Below is a table listing infractions and their associated consequences for breaking the rules of the site. Each type of offense contains examples of them in italics. If you commit an offense, the appropriate punishment will be issued and your strike count may increase. It is in your best interest to behave and follow the rules.
| Infraction | Description | Consequence | Strike |
| Game-play (Minor) | Minor, unintentional game-play errors that can be fixed by an Administrator by simple instruction:
- Attempting to Summon a monster while an effect prohibits from doing so.
- Both players forget to resolve a mandatory effect of that turn. Easily traced back. |
In-Duel warning | |
| Game-play (Major) | Major, unintentional game-play errors that cause major disruption to the game and is beyond repair by an Administrator, or upgrade after a second Game-play (Minor) offense:
- Forgetting a maintenance cost that isn't noticed until turns later after gaining advantage.
|
Game Loss | |
| Slow Play (Minor) | Unintentionally playing slowly or stalling, causing game delay. A reasonable pace must be kept even if a situation is complex:
- Being extensively slow when making a move.
- Repeatedly checking the Graveyard instead of making a move. - Being AFK for less than 6 minutes, when not in a generally unrecoverable position, and returning when prompted by an Administrator. |
In-Duel warning | |
| Slow Play (Major) | Unresponsive or upgrade after a second Slow Play (Minor) offense. A player will not make a move even after instructed by an Administrator:
- Continue being extensively slow when making a move.
- Being unresponsive for 30 seconds after being prompted by an Administrator. - Being AFK for 6 minutes or more, when not in a generally unrecoverable position, regardless of returning. |
Game/Match Loss | |
| Call Judge Button Misuse (Minor) | Discontinuing play while waiting for a judge to resolve an issue not related to the immediate gamestate:
- Calling a judge because of harassment, and discontinuing gameplay in the meantime
» A second offense after a warning can be upgraded to a Game Loss.
- Calling a judge because of slow play, and refusing to continue gameplay until the judge arrives. |
Warning | |
| Rule-sharking | Using rules and policy in an attempt to gain an advantage, rather than to ensure fair and consistent gameplay.
- Attempting to force a non-existent rule or policy on an opponent who has made a small and repairable error.
» A second offense after a warning can be upgraded to a Game Loss.
- Not allowing an opponent to Set an accidental Normal Summon (e.g. Snowman Eater). - Not allowing an opponent to activate/resolve a mandatory effect since they "missed the chance". - Asking an opponent to admit defeat after they have drawn an extra card by accident without shuffling their hand. |
In-Duel warning | |
| Non-compliance | Refusing to comply with an Administrator's instructions and not making a move even by their instruction:
- A player fails to comply with an Administrator's instructions after being given 30 seconds to do so.
- A player continues to be extensively slow when making a move after being told to play faster. - Refusing to play after a receiving a warning, or after an issue was addressed and solved. |
Game Loss and Warning | |
| Inexperience | Not knowing basic rules of the game, or not knowing about major changes to the game since the last time a player played:
- A player does not know how Link Summoning works.
- A player enters a game not knowing what to do, or what any of the buttons do. - A player would not resolve a simple ruling dispute with his opponent despite being linked to the official ruling. |
1-5 days |
| Infraction | Description | Consequence | Strike |
| Cheating | Includes, but is not limited to, intentionally misrepresenting game-state or rules:
- Intentionally drawing several cards with the intention to cheat.
- Misrepresenting the rules to an opponent in order to gain advantage. - Misinterpreting the amount of Life Points gained/lost by an effect(s) with the intention to cheat. |
3 days |  |
| Malicious AFK | Deliberately leaving a game or being purposely inactive in order to stall out an opponent or generally waste people's time:
- Becoming unresponsive when in a generally unrecoverable position.
- Intentionally becoming unresponsive in order to stall out a Duel. - Intentionally playing slowly or blatantly delaying a Duel in a spiteful manner. |
3 days | |
| Lying to an Administrator | Deliberately lying to an Administrator:
- Adding a card to the hand then telling an Administrator it was drawn that turn.
- Drawing an extra card and telling an Administrator you did not. - Misrepresenting the game state and attempting to convince an Administrator. |
3 days | |
| Boosting | Using multiple accounts, friends or other resources to gain illegitimate wins or experience:
- Using a proxy to play against yourself in a rated game.
- Abusing the duelist pool algorithm in order to play against certain duelists. - Continuously admitting defeat in order to gain experience illegitimately. |
Stats Reset & Permanent Beginner Status |
| Infraction | Description | Consequence | Strike |
| Harassment | Repeated use of offensive language, use of slurs, or threatening physical, violent, or deplorable conduct:
- Continuously using profanity towards other members.
- Using sexist, racist, homophobic, or other discriminatory slurs. - Telling another member you want them to die. - Threatening another member's family, household, well-being, etc. by saying that they or their property will be personally harmed. |
2-7 days | |
| Unsporting Conduct (Minor) | Intentionally badgering players/administrators, using profane/offensive language, or displaying any other toxic behavior.
- Calling another member a "dumb b***h", etc.
» Repeated infractions can lead to an upgraded Unsporting Conduct (Major) infraction or a Harassment infraction.
- Telling another member "f**k you noob", etc. - Disrespecting administrators by calling them "idiot", etc. or by appealing an administrator before that administrator has finished making their decision. - Refusing to communicate with the opponent. |
Warning | |
| Unsporting Conduct (Major) | A player intentionally exhibits major, unsportsmanlike behaviour.
- A player exhibits unsporting behaviour to an extent beyond that which can be considered minor.
- A player commits a second Unsporting Conduct (Minor) offense within 7 days. |
Game loss & Warning | |
| Doxing | Attempting to gain personal information about another member with the intent to publicly identify them.
- Posting a link whose sole purpose is to obtain a member's IP address.
- Posting a member's IP address without their consent. - Posting a member's name, location, or address without their consent. |
Ban | |
| Infraction | Description | Consequence | Strike |
| Spam (Minor) | Frequent repetition of nonsense, use of caps lock, posting links to irrelevant websites, or otherwise unwanted text:
- Posting "I NEED HELP ADMIN" continuously in public chat.
» A second offense within 7 days after a warning can be upgraded to Major punishment.
- Posting nonsensical phrases/sentences without meaning (e.g. akj skef adsls) continuously. - Clicking tokens/dice/counters in a manner that interrupts the flow of an ongoing duel. |
Warning | |
| Spam (Major) | Continuous use of a communication system to post unwanted messages in succession without intention to stop:
- Ignoring a Spam (Minor) warning given by an Administrator.
|
1 day | |
| Spam (Severe) | A complete flood of spam or continuous use of a communication system to post disturbing language and/or content without intention to stop:
- Continuously posting "F**K YOU DB" in public chat.
- Continuously posting offensive messages in a communication system. - Posting so many lines of spam it clogs up far beyond the visible window. |
3-5 days | |
| Duel Note Misuse | Using duel notes for unintended purposes such as notes that are meant to be offensive, meant to harass others, or meant to promote/advertise | Warning | |
| Personal Profile | Using your profile to communicate disturbing material or to commit a Harassment (Minor/Major/Severe) offense:
- Including links to illegal or disturbing content in the profile.
» A second offense after a warning can be upgraded to a 3 day freeze.
- Including profanity or insults directed at another member in the profile. - Expressing hatred toward a person or group of people |
Warning | |
| Objectionable material (Major) | Linking to adult material or other inappropriate content in a public chat, or in private message to a user not expecting it:
- Linking to a screamer. - Linking to adult content. - Posting spoilers for new movies for the sole intention of ruining it for others. |
1-7 days | |
| Objectionable material (Severe) | Linking to severely harmful website:
- Linking to obscenity.
- Posting a crash link. |
Ban | |
| Threats | Threatening to compromise the security of a user's account or Duelingbook itself:
- Telling another member you will DDOS them, steal their account, etc.
- Threatening to harm the website via DOS/DDOS attacks, etc. |
7 days | |
| Hacking | Logging into someone else's account without their permission:
- Hacking another user's account and deleting all their decks.
|
Ban | |
| Inappropriate Username | Registering with a username that contains or appears to contain slurs
- Registering a username with slight mispellings of slurs to bypass the inappropriate username filter.
» Accounts that are not new may instead warrant a mandatory username change.
- Registering a username with a slur that is not apart of the website's inappropriate username filter. |
Ban | |
| Exam Cheating/Disclosure | Cheating on the Duelingbook Judge Exam or disclosing any non-public information concerning the exam:
- Getting a friend to give you answers to the exam questions.
- Posting the exam questions on YouTube. |
Ban | |
While your account is frozen, you cannot duel or post in any chats, except for private messages with your friends. You are free to watch duels and construct decks though.
If your account has been frozen, and you believe it was done so unjustly, you can appeal the freeze on the forum here: https://forum.duelingbook.com/posting.php?mode=post&f=6
While your account has beginner status, you cannot play in rated games. You can still play in unrated games.
Once an In-game Administrator has issued a ruling/decision, a user may request to appeal that decision to a Senior Administrator. In-game Administrators reserve the right to deny an appeal at their discretion.
Each player has access to the Duel Logs, this means it is always possible to repair a gamestate. However there may be times when it should not be repaired and is at the discretion of the Judge to determine if a gamestate is Repairable, Irreparable, or Accepted.
Users aren't penalized for taking notes or using resources such as the internet or the in-game logs of the duel. However if a player is not playing at a reasonable pace, they may receive an in-game warning for Slow Play.
Users aren't penalized for sending or receiving tips from other users, whether it's coming from the watcher's chat or from private messages. However if a player is not playing at a reasonable pace, they may receive an in-game warning for Slow Play.
There is no end of match procedure or time limit on Dueling Book that dictates how long the duel or a players turn may last. Both players are responsible for playing at a reasonable pace; If a player is not playing at a reasonable pace, they may receive an in-game warning for Slow Play.
All users are free to post on the public status wall. However, there are some rules regarding what types of posts are allowed. Failure to follow these rules may result in posting privileges being revoked or other penalties depending on the severity of the content posted. Here are some guidelines when making a status update or reply:
When posting a status update, you have the option to set that post as NSFW. If you do so, your post will only be shown to your friends. There is less of a restriction on what content is allowed for NSFW posts.
When a user makes a donation to Duelingbook, they can then redeem that donation to attain supporter status, which allows that user to upload custom avatars to their profile, and custom sleeves for in game play. All donations are processed through Paypal. Once you make a donation, you can use that transaction ID to attain supporter status. To find the transaction ID, you can go into My Profile, and click on the small round button to the right of the Redeem Donation button, and enter in the email you used to donate. You will then be shown all your past transactions and IDs, as well as the username of whoever redeemed those codes. Copy the 17 character code on that page, then go back into My Profile and click Redeem Donation, using the transaction ID from the transactions page. Once applied, you will immediately have supporter status!
The image types that can be uploaded are jpg, png, and gif. The maximum file size an image can be is 4 MB. For each dollar donated to the site, users will be granted 3 days of supporter status. If a user redeems a donation while they are already a current supporter, the rewards from that donation will be added to their current amount of days remaining. All avatars uploaded are resized to be the shape of a square, with a maximum width and height of 480 pixels. Sleeves are resized to 400 pixels in width, and 580 pixels in height. Animated GIFs will render as expected for profile pictures, as long as the viewer's animation settings are set to Maximum in Settings. Custom sleeves will not be animated. Users can upload a maximum of 6 profile pictures. Users can delete images and upload more whenever they please.
Supporters are free to upload images of their choice, but there are some rules regarding the type of content depicted in the images. The following type of content cannot be used:
Users that post these types of images may be revoked of their supporter status, and have their images removed. If it's obvious there is a blatant disregard for these rules, further penalties may be applied. If you upload another user's picture, and they request that you take it down, you are required to do so.
Some images require that the user uploading the image mark that content as NSFW (Not safe for work). Such content includes:
When a user uploads an avatar, they can instantly mark the content as NSFW by checking the checkbox right below the thumbnail, labeled NSFW. Thumbnails marked as NSFW have a semi transparent filter with the label NSFW partially covering the content. On that user's profile, if their main avatar is set to NSFW, it will have a black cover with a button labeled NSFW. When a viewer clicks that button, the black cover will disappear, and the content will be displayed.
Any content that would be considered NSFW cannot be used for custom sleeves. Sleeves also have further restrictions to prevent confusion during gameplay. Content used for sleeves cannot make it so it's difficult for a player to see the sleeves, or distinguish it from other sleeves. Some example of sleeves that are not allowed include:
Users that use inappropriate sleeves will receive a warning on their first offense. If an unfair advantage was gained due to confusing sleeves, the user using the sleeves may be subject to a game or match loss.
Duelingbook now has the option for users to create their own custom cards that can be used in games! At the bottom of the main menu, their is a new button called Custom Cards. This will take you to the Custom Cards room where you can upload, edit, and browse custom cards created by you. Custom cards can only be used in Custom Cards format, which is found in the second set of duel formats in the Duel Room. To search for custom cards in Deck Constructor click on the 'more options' button, then select 'My Custom Cards' or 'All Custom Cards', and click Search. To switch back to searching for official cards, select 'No Custom Cards'. When exporting YDK files for decks that contain custom cards, the custom cards will not be included in the file.
Each card you upload must have a unique name. When uploading a new card, you have 2 options regarding who can search for that card in Deck Constructor: 'Myself Only' or 'Everyone'. If you choose 'Myself Only', then only you will be able to search for that card. If you choose 'Everyone', then all users will be able to search for that card.
You can edit any card you've created, even if it already exists in a deck. To do so, click on My Cards, then click on the card you want to edit. With the Editor tool, you can change any of the options also found in the Upload tool, including uploading a new image. If you change a card's availability from 'Everyone' to 'Myself Only', it will still remain in all of the decks it's in, but users will no longer be able to search for it. Cards that are in a user's Main Deck cannot be edited to a type that can only be in the Extra Deck, and vice versa.
You can delete any card you've uploaded, even if it already exists in a deck. If it does, than those copies will be removed from the decks, and those decks will then contain fewer cards than before. If one of the custom cards in your decks is deleted while you are hosting a game or in the Duelist Pool, you'll receive a message saying so, and your deck will be reverified to make sure it's still legal.
All of the same restrictions for custom avatars and sleeves apply to images for custom cards. If you upload an inappropriate image, it will be removed, and your uploading and editing privileges will be removed for 1 day. If you violate this rule a second time, you're uploading privileges will be permanently removed.