How the Union works

Membership

One account, everywhere

Your Reptile Industries chat (Zulip) login is your Union identity. The same account works across community chat, voice calls, every Union server, and the network as a whole. No separate signups, no scattered passwords.

Moderation

Mods are elected

Moderators are nominated and voted in by active members of each server. Candidates are screened first to confirm they understand the rules and won't abuse the role; the community decides who actually moderates. Re-confirmation runs on a cadence so badges aren't forever.

Rules

Short. Enforced. Visible.

Every server publishes its rules openly on its own page. If you can't read them in 30 seconds they're too long. Material changes go through the membership before they land. The same rules apply to staff.

What "community-shaped" means in practice

Members propose changes

Want a new rule? A change to an existing one? A different game added to the network? Bring it to the community chat. Substantive proposals go to a member vote; admin doesn't unilaterally rewrite the network from above.

Decisions are documented

Every accepted rule change, mod election, and major incident is logged on the affected server's Staff & updates page. Nothing disappears quietly. Accountability is a feature, not a paragraph in a policy doc.

The store funds the servers

Each server's in-game store offers cosmetic perks — tags, badges, optional emotes. Nothing pay-to-win, ever. Money goes to hosting and tooling so the network stays self-sustaining instead of begging Patreons.

The Union scales by reputation

New servers are added carefully. A server is added when there are members who want it and people who'll run it — not because admin thinks the genre is trending. A small network you can trust beats a sprawling one you can't.

What it isn't

Not a hosting business

You can't buy a server from the Union. Game-server hosting is offered separately by Reptile Industries Systems. The Union is a community that has servers, not a company that sells them.

Not pay-to-win

The store sells cosmetics and convenience. It doesn't sell power, kills, ranks, or any in-game advantage. If you see something in a store that crosses that line, file a ticket and we'll yank it.

Not a free-for-all

Public servers are a coin-flip. This isn't. Griefing, harassment, racism, and PvP-on-non-PvP servers all get the boot fast, with a paper trail on the affected server's staff page.

The relationship with Reptile Industries

The Union Gaming Network is operated by Reptile Industries — they run the hardware, the orchestration, and the underlying infrastructure that keeps the network online. The Union itself is governed by its members. Reptile Industries handles operations; the membership handles direction.

Need actual game-server hosting for your own community, not membership in this one? That's a Systems conversation.

Want in?

If you've got a Zulip account at zulip.reptile-industries.com, sign in and start exploring. If you don't, get one first — it's the same account you'll use everywhere.