The actual application of rules may depend on the tone in any given room - preferably first make sure with an operator what will be considered acceptable. Please keep the Spinchat Terms of Service in mind.

In general, you can't go wrong by following these rules:

• Be polite and respect everyone. Do not offend others with your language. Should another user attack you in such a way, ignore him. An operator will deal with him.
  
• No scrolling/flooding/spamming. No pointless repetition of characters, of words or URLs. By the way, commercials are strictly forbidden. We prosecute offenders.
  
• No talk about sex, drugs, or weapons etc. - no "cybersex". There could be children around. If you can't control yourself, open a dialogue.
  
• No feuds - fight it out privately, or in a room of your own.
  
• No misuse of nicks - don't ape other users' nicks or distort them.
  
• No discrimination because of somebody's sex, political or religious views, etc.
  

The following rules apply in International/Welcome!:

• The most important thing first: Take it easy and stay calm. Enforcing the rules is not done purely to enforce the rules, but to keep the room enjoyable. Do not pick on chatters and insist that they follow the rules letter-by-letter - let them have some fun as long as others will not suffer from their behaviour. We expect that every operator is able to properly judge himself when he needs to interfere and when he should better stay calm.

• Do not appoint auxiliary/temporary ops unless there is a definite need. In no room should there be more than three temporary ops at one time. As long as permanent operators are present, there should only exceptionally be any need for temporary ops. In choosing additional ops, you should never be guided by friendships or acquaintance, but simply by whether there is a real need - and whether the person can be expected to be able to use the additional rights wisely.

• Except in case there are too many auxiliary ops in a room, operators should never deop other operators' auxiliaries. Differences of opinion among operators should not be acted out on the backs of chatters or auxiliary ops.

• Should a chatter misbehave in a room, you should wherever possible ask the offender to change his behaviour. The exercise of op rights without prior warning should be the exception and limited to cases of repeated infringement of the Terms of Use. Do not make a public spectacle of your op rights - their point is not to demonstrate "power", but to help maintaining a decent tone in the chat.

• New chatters usually take their cue from operators or auxiliaries. Hence, it is vital that operators set a good example and maintain a friendly tone, both for themselves and the whole room.

• Your behaviour as operator should be uninfluenced by any personal differences with chatters. Disagreements or disputes in a dialogue should not be "solved" by exercising op rights.

• Should you begin to feel unable to cope with a situation, first keep your cool. Overreactions and demonstrations of power merely serve to escalate any trouble, in our experience.