Hi everyone!

We’ve just pushed two changes to our Rules and Guidelines, which consist of a small tweak to cross-site trading and a clarification on IRL money sales:

Previously, our rules stated the following:

7.4.a: The site you are trading with allows cross-site tradesOld wording of the rules

This wording has been replaced with:

7.4.a: The site you are trading with explicitly allows cross-site trades in their Terms of UseRules and Guidelines

This change is in relation to our recent announcement regarding cross-site trades with other websites which may still be in Beta, or where the legality of cross-site trading is not confirmed. This new wording removes all ambiguity, and errs on the side of caution.

This is not so much a change as a clarification. We have received a lot of questions regarding exactly what kinds of trades involving real-money are permissible on Mycena Cave, because our rules were not very clear: while real-money sales of Mycena Cave related goods were explicitly forbidden, the rules did not explain policies regarding sales that do not involve Mycena Cave related goods. Previously, the rules stated the following:

7.6: You may not buy or sell Mycena Cave instruments (e.g. items, currency, etc) for real money. The only exception to this is when buying from official Mycena Cave shops such as the Cave Exchange, etc.Old wording of the rules

This has been replaced with exactly what requirements are necessary for players to engage in real-money transactions with other players on Mycena Cave, including several helpful real-world examples. As a brief reminder: no trade involving real life currency may involve any Mycena Cave instruments in any way, ever.

Our policies on this point have two objectives: be legal, and be safe. As a result, all purchases must happen in their entirety through an external merchant service which offers dispute functionality to buyers, and correctly reports relevant information to the IRS. I encourage you to read the new wording of Rule 7.6 in full if you think you may engage in any trades involving real-life currency.

Thank you for your time! And if you have any questions, please ask in this thread or by echo :)

I’d like to take a few moments to publicly answer a question that have come up via echo:

You’re welcome to discuss any transactions or prices or what have you on Mycena Cave. The requirement that your transactions be represented in their entirety on the merchant service doesn’t preclude you from representing them here as well. The important thing is that as far as the merchant (e.g. Paypal, DeviantArt, etc) is concerned, the transaction that they see is the entirety of the sale. Paypal makes this very easy via the creation of an itemized invoice, and those of you who have purchased gems or Paw Prints via Paypal have seen this in action.

An example of what can go wrong by not following this policy would be: pretend you agree to buy some art for $50 using Paypal, but the seller doesn’t want to pay the transaction fee so asks you to just send the $50 via Paypal “as a friend” without actually creating an invoice or an official purchase transaction; the seller never delivers the art, and that’s just tough for you because as far as the merchant is concerned, all parties are satisfied (i.e. you sent a gift, it was received, end of story).