House rules
25 rules the people who run the site have set, and why. 18 are checked by a script every time the sites are built; the rest are kept by hand, for now.
No redundant chrome: use the masthead
Every subsite header is the masthead: the wordmark (to slopped.site), a hairline, the site name. The page starts with its H1. No badges, home chips or eyebrows that repeat what the header already says.
- Why
- “slopped.site” appeared three times before any content; the labels restated what the header and the H1 said.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
fractals/scripts/check.mjs(partly: only the fractals site checks the masthead this way; other sites check that the masthead links home)
Classic genres take their plain names
A known game is called by its common name (Snake, Stack, 2048, Mines, Spider Solitaire, Blackjack, Texas Hold’em). The world lives in the premise, the art and the lines, never in the title.
- Why
- In-world puns as titles (Packed In, Eight Legs, Bust) made the games hard to find and the card games confusing.
- Since
- 2026-10-15
- Checked by
- Nothing yet.
Sloperation is the one approved pun
Sloperation keeps its pun title; it is the only title allowed to echo a trademark.
- Why
- The user named it.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
slopped-games/scripts/check.mjs
The paddle game is Bricked, not Brick Breaker
The bat-and-ball game is called Bricked. “Brick Breaker” was BlackBerry’s BrickBreaker, so it stays a search keyword only.
- Why
- Brick Breaker echoes a product name.
- Since
- 2026-10-15
- Checked by
slopped-games/scripts/check.mjs
No franchise IP and no trademarks
Genres are shared; names, characters, moves, music and art are our own. No title, character or move echoes a trademark or a franchise (no Flappy, Breakout, Tetris, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Minesweeper, Operation).
- Why
- The games are clones of genres, not of products.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
slopped-games/scripts/check.mjs,game-writing/scripts/copy-lint.mjs
“The Slopwright”, he/him
Always “the Slopwright”, with “the”, capitalised in prose. He/him; never she or they.
- Why
- It is how the user writes about him.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
codex/scripts/canon.mjs,game-writing/scripts/copy-lint.mjs
The apprentice is never named
Always On’s and Benchwork’s player is “the apprentice” and is never given a name. Overtime’s Wren is billed as the Slopwright’s apprentice; whether they are one person is an open question (codex.slopped.site/questions/).
- Why
- Neither game names the apprentice, and the codex never contradicts a game.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
game-writing/scripts/copy-lint.mjs
Learners see numbered pathways only
Learner copy says “Pathway N”, never trunk, branch, fork, core or specialism. Those stay code and API names.
- Why
- Learners care where they go next, not about the structure.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
slopped-learn/scripts/pathway5-ui.mjs
Pathways get harder in acid, then orange, then pink
Pathway 1 is acid, pathway 2 orange (#ffa53d), pathways 3 and on pink (#ff8cc6), and each really is harder than the last.
- Why
- The colours are a promise of difficulty, so the difficulty is measured.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
slopped-learn/scripts/tiers.mjs(partly: proves each pathway is harder; nothing checks the colours themselves)
Stay within the free tier
Every Worker stays on Cloudflare’s free plan: Workers AI under its free daily neurons (labs close at 8,000 of 10,000), KV writes under the free 1,000 a day, Durable Object rows written under the free 100,000 a day, each with a cap in the code.
- Why
- The sites cost nothing to run, and a cap is cheaper than a bill.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
world/data.mjs- Sources
- Limits (Workers), Pricing (Workers AI), Limits (Workers KV), Pricing (Durable Objects)
Never delete reference/
reference/ holds the brand mockup, the Fresh slop packs and the Slopwright pictures. Nothing in it is deleted or moved; it stays out of git.
- Why
- It is the only copy of the source art.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
world/grounding.mjs
Never commit secrets
learn/.secrets (the Open Badges signing key), .dev.vars, .env files and keys stay out of git: .gitignore lists them and none is tracked.
- Why
- Issued badges verify against the key forever; a leaked key can’t be taken back.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
world/grounding.mjs
Commit and deploy only when asked
Builders don’t commit or deploy on their own; the user says when.
- Why
- Several builders work in one folder at once.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
- Nothing yet.
Keep the codex current
Every new or changed game, site, character, place or lore fact lands in the codex in the same change.
- Why
- The codex is the world’s encyclopedia, and it drifts silently otherwise.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
world/audit.mjs,codex/scripts/canon.mjs
Lore is honest that everything is AI-generated
Everything, the Slopwright included, is AI-generated and the copy says so. Never “handcrafted” or “made by hand”. Officially it’s AI; unofficially it all comes out of one workshop.
- Why
- The joke only works if nobody is misled.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
game-writing/scripts/copy-lint.mjs(partly: games only),geocities/scripts/check.mjs(partly: GeoCities only)
No invented real-world facts
A real-world fact on any site has a source in world/sources.js, marked where it is said. In-world lore may be invented; the real world may not.
- Why
- Made-up history and dates read as true.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
world/grounding.mjs,codex/scripts/canon.mjs
“The top of the slop.”
top.slopped.site’s heading reads “The top of the slop.”, its final p the dripping p.
- Why
- Not on record.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
- Nothing yet.
The p drips
The wordmark is always the image, never type, because the melting p is part of the drawing. The same p is Drip, and it stands in for the p in “slop” where a heading plays with it.
- Why
- It is the brand’s one mark.
- Since
- 2026-10-12
- Checked by
- Nothing yet.
Map regions in acid, pink and orange
The map’s regions use the brand’s highlights, acid #e3ff59, orange #ffa53d and pink #ff8cc6, times three patterns, so colour is never the only signal.
- Why
- They are the brand’s colours, and the same three already mean something on learn.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
site-map/scripts/check.mjs(partly: checks label contrast over each highlight, not which three colours they are)
The back-to-top button says “Slop at the top”
The back-to-top pill (public/top.js, copied to the subsites) is “Slop at the top”.
- Why
- The user’s wording.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
- Nothing yet.
Say who picked
top.slopped.site says the AI that builds the site drafted the picks, until the people who run it have been through them.
- Why
- A machine’s picks presented as people’s would be the one dishonest thing on the page.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
top/scripts/check.mjs
GeoCities pages differ in more than wallpaper
Every homepage has its own structure, features and content, not one skeleton under different tiles.
- Why
- Round one was one skeleton over different backgrounds.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
geocities/scripts/check.mjs
The garden’s pages differ only in the stylesheet
Every outfit page on css.slopped.site is the same HTML byte for byte except its one stylesheet link.
- Why
- That is the whole point of a garden.
- Since
- 2026-10-14
- Checked by
css-garden/scripts/check.mjs
Badges are earned by quizzes and labs
A module badge needs its quiz passed and its lab passed, judged by the learn.slopped.site server.
- Why
- A badge should mean something was done.
- Since
- 2026-10-13
- Checked by
- Nothing yet.