Important Announcement!

[Guest]

I've noticed an unfortunate trend in the Uhall lately... It seems that many threads are being derailed by people who haven't read, or chose to ignore, the RoC. The RoC, otherwise known as the Rules of Conduct, are not suggestions.


<center>The first rule is "Show respect at all times".</center>

This includes respecting your fellow posters, the moderators and admin of Stratics, and also OSI and it's employees. I'd like to ask that everyone remember this rule before they hit the "reply" button, or start a new thread. Ignoring this rule repeatedly will lead to a permanent ban of your Stratics account, no matter how long you've been posting here.

Other important, but often ignored, rules disallow trolling, personal attacks and ranting.

<ul>[*]Trolling, for those that don't know, is the act of posting something that is designed to anger other posters. That includes sarcastic one-liners, and stating things that are obviously going to lead to flame wars. Now, of course I can't define exactly what a troll is, but it's one of those things that you know when you see it. An example might be "I'd prefer a [tram/fel] free shard, so that way I don't have to play with whiners!". Clearly, that's going to lead to someone responding in a negative way, and the whatever the original point was gets lost in the process.

[*]Personal attacks are simple. They are defined as anything rude that is said about another person. You are free to attack someone's ideas and actions, but you must do so in a civil manner, and avoid attacking the person directly. Even mild remarks like "Jerk", are going to be considered grounds for a warning or ban.

[*]Rants are posts that are full of negativity, with no constructive feedback included. If you have a problem with the game, address the problem in a civil manner, avoid trolling and personal attacks, and you'll find that your posts aren't locked or moved to the Spiels n' Rants forum.Constructive criticism is not only allowed, it is encouraged! Just remember to be respectful and avoid ranting.[/list]



I highly suggest that everyone use the "preview post" function, and re-read their posts before they enter them to make sure that they haven't broken the RoC.

Also, I'd like to ask that when you do see a post that clearly breaks the RoC (not just something you don't agree with), then please use the "Notify Moderator" button at the bottom of the post to the right of the "Post Extras:" section. It's the last button (4th from the left), in the button row.

Thank you for reading this! I'll leave this up for a while to make sure that everyone has a chance to read it. As usual, you can PM me or any of the mods here in the Uhall if you have any questions or comments.

 

[Guest]

Speaking of 'Rants', I have given the UO Hall Moderators the Go-Ahead on moving post into the Spiels and Rants forum.

Basically, any post that is made without an avenue of constructive discussion (a pure rant) will be moved to the Spiels and Rants Forum.

I have asked the team to send a PM to anyone that has their thread moved to avoid confusion.

 

[LadyDianaUO]

This was brought up in a previous thread, and I thought it would be apt as a part of this one.

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Know that if a thread resorts to just trolls/personal attacks... more often then not, there is little of the thread to be saved. Trolls/personal attacks do not go unpunished on these boards. There is an RoC and we stick to it.

What does happen (and this is just a hint for in the future) is that many people who are attempting to get back on track/save the thread, end up replying to these trolls/attackers. So if you want to avoid having your message lost, do not reply to offending posts. Reply to the original author of the topic if possible.

If someone replies to one of these messages, that should be removed (the attack), their reply will ALSO be removed. So if mods have to remove the offending posts, they end up removing half the thread along with it (essentially destroying/mangling the thread in the process).

If we just lock the thread, the original messages get to stay for public consumption, and we don't end up having a hundred missing posts just for one stupid comment/flame.

As far as bannings/warnings, we can not discuss those on the public boards, but please trust that they happen. We only have the good of the community in mind, and rule breakers do not necessarily help to add a constructive voice to the community.

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM the moderators, or e-mail [email protected] for more help.

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[Lady Beth]

Regarding the Abbreviation for the word Japanese please take a second to read over this post.
Taken from this thread.
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Recently, the word "jap" has begun to be used with frequency on these forums, and that has caused a bit of a stir. So, to clarify things for everyone, I'm posting this note. The word is considered offensive by many people around the world. I realize that some people are not aware of this, but it is true nonetheless.

So, our policy is going to be to disallow use of this word. In cases where it appears people are just unaware of the policy, and the word was not used in a malicious manner, they will be asked to edit their post, with an explanation of our policy. This will not be an "official" warning, but rather a simple request. People who keep using the word, after it's been documented that they were made aware of the policy, will have action taken against their account(s).

If you simply must use an abbreviation for Japanese, I believe that JP is acceptable (and one less letter to type).

Please do not start new threads asking about or make posts in existing threads talking about this word, its degree of offensiveness, our about our policy - the same goes for any other word. Direct any questions or comments in PM, or write to [email protected].

For those who are offended by my use of the word here, I apologize, but many people truly don't understand the offensiveness of the word, and some probably wouldn't know what I was talking about if I didn't use it once as an example

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