Mar 24, 2019, 09:04 PM
After a meeting between a group of constructive community members and the staff team, we've made some significant modifications to the new rule 1.6. It has not been removed entirely, but we've come to a compromise between the rule and not having it at all. The compromise gives players freedom to incorporate discrimination as a part of good, well-developed roleplay and character development; while preventing repeats of discrimination without reason or development.
The new rules are:
1.6: You may not be racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory to players out of character. This behaviour is tolerated in-character however your actions must have context and/or background RP to it.
1.6.1: In-character discrimination is allowed only on in-character text chat and in-character voice chat (including both text/voice radios), PMs, signs, notes, and the phonebooth. Presidents may also use broadcast but only if they also have dictator permission. Discrimination is not permitted on other chat or text input including but not limited to: OOC chat, LOOC chat, adverts, character names and descriptions, job names, clan names and ranks, license plates.
1.16 - Explicit real-world gore/violence, extremist content, and all forms of pornographic material are not permitted to be used on signs.
Rule 1.6 allows discriminatory roleplay with context and background RP, which will be judged based on admin discretion, as with many other things. 1.6.1 limits discriminatory roleplay to purely in-character text/voice inputs - use of discrimination on descriptions, names, ranks, etc. has been prevented as the use of these is not enough to provide sufficient context for mature roleplay, and this will further limit non-contextual or borderline OOC discrimination. 1.16 was applied to signs to prevent extreme content being displayed on a server where minors frequent, however the restrictions here are quite limited so you can, for example, put up discriminatory propaganda as part of a government with appropriate background RP.
In addition, in the coming weeks we aim to add an improved staff notes system and a new accompanying rule which will allow staff to temporarily/permanently exempt players from certain rules or to ban them from otherwise allowed activities. For example, good roleplayers could receive permanent approval to do dictator or bomb RP without permission; while those who regularly break rules or don't provide background RP could be restricted from discriminatory RP. Again, this is left to staff discretion but provides the opportunity for significantly greater RP freedom for the majority of players who follow the rules and put good effort into roleplay, while preventing rule-breakers or awful roleplayers from ruining more free RP rules for everyone else.
We recognise that we were too hasty in implementing rule 1.6 a few days ago, so apologies for that. While we won't be entirely revoking the rule, this feels like a very good compromise to extend RP freedom and prioritise support for good roleplay.
These new rules were unanimously voted on by a united committee of nine mature and constructive community members and several staff members. The rules were then further received unanimous approval in a confirmation vote by the staff team. With significant support from long-term players and staff members, we hope that these new rules will suit the wider community much better than the previously flawed implementation. Many thanks to the community members who helped us define the new rules - you did a fantastic job and your help is greatly appreciated.
The discussion will be archived and visible to all in the public Discord. Please keep discussion to the existing thread in the discussion forum.
The new rules are:
1.6: You may not be racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory to players out of character. This behaviour is tolerated in-character however your actions must have context and/or background RP to it.
1.6.1: In-character discrimination is allowed only on in-character text chat and in-character voice chat (including both text/voice radios), PMs, signs, notes, and the phonebooth. Presidents may also use broadcast but only if they also have dictator permission. Discrimination is not permitted on other chat or text input including but not limited to: OOC chat, LOOC chat, adverts, character names and descriptions, job names, clan names and ranks, license plates.
1.16 - Explicit real-world gore/violence, extremist content, and all forms of pornographic material are not permitted to be used on signs.
Rule 1.6 allows discriminatory roleplay with context and background RP, which will be judged based on admin discretion, as with many other things. 1.6.1 limits discriminatory roleplay to purely in-character text/voice inputs - use of discrimination on descriptions, names, ranks, etc. has been prevented as the use of these is not enough to provide sufficient context for mature roleplay, and this will further limit non-contextual or borderline OOC discrimination. 1.16 was applied to signs to prevent extreme content being displayed on a server where minors frequent, however the restrictions here are quite limited so you can, for example, put up discriminatory propaganda as part of a government with appropriate background RP.
In addition, in the coming weeks we aim to add an improved staff notes system and a new accompanying rule which will allow staff to temporarily/permanently exempt players from certain rules or to ban them from otherwise allowed activities. For example, good roleplayers could receive permanent approval to do dictator or bomb RP without permission; while those who regularly break rules or don't provide background RP could be restricted from discriminatory RP. Again, this is left to staff discretion but provides the opportunity for significantly greater RP freedom for the majority of players who follow the rules and put good effort into roleplay, while preventing rule-breakers or awful roleplayers from ruining more free RP rules for everyone else.
We recognise that we were too hasty in implementing rule 1.6 a few days ago, so apologies for that. While we won't be entirely revoking the rule, this feels like a very good compromise to extend RP freedom and prioritise support for good roleplay.
These new rules were unanimously voted on by a united committee of nine mature and constructive community members and several staff members. The rules were then further received unanimous approval in a confirmation vote by the staff team. With significant support from long-term players and staff members, we hope that these new rules will suit the wider community much better than the previously flawed implementation. Many thanks to the community members who helped us define the new rules - you did a fantastic job and your help is greatly appreciated.
The discussion will be archived and visible to all in the public Discord. Please keep discussion to the existing thread in the discussion forum.