Hosting Rules

Approval and provisioning

Every hosting request requires staff review. Approval depends on project readiness, available capacity, contactability, security risk, and compliance with site policies. Staff may adjust requested usernames, ports, database names, subdomains, or limits to avoid conflicts.

MUD shell hosting

MUD owners receive a restricted, unprivileged Linux account using SSH-key authentication and SFTP. Owners upload, compile, configure, and maintain their codebase.

• No root or sudo access.
• Use only assigned ports, directories, credentials, and services.
• Do not run unrelated daemons, proxies, miners, crawlers, or persistent workloads.
• Keep private keys private and remove access for former project staff.

BYOND portal hosting

BYOND owners manage files, compilation, runtime controls, logs, backups, and port testing through the web portal. DreamDaemon runs under supervised CPU and memory limits.

• Upload only files required by the hosted game or approved website.
• Use only supported DreamDaemon flags and the assigned game port.
• Create a snapshot before risky changes and download important backups off-server.
• A stopped, crashing, or unreachable game remains the owner's responsibility to diagnose using the provided logs and tools.

Database service

MySQL is provisioned only when approved and uses assigned database and username identifiers. Owners must protect passwords, use least-privilege application access, validate application input, and keep export copies. Mudhaven may disable abusive queries or compromised credentials.

Game websites

Game web hosting is for approved project information, documentation, downloads, and community tools. Website files must remain within the assigned document root and supported file types. General-purpose resale hosting, unrelated sites, malicious scripts, and unauthorized PHP uploads are not allowed.

Maintenance and resource limits

Mudhaven may restart hosts, apply security updates, move services, change limits, or schedule downtime. Runaway processes may be stopped without notice when they threaten platform stability. Owners should test updates, monitor logs, and respond to staff requests.

Backups and recovery

Portal snapshots and server backups are conveniences, not guarantees. Owners must maintain current off-server copies of source, compiled files, maps, databases, saves, configuration, website files, and other irreplaceable data.

Hosting inactivity lifecycle

Mudhaven checks approved hosting for confirmed runtime or authenticated heartbeat activity. If a game has no confirmed activity for 30 days, Mudhaven sends an important account notice and required hosting email with a seven-day deadline. Reminder notices may be sent as the deadline approaches.

Starting the hosted game before the deadline cancels the countdown automatically. The owner may acknowledge the notice, request a bounded 7-, 14-, or 30-day extension for staff review, or contact staff about an exemption. A pending extension, approved extension, exemption, major platform incident, or unknown runtime state blocks automated enforcement.

After an unchanged deadline, Mudhaven requires two fresh inactive checks before suspending hosting controls. A final activity check can reverse that suspension if the game returns. Otherwise, the service enters a protected staff cleanup handoff and receives a final owner notice. The scheduler does not permanently delete files, databases, backups, or the hosting record. An administrator must review the linked hosting service and explicitly choose permanent deletion, an inactivity exemption, or a restored 7-, 14-, or 30-day grace period.

Other suspension and closure

Abandoned, unsafe, over-limit, or policy-violating projects may also be paused or removed. When practical, Mudhaven will provide notice and a reasonable opportunity to download data or correct the issue. Immediate containment may be necessary for security incidents.