Examples summarized that I've had xhelp conversations about.
"WHY THEY HAVE SO MUCH BEEF?!"
"WAAH I WANNA PERM!"
"WAAH WHY THE HAVE SO MUCH DOUGH!?"
"DOOR EAT MY MONEY! PLEASE GIVE BACK AM THE POOR!"
Snark is fine with me, honestly, but it has no place in the IC world if it's not IC. And throwing around helpfiles isn't IC. The only benefit I can see here is if someone is having trouble finding a helpfile. In that case, they're going to be asking OOCly anyway about it, and why not just answer them?
How is that used on few other RP games I play is very simple - nice OOC gentle reminders about something specific, without having to enter into detailing-for-everyone OOC chat. One that also works for people who are not in the same room, like asking for something on the newbie, or over sic. And I saw it work wonders, as you tie in IC answer why something can't be done, and then toss a helpfile for review that explains why not.
If someone is way off base, use xhelp to notify the admins. Or if you feel like you have a good relationship with them, briefly OOC a mention to the help file.
As players it is not our job to police other players. Though I understand the urge to do it is strong.
Earlier today I saw a character with a Description that tells me how I feel about their character. That squicks me, and I thought about OOCing at them how descs like that aren't allowed. Then I took a deep breath and moved on with my life.
That doesn't mean the idea doesn't have merit if it's behind some gates that prevent abuse. Some things I can think of:
1. Make it an @option that you can toggle off and mention this option every time we show a suggested help file
2. Gate this behind a specific amount of time in game or a specific amount of game help karma (not super ideal because not everyone is always on Game Help, and time in game doesn't -really- make someone an expert, or mean they aren't, when it comes to vacation characters)
3. Make it GM only (this would still be a useful command-- we could xhelp, but this might be more gentle)
4. Only grant it to specific people that we see as mature enough or helpful enough to know when to use this contextually.
Other ideas?
It's FAR better than someone having to awkwardly say 'Hey.. As a note read help [THING] for anything on [THING HARD TO EXPLAIN IC].' in hopes that the person in question is on xgame. Or the dreaded heart attack that is xhelp yellow text, for an admin to just softly go 'Check this file out to prevent further IC confusion. Thank you.'
Maybe even including if it's from a specific person so the receiving player can @good-awnser them? For the bad case of someone abusing it, a GM can tell them to knock it off or lose the ability to do it at all.
Otherwise, I'd be in support of this with these options.