Newgrounds MVS User Agreement

Overview What is all this, anyway?

The Newgrounds Matrix adVancement Server (MVS for short^[1]) is a Matrix homeserver geared for the Newgrounds community. It is NOT run by Newgrounds.com, but by li'l ol me, mr-johnson22.

Matrix is an open protocol for interoperable & decentralized real-time communication, commonly used for instant messaging. The MVS is a custom deployment of Synapse, a popular Matrix server implementation; and the webapp for accessing the MVS (app.ngmvs.one) is a customized installation of Element. To learn more about Matrix, visit Matrix.org's website.

A user account on the MVS is a Matrix account. With it, you can have DMs, voice calls, group chats, and more--not only with other MVS users, but with anyone on the Matrix network.

You may be wondering: since Newgrounds already has a strong presence on other communication services like Discord and Twitter, why care about yet another one?

The reason is that Matrix has a number of unique features that the Newgrounds community may find valuable:

• INDEPENDENCE: Since the Matrix protocol is open, anyone (like yours truly) is free to set up their own Matrix server, unbeholden to a central authority. This is a stark contrast to most popular social media services out there, which are centralized & proprietary, giving their users little to no control over them. With Matrix, the Newgrounds community can have a platform that is truly theirs--other than Newgrounds.com itself, of course!
• STABILITY: Matrix is federated, meaning that different Matrix servers can communicate with each other, forming a network. (Email works the same way, and is why a @gmail.com address can send to a @hotmail.com address.) When a Matrix chatroom contains users from different servers, the room gets replicated on each participating server--so if one server goes offline, the room will still persist on the other servers. This allows Matrix chatrooms to be more resilient than those of centralized services with a single point of failure.^[2]
• BRIDGING: Matrix was designed from the ground up to be interoperable with other communication networks. With the help of server-side extensions called "bridges", a Matrix server can connect to a variety of external networks, including Discord. This allows Matrix to extend, not replace existing networks, thus finally solving the age-old hassle of keeping track of which of your contacts use which chat systems.
• PRIVACY: Several Matrix clients (such as Element, and thus app.ngmvs.one) support end-to-end encryption. This allows you to keep your DMs truly private--and it works for group chats too, thanks to the Megolm encryption protocol, an extension of Signal's double-ratchet algorithm.

Accounts How to get one, and what it has

Registring a Matrix account on the MVS is free of charge, but is limited exclusively to Newgrounds Supporters.

To make an account, sign in to the ngmvs.one homeserver with app.ngmvs.one, or with any Matrix client that supports SSO (Single-Sign On)^[3]. This will prompt you to sign in via Newgrounds Passport, which will provide the MVS with some information about your Newgrounds account.

Matrix accounts on the MVS use the following information from your Newgrounds account:

• Your Newgrounds account ID. This is a numeric ID that uniquely identifies your Newgrounds account, and is used as the basis of your Matrix ID: @ng-######:ngmvs.one. Other Matrix users can find you with that ID.
• Your Newgrounds username. This is the "real" name of your Newgrounds account that you chose yourself. It is used to set the display name of your Matrix account. Setting custom display names on the MVS is disabled, to keep your Matrix display name the same as your Newgrounds username--so that anyone who wants to find your Matrix account and doesn't know your numeric ID may simply search for your Newgrounds username. Also, if you change your Newgrounds username (which is a Supporter-only feature), your Matrix account's display name will update to match it, but only on the next time you log in to your Matrix account.

If your Newgrounds Supporter status ends, your MVS account will not be deleted. However, any new attempts to log in to your account will fail until you renew your Supporter status.

If you do want your Matrix account to be deleted for any reason, it should be possible to do so via any Matrix client that supports account deactivation. If that doesn't work, DM me and I'll arrange for it to happen.

If you don't want your Matrix account to be on this server, you can make an account on any Matrix server you like (even one that you host yourself). Using another server has the benefit of your account data being under the control of whatever Matrix server you trust most. If you do this, you can join MVS rooms by sending a DM to @w-bot:ngmvs.one and running the login command, which will prompt you to authenticate via Newgrounds Passport. If your Newgrounds account has Supporter status, you'll be given access to Supporter-only rooms.

Your data We care about your privacy...really

The server software that powers the MVS, as well as all user-generated content received by the MVS, is hosted on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) in Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada, provided by OVH. As such, usage of the MVS and the data stored on it is subject to Canadian law, notably the PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act). This gives you rights over any of your personal information that you upload to the MVS--but don't give it to me, I don't want it!!^[4]

Speaking of personal information: since the MVS is federated with the Matrix network, your Matrix account is publicly visible, meaning the following data about your account is not kept private:

• Your Matrix ID (of the form @ng-######:ngmvs.one, and matches your Newgrounds account's ID)
• Your display name (which matches your Newgrounds username)
• Your profile picture (which you can set yourself, and is blank by default)
• Which publicly-visible Matrix rooms you are a member of (which also exposes your Matrix ID).

This is consistent with Newgrounds accounts, which are also public (except for account IDs, which as far as I know can't be used for anything...). Just don't think that your Matrix account visibility is private just because account registration on the MVS is restricted.

This means that anyone who knows your Matrix ID may contact you on Matrix, from any other federated Matrix server. That doesn't mean you have to answer back, of course.

On the subject of public information, note that any features external to the MVS are not hosted by it, such as:

• Group voice/video calls, which are hosted on jitsi.riot.im, a free service provided by Element & is thus governed by Element's Privacy Policy
• Newgrounds content, or any other user-generated content that is linked to & is on a domain outside of ngmvs.one
• Any Matrix accounts (including bots) whose Matrix ID does not end with :ngmvs.one (though any content generated by such accounts is hosted on the MVS, via federation)

Also, regarding encrypted chat rooms, it certainly bears mentioning what actually gets encrypted on the server. At the time of writing, encryption-enabled Matrix rooms encrypt only the CONTENT of sent messages--because of the way Matrix works, metadata is left unencrypted^[5]. That means the following information of an encrypted room is NOT ENCRYPTED:

• The room's name and description
• The room's alias (if it was given one, by any of its participants)
• Members of the room
• The times at which messages were sent in the room, and by whom

Thus, any of the above information will be visible to whoever can access the internal data of the MVS, which includes me, and if need be, the government!! So please keep that in mind.

Speaking of which, now's the perfect time to talk about the...

Code of Conduct It's no joke!

Access to your Matrix account on the MVS is contingent on you not doing anything that would make me want to kick you out. And in an attempt to foster a supportive, safe environment, here are some ground rules that all MVS members must follow, lest I decide to revoke your privilege of having an account:

• DON'T BE A JERK. No harassment or incitement to violence allowed. Criticism and civil disagreements are fine, but keep it clean.
• DON'T SPAM. This includes spamming rooms on the wider Matrix network outside of the MVS, or trying to DDoS the MVS or any other server.
• REALIZE THAT YOU ARE AN AMBASSADOR OF NEWGROUNDS. Since the MVS is federated with the Matrix network, you can use your Matrix account to interact with non-Newgrounds communities. Anything you say or do that is publicly visible will inevitably reflect on Newgrounds. Use this power wisely!
• DON'T POST ANYTHING ILLEGAL OR NASTY. This one's simple. Don't get me sent to jail!

Questions?

Footnotes

[1] Using a V in the acronym is admittedly a bit of a stretch, but it was the best way to make it a Neo Geo reference. 🙂️

[2] Note that replication of Matrix rooms doesn't happen if all members of a room are from the same Matrix server. This means that in order for a Supporter-only room to get replicated, users from outside the MVS must join it, too.

[3] See the Clients Matrix for a list of alternative Matrix clients. Any client with "SSO Support" should be able to log into the MVS--including gomuks, a Matrix client for command-line terminals!

[4] I am boldly assuming that Newgrounds account information doesn't strictly count as personally identifiable information.

[5] Encryption of Matrix "state events" (like room names) is a work-in-progress. For more details, see this discussion on GitHub.

[6] "ON" means "colon" here; i.e. the colon in a Matrix ID is pronounced as "on".