Building & griefing

What counts as someone's stuff, what counts as griefing, how it's investigated and reversed.

Sunday Market doesn't auto-claim land. Player property is recognized by community convention (see Building & claiming). When that convention is violated, the rules layer kicks in.

This page is about what griefing is, what it isn't, and what happens when it's reported.

What counts as someone's stuff

You don't have to formally claim something. The norm is:

Blocks you placed — yours
Items in chests you placed — yours
Crops you planted — yours
Mobs you bred or named — yours
A path you cleared and walk on — yours-ish, by usage
A build you've been working on, even unfinished — yours

The closer to your active workspace, the stronger the claim. The longer ago you were last there, the weaker.

What's not "yours"

Wilderness terrain you haven't built on — claiming "this whole forest is mine" without building anything = no recognition
Public infrastructure — Nether hubs, sign teleporter pads other players use, community spawn-area structures
Loot in dungeon chests — fair game until someone takes it (then it's theirs)
Wild animals you didn't breed — fair to hunt for food
Resources in unowned terrain — trees, ores, etc., are wild until cultivated by someone

What counts as griefing

Direct destruction

Breaking blocks another player placed (without their permission)
Burning their build with lava or fire
Drowning their build with water
Blowing up their build with TNT, withers, or end crystals
Tunneling under their build to undermine it
Trapping or walling them in their own base

Theft

Taking items from a chest you don't own (and it's not flagged as public)
Taking items from a recovery chest belonging to someone else
Taking crops from a player-cultivated farm without permission
Looting a player's death drop in PvP (the recovery chest is locked, but un-recovered drops on the ground are a gray area)

Vandalism / non-destructive harm

Defacing their build with cobblestone graffiti or unwanted decoration
Replacing their farm crops with unwanted blocks
Killing their pets or named animals
Spamming unwanted blocks in their area to clutter the view

Indirect harm

Building a wall around their base to block their access
Building a "decoy" that blocks their access to their own resources
Lava-casting their territory to cause widespread destruction
Intentionally leading mobs to grief their base (drowning their farm, etc.)

What's NOT griefing

Building near them (with reasonable distance) — courteous to ask, but not a violation
Taking from a public chest explicitly marked as such
Mining unfilled holes someone left in your area
Removing a structure that's been abandoned for 30+ days (in unprotected territory)
Killing a wild animal even if it's near someone's base
Defending yourself in PvP (even if it leads to their death)

How investigation works

Player reports

/helpop griefing at coords [X Y Z], by [player if known]

Add: screenshots if you have them, time of incident, what was destroyed.

The rollback system

The server runs a block-change logging system. Every block placed and broken is recorded with:

Timestamp
Player who did it
Block type
Coordinates

This means staff can investigate even past griefing. They can roll back specific changes by time and player.

Staff investigates

For a confirmed grief case:

Staff reviews the rollback log at the reported area
Identifies the perpetrator and scope
Verifies it wasn't legitimate (the player didn't have the chest open via permission, etc.)
Determines the appropriate punishment
Rolls back the damage
Notifies both reporter and reported

The whole process can take hours to days depending on staff availability and case complexity.

Punishments

Severity	First time	Repeated
Minor griefing (few blocks)	Verbal warning + rollback	24hr tempban, rollback
Moderate (visible damage to a base)	7-day tempban + rollback	30-day tempban + rollback
Major (whole base destroyed)	30-day tempban + rollback	Permaban + rollback
Theft (chest emptied)	7-day tempban + item return	30-day tempban
Repeated theft	Permaban + restitution	n/a

Staff has discretion based on intent and context. Accidental damage (e.g., a creeper exploded and the bystander didn't stop it) is treated more leniently than malicious griefing.

Region protection — for cases where rules aren't enough

For builds where the community really needs guarantees (multi-player towns, public infrastructure), file /helpop to request region protection. Staff can set up a server-enforced no-griefing zone for the area.

Region protection is server-side — the perpetrator literally cannot break the blocks, regardless of client. It's used sparingly (the spawn protected zone is the standard example).

See Region protection.

Inactivity and abandonment

A player who hasn't logged in for 30 days has weakened claim:

Their build is still respected (don't grief it)
But other players can build in the area without it being a violation
Materials in unlocked chests may be considered abandoned (gray area; ask staff before taking anything substantial)
Locked chests stay locked indefinitely

Important: 30 days of inactivity is the rough guideline. Staff judges each case. A 100-hour Legend who's away for a month is still treated as a real player; a Visitor who logged in once and never came back is treated more loosely.

Multi-player base disputes

Sometimes shared bases have disputes about who built what or who took what. The rollback system handles this — staff can check the block log and item-transfer log to determine who did what when.

If you're in a co-op base and it goes south, document the issue and /helpop. Don't take matters into your own hands by griefing back — that just gets you both punished.