Due to some recent events that came to our attention the following rules are now implemented:

Out of Game Harassment and Harassment Through Unofficial Channels

The staff reserves the right to ban players who harass others players using third party platforms, channels and mediums such as Skype, Discord, E-mail, unofficial but Amia related forums etc. Third party harassment also includes the direct or indirect bullying of members of this gaming community through the aforementioned mediums.

Please remember that this is a gaming community and first and foremost this is a game that you play. By doing that you are generating OOC toxicity in the gaming community which will have negative influence on the gaming experience of your fellow players.

If you are filing a complaint of harassment on a third party medium, in order for the DM Team to best understand and assess the situation, (if possible) please provide and do the following steps:

• Provide proof via screenshots, not copied text and make sure that the full conversation is included. Bits of a conversation will not provide a full context for us that we can judge.
  
• If the harassment/bullying goes directly to you in a private channel, then tell the person in question, clearly, that you no longer wish to continue the conversation, and block them if necessary.
  
• Understand that not all complaints of harassment will automatically lead to an IG and/or Forum ban of the accused party. If it does not, the team will make clear the reasoning behind their decision.
  
  Even if you are unable to provide everything on the list the DM Team still encourages you to come to them with any concerns you may have.

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Lord Hector Sylgerand
Glendil Fettian, the black bard

I praise this decision!

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

I have a few questions about this. I somewhat understand the point of it, but there are a few problems I see in there.

The first is the fact that blocking, and such is a thing in most online chat things. I mean, in many cases you actually have to make an effort to talk to a specific person. (Most of my experience is Skype, though) So, if someone bothers you, just leave. Hell, the amount of times something I read even on here, which upset me a lot, and then I logged off, came back a day later, and it was better. (I'm not defending bullies, I'm just saying that on the internet, not being bullied is extremely easy)
Secondly, there is no way to verify that it is a certain person. I can think of the 'jokes' with someone calling themself Tormak on Discord. Yeah, people apparently said they weren't actually Tormak, but if someone of malicious intent wanted to get someone banned, it's a lot easier now, apparently.
I mean, you don't need a lot of info about people to make an E-Mail adress about someone. And now, if 'robbi320@hotmail.com' sends someone an E-mail, bullying them, would I get banned? How would you know it was me? I mean, maybe I'm a bit too paranoid, but I don't see how that can be verified. And hell, I'm a bit afraid, because I have quite a few E-mail adresses of players, (and that number will likely grow, due to me doing the portrait pack) which means if someone were to send inflammatory E-mails in my name, I'd have a means to do so, so I couldn't even defend myself.
I mean, 'motive, means and opportunity'. I know at least one person where people might think all of those would apply. And based off of some of the posts I made/make on here, people might think I'd be a person to do stuff like this.

Basically, I am a bit afraid of this new rule, especially since it relies on screenshots from the internet, and essentially puts word against word, which usually biases the person people trust more. And if you barely know one of the two, who has the bias?

I'd still like to say that I am not directly against this, but I am a bit worried that it might be abused, and that the accused party has close to no way to defend him-/herself if he/she is innocent.

Blocking isn't an option when the harassment is coming from a twenty person Skype chat you're not in, there's no blocking you can do. When you're being shit talked-about and lied about constantly, when people are just slinging shade about you to an audience of Amia people in a public channel, suddenly that lie becomes the "truth" you have to live with on the server and you have a serious problem.

There's a reason a few of us go out of our way to proclaim we arnt a part of these circles, it was totally out of hand.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

Right on.

bless the dm team because I know this wasn't a decision they made easily, and the shackles of 'it happened off game, what do we do?" are ones we dealt with as a DM team all the wya back to 2006 and probably earlier [i wasn't a DM before '06], though in the last 3 years it has been more intense than anything else before, with the rise of easy access full skype chats and discord.

1000% support for this decision, and I trust that the DM team is capable of sorting through concerns like robbi's - I'm not particular concerned about getting banned because someone named "tormak" in discord was shit spouting, because I know how seriously the dm team takes these sort of accusations - even if the investigations often ran far too slowly and steadily rather than decisively for my tastes over the years.

Congrats on doing the right thing.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

I have to agree. This is the kind of harassment that can as easily kill want to play a game as harassment in game!

Everything Tormak said, basically. This has been a long time coming, and I'm glad to see it.

I know some people are going to go 'but omg policing?!' but, seriously, is it that hard to not be toxic? Sure, things get said in the heat of the moment. It happens, we are all human, but when things truly become toxic it has gone too far. People have left the server over a lot of stuff that has transpired over the past few years or so. I've seen it, heard of it, and failed to try and sway people to return. If you are worried about 'policing' then perhaps you should look into your own OOG communications?

Is it still going to happen? Sure, but it really shouldn't. Vent, yeah, but don't become an uncompromising rood. Think of the children!

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Can't wait to see how this will be abused.

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Melsa

There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect,
and once in a while, man's evil prying calls them just within our range.

This...

I can see a lot abuse with this rule.
What if someone go on a third party thing with my name, starts trouble and then someone files a complaint on me?

I see people having a huge headache to prove it wasn't them.

The initiative is a great thing. But this case scenario makes me way worried.

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Wilfire Strongfeet (Tight pants)
Adela Griffonheart (Poke)
Hallvardr Erikson (Sexy Boy)
Emilly MacMillan (Happy)



Sprites by Raua!

Honestly, none of this is necessary if people would just, you know... have a smidge of respect for their fellow players. But, I think this is long overdue. Good job DM team.

I doubt the DM team will just immediately assume things in the case of potentially fake aliases. If someone is using a fresh alias or email address similar but not exactly the one registered with the forums/etc for the person being faked, I'm sure they'll consider it being a setup.

Also, depending on the means of communication, things like IP addresses or ISPs can be caught to prove who it was, or at least prove who it wasn't.

I trust the DMs will be careful how this is implemented, and I trust my ability to defend myself against false accusations. As it is, issues over Skype are usually done under a person's original Skype name and thus easily proven, at least from what I've seen in the past.

I'd be highly suspicious if someone who I already thought was on my friends list requested to be added to my list and then started acting like a jackass. I can't speak for discord as I've never used it before, but most things that require registration can be tracked.

Anyways, this OOG harassment has been an issue for some time, and putting it as an official rule may just be a technicality so people can't claim ignorance or give some BS lawyer statement like "I didn't know being a **** to someone OOG could cause me issue with the server." It's sad that such things need to be said, but... well, that's how things are sometimes.

Kudos on the rule addition.

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Account moved to LeathanKayne.
Delen and Fosco will see ya on that one!
(If you PM me on this, I likely won't see it for a long time >.>)