Chicken Smoothie Help: Forum and COPPA

What does COPPA mean?

COPPA stands for Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. This law only affects children under the age of 13, who live in the United States. As it is an American law, young children in other countries are unaffected. This law is designed to protect children from accidentally sharing private information online.

Players protected by COPPA cannot send or read private messages. They can only post in the Oekaki boards and Dress-up Challenges, and all of their posts must be checked by a moderator before they are displayed to other players. They can only send pre-written trade messages. They can still collect pets, create a stamp collection, and use other non-communicative site features.

A COPPA member will automatically become a full member on their 13th birthday, if we have their correct birthdate information.

Players can have their COPPA protection removed early if they get permission from their parent or guardian. Contact the help team for advice about you or your child's COPPA account.

Please note that all new accounts have some messaging restrictions, it doesn't mean you are definitely a COPPA member. Read more below.

I just joined, why can't I send messages? My posts aren't showing up.

All new members (except COPPA members) are put in a 'Newly Registered Users' group which has limited posting and messaging abilities. This is to prevent spammers from posting adverts or inappropriate material in the forum.

To become a full member you need to make a post in the forum, and wait for it to be approved by a moderator. This may take a few hours. Once your post has been approved you will become a regular member and will be able to PM and send trade messages. After you have passed this approval step you won't need to be approved for new posts, except some containing images.

Your post will need to be 'on topic' to be approved by staff. If you don't see any topics that you'd like to comment on then we recommend posting an Introduction.

How do I edit my forum signature?

Click here to go to your signature page. This page is found in your Forum profile settings. Make sure to save your signature when you are done making changes!

How do I edit my stamp collection?

Click here to edit your stamp collection. This page is found in your My Stuff menu. There are a lot of different categories full of stamps that you can decorate your collection with, just use the tabs at the top to browse for more.

Make sure to save your stamp collection when you are done making changes!

Your signature and your stamp collection will both be visible to other members if they visit your profile page, but only one will be displayed at the bottom of posts you make in the forum. Forum posts will show your forum signature by default, but you can change it to show your stamps instead. In the My Stuff menu there is a link to your profile page. On your profile page there's a link called "[Click to display under your forum posts]" written just above your stamp collection. Click that link to use your stamp collection under your forum posts. You can change back to using your signature any time by clicking the same link which is above your signature (when stamps have been selected).

How do I choose a forum avatar?

Click here to go to your avatar page. This page is found in your Forum profile settings. You can use the buttons on that page to pick an avatar from our avatar gallery, or upload your own image if you have one saved on your computer.

Please remember that you shouldn't use another person's artwork without their permission. There are a lot of free avatars available in our avatar gallery, in the Fanart Archives, and in the Avatars boards in the Oekaki! There are even editable Avatars available so you can color your own!

What is 'bumping'? How do I bump a topic?

Topics are ordered by how recently they were posted in. When a topic hasn't been posted in for a while, it will slowly get 'buried' under new topics. It might slip down the list of topics in that board, until it is on the second page or third page of topics (or even further back!). The further back it moves, the less likely it is that someone will see that topic.

If your topic has moved off the first page of the board, then you are allowed to 'bump' it back up. BUMP means "Bring Up My Post". Just post a new reply saying "bump" in your topic to push it back onto the front page!

If your topic is already on the front page of that board, you are not allowed to bump it yet! It is unnecessary and "spammy" to add bump posts when your topic is already on the first page of that board. You can get in trouble if you bump more than necessary.

What's a Block list? How do I block someone?

People on your Block List can't send you trades or private messages (PMs) and their forum posts are hidden. If someone is upsetting you, you may Block them by clicking the Block button on their profile page. You can click Unblock if you change your mind.

There are several options for your PM settings...

If you only want to block certain people from sending you private messages, add them to your Block List and make sure you have selected the option for "Allow everybody except users on your blocklist to send you private messages". This is our recommended option.

If you prefer to keep your PMs for friends only, then add everybody nice to your Friends List and select the option "Only allow friends and staff to send you private messages".

Make sure to keep your friends list up to date, so your buddies don't have trouble reaching you.

You can also use the option to "Only allow staff to send you private messages" if you want to block all players from sending you PMs. It is not possible to block staff from sending you private messages, as we may need to contact you with important information.

Why is this topic locked? How can I lock my topic?

Only moderators and admins can lock topics. If you would like your own topic to be locked, change the title to "Mods please lock". You can also report it to get a mod's attention.

If a topic has been locked it may be because it is no longer needed (e.g. question has been answered), or it could be because it has broken some kind of rule. This doesn't necessarily mean that anyone is going to be in trouble.

If that was your topic and you haven't been told why the topic was locked, you can contact staff for more information.

How do forum bookmarks work?

You have a link to your Bookmarks in the Forums menu at the top of the site.

If you bookmark a topic then it will be saved to your Bookmarks list so you can easily find it again.

When you are viewing a topic, scroll down to the bottom of the page. There is a bar near the bottom of the page with some links to "Home" and "Forum". On that bar is a button called "Bookmark topic". Simply click on that to add a bookmark!

Click here to edit your bookmarks. You can remove a bookmark by ticking the box beside the topic in the bookmarks list and press the button called "Remove marked bookmarks".

How do forum subscriptions work? How do I stop getting notifications?

If you subscribe to a topic then you will get an email every time someone makes a new post on that topic. We recommend using Bookmarks instead for topics which get a lot of replies!

When you are viewing a topic, scroll down to the bottom of the page. There is a bar near the bottom of the page with some links to "Home" and "Forum". Beside those links is a button called "Subscribe topic". Simply click on that to subscribe!

Click here to edit your subscriptions list. You can remove a subscription by ticking the box beside the topic and press the button called "Unwatch marked".

You can also unsubscribe from a topic by visiting the topic page again and clicking "Unsubscribe topic" - found on the bar at the bottom of the page.

Where can I find out more about using the forum?

The forum has its own FAQ page. There you can learn about forum features like bookmarks and subscriptions, and how to report posts when someone is breaking the rules. There is also a guide to using BBCode which explains how to add links and images to your posts or signature.