Code of Conduct
The Pointer Overflow CTF (“POCTF”) is an academic cybersecurity event. This Code of Conduct describes the expectations for participant behavior across all contest platforms and brackets. By registering for or participating in the contest, you agree to abide by these terms.
This Code of Conduct applies to all participants, including individual competitors, academic teams, and other team brackets. It covers behavior on the contest website, Discord server, challenge infrastructure, and any other official communication channels associated with POCTF.
The overarching goals are simple: maintain a respectful, welcoming environment; protect the integrity of the contest; and ensure organizers, admins, and volunteers are able to run the event without harassment or abuse.
Participants are expected to treat organizers, admins, moderators, and other contestants with professionalism and basic human respect at all times.
- Harassment, insults, personal attacks, and hostile behavior are prohibited.
- Do not target organizers or volunteers with abuse, demands, or ridicule.
- Disagreements about challenge design or difficulty do not justify disrespect.
You are a guest in a community space that others worked hard to build. Act accordingly.
The official Discord server exists for announcements, clarifications, and community conversation. It is not your personal complaint box or exploit lab.
- Keep discussion on-topic, civil, and appropriate for an academic setting.
- Use private messages for direct questions to admins when appropriate.
- Do not spam, derail channels, or flood chats with repetitive complaints.
- Do not incite “rebellion,” dogpiles, or coordinated hostility toward organizers, challenges, or other participants.
- Respect the distinction between moderators and organizers; both are there to keep the environment usable for everyone.
Feedback on challenges, scoring, and infrastructure is valuable and welcome—when it is constructive.
- Direct feedback to organizers or admins via appropriate channels (e.g., DM or designated feedback forms) rather than turning public channels into complaint threads.
- Critique ideas, not people. “This challenge is unclear for these reasons…” is acceptable. Personal attacks on authors are not.
- Avoid stirring up resentment or recruiting others into hostility toward the contest, staff, or other teams.
If you are too frustrated to be constructive, step away from the keyboard. The contest is optional. Respect the effort it takes to build it.
Participants must respect the intended scope of the contest and its infrastructure.
- Do not attack, probe, or disrupt contest infrastructure outside of challenge scope.
- Do not attempt DDoS/DoS, brute-force platform logins, or abuse support systems or scoring APIs.
- Do not share flags, write-ups, or full solutions before the contest officially ends.
- Do not attempt to access or modify other teams’ instances or data.
- Do not use the contest environment to launch attacks against unrelated external targets.
Attacking the infrastructure is not “clever” or “part of the game” unless explicitly stated by the challenge. If you are unsure whether something is in scope, ask first.
The contest and its communication spaces must remain safe and appropriate for an academic environment.
- No hate speech, slurs, or discriminatory language.
- No targeted harassment or sustained personal attacks.
- No NSFW, explicit, or otherwise inappropriate content on official platforms.
- No sharing of pirated tools, books, or software.
Violations in this category are taken seriously and may result in immediate removal.
Participants are responsible for reading and understanding the Official Rules, this Code of Conduct, and individual challenge statements.
- “I didn’t read that” is not a valid excuse for violating rules or boundaries.
- If something is unclear, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification before acting in ways that may break rules or damage infrastructure.
Organizers and admins reserve the right to enforce this Code of Conduct at their discretion in order to protect the contest and its community.
Consequences may include, in any order:
- Informal warnings or clarifications.
- Deletion of messages or content.
- Temporary or permanent Discord bans.
- Score penalties or disqualification from specific challenges.
- Removal from the contest and ineligibility for prizes.
- Referral to appropriate authorities or institutions when laws or policies are violated.
Decisions of the organizers regarding Code of Conduct violations are final.
If you experience or witness behavior that violates this Code of Conduct, you are encouraged to report it.
- Contact an organizer or admin directly on Discord (e.g.,
@CTF-Admin). - Or email the primary contest contact: cjohnson@uwsp.edu.
Provide as much detail as possible (timestamps, usernames, screenshots). Reports will be reviewed and handled as discreetly as reasonably possible.
All contestants participate at their own risk. The contest, organizers, and admins are not responsible for any real or perceived loss or damage arising from participation. Participants are expected to act responsibly, ethically, and within the law at all times.
Moderators help maintain a safe, usable environment in Discord and other official communication channels. They enforce the Rules and Code of Conduct, protect organizers’ time and emotional bandwidth, and keep discussion on track.
Moderator Role
- Enforce the Rules and Code of Conduct consistently and fairly.
- De-escalate conflict where possible; remove bad actors where necessary.
- Protect organizers from harassment, bad-faith demands, and dogpiles.
- Keep channels usable for participants who are actually here to learn and compete.
When to Intervene
- Harassment, insults, or personal attacks aimed at participants or organizers.
- Public “complaint rallies” or attempts to incite hostility toward the contest.
- Sharing of flags, solutions, or write-ups before the contest ends.
- NSFW, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate content.
- Spam, channel flooding, or off-topic derailments that disrupt others.
Tools & Actions
- Issue informal warnings in-channel or via direct message.
- Delete individual messages that violate rules.
- Mute or temporarily time out users who continue problematic behavior.
- Escalate repeated or serious violations to organizers for bans or disqualification.
Moderation Principles
- Be clear, calm, and explicit about which rule is being enforced.
- Do not argue endlessly with bad-faith actors; enforce and move on.
- Keep logs or screenshots of serious incidents for organizer review.
- When in doubt, prioritize the comfort and safety of the larger community.
Moderators are empowered to act quickly. Contest organizers back their decisions, and may adjust or escalate consequences as needed.
This section summarizes, in plain language, what we expect from everyone who joins POCTF. If you remember nothing else, remember this.
- Read the rules. You are responsible for understanding the Rules, Code of Conduct, and challenge scope.
- Be respectful. Disagree with ideas, not people. No harassment, no personal attacks, no dogpiles.
- Act like a professional. You are representing yourself, your team, and possibly your institution.
- Play fair. No cheating, flag sharing, or attacking infrastructure outside of clearly defined scope.
- Use Discord responsibly. Keep it civil and on-topic; don’t turn channels into complaint echoes.
- Give feedback constructively. If something is broken or feels off, explain it clearly and respectfully.
- Take a break if you’re angry. If you’re too frustrated to be civil, step away from the keyboard.
- Accept that no event is perfect. Bugs happen. Mistakes happen. We fix what we can and learn from the rest.
If you can’t follow these expectations, POCTF is not the right event for you.
We want honest feedback on challenges, but we need it in a form that is usable, respectful, and doesn’t poison the community atmosphere.
What Feedback Is For
- Reporting broken challenges, ambiguous wording, or technical issues.
- Highlighting cases where difficulty is wildly out of line with its bracket.
- Suggesting improvements to clarity, usability, or learning value.
- Sharing post-event reflections that help shape future contests.
Where to Give Feedback
- During the contest: use designated channels (e.g., #support, #challenge-issues) or contact organizers directly. Avoid trashing challenges in public general channels.
- After the contest: use surveys, feedback forms, or post-event channels if provided.
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For serious issues (offensive content, ethical concerns), report directly to
@CTF-Adminor via email.
How to Give Feedback
Useful feedback generally answers some of these:
- Which challenge are you talking about (name and category)?
- What exactly went wrong or felt off?
- What did you expect based on the description or difficulty tier?
- Is there a specific change that would improve it?
Examples of acceptable feedback:
- “WEB200-3: The hint suggests X, but the actual solution relies on Y. That mismatch was confusing.”
- “FOR300-1: The image file is corrupted; I’ve verified the checksum, but it still doesn’t open.”
- “CRYP100-2 feels more like a 300; the math and scripting required are much heavier than other 100s.”
Examples of unacceptable feedback:
- “This challenge is trash.”
- “Whoever wrote this has no idea what they’re doing.”
- “Everyone, refuse to play this; let’s tank the contest.”
What We Will and Won’t Do
- We will investigate reports of broken or misleading challenges.
- We may adjust wording, scoring, or hints if warranted.
- We will not redesign a challenge mid-contest solely because some participants dislike the style.
- We will not tolerate harassment or public dogpiles disguised as “feedback.”
Challenge authors and organizers are human. Thoughtful feedback helps us improve; public hostility just makes it less likely events like this happen at all.