Requirements to Chat
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Introduction
As a Newbie, you'll quickly discover that you won't have full chat privileges. Why? We believe in freedom of speech in Whyville, but
we also know that the Internet can be a dangerous place, so we
want to first make sure you spend some time getting to know
our town and our rules on how to chat safely.
+ Waiting Three Days
+ Parental Permission
+ The Chat License
+ Punishments
As a new citizen, you'll also need your Chat License to chat on Whyville. The Chat License is our way of seeing how well you understand what you can and can't say in Whyville.
Read on for some hints on how to ace the test.
If you walked up to a total stranger on the street, would you tell them
your full name, address and phone number? Of course not! And you shouldn't
do it in Whyville either (or anywhere else on the Internet for that matter).
So, giving out any information that could be used to contact you in real life
is a no-no. This includes the name of your school and your email address.
Basic info like first name, age, gender and state or country is fine. If you
live in a big city, that's fine too.
Abusive language is absolutely not allowed in Whyville. That means no swearing,
no bigotry, no cyber sex and no threats! Whyvillians pride themselves for being
a smart, civilized population. If you come here to be a bully, a racist or a thug,
you'll quickly find a big thick stripe of duct tape across your mouth and you'll
have a few days to think about your behavior before we'll let you chat again.
And, since most of the citizens in this town are kids, R-rated language and behavior
is unacceptable. If you've got a problem with that, you'll find yourself
talking to the Tape!
Another sure-fire way to get run out of town is through pretending to be a City
Worker. City Workers wear stylish (ok, maybe not so stylish) red hats with
a yellow "CW." City Workers don't EVER take off their hats and go around Whyville
asking for passwords (in fact, City Workers don't ever ask for passwords either!)
If someone tells you that he or she is a City Worker and he or she isn't wearing the City
Worker hat then it's a big fat lie.
Finally, asking for or giving out passwords is illegal in Whyville. No exceptions.
We say this over and over again but we still get tons of complaints from Citizens who've
had their accounts stolen. And activities that involve giving or receiving passwords
are illegal; that means no makeovers, no salary raising, no selling or trading accounts.
Period.
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For the first three days you come on Whyville, you might find that when chatting, you'll often be asked to rephrase your sentence. This is because your chat is more restricted during these first three days.
However, you can't just log off for three days and then come back because that won't work. You need to actually visit Whyville for three days. This may seem strange, but it's our effort to keep you extra safe during your first days in Whyville, when you're less familiar with our rules. It also helps to keep away those troublemakers who only want to
hop on and mouth off, rather than become active citizens of our town. After three days, you'll have a much easier time chatting, although there will still be times when you'll be asked to rephrase your sentence because our filters are always on the look out, at work to keep Whyville safe.
After getting the chat license, you should be good to go! We wish you a fun time
chatting and socializing in Whyville.Just remember to heed our rules! A few citizens
like to think that they can get away with any or all of the behaviors listed above. The
thing is, sooner or later they are proven wrong. 
When citizens break rules, City Workers have no choice but to mete out punishments.
Sometimes this means clam fines. Sometimes it's the duct tape, which means a piece of duct
tape slapped across the citizen's face and no chatting for a number of days.