🌱 RIGHTS AND CONTENT 🌱

This section explains the rights of the user in regards to the Garden Grubs project and its content.

• You must be above the age of 13 to have an account and to participate in the game and community areas.
• Garden Grubs services include continued user access to the browser game and Masterlist database. User access can be revoked at any time.
• With the exception of user-submitted content licensed to us, all assets relating to the Garden Grubs label are owned by the Garden Grubs team and are not authorized for outside use or sale.
• By submitting content owned by yourself, including designs or artwork, to the Garden Grubs website, you are granting us a license to host copies of that content on our site. This does NOT grant us ownership of your content, only a right to display it on our site.
• Only designs present on the masterlist with the Resale, Trade, Gift, Frozen, and Accountbound statuses can be used to participate or be recognized/referred to as Garden Grubs.
• You may not use the Garden Grubs label for designs that have been voided, deleted, or are otherwise not present on the Masterlist, with the exception of designs preapproved for sale or transfer by the staff team.
• No part of the Garden Grubs label can be used for commercial profit without prior approval from the Garden Grubs team. This includes Grubs present on the masterlist with non-voided statuses.
• All designs officially recognized as Garden Grubs by inclusion on the masterlist are subject to the terms outlined on this page.

🌱 CONDUCT 🌱

This section details expectations when participating within any of the Garden Grubs community spaces, including the Discord.

• Follow the respective channel Discord rules when posting in the Discord.
• Do not post/spread harmful communications, such as phishing links, spam, or malware.
• All content must stay within a PG-13 rating. Any NSFW content, cropped or not, is forbidden.
• You must treat everyone with respect within the Garden Grubs community spaces.
• No posting of messages containing hate speech, slurs, or bigotry. This includes, but is not limited to: Racism, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny/Misandry, Ableism, etc.
• Do not post content which can instigate bullying or harassment. Callouts, public blacklists, etc., are prohibited from being posted or linked to directly in server. If you believe someone poses a danger, please contact the staff team.
• Harassment, stalking or doxxing are bannable offenses. Do not share private/reasonably private information about anyone. This includes private messages, email addresses, hidden prior accounts/usernames, and real-life information.
• Unofficial designs that have not been approved by staff may not be advertised as Garden Grubs and may only be posted within designated approval channels.
• Avoid discussing sensitive topics. (e.g. Venting, gossip, personal beef, in-depth medical talk, politics, and/or potentially triggering content). Keep all Garden Grubs chats clean, on topic, and free of personal matters.
• Do not heavily reference, trace, or copy the art or designs of others. Posting of AI-generated images is considered art theft.
• No relaying or discussing information or happenings from one channel into another. Such as from VIP channels to Non-VIP channels.

🌱 OWNERSHIP 🌱

Ownership is granted upon legitimate exchange between two parties as defined by rules listed in this document.

• Upon ownership transfer, design ownership becomes irrevocable unless in cases of transaction reversals, like chargebacks.
• All Garden Grubs designs are for non-commercial purposes only.
• Co-ownership is not officially supported on the masterlist. Each Garden Grub may only be used by one person within the species.
• The original designer must always be credited for the design whenever possible.
• Ownership of a Garden Grubs design grants you rights to that design, not the species.
• Usage of the Garden Grubs label on a design is contingent on the design remaining with an acceptable status on the Masterlist.

Purchased Designs

Purchased designs are designs where real-life currency has been exchanged for ownership. Via auction (Bids), flatsale (Set-Price), or mixed offers (Combination)

OTA Designs

OTA (Offer to Adopt) designs are defined as official designs where no real life currency is exchanged. Instead, digital and/or physical items, or services are exchanged between the ‘seller’ and offering party.

Custom Designs

Custom Designs are defined as designs obtained via a character design service from a staff member. Customs are created based on a concept or idea provided by the commissioner.

Raffles/Freebies

Raffle/Freebie designs are defined as designs obtained for free via raffles, lotteries, or gifts from the staff team.

🌱 MYOS/CREATING A GRUB 🌱

Users may be allowed to create a character that will fall under the Garden Grubs label and be listed in our Masterlist when fulfilling the requirements listed.

• Users must have an account and a non-pending MYO item in that account.
• Users must follow the MYO submission guide to make sure their design and image meets submission requirements.
• Users must have all items required for their design and MYO type. All submitted information must be accurate.
• Designs may:
  
  🌿 Be similar in concept or themes to other designs as long as the final design is visually distinct from any existing designs.
  🌿 Be based on other designs that you own. Trades of any MYO designs derived from other designs must be traded with its original design.
• Designs may not:
  
  🌿 Be recognizably similar to any existing commercial franchise. (see CBCs)
  🌿 Contain any prohibited elements. (See Prohibited Design Elements)
  🌿 Contain any suggestive, sexual, or fetish-based content on their ML image, regardless of how mild or ‘SFW’ it is depicted.
• All submitted information must be accurate.

MYOs

MYO's are considered items and are subject to the same terms as other items. MYOs may be obtained through the following means:

• MYO Shops
• Monthly MYO sales
• MYO Giveaways and Raffles
• Lottery
• Event Participation

After you've obtained your MYO, the slot will be kept up with via your inventory until used. The following are the MYO types and their limitations:

• Starter MYO
  
  ➤ Not purchasable or transferrable, all new accounts are given 1 at account creation.
  ➤ May be used to create a Garden Grub using unlocked traits.
  ➤ Locked, Special and stacked Traits will require their respective items.
  ➤ Cannot be traded or transferred until designed. Custom slots using this MYO are strictly prohibited.
• Unlocked MYO
  
  ➤ Purchasable via Jebble’s Shop
  ➤ May be used to create a Garden Grub using unlocked traits.
  ➤ Locked, Special. and stacked Traits will require their respective items.
• Locked MYO
  
  ➤ Purchasable via Jebbles Shop once a month.
  ➤ May be used to create a Garden Grub using locked and unlocked traits.
  ➤ Special and stacked Traits will require their respective items.
• Special MYO
  
  ➤ Slots to purchase this MYO are raffled during the monthly MYO sale
  ➤ May be used to create a Garden Grub using all available traits without the need for items, except for traits which are being stacked.
• Thank You MYO
  
  ➤ Cannot be purchased, these are given as payment to staff, to helpful people in the community, or as a way of saying thank you to a member.
  ➤ Cannot be traded or transferred until used. Staff may gift TY MYOs in good faith to members or fellow staff.
  ➤ May be used to create a Garden Grub using all available traits without the need for any items.
  ➤ May be used to offer a custom using this MYO for real-life currency.
  ➤ May be used for the ability to design and sell one official Garden Grubs design as a Temporary Artist for the next batch.
  ➤ Users who are not staff or artists may only be awarded 2 Thank you MYOs per year.

Prohibited Design Elements

Garden Grubs currently carries a rating of pg-13, which means certain design elements that reference concepts outside of that rating may not be allowed or may be allowed with extra scrutiny. The following are design elements that are not allowed on designs listed in our database.

• Hate Symbols: Self explanatory, any symbols that reference real or fictional hate groups.
• Suggestive Content: Any sexual or adjacently sexual elements. This includes otherwise SFW, but commonly sexualized clothing, accessories/gear, tattoos, marks, and/or design elements. (eg. “Kiss” marks, bulges, etc) These may be depicted in personal art, but not within official ML art.
• Politically-Oriented Content: Any symbols, lettering, or overt references to current or past political groups or movements. (Important Note: References to innate elements of human identity and country flags are NOT political content and thus are always allowed.)
• Fetish Content: Any elements, items, or concepts that reference fetish material or groups, regardless of how “SFW” they may otherwise be considered, are considered NSFW and will not be allowed. (This includes artwork with unusual focus on body parts commonly associated with fetish material.)
• Heavy Gore: Organs or human body parts residing outside the body or within the Grub’s bowl are prohibited (This includes all non-organs that may reside within a human body, like teratomas) Please see below for specifics on blood.

Character based Characters (CBCs)

Designs may take inspiration or be based on existing characters. These designs are referred to as CBCs (Character based Characters)

Customs

Other users may commission you for customs, and you may offer customs in server under the following conditions:

🌱 USAGE 🌱

Garden Grubs does not moderate usage of designs after ownership transfer, only its inclusion on the masterlist. However, for a Garden Grub to remain in the Masterlist as an official Garden Grubs design, certain conditions must be met.

• The owner must have an account on the Garden Grubs site at time of submission/purchase.
• Changes to the design must still follow guides and redesign policy.
• Failure to adhere to these may result in ‘voiding’, meaning the design may no longer be used within the community and website. This will NOT impact legal ownership of the design, and only removes the ability to refer to the design under the Garden Grubs label.

Addendum: Usage

Certain kinds of usage may result in voiding or deletion of the design from our Masterlist and/or banning of a user to remove any association between the design and Garden Grubs. This includes, but is not limited to:

Note regarding Personal Art: We do not moderate personal art, we do ask that you please note the following to avoid confusion:

Redesigning your Grub

Redesigning a grub means making changes to the design after its addition to the masterlist. Any change of the masterlist image in which the design has been modified from its original execution is considered a redesign.

• All redesigns must be based on the original design and be recognizable as the same design and concept. We do not moderate specific color/pattern changes, just overall visual similarity.
• Owners may choose to revert the masterlist design to any already archived redesign if desired.
• Addition of traits of a locked or special rarity will require the respective items for those traits, regardless of the MYO used for the design.
• Major redesigns will require an Overhaul Ticket. Drastic changes must still be reasonably seen as the same concept and somewhat similar execution.
• Please note that redesign similarity is inherently objective. Basically, if it looks like it could be approved as its own grub, it likely will.

🌱 PAYMENTS AND BIDDING 🌱

This section details processes for purchasing or obtaining a Garden Grubs design from staff or authorized artists.

General

• Full payment is required within 48 hours of your claim. You will be allowed a 24 hour extension if needed.
• Payments are processed via the seller’s choice of payment method, ensure you are able to use at least one of their preferred payment methods.
• There are no refunds on design purchases.
• Sellers are independent and reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
• Any transaction reversals (Chargebacks) will result in immediate reversal of the design to the seller and a permanent ban from Garden Grubs.

Auctions

• Do not chat in bidding threads except as necessary for the auction. Only active bidders may post.
• Please maintain a professional attitude with other bidders and purchasers. Expressing friendly or joking upset with losing an auction is fine, but passive aggressive responses are not.
• If you are going to require a hold or payment plan, ensure the seller allows this and state so alongside your bid.
• Respect designers and do NOT bid above the maximum autobuy. Sellers are not permitted to accept amounts in excess of their maximum Autobuy price.
• Bidding above a seller’s autobuy price even once will result in a temporary or permanent ban from future auctions and you will not be allowed to continue with purchase.

Staff Customs

Customs are official character design services from staff or authorized artists.

• Custom design services must be paid upfront. For customs that do not involve real money, payment timing is negotiated between the seller and commissioner.
• The designer should attempt to adhere to commissioner preference when possible, but commissioners should note that the final result may adhere strongly or loosely to the initial concept based on feedback and species requirements.
• Sellers are bound by the same species minimums and requirements as members, including CBC requirements.
• Artists and staff are required to verify with admins at least twice that the concept/design will be accepted: Once, upon communication of the concept, and once upon finalization of the design.
• Once the service has been completed, refunds are at sole discretion of the seller, and are often not permitted.

Holds and Payment Plans

Holds are agreeing to provide payment at a date later than the conclusion of the auction or purchase of flat-sale. Payment Plans are paying for the full price of a design over an agreed upon course of time.

• Allowing of, and length of holds/payment plans for a design are strictly at the discretion of the seller. They are not required to agree to either.
• Initiating a hold or payment plan is considered agreement to purchase of the design. See “Backing out”

Backing Out

Backing out means refusal to purchase or to continue with the purchase of a design after agreeing to purchase the design.

• Backing out does not refer to designs where the purchase has been completed, see “General”.
• Refusal to proceed with an agreed upon purchase may result in a ban from future purchases or auctions depending on the severity, money exchanged, and reason(s) given. Penalties, if any, are at the discretion of the seller and admin team.
• Backing out after money has been exchanged, but purchase has not been completed, will result in a refund of the full amount minus the amount of any platform seller fees.

🌱 TRANSFERRING GRUBS 🌱

This section details requirements when looking to sell, trade, or otherwise transfer ownership of a Garden Grub.

Selling your Grub

• Grubs with Base Value may be resold without addons for the same amount they were purchased for.*
• Designs without Base Value may not be sold for real money.*
• All designs may be sold for the direct monetary value of any commissioned art or items of that design, in addition to their Base Value.*
• A listed design’s on-site value is considered its Base Value, this is only updated each time ownership of the design is transferred and is only ever increased, never decreased.
  (The previous owner must input the resale amount paid by the new owner when requesting ownership transfer in order for the design’s Base Value to be updated.)
• Transfer to a blacklisted or banned member may result in voiding, freezing, or deletion of that design on the Masterlist.
• Knowingly entering false information when transferring ownership of a grub is prohibited, this includes incorrect purchase amounts or transfer types.
• Revocation, tradelock, or tradeback clauses are prohibited and considered a type of scam. Previous owners have no say over a design after it leaves their hands.

⭐ We do not appraise grubs after they have been bought. You will be allowed to sell or resell your Grub for more than you paid for it in server when providing proof in your listing that justifies the increase in price, such as commissioned art, physical items that require shipping, etc. – Please see the rules for more details. Listings without good justification are deleted. Abuse of this system for the purposes of profiting is considered scamming other players and is a bannable offense.

Trading your Grub

• Please be responsible and timely with trades, reports made to us about unnecessary waits may be treated as instances of scamming.
• Mixed offers that include real money are considered resale, See ‘Selling your grub’
• Transfer to a blacklisted or banned member may result in voiding, freezing, or deletion of that design on the Masterlist.
• Knowingly entering false information when transferring ownership of a grub is prohibited, such as inclusion of purchase amounts in trades or incorrect transfer types.
• Revocation, tradelock, or tradeback clauses are prohibited and considered a type of scam. Previous owners have no say over a design after it leaves their hands.

Official Sales

Users may use Thank You MYOs in order to sell a design to the community as a Temporary Guest Artist.

• All designs that have not been made by Staff or Permanent artists are considered guest-artist adopts.
• Users must agree to abide by the terms outlined in the “Adopt” section of the “Staff Rules and Information” document when using a TYMYO to sell an adopt.
• Users must inform the admin team if intending to use the MYO to sell an adopt before designing.
• Members may only receive a maximum of 2 Thank you MYOs a year.

🌱 MASTERLIST STATUSES 🌱

Grubs are given different statuses on the masterlist depending on how they were obtained and how they may be used within the species.

Resell, Trade, Gift

Are officially recognized as part of the species and are allowed to be posted in server and used for events.

• These ONLY reflect how the Grub was obtained by its owner, Not what the owner may do with it.
• Grubs with resell status will not lose their status and base value, even if traded or gifted.
• Grubs with the gift status may obtain the ‘Trade’ status if traded for by the new owner.
• Trade or Gift Grubs may obtain Resell status if paid for by their new owner.

Accountbound

Are officially recognized as part of the species and are allowed to be posted in server and used for events, but cannot be traded, with the exception of NPCs.

• Grubs may be accountbound upon request of the owner.
• Accountbinding means that the grub will not be able to be transferred for any reason.
• Accountbinding is permanent and accountbound grubs may never be transferred, only voided.

Frozen

These grubs are still considered part of the species, but may not be used anywhere within the community.

• Grubs receive Frozen status if their owner has been permanently banned from the species, but has not requested voiding of the design.
• Frozen grubs can be unfrozen once traded to a new owner upon request by the new owner, without requiring use of any items.

Voided

These grubs are no longer considered part of the species and may not be used anywhere within the community, nor may they be referred to under the Garden Grubs label.

• Grubs may receive voided status upon request of the owner.
• Grubs may be unvoided at any time by a non-banned user by using a MYO and respective items.

Deletion

This is not an official status, as Deleted grubs will not be found on the Masterlist.

• Grubs are deleted for extreme violations that would make them unwelcoming to host on our site. This includes grubs that are copyright violations or that reference hateful themes.
• Deleted designs may never be reinstated, even if redesigned, and their masterlist slot will be replaced with a placeholder.

🌱 ACCOUNT DELETION 🌱

Users may, at any time, ask for their Garden Grubs account and inventory to be deleted. Please note the following and submit a contact request to the admin team to proceed.

• The Discord or Toyhouse used to ask for deletion must match the one used at signup. If not, we may ask for confirmation from the signup Discord/Toyhouse to verify account deletion.
• Please use or trade any items, MYOs, or currency in your inventory, they are deleted once we remove your account.
• Any grubs under your account will be frozen unless voided.
• Any credits associated with your name will remain on site.
• Please note deletion is permanent, we cannot recover your items or currency once deleted. You can always create a new account in the future after voluntary deletion.

Voiding

• You must be the current owner of the design to request its voiding. Permission from the designer is not required.
• Voided designs relinquish all association with the species upon voiding and can no longer be referred to as part of the species.
• The voided design will still remain on the masterlist with the ‘Voided’ status.
• While not required, we highly suggest the design be sufficiently altered to avoid resemblance to the species, especially if considering trading the design in the future!
• If the design was created by you: You have full rights to the design and can do whatever you'd like with it.
• If the design was not created by you: The terms of the design will follow the terms of the original designer.
• Designs that have been resold at higher prices than base value after voiding will not be reinstated unless attached to an existing character at time of creation.

🌱 PENALTIES 🌱

Users that breach or attempt to breach the terms outlined on this page may be given penalties. These penalties are listed below.

Types of Penalties

• Verbal Warning
  Are unofficial warnings that may be given in passing. Actions that may result in a verbal warning include, but are not limited to:
  
  🌿 Rudeness towards members/staff
  🌿 Breaking channel-specific rules
  🌿 Venting, beefing, discussing other users etc.
  🌿 Mini-Modding


• Official Penalty
  A warning directly from a staff member for repeated rule breaking, often after prior verbal warning. These may result in a user’s access to things such as Events, Raffles, MYO sales, and Discord channels, being temporarily or permanently restricted. Actions that may result in an official warning include, but are not limited to:
  
  🌿 Repeated rule-breaking
  🌿 Attempting to loophole rules
  🌿 Not disclosing CBCs
  🌿 Blatant Art/Design Theft and posting of AI art.
  🌿 Claiming unofficial designs as Grubs
  🌿 False reports


• Suspension/Banning
  Major offenses that severely breach the Terms of Use will result in an immediate temporary or permanent ban from participation in the species. Actions that may result in a ban include, but are not limited to:
  
  🌿 Predatory behavior
  🌿 Lying about age
  🌿 Posting NSFW or fetish content
  🌿 Bigotry, hate speech, usage of slurs.
  🌿 Scamming of any kind.
  🌿 Harassment, Doxxing, or Stalking
  🌿 Posting Malware/Phishing links
  🌿 Scalping designs

Bans

• Permanent bans always result in immediate deletion of site inventory, removal from the Discord, and Freezing of all non-voided designs.
• Banned users cannot participate in the community beyond trading designs.
• Designs belonging to banned users are frozen or voided upon banning.
• Users may request their designs be traded to another user prior to freezing of designs.
• If a frozen Grub is traded to a non-banned user, the new user may unfreeze and use this design to participate in group activities by submitting a Masterlist Update Request.

Appeals

• You may submit ban appeals via the contact form or to a staff member.
• Please be polite in your appeal, and state why you feel the ban was wrongful.
• Appeals may result in no change to the ban, a modification to the ban, and immediate or delayed uplifting of the ban.
• Appealing does not guarantee a ban will be uplifted or modified. The Grubs team reserves the right to reject your appeal.