Harassment, Discrimination, and Threats

Discrimination:
It's important for people playing the game to not feel uncomfortable for being who they are out of character. Games are designed to be fun. With that in mind, the following forms of discrimination are not allowed:

• Sex / Gender
• Religion
• Race
• Sexual Orientation
• Sexual Identity
• Country of Origin
• Age
• Disability

Acceptable Discrimination:
While out of character discrimination is not ever allowed, minor forms of in-character alliance-based discrimination are acceptable. This means that you can discriminate against people based on the alliance they have chosen in the game. For example: "Man, Commonwealth is filled with a bunch of useless hippies." is perfectly fine.

Harassment:
Harassment constitutes behavior that is intended to disturb, upset, or intimidate the person behind the keyboard. Similarly to discrimination, harassment goes against the very idea of having fun in a game and is not allowed.

One particularly prevalent type of harassment is sexual harassment. You must understand that ANY sexual advances on a person who has made it clear that they do not want to be involved is harassment. If you're making lewd comments toward somebody and they ask you to stop, you are obligated to stop under this policy. This applies both to blatantly sexual contact (emotes and socials) as well as to discussions of a sexual nature (be they over communication channels or in person with the SAY or ROOC commands.) Similarly, it should be pointed out that rape is never okay, regardless of what the victim says. If you are forcing somebody to engage in sexual contact with you, you will be banned. This includes humorous comments made to those who cannot consent, such as in front of stunned players or via communication channels with wide swaths of players listening. Additionally, coverage may include metafrequencies if any individuals listening REPORT such misconduct.

This policy does not apply to offensive language that is not covered in the discrimination section. What this means is that, for the most part, speech in the game is uncensored. Everybody is responsible for speaking in a manner that is appropriate and becoming of an individual of their in-character age and status. If you find somebody's language to be offensive, we provide in-game filters to deal with these situations. To configure language filtration, use the GENERAL-OPTIONS FILTER and the PROFANITY commands. It's your responsibility to filter language you may find offensive so long as that language is not covered in the discrimination section or pursuant to sexual harassment. Attempting to circumvent language filters, or personal filters applied by other players, will be considered a violation of this policy.

When it comes to harassment, a general rule of thumb is to consider your actions from both an in and out of character standpoint. If what you're doing is intended to make the person playing the character feel negative emotions, it likely constitutes harassment.

Finally, be aware that false accusations of sexual harassment will result in immediate banning. Sexual harassment should never be used as a weapon. This only hurts those who have been legitimately victimized.

Griefing
Griefing is defined as constantly attacking another player with little to no provocation to the point of the game becoming unplayable to that person. While we understand piracy and personal attacks against another player are a part of the game, we strive to strike a balance in order for everybody to have a fair chance.

While we do not discourage in character conflict, we do discourage going after another player on a constant basis to the point that they can no longer enjoy the game. If you have an in character issue with somebody, we ask that you do what you feel you must and then let it drop, so as to give the other person a chance to still play and enjoy the game. Remember, it is not within your rights as a player to try and grief another player into deleting their character.

Death and Out of Character Threats:
It should go without saying, but threatening the life, health, safety, or sanity of an individual or an individual's family, friends, or pets out of character is not allowed. You should never take an in-game action so far that it results in you threatening somebody outside of the game. The following constitute threats that will result in immediate banning:

• Death threats.
• Threats of tracking somebody's location.
• Threats of injuring somebody, their family, their pets, etc.
• Threats of legal action against somebody for something they did in character.
• Threats against the computer or network that somebody is using. This includes 'hacking', 'ping flooding', denial of service, or any other action detrimental to the welfare of another's system.
• Any kind of threat, physical or otherwise, to the person behind the character.
• The use of specially crafted words intended to crash another user's screenreader.
• "Doxing" another player or host. Doxing is defined as the search for and publication or communication of private or identifying information about an individual without their consent. Revealing the real identity of another person is not your place.

The hosts@toastsoft.net e-mail address, it should be noted, cannot be read by builders or non-trusted administrators. However, if your complaint is with a host or somebody close to a host, you can send your e-mail directly to a single individual who isn't involved. Most have e-mail addresses that is their first name @toastsoft.net. So to contact Albori directly, you can send mail to: albori@toastsoft.net

Enforcement

Harassment severity will be determined by at least two hosts and judged on a scale of 1-5. The following punishments are ordered by scale value, NOT number of violations:

1. You will be warned to stop and further violations of this policy will automatically be scaled between 2-5.
2. You will lose 200 license points.
3. You will lose 10% of your total license points.
4. You will be temporarily locked out of the game for one week.
5. You will be locked out for one month.

Examples

• Reporting that someone made improper sexual advances to your character when they really didn't.
• Threatening to smash someone's wrists in real life because they stranded your character.
• Saying someone is inferior because they have a disability in real life.
• Calling someone vulgar/racial slurs.
• Threatening to involve law enforcement because your character finds themselves in an unsavory situation.
• Sexually harassing other unwilling players.
• Discriminating against someone because English is not their primary language.
• Constantly harassing someone with intent to force them to delete their character.
• Constantly harassing someone who has 0 points and ships without provocation, thus not allowing them to advance in the game.
• Threatening to "rape" another character or NPC in a joking manner.
• Discussing sensitive sexual topics in front of stunned individuals where there is no way for them to provide or revoke consent.
• Discussing sexual abuse of another character or NPC on any public channel or in populated rooms.