[Resolved] Stealing? Or fair game? Farms in the Wastelands

New to EMC, and had a question about allowed behaviors and/or the reporting system.

I built a simple sugar cane farm in the Wastelands. ~63 sugar cane for 'seed', carpeted over the water, put up jack o lanterns to keep out spawns, and walled it all off. Was perfectly happy with the notion that others would harvest cane above one block for themselves. Came back to find all the sugar cane, carpet, and jack o lanterns gone. So, it obviously strikes me as a pretty jerky thing to do, but is it fair game in the wastes? If so I guess I'll just have to make more temporary farms and take them down before logging out. If not, is there anything I could reasonably do about it? /report needs a player name and I have no idea who did it... just a ~5 hour time window when it happened.

Stealing/Griefing on EMC is not allowed and this includes the wastelands and frontier
I would contact a staff member about this

This is not allowed.

Anything built by a player, in any world, is not allowed to be destroyed. If you let a moderator know about it, they can check and see if they can find the player who did the damage and ban them.

You can find one in game with /staff, or use one of these links to PM one currently on the site.

http://empireminecraft.com/conversations/add?to=ItsMeMatheus
http://empireminecraft.com/conversations/add?to=Luckygreenbird

Stealing/Griefing is not allowed anywhere and what happened to you is not allowed. Try sending a staff member on the site a private message and give them all of the info you have. They might be able to find the culprit. I would recommend building in the frontier because the waste will be reset occasionally and you will lose the farm if this happens. I hope you can get this sorted out soon

Dealt with.

Thanks folks, I figured it would be at least frowned upon, but wasn't certain. Staff was proactive just from this forum post and sorted things amazingly fast. Very impressive.

We do have great staff
Glad to see it was dealt with

Someone Breaking/Stealing/Building without permission on your terrain is illegal. The EMC staff WILL probably do somethin.

Just adding some extra info "just in case". I hope this won't happen again but you can never rule this out...

First off (don't take this the wrong way please but...), the server rules: http://rules.emc.gs/, I'd like to point your attention to the first rule. That should make it clear that this is definitely not allowed.

Second: one small bit of info which I missed out on in the thread. If you're dealing with this kind of situation start by using the /staff command. This will show you where the staff is currently at. You can then hop onto another server if needed (using /smp#, # being a number) and /tell a staff member about your issues (note that the Stage server is not accessible for regular players).

I'm very glad to see that this problem got resolved so quickly. If there's one thing I dislike its griefers :/

This is not allowed, but I'm glad to see it resolved

Thanks ShelLuser. Not taken the wrong way at all, I hadn't seen it spelled out that way before. I recall the tutorial emphasizing no griefing / no stealing, but thought the wilderness might make it more questionable about "ownership" of something like a crop farm. I'd never do it just because it's rude, but it was also possible folks don't build crop farms in the wastelands as I hadn't seen any. I also didn't know about the /staff command, so I appreciate all the help in this thread.

I guess one minor related question - the rules say "If it is not yours, then do not touch it without permission. This applies to ALL areas of the Empire." would this include buttons, doors, levers, chests (opening not taking items from), etc. in player made creations outside of Town? I had assumed you could 'walk through' what others built.

Thanks, and all your input also helps us. We're always open to improvements and comments such as yours helps getting more ideas about those (the hardest thing there is (IMO anyway) is to try and come up with something while keeping in mind what it was like when you were new. Esp. if you've been online for quite a while. Things which seem common or obvious to you don't have to be for other players).

This is how I'd approach this: "If the door is open you're welcome to walk in, if its not just move on", this is also keeping town settings in mind. By default the 'use' flag in town (this allows access to doors, buttons, etc.) is off. So if someone has closed the front door on his residence then you wouldn't be able to get in. Its best to use the same courtesy outside of town.

And definitely stay clear from chests. Don't even try to open them. You may not steal stuff, but it'll be impossible for any bystanders to know what you're doing. I'm pretty sure that if you opened a chest to look at its contents and during that moment the owner of a build came back (lets assume he spawns in the same room as you're in) then the first thing on his mind would be that someone is stealing from him. Which most likely will also cause unwanted drama. Best not to go there. Basically the same applies to levers and buttons and such.

There are some changes in the making by the way. Developers are currently working on the option to actually claim land in the Frontier after which it'll get the same kind of protection as we have in town. But it sounds easier than it is, also because of the non-resetting approach of this world. But this is a feature which is planned for the future.

As everybody else has said, this is not allowed. (Hang Them High)

Matheus, you da man!

*duck

Matheus, you da duck!

To be clear this is not a rule. While a player may post a 'no trespassing' sign others are free to ignore it. You may freely enter and explore any build or area. Tip: Bring ender pearls so you can escape from a stuck position without damaging the build. (*)

Looking is not stealing. Players are not punished for being curious.(*)

(*)
The gray area here is the anti-harassment anti-drama policy. Staff may take action if a player is trespassing or opening containers in an effort to annoy others or to cause drama.

I have never heard that people don't want others to go inside their wild/waste builds before.....I always close doors so that mobs don't get inside when I make a build, not to keep people out. As long as people do not steal or grief, I have never minded people looking at my wild/waste builds.

Is not going inside other people's builds an opinion or is this a rule? I would appreciate a moderator's feedback. Thank you.

Going into someone else's property is definitely allowed, I think. I agree with ShelLuser though, in that it's often better to still not do it, even though it's allowed. You won't be punished for it, but if someone reports you... you'll perhaps not have too easy of a time to defend yourself.
Another thing is that you could accidentally grief their build. It has happened that one would just friendly check out someone's building in the wild, only to have a creeper blow up all the redstone, or something like that.
You don't want that to happen, so it's best to stay safe.
That aside, you could place a sign saying "feel free to look around and use this farm, as long as you don't damage it"