Chat: The Party Line and The Back Room

Vesper City has two chat rooms. The Party Line is one room for the whole city, every language together: a shared line, like the old telephone lines everyone could listen in on. The Back Room is your gang's own room: only members hear it, and every rank can talk. Open chat from Social → The Party Line, from the speech-bubble icon at the top of the screen (in the Graphical view it slides in from the right), or from the Chat tab on a phone. The icon shows how many new lines are waiting.

Who can read and talk

• Everyone can read from level 1.
• You can talk from level 3, once your account is 2 days old. Until then the box says "You can join the talk once you've been in town two days."
• Everyone waits 5 seconds between two lines. Staff can slow one player down further, to one line every 60 seconds, before anything stronger.

What isn't allowed

• No links or contact details. A web address, an email, a phone number or a messaging handle is cut out of your line and replaced by "[address removed]"; the rest still goes out, and you are told why. 3 such lines within 24 hours mute your chat for 30 minutes. In mail, the forum and profiles they are refused instead.
• Slurs and hate are refused everywhere, and count towards warnings and mutes. Ordinary swearing is allowed (the game is for adults); switch on "Hide strong language" in your account to mask it.
• No pictures or GIFs; emoji are fine.

Reporting and blocking

Every line has a flag to report it. The report goes to the Safety queue with the line and the five lines either side, so staff see the context even after the chat has moved on. Tick "Block this player too" on the report, or block someone from their profile: a block hides their lines from you in chat, and yours from them, like everywhere else.

In the chat panel

• @names: type @ and pick a player (online players first). The player you name sees your line highlighted and a gold @ badge on the chat bubble. Names with spaces, accents or other marks work too: type the whole game name after the @.
• Emoji: the smiling face beside the box opens a small set; any other emoji you type works too. The Vesper City tab has 30 little painted pictures of the city (a fedora tip, a stack of cash, the rat, a candle, a gang crest…): tap one, or type its code between colons, like :fedora: or :cash:. They show as pictures in chat lines and in letters; a code the game doesn't know stays as the text you typed. If staff switch the set off, the codes just show as plain text.
• Reply privately: on any line, opens a private chat with that player in its own tab, with the same rules as the rooms (no links, report, block, kept 48 hours). In the menu you can take private chat only from friends and gang-mates.
• The menu (⋮): "Hide the times" (times are on for everyone unless you hide them), "Clear my view" (hides what's been said so far, for you only; "Show earlier" brings it back) and the chat rules.
• Times: each line shows when it was said, on your own device's clock; a line from an earlier day also shows the day.

Staff and privacy

Staff never browse chat. They see a line only when it is reported, or during a logged safety investigation of one player. A removed line disappears for everyone. A muted player can still read but can't talk; nothing is announced in the room, and they get a message explaining the decision and how to complain.

Pinned lines

Each room can have one pinned line at the top. In The Party Line, moderators pin; in The Back Room, the ranks with the "Pin a line in the Back Room" permission (the Don and the Underboss to start with; the Don can change it on the gang's ranks).

How long lines are kept

Lines are kept for 48 hours, then deleted for good. "Download my data" in your account includes the lines still kept. If your account is erased, your lines show "a former resident" and their words are removed.