Terms for playing The Commons

Last updated: 10 October 2026

The Commons is a free online game made by Ryan Appleyard in the UK ("we", "us"). These are the terms for using it: what you can expect from us, and what we expect from you.

By playing, you agree to them. If you're under 18, please read them with a parent or carer. If you're under 13, a parent or carer has to agree for you, which they do when they approve your account.

Two other pages go with this one:

• The rules: how to behave in the game, in plain words.
• Your privacy: what we know about you and what we do with it.

1. The short version

• The game is free. There's nothing to buy.
• Be kind, keep personal details to yourself, and follow the rules.
• Moderators can warn, mute or ban players who break them.
• What you draw stays yours. Sending it to us lets us show it.
• We do our best, but it's a small project and we can't promise it will always work or be there.

2. Who can play

• Anyone can play as a guest.
• To save an account you tell us whether you're under 13. Please tell the truth: it decides what's switched on to keep you safe.
• Under 13s need a parent or carer to approve the account. Until they do, chat is limited to set phrases. The parent chooses what's switched on and can delete the account at any time.
• One person, one account at a time, please. Don't share your password, and don't use someone else's account.
• You're responsible for what's done with your account. If you think someone else has got into it, change your password and tell us.

3. How to behave

Follow the rules. The main ones:

• Be kind. No bullying, hate, threats or harassment.
• Never share personal details (yours or anyone else's): real names, addresses, schools, phone numbers, emails, social media names. Never ask another player for theirs, or ask to talk somewhere outside the game.
• Nothing sexual, violent or illegal, in chat, names or drawings.
• No cheating, hacking, bots, or trying to break or overload the game.
• No pretending to be a moderator or another player.
• No advertising or selling things.

If someone breaks the rules, use the Report button. A person reads every report.

4. What moderators can do

To keep the game safe we can:

• Filter and block messages, names and drawings.
• Warn you, mute you (take you out of chat for a while: you can't send messages or read other players'), or ban you (for a while, or permanently for serious or repeated things).
• Remove names or drawings that break the rules.

Only a person decides these things, never a computer on its own. If you think we got it wrong, email hello@thecommons.lol and we'll look again.

We read chat only when it's reported or when our word filter flags it. See Your privacy.

5. Your drawings

This section is the long version of what the easel tells you before you send a drawing.

It must be yours. By sending a drawing you're confirming you made it yourself, that it isn't copied from someone else, and that it doesn't show a real person or anyone's personal details.

It stays yours. You keep the copyright. You can use your drawing anywhere else you like.

What you're letting us do. You give The Commons permission (a "licence") to use your drawing. That permission is:

• free: we don't pay for it;
• non-exclusive: you can still do whatever you want with it;
• worldwide: the internet doesn't stop at borders;
• for showing it, resizing it and cropping it;
• to run and promote The Commons, and for nothing else. We won't sell your drawing or put it on things for sale.

Where we can show it depends on your age:

• 13 or over: in the game, on our website, in our Discord and on our social media.
• Under 13, or playing as a guest: in the game only.

Only approved drawings are used. Nobody but a moderator sees a drawing until it's approved, and we don't have to approve or use any drawing.

Your name. We only show your nickname with a drawing if you ticked "Put my nickname on it" when you sent it.

Changing your mind. You can ask us to remove a drawing at any time by emailing hello@thecommons.lol, or by deleting your account. We'll stop using it and take it down from everything we control, as soon as we can and within 30 days. We can't call back copies that other people have already saved or shared. When we take it down, the permission ends.

If you're under 18, your parent or carer can ask us to remove your drawings too, and for under 13s it's your parent's agreement to these terms that gives us this permission.

If someone has copied your work and you see it in the game, email us and we'll remove it.

6. What belongs to us

The game itself (its art, characters, code, name and logo) belongs to Ryan Appleyard. You're welcome to play it, share screenshots and videos of it, and talk about it. Please don't copy it, sell it, or pass it off as your own.

7. Tickets, hats and other things in the game

Arcade tickets, hats, furniture and anything else you collect exist only inside the game. They can't be bought, sold or swapped for real money, and they have no value outside the game. We might change how they work, and if your account is deleted or banned they go with it.

8. The game is still being built

The Commons is in an early "alpha" stage, made by one person. So:

• Things will change, break and sometimes disappear.
• We might need to reset progress, or take the game offline, sometimes without warning.
• We might stop running the game one day. If we do, we'll give as much notice as we can.

9. What we're responsible for, and what we're not

We'll run the game with reasonable care, and we take keeping players safe seriously.

Because the game is free, there are limits to what we can be responsible for. We aren't responsible for:

• the game being unavailable, or anything you lose in the game (like tickets or hats);
• what other players say or do, although we'll act on reports;
• problems caused by your own device or internet connection.

Nothing in these terms limits anything the law says can't be limited, including our responsibility if someone is hurt or killed because we were careless, or for fraud, or your rights as a consumer.

10. Ending things

You can stop playing whenever you like, and delete your account from Settings (a parent can from the parents' page).

We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or the rules. For anything short of a serious breach we'll normally warn first.

11. Changes to these terms

We'll update this page when things change and put the new date at the top. For a big change we'll tell you in the game, and email parents of under 13s. If you keep playing after a change, you're agreeing to it.

12. The legal bits

• These terms are governed by the law of [to be confirmed], and its courts handle any dispute. If you live elsewhere in the UK you can use your own local courts.
• If part of these terms turns out not to be valid, the rest still stands.
• If we don't act on a broken rule straight away, that doesn't mean we've given up the right to.

13. Contact

hello@thecommons.lol