HARASSMENT POLICY.

[powersthatbe]

HARASSMENT POLICY WHAT IS HARASSMENT? Harassment is any OOC behavior designed to make a player feel hurt, offended, uncomfortable,or unwelcome; including any usage of slurs or other derogatory language which denigrate a group of people. WHAT ISN'T HARASSMENT? Someone not tagging you. Concrit. Someone’s character being unkind to your character. Someone expressing a strong political or religious opinion you disagree with on social media. WHAT KIND OF CONDUCT DO WE EXPECT FROM OUR PLAYERS? We expect our players to communicate respectfully with one another OOCly, and above all else, to consider themselves accountable for their own words and actions. If you do not insult other players or use derogatory language when speaking to or about them; if you are not hostile towards them, then you have met our minimum standards and will never have a problem. We have no wish to police private discussions, and we understand that not every conversation is going to be courteous. But by the time something reaches us, it’s not private or we wouldn’t know about it, and obviously someone has been hurt or offended or they wouldn’t have brought it to us. The most important thing to understand is that you are responsible what you say and do. No excuses. This also means that, while the moderators will take appropriate steps to defend whistleblowers, we will not take action on anonymous complaints. Anonymous complaints can never be resolved to the satisfaction of moderator, complainant, or the accused, because a back-and-forth dialogue between involved parties is impossible. Own your words and actions. You may, of course, bring any concern to the moderators for informational purposes only and maintain complete confidentiality. When all you want to do is express concerns, you may be assured of complete privacy. And if bullying or harassment is taking place in a public space where anyone can see it, the moderators may step in. But moderator action will never be taken on a complaint about behavior in private plurks, posts, or IMs without the name of the complaining party attached. We believe that anonymity fosters a culture of distrust. If you cannot trust your moderators to be careful or impartial, and to work to correct player behavior or remove problem players; if you need anonymity to feel safe discussing the game, then there’s very little we can do. Please trust us to keep this community orderly. WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE IF YOU WITNESS OR ARE TARGETED BY HARASSMENT? First, consider: does this seem to be an isolated incident or is it part of a pattern of behavior? We encourage players to take action regardless, but please remember that there is a difference between a thoughtless comment and a campaign of bullying, and react proportionately. Second: decide what steps you are comfortable taking. Ideally, this begins by speaking to the people involved, and explaining why you feel the behavior in question is problematic. But we understand that not all situations are ideal. If you don’t believe you’re equipped to handle the discussion for whatever reason - you feel intimidated, you feel angry, it didn’t involve you personally - that’s the time you escalate the discussion to a moderator. Sometimes, you may be hesitant to do that because the behavior perceived is mild and you’re not sure if it requires moderator intervention. We encourage you to report it anyway. We want to be able to have comfortable discussions about player behavior long before anything reaches drastic, enjoyment-ruining levels. If it’s something minor, chances are we’ll agree that it’s not an issue. But it’s also possible that we’ve received other complaints and this shows us a pattern of behavior. If we’re not informed; we can’t act. Don’t be afraid to come to us. HOW WILL THE MODS RESPOND WHEN HARASSMENT IS REPORTED TO THEM? Two moderators will review the complaint. If the person the complaint is directed against is either a moderator or a close friend of a moderator, that mod will not be involved. Mods will always work as a two-person team on any harassment report or player complaint so that multiple perspectives are available and the possibility of individual bias is reduced. After reading the details of your complaint, the first question to moderators ask will always be the same: have you voiced discomfort to the person in question? If not, why not? As much as is possible, we’d like to facilitate civil discussion in a safe environment, and to have everyone behave in a mature and reasoned fashion. But that doesn’t mean we won’t take your complaint seriously if you’re not comfortable confronting someone. “I haven’t spoken to them because of the threatening language they use towards people they dislike” is a valid reason to come right to us, as is “I have seen them ignore/mock/disregard previous mediation/mod intervention,” and there are many others. The next question will be: where/how did you see this? In keeping with our policy on accountability, even a private discussion can be grounds for a complaint if it makes the participants uncomfortable. But if you logged into your friend’s plurk account and saw it on their timeline, our hands are tied. Your friend is more than welcome to bring us a complaint if they are made uncomfortable by it, but if you invade other people’s privacy and are offended by a conversation you weren’t meant to see, that’s outside our jurisdiction. Negative action taken towards a player is, but players have every right to an expectation of a private space to vent their concerns. Are they still expected to be held accountable for what they say in those spaces? Yes. But by the people they’re speaking to, not eavesdroppers. WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR HARASSMENT? We are not a Star Chamber, and we don’t believe in the inflexibility of Zero Tolerance policies. If you are accused of harassment, the first step will always be the moderators engaging you in a private discussion about why we feel a given behavior was inappropriate and is not to be repeated. You will always be welcome to defend yourself and clarify or contextualize your remarks or actions. In all but the most egregious cases, a first complaint against a player will result in nothing more severe than a stern warning, notification that the behavior should stop, and a reminder to be civil with the person who issued the complaint. Moderators will usually ask that people involved in a complaint either have a conversation regarding the issue, or agree to avoid one another. We want misunderstandings to be corrected, but we won’t force two people who cannot get along to interact. Additionally, retribution against other players will not be tolerated and will be cause for further disciplinary action. Any such retribution, or a repeated pattern of bad behavior leading to multiple complaints, will result in further moderator action, still beginning in a discussion, but not ending there. Depending upon the severity of bad behavior, action may range from the simple recording of a strike upon a player’s record (for rudeness or insulting language), to a temporary suspension from the game (for direct bullying or continued use of insulting language after a warning), to immediate expulsion (reserved for offenses such as, but not limited to, distributing someone’s personal information or attempting to force someone to drop). Three strikes will result in escalation to suspension; but if a player goes three months without accruing a strike, one of their strikes will be archived (that is, it will not count towards the three-strike limit, but moderators will have access to it for purposes of determining if a particular issue is new or ongoing). THIS IS REALLY LONG. TL;DR VERSION? Respect your fellow players. Be as courteous as you can. Own your words. Trust your community. Speak up when you see a problem. Pay attention to the mods. Don’t worry. We’re all here to relax and have fun.