[Arrei]

In general cases, signs can only be used to claim things like villages and structures which someone has found first AND has plans to use. This also goes for the shovel claims - claims that were made just to have valuable claims with no intent to use them will not be honored in the event of a dispute, a rule we had to enact because some people were quite fond of taking land they weren't even building in. That does NOT mean you can freely ignore signs and go in and wreck up the place - oftentimes people will put a sign or claim a spot just to let others know they have plans for the area, so maybe they just placed the sign and had to leave, or are busy preparing things to work on said area i.e. constructing a transport rail or gathering building blocks.

For example, I remember I had a Nether fortress claimed with signs somewhere because I intended to build a farm there, as well as an ocean temple I claimed because I had trapped an elder guardian within and was thinking about what to do with it, but then I became too busy to play. That is not the same thing as me flying around sticking signs on every fortress and temple so that I can have a monopoly.

Furthermore, players are not allowed to claim areas on the resource worlds, but maliciously destroying other people's things, such as wrecking rails or stealing beacons, is still classified as grief.