Announcement Regarding Rule 1.2

[Garrett Jax]

Not allowed on Discovery forums or server:

1.1 Use of abusive, vulgar, obscene, political, or racist materials
1.2 Trolling or harassing other members of the community
1.3 Advertising, especially commercial advertising, except advertising your own gaming websites or servers
1.4 Adult content or links to it; This also includes any anime that is in any way graphic or pornographic
1.5 Libel, defamatory, threatening materials and any law-violating materials
1.6 Use of copyrighted material without the owner's permission
1.7 Metagaming* and/or powergaming** to gain a roleplay benefit for factions, groups or individuals

In recent months, the Admins have had to contend with individuals in the community who have violated the principle behind the above highlighted rule. These members of the community, although careful not to cross over the line, have skirted it closely, so as to frustrate others and ruin their joy of the game.

This has manifested itself in a number of ways. For example, there was a community member who would run across a trader in game and then log one or more of his unlawful characters and pirate the poor trader multiple times along his trade route. Another example, is a player giving the minimum amount of RP required to initiate an attack on a Player Owned Base before destroying it, and repeating that tactic over and over, thereby ruining the hundreds of hours of cooperative work and effort on the part of many.

Additionally, there are more examples of players developing OORP hate toward specific factions and making it their goal to kill off the hated faction. They group together with even unfriendly factions (usually their friends) and specifically target their enemy each and every time they see them log, destroying them quickly and ruining the player's fun in a situation that is totally OORP. These same individuals stir up contentions between factions that share the same faction ID. Although these factions should be allied, they attempt to manufacture trouble and create civil wars through their blatantly disruptive actions.

Still more examples are of those that bait others into rules violations. These players know very well the rules of the server and are very careful not to violate them. However, these players either take advantage of the ignorance of others, or annoy them so much that in their frustration they break a server rule. This leads to a Sanction report for the rule violator and the one that baited them in the first place laughs and does the same thing to another unfortunate victim.

I'm certain that many of us can place names to the incidents described here, but I will leave these players nameless. These individuals are careful not to leave evidence of their actions, either by discussing their plans on Teamspeak or Skype, areas that are outside the Admin's jurisdiction. Their effects on the server, however, are destructive all the same.

We have lost valuable members of the community as a result of these individuals. Long time veterans have gotten frustrated at seeing these tactics go unpunished, and have either quit, or started acting out their frustrations in game and on the forums. The Staff has no desire to see this pattern play out any longer. We value those who have spent years contributing to this server and we are not going to allow a few to poison the fun of the majority.

Therefore, if the Admins discover that a player is engaging in disruptive behavior detrimental to the server, we will break them off quickly, even if there is no evidence of a direct rule violation. As a warning, they will find themselves in Probation, possibly without significant game assets. Another incident of disruptive behavior will leave them banned indefinitely.

Our hope is to create a positive, fun environment that will draw people to the community, not have them leaving in disgust. The Staff cannot do this alone however. We need each and every one of you to do your part. By playing with a spirit of fairness and good sportsmanship, you can help make this a place that will be welcome and inviting to both new and old players alike. We encourage you to be mindful of Rule 1.2.

Respectfully,

The Admins

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