Etiquette

...Or, How to Not Be A Dick

Text based RPG's are a great environment for people to come together and explore a universe limited only by their imaginations. However, in a game where people come from all walks of life, bringing with them differing customs, comfort levels and backgrounds, and when text is the only form of communication, there is also a lot of potential for misunderstandings that can quickly grow disruptive and hurtful to all people involved.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid these types of misunderstandings!

The primary key is respect, communication and receptiveness. So everyone take a deep breath and remember! 99% of the time, people are not coming onto these games hoping to offend or be offended, so if you ever find yourself frustrated, offended or under attack, taking a few hours off to watch a movie or go for a walk to gain some emotional distance before you respond can spare yourself a lot of trouble!

On top of that, here are some useful guidelines generally followed and understood in MUSH culture:

Standard OOC Etiquette

General Communication

In a text-based environment, we do not have tone, body language, facial expression nor eye contact with which to couch our statements. This can make it harder at times to communicate clearly when we speak. Even the use of smiley faces can be confusing (is :P a smiley face or a tongue-sticking-out face? Does XD mean you're grinning or winking? Depending on who you ask, you might get wildly different answers!) There are ways, however, to avoid miscommunication.

• Be direct. Many of us are taught from a young age that politeness is in passiveness. But in text, passive suggestions are much harder to infer the intended message from, which can lead to frustration to both the party speaking and the party being spoken to. You will get much more effective results simply from stating "I'm looking for RP" than you will by hinting "I'm bored." Sadly, the same can be said if you are *feeling* offended. If you do not speak up, the person that has offended you may not even know they have done so. It's hard to do, but it can nip so many problems in the bud to state it up front when you are feeling uncomfortable. (And, worst case scenario, you should save and date the log in which you say as much - staff likes to see these things when they are addressing problems!)

• Be receptive. If someone tells you OOC that they are uncomfortable, you should stop doing it. You do not need to understand why, you do not need to agree, you don't have to like it, but if something bothers someone OOC, you should not continue doing it. Doing so is harassment. If you are uncertain about how to handle a situation when confronted, do not argue with the other person. Save a log of the conversation and date it, and take it to staff.

Channels

Channels are the primary form of OOC communication on X-men rEvolution. All public channels on this game are rated R in their content, as regards general language and topics. This does not, however, excuse purposely offensive messages or abusive language between Players. If in doubt, be respectful, and try to be sensitive to the fact that you do not know what personal experiences the other people on a channel have been through or would find offensive.

Please keep channel chatter to its appropriate channel. Often times, people will gag spammier channels when they are not in a situation where they can keep up with excessive chatter, but will leave on other channels for updates, new or other relevant feedback. Channel purposes are generally pretty straight forward - The Roleplay channel should only be used for seeking, organizing and inviting RP. The Newbies channel is meant to introduce newcomers to the game and answer any questions they might have. These channels should *not* be used for general conversation. That's what Public is for!

Channels are a fun place to unwind, kill some time, make friends and share stories. But if you find yourself talking a lot and getting little response, it never hurts to sit back and ask yourself - What am I trying to accomplish with what I'm saying? Who is responding, when they do? Is it positive or negative? Could what I am saying be considered negative? Is this the appropriate channel to be saying this on?

Requests for help and questions are always welcome, but often times criticism and complaints (whether intended, or just perceived as) can sometimes leave the people on a channel uncomfortable and uncertain with how to respond, especially if they are not personally involved or able to help find a resolution. After all, this is a game, first and foremost - people log on to have fun, and negative or heavy commentary can make this harder for everyone to accomplish. Please take issues to staff in private - they are much better equipped to help you find solutions to your problems!

Paging

Paging is the quickest way to communicate with individual Players on a game. It's a convenient way to ask questions, make plans and clarify poses. However, it is also a feature that can cause a lot of unintended problems if misused. Unlike channels, which can be directed to spawn windows, pages can make for a lot of spam very quickly, and if the person you're paging is already in a scene, this can especially cause a lot of disruptive clutter if used overmuch. Some people can multitask and don't mind, but it's generally safer to never /assume/. Ways to avoid common paging peeves:

• Check +crowds to see if the person you are going to page is in a scene. Depending on the size of the scene (a hint: the more people, the less likely a person is going to be able to carry on an extended paging conversation), you might want to page them simply letting them know you would like to talk to them *when they are free*.

• Check +who to see how long the person you are paging has been idle. Idleness could mean nothing at all, possibly the Player is just distracted reading webcomics or watching a movie. But they could also have gone for a walk, been called away to dinner or are otherwise engaged in something RL. Don't be offended if an idle person does not respond to a page - they may not even be at the computer to know you sent it!

• Be concise. It's tempting to only page 'Jane waves!' and then sit back and wait for a response before delving into a topic, but paging is not the same as checking for a pulse. A paged 'wave' isn't something a person even necessarily might KNOW they need to respond to. Instead, try to state the nature of what you need all in the first page. (ie: 'Jane waves! I was hoping to ask you about your lawnmower. Let me know when you have a minute!')

• Be patient. Yes, there are some situations where a person might have simply forgotten to respond to a page, or it got lost in spam, or their connection blipped and they didn't get it. But more times than not, if one page isn't responded to right away, a second page will not *hasten* the speed in which a response comes. Paging 'I have a question', waiting five minutes, and then paging 'Hello? Is anyone there?' is going to come off sounding rude. Just wait. If perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes have gone by and there is no response, it might be appropriate to send a second asking a person if they received your last page. If there is still no response, you should probably assume the other person is AFK or otherwise unable to respond at the moment. And you should try again later, or wait for a response before initiating further contact.