This is going to be a bit vague because I am trying not to allude to anything specific.
I will start with a question for the playerbase.
When you see something "strange" in the IC world, do you assume that it is an IC anomaly or an OOC one?
In my case, I often assume that the underlying system is OOCly glitching out. In response I wait a couple of days to see if the issue resolves. If not, I usually submit a Service-Request and assume that the staff will get around to it when they have time.
Lately I have become aware of situations that might be driven by underlying IC mechanisms. These are situations that "a lot of people" (ambient population) would likely also be aware of. These are background systems that span the entire city, not systems related to a specific location (like a club or apartment).
Example
As a random example of the scope I'm talking about here, let's pretend that "the sky is purple."
For me, my assumption would be that there is something OOCly wrong with the MOO code that generates the sky. Maybe Johnny was working on custom colors and a variable got screwed up. Or whatever.
In "reality" the sky might "really" be purple. The purple sky is an IC situation being driven by an IC mechanism that characters can get involved with.
Problem / Request
It would be great if staff, via NPCs on SIC or in the world, could raise visibility of these situations.
My suggestion is that staff only do so in response to characters speaking of them. (Except in cases where a plot / mechanism seems to be too vague and staff feels the need to direct people's attention to it.)
For example, Character A says on SIC, "Holy hell, the sky is purple! I must have taken too much Lana."
Staff could chime in as an random NPC or two, "The sky IS purple! It's not the Lana." Or something along those lines.
Then players will know that the purple sky is something that they might want dig further into.
Adjunct
I know that this was vague. I do not want to speak directly of current IC situations. But if staff needs some clarification of the kind of things that I'm talking about, feel free to reach out.