Alter Aeon Rules of Conduct

Rules Section 6 - Harassment

Rule  6.1  - Introduction

Harassment is a serious issue and unfortunately must be dealt with
seriously for a multitude of reasons.  That the topic has its own
section, however small, should indicate that harassment is taken
seriously and can result in severe punishment.

Harassment on the mud is defined as a persistent and directed attack
against an individual that goes beyond the bounds of in-game play and
bypasses the in-game controls designed to combat harassment.  This
is described in some detail below.

Rule  6.2  - What is harassment?

A good example of what would be considered harassment follows:

Player A and B get in a fight, for whatever reason.  Heated words are
exchanged, and A ignores B.

B doesn't like this, and uses a multi to continue to harass A.  A
finally ignores the multi too.

B is now really pissed off.  He starts sending obscene tells to A via
the email bot, who can't be ignored.

This is harassment.  B will be thwacked.

Other things also count as harassment, including character assassination
and slander.

Rule  6.3  - What is not harassment?

A good example of what would not be considered harassment follows:

Player C, for whatever reason, has made a large number of enemies in
the game, and his actions are commonly discussed on both public and
private channels alike.  C is banned from one of the larger private
channels where his antics are discussed and laughed at.  This is not
harassment.

A group of players commandeers a public board in a public area and
begins posting logs of conversations with C.  C finds it offensive and
claims it's out of context, when it clearly isn't.  This is not
harassment.

Rule  6.4  - Thou shalt not distribute real-life information about people

Giving out the private, personal details of anyone on the game without
their permission can be considered harassment.  You should avoid doing
it even if the person is a public figure or generally open about their
private details.

Just to be clear:  spreading real life information can still be considered
harassment, even if the target is a public figure.  We encourage players
to be cautious any time private or real-life information is involved.

Special clarification:  if the target is under the age of 18, private
information should be kept private under any and all circumstances.

Rule  6.5  - Real-life information:  You are responsible for your own identity

If you want your real-life details to be private, it's up to you to
manage your privacy and not spread that information.  If you're a
public figure, or if you're careless with your identity, you can't
blame other people for using it.

This doesn't mean that it's acceptable for someone to dox you, or go
out of their way to spread real-life information for harassment
purposes.  Harassment is still harassment regardless of how public
the target is.

Just to be clear:  spreading real life information about you can still
be considered harassment, even if you publicly post your information.
However, if you are open and public about your personal details, the
burden of proof for harassment is substantially higher.

Rule  6.6  - Thou shalt not threaten real-life harm to anyone

Threatening harm in any halfway believable fashion to anyone in real
life will result in immediate and harsh punishment.

Remember, it's the perception of the victim that gates how serious
this issue can be.  You might think it's a joke, but if the other party
doesn't, you could lose all of your accounts and access to the game.

Rule  6.7  - Thou shalt not attempt to impersonate others

All forms of misrepresentation should be avoided.  This includes:

- claiming to be someone else

- creating fake channels claiming to be owned by someone

- creating fake clans claiming to be owned by someone

- creating characters with names similar to someone else, especially
  if readers will pronounce them the same

All of these can be harassment, and can cause you trouble.

Rule  6.8  - Thou shalt not slander others

Slander is defined specifically as presenting falsehoods or misrepresenting
information with intent to damage the reputation of another player.
In short, don't lie about somebody to attack them.

Remember that misrepresenting truthful information can still count as
slander under this definition.  Don't be a drama queen.

A stronger version of slander is character assassination, which is a
persistent, long term strategy to attack and destroy the reputation of
another player.  People involved in character assassination will be
removed from the game, and are not welcome on Alter Aeon.

Rule  6.9  - Thou shalt respect ignore

If you are ignored by someone, you should in general not attempt to
bypass that ignore.  This includes logging in other characters which
are not ignored, and using in-game loopholes not covered by ignore to
contact the person.

Persistently attempting to bypass ignore is considered harassment.
You can be deleted or banned from the game for being a pain in the ass.

Keep in mind that ignore is the last line of defense that a victim has
against a harassing entity.  If ignore does not work, the administration
will get involved, and they will be pissed, because they will have to
deal with a stupid situation involving at least one stupid person.

Rule  6.10 - Harassment - the victim has obligations too!

Due to the subjective nature of harassment, administrative intervention
will not occur until a minimum effort has been made by the victim to
discourage the attacker or attackers.  The game has several built-in
tools to help victims fend off attackers.

Some of these tools, in increasing order of strength, are as follows:

1) channel ban

On player controlled channels, other players may be permanently banned
from using the channel, or may have other restrictions placed on them
by the channel owner.  If the harassment occurs on a channel owned by
the victim, the victim MUST ban the harassing entity.

2) notell

The 'notell' command can be used to reject tells from a particular
player if desired.

3) ignore

The 'ignore' command is a VERY strong discouraging command used to
prevent both the attacker and victim from interacting.  This is the
recommended mechanism for dealing with a persistent attacker.

The victim MUST use ignore before harassment complaints will be taken
seriously.  If harassment continues even with ignore in place, action
will be taken.

Rule  6.11 - Offline harassment matters too

If you harass an Alter Aeon player on Alter Aeon, and also harass them
outside of Alter Aeon, your offline harassment can still count as
harassment in-game.  For example:

 - there has been a problem between two Alter Aeon players A and B
 - A ignores B, which should stop the problem
 - B starts posting on external boards to harass A

You don't get a free pass just because you're posting on an external
bulletin board.

Rule  6.12 - Informational:  harassment of world builders and admin

World builders and administrators are responsible for significant portions
of the game, and as a result they can not be ignored by other players.
World builders and admin can, however, ignore players.

This changes the rules around harassment somewhat, and raises the bar for
harassment.  However, it is still possible for a player to harass a world
builder or admin, even if the first line of defense (ignore) is not
available.

While worldbuilders and admin are expected to have much thicker skins than
most, even their patience is limited.  Please have respect for those who
help keep Alter Aeon running.

(Note that all builders are fully logged, and those logs will be used to
determine what happened if there is a concern about builder harassment,
or harassment of a player by a builder.)

Rule  6.13 - Exceptions for player killing

Due to the nature of the game when player killing is in progress, it may
not be possible for ignore to be as strongly enforced as desired.  This
is a multiplayer game and when player killing is enabled that multiplayer
interaction is an intrinsic part of the game.

Player killing also can bring out much more heated arguments and scenarios
than would normally occur.  Accordingly, the standard for harassment when
player killing is involved is much higher.  Having your character
repeatedly slaughtered in pk is not considered harassment, even if
everyone is out to get you and only you.