Policy Changes & FAQ - Rape and Suicide

[Limonade]

Honestly? I think looking into the reasons why players don't go to staff for problems would go a long way into making a policy that makes sense. The experience Azi mentioned happened yesterday night and exactly because of this new change in policy. The fact is somewhere, some people are not feeling habilitated to bring problems up when they arise so they can be dealt with swiftly and that is something that needs to be addressed. I do not think the previous ruling had any grey areas at all. If someone harasses you, you call on staff, point blank. If such a ruling still left people feeling like not enough was done to protect them, then that's another problem altogether. (A problem which, I am sure I don't even need to say, still needs to be solved.

Please understand me: I don't think TI is the setting to play out any kind of sexual harassment, point blank, least of all rape. No matter how 'dark/gritty/horrible' we want to advertise it as being. That is what I understood from the theme and finding out that that was not established as the case for everyone is extremely perturbing. When I say 'lech' I am talking about a swaggery, obnoxious but ultimately harmless archetype. If people are an have been playing serious harassment, I think this is something that absolutely needs to be brought up with staff to be dealt with, even if it wasn't policy-breaking as written down. I honestly do not think this is appropriate to be played out in the IC sphere, is what I am getting at, and if this is honestly the problem people have been having: the existing policy should be clarified to be more inclusive, IMO.

[Starstarfish]

This policy change, as far as I see it, fulfills no IC need (the Order is there to disapprove of even your wanted sexual advances and will flog you/dunk you in the Bren for them)

I freely admit I was someone who brought this up to Kinaed because of an IC situation I became aware with. And I was extremely limited in my ability to do anything about it, despite the fact I had indeed an Order character. If you are told about something like this in confession, ICly you can't do much as an Orderite and not be breaking fundamental documentation on the workings of the Order. And with the current political setup as it is, having an Order character means zero for the kinds of political stuff thrown about. Being an Orderite doesn't give you IP (though I would argue it should) so people can simply get in with the right people and do what they want to anyways and if you speak up/speak out you can look forward for coded systems - gambit, rumors, etc to be used against you. I honestly feel like if people want to thematically support the Order being able to do more about some of this sort of IC stuff, we need to adjust the way we look at the Order from a coded perspective with some of these systems.

Which has already begun, by the way, it's been less than 24 hours.

I hope whoever this is has been reported. Purposefully being a wad like that should be met with some kind of punishment. I definitely feel that falls under a "if someone else says they don't feel comfortable with this decision/scene a FTB should be requested and obeyed."

[Voxumo]

If we can not handle delicate topics such as this and deal with these topics icly, then we should remove anything that could be negative to those who have experienced said things in real life.
If someone had a friend or family member who was murdered, we should do away with murder as being allowed, by the logic that is being applied.

[Geras]

Am I the only one who didn't take the old policy as barring us from dealing with this sort of stuff?

[Kinaed]

Re: Starfish, you weren't the one who wrote the Request Board a couple of days ago that tipped us over the edge of finally fixing the policy up, but what you brought to us awhile back was definitely amongst those that made us realize the wording of the policy was causing difficulty. It took the weight of a lot of these incidents over time to get us over inertia because it's a scary policy to touch - no matter what, you always get a few people who kneejerk react to the topic.

Re: Geras - I think this is a bit of a problem in shifting policies. MUDsex used to be entirely, 100% illegal on TI. When those rules relaxed, suddenly rules that worked in the previous environment needed clarification or people don't know how to act. The wording of the old policy was quite literally that nothing, at all, was allowed to even be mentioned in this vein in RP. Just like the 100% ban on mudsex.

Re: Vicannia - I wish life were genuinely so black and white. Things would be easier.

In my mind, I don't think much has changed. TI as a game's focus is not pointedly romantic, which is my strong preference. However, as we're roleplaying people, we will naturally be inclined to procreation and the activities thereof (humans like that sort of thing, given how we have thrived as a species). I honestly believe that, regardless of the old policies, players engaged in MUDsex on old TI as much as they probably do on this version. This stuff is mostly telling players how staff will react and handle things more than anything.

[Geras]

Kinky: Couldn't the policy just be RP about rape is not allowed, but accusations of sexual harassment will be dealt with by the Reeves and Order, and if it crosses into effectively being harassment of the player the staff will deal with it?

[Kinaed]

That's pretty much what this policy is saying.

[Geras]

It also seems to be adding in rape as a part of backstories and whatnot, which I could see not going over well.