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

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 +where 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 'Jim 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: 'Jim 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.