Rules Addendum

[cityship]

Hey, everyone. Due to a recent kerfluffle last night, we've had to come up with some new policies.

We understand the "no politics in chat" rule can be frustrating at times, as it can severely limit discussions on recent events. However, you also have to realize that the OOC chat is a game chat first and foremost. It's a place for people to come in and have fun. Forcing someone who may just want to play and fool around in chat into a serious discussion about politics--no matter how important it may seem to you--is rude. Even if you feel something is very important, you don't have the right to make that decision for other people.

This is why we ban all discussions on politics in chat, as politics can often lead to very polarizing and heated arguments, which can ruin the fun of someone coming in to play the game. Banning individual discussions on a case-by-case basis would be both painstaking and inefficient, so the ban is for all political discussion.

However, that being said, we do understand that a number of people would like to be able to easily discuss recent events and even politics with fellow players, and so we've decided on a compromise in the form of an addendum to the chat rules. Basically, we will have a separate chat which follows all the normal rules of the OOC chat except the ban on political discussions. The purpose of this chat will be to provide a place to discuss recent events and politics.

The addendum in full is included here:

Addendum: Due to the need to discuss world news and events, a permanent, separate chat, meatshipworldevents, will be available. This chat follows all of the normal chat rules except the ban on political discussions. In the normal chat, you will be allowed to announce recent events that you would like to discuss in the news/events chat (ex. "Hey guys, X happened. We're talking about it in other chat."), but all actual discussion of those events must take place within the news/events chat. In addition, you are allowed to answer questions about what is being discussed in the news/events chat, so long as you don't actually go into details about the discussion itself. (ex. "Hey, what's going on in other chat?" "We're talking about X. Come on over if you want to talk about it.")

Also, just as a precaution, remember that harassing any other member for any reason, including political stance, violates our number 1 rule: Don't Be A Dick.

That is all.
--The Trans9 Mods

Comments

[playsin-traffic.livejournal.com]

But you haven't banned those topics outright. The onus is still on me, as a player and a member of the game to ask that the subject be changed or moved. If a peer asks me to change the subject or move, I'm usually happy to. However, I take umbrage with being told from the very beginning that I cannot and will never be allowed to even inject any sort of commentary or discussion on a certain subject, merely because some may find it uncomfortable. You have not banned any other subject, despite the fact that fandom can and does get into heated arguments over shipping and other minor details of a character. But you have not pre-emptively banned discussion of shipping or other controversial fandom topics.

If the chat is merely about the game, why allow any discussion outside of the game in the first place? If the goal is to block any arguments from erupting why even have a chat?

[cityship]

You're still not seeing the IC/OOC divide here. The primary purpose of the chat is for OOC coordination and having fun. Talking about canons and IC stuff is going to happen--hell, it has to happen for the game to run--so banning discussions about a particular canon outright isn't fair. Therefore, you'll have to take responsibility for speaking up when a particular issue in-chat makes you uncomfortable.

However, the community is not a politics comm. You don't have to discuss politics in the chat. The game won't grind to a halt because you can't discuss politics in chat. Since it isn't necessary, it's something we can safely remove from the chat. You're free to discuss it elsewhere.

Besides, there have been a number of people who have expressed genuine discomfort when the topic of politics comes up in chat.

In all honesty, the only reason we created the second chat was to give people a single, regular place where they could discuss these things. Really, the only major change in the rules is the fact that you're now allowed to mention a topic in chat to get people's attention about it, and then you can direct them to the chat if they want to discuss it.

[turtleterrorist.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to change your opinon on this and you're not going to change mine.

So I will respectfully disagree and bow out of this discussion.