on the ladder: after a chat warning, take a breather. It wears off in a week.
