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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.



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