Social Etiquette on the MOO

Intro - Being Approachable - Being Clear - Communicating Effectively - Respecting Others

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Respecting Others

• Obey the admin and Sindome's policies
• Don't spam
• Respect roleplaying
• Don't powergame
• Be aware of sexual harrassment issues
• Behave appropriately in public areas

Obey the admin and Sindome's Policies

The "justices" on Sindome are the administrators. (The majority of other MU* use the word wizard or wizzen.) The justices handle the various mundane aspects of keeping the MOO running smoothly. Divvied up between them are the jobs of keeping backups of the MOO, creating and maintaining the different RP systems, keeping the database small and the plot quality high, arbitrating occasional interpersonal conflicts, monitoring complaints and harrassment issues, and the like.

Obviously, Sindome has some rules that you will be expected to follow. These are listed in the news files (just type 'news') and are also available as rules (just type 'rules'). If you break one of our rules, the punishments vary, you might just get a warning, you might have your password scrambled for a week so you can't log in (this is called @newting, a temporary thing), you might be suddenly booted (forcefully logged out, usually accompanied by banning), or you might be toaded (@toaded) -- the worst and most permanent punishment of them all.

Don't Spam

One of the most common forms of harrassment is called "spamming." When you're spammed, it means that your screen is being scrolled too quickly by the MOOs activity level for you to successfully keep track of what's happening on it. If you don't have any way to scroll back and read what you may have missed, you can lose minutes of action. Even if you can go back to read it, you'll potentially be stuck catching up for several minutes.

Spam itself, as a noun, generally either refers to activity that is not at all pertinent to the main action or conversation in the room, or refers to any overwhelming amount of text scrolling the screen (pertinence aside).

For example, somone might sit in a Truth or Dare game and start singing Pink Floyd songs, quoting pages of lyrics to the MOO until your screen scrolls so quickly you can't find the game between the lines any more. Or someone might get mad and page "You suck!" 150 times, rendering you incapable of doing anything but watching your screen scroll. (Your own commands may only be registered by Sindome after this flood is over.)

No one is expected to tolerate this latter kind of harrassing spam. Any admin will gladly lend you a hand and punish the offender for his or her behavior.

But, please note, all spam isn't bad. Sometimes it's simply created when a large group of people crowd into one location. In this case the spam might be positive: it will feel friendly, busy, or social.

In either case, spam is going to be anywhere you find people. Avoid it by moving rooms if you like, and try not to create spam yourself.

Respect Roleplaying

Along with a huge variety of original characters, you might encounter any number of characters from popular sci-fi novels, comic books, movies, or television. It's important to the MOO that that you respect the RP your fellow players put into their characters.

If you are not roleplaying at the time and encounter someone who is, do your best to respect their activities. If you don't want to play along, just type @OOC (Out of Character) to drop out of the IC world...but be forwarned, that if you do this as a way to escape your characters demise, you will be punished.

There are rooms setup as OOC and the majority of Sindome is setup IC (In Character). And it's important that you remember where you are at all times. If your in an OOC room, behave OOCly and if your in the IC world, roleplay. Sometimes, the need arises to briefly say something OOCly, this is fine, but make sure you use the OOC syntax in order to get your message across right. If you just can't tell whether or not someone is roleplaying the best thing to do is ask outright. Most players are happy to let you know. You might decide, in the end, that it doesn't matter whether your friends are roleplayed or actual. After all, this is virtual reality... Why not have bots and ahabs as friends?

If you are roleplaying and encounter someone who isn't, politely remind them that OOC chit-chat belongs in the OOC rooms.

Tip: consistently use the IC and OOC acronyms to keep your position unambiguous.

Don't Powergame

One of the most terrible faux pas in MU*dom, and thankfully one of the easiest to avoid, is called powergaming.

Powergaming is when someone's text thinks, feels, or takes action for some other person non-consentually.

For example:
Her eyes bore into your soul, making you look away as your heart beats more quickly.
Or...
Traxxe uses his electroprod to paralyze you! You can't move!

You can see the person who produced the text is essentially describing the reader's actions for them. The problem with powergaming is that it eliminates the need for the other person!

If you see "Carmine points his laser gun at you! He shoots! It kills you!" you have no chance to react, respond, avoid, accept, nor anything else. You might as well be logged off and eating lunch.

Fortunately, powergaming is easy to avoid: just make sure you only author text that talks about yourself.

For example Carmine might choose to say "Carmine points his laser gun at you, preparing to fire!" instead. Now he has given you a chance to duck, at the very least.

Tip: When you want to make something dramatic enough to be heart-quickening, take the time to describe something that will make the reader's heart quicken. Don't just say "And you are very afraid." Instead, describe something that will make the person feel fear. Your English teacher would probably tell you, "Show. Don't tell."

Powergaming is essentially an issue of consent, of forcing people around. Be aware of this faux pas, and avoid it at all costs.

Be Aware of Sexual Harrassment

Sindome is a fictional environment and is prone to having adult situations, which may include graphic (as graphic as text can get) depictions of sex and violence. Even though these acts are allowed you must remember that there is a real person behind the roleplayed characters. These real people might have real problems, might be a little strange, or might be completely normal.

If you are female or if you are roleplaying a female character, you might welcome some positive flirting or sexual attention when you're online. But, of course, you might also encounter some jerk who pushes you for RL information despite your protests, wonders what you're wearing, whether you're married, wants to know where you live, or if you'd like to have phone sex, etc. While you're considerably better protected than in real life (they can't reach you physically), this behavior is still potentially disconcerting and certainly illegal if the jerk persists over your requests for him or her to stop. If you at any time feel threatened on a realworld level by anyone, sexual or not, contact a admin immediately. This is where they are expert, and swift retribution and potential banning or toading is in store for the perpetrator.

Cases of sexual harassment are incredibly rare on MU*s. Even if you do encounter something that makes you uncomfortable escaping is as easy as moving rooms, using a client to prevent that person's text from showing up on your screen, or of course just logging out. Keep in mind that most of the flirting and sexual innuendo you'll come across will be positive, fun, warm, and most assuredly well-intended.

Act Appropriately in Public Areas

Despite the fact that Sindome requests that you be 18 or older to play, we request that everyone maintain something of a PG-13 level in public areas. This means that you should keep the nudity to a minimium, and no sex.

What is a public area? Well, sometimes it's hard to tell. But the best bet is to make a direct parallel between the virtual space and the same space in real life. For example, a city park would be considered public in real life, therefore it's a public space virtually too. A treehouse, on the other hand, is a private place in real life. So it's private on a MU*, too, no matter how many people might be there.

Acting appropriately in public areas isn't only for the sake of the minors. Adults might also want a break from the graphic-ness of more private areas, and come to the public areas to relax in a G-rated atmosphere.

Published: Wednesday, Feb 10th, 2021