Excelsior

Before I get into my message to +N, V, R, and C. I would like to put a little information, for players to read. Anyone who may consider responding, to this post.

harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.

the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group

or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.

This is something very important, for other gamers, while reading this post.

This post is largely about use of [c and Harassment. It's more along the lines of [c use ,item sales, and uo conversation.

Something that has been happening is, some (not allowed to name, names, publicly) gamers like to impose their feelings of how [c should be used. My understanding of [c is, Ex gamers can use general chat to talk about most things pertaining to ex uo, ultima online item sale or trade for other ultima online items. As long as it follows the guideline of twice per hour, or , no more than once per 10 lines. With twice per hour being the maximum listings for sales. One example is trading a bandage for 10 gold.
Some players have been taking their time to grief others, through constant reminder that they're doing something "wrong". Other players will take the time to explain, gamers shouldn't use [c, instead, gamers should be using [exex only, and [c isn't for selling bandages.

Rules are vague about [c, or a little unclear. I spent time looking for Emails to contact someone active. I couldn't find it. It's unreasonable that your time has to be consumed, reading crap like this, because other players can't play nice. This here alone, raises questions.

Who or what gives players the right to judge, what is worthy, and, what is not?
Are there exact rules somewhere?

I myself have been targeted specifically, by someone. I see others also getting treated this way. I have a little proof of my situation through screenshots. I can't post them publicly, so there are no attacks, or defacing.

The other concern is, actions like this. Really defer players from playing. I myself just came back after a reasonable break from uo. Which even has me a little annoyed, and makes me not want to login. (I prefer not to see a response of, dont login then. from gamers)The reason was because of work. Most of you know that, and i get a little personal at times. That's because our shard is friendly and fun(with exceptions, like this).

I make this post because i love and care, any information or collected data needed, I can email.

Thank you for your time, I wait with hope =D

Joshuashw wrote: Some players have been taking their time to grief others, through constant reminder that they're doing something "wrong". Other players will take the time to explain, gamers shouldn't use [c, instead, gamers should be using [exex only, and [c isn't for selling bandages.

Staff, and Staff alone, should be responsible for informing people of their wrong doings. If someone spams more than twice an hour, let the Staff handle it. A friendly reminder in the form of a PM might be warranted, but no more. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is out right. Selling stuff in [c, advertising your vendors, etc. etc. is a large part of what [c is for, in my opinion.

Joshuahw,

From my understanding, the Codex provides the best indication of what is not acceptable:

2. Language:
a. Keep chat clean - no cussing, arguing, harrasing, adult material/situations, etc.
b. No racial/religious/national/ethnical slurs are tolerated. We do not allow promotion of drug abuse.
c. Guild chat and private messages are not monitored - rules there are not being enforced on a regular basis - however, statements can be taken as harrasment and reported to staff.
d. No advertisements or soliciting of real world entities allowed. Mentioning of a website, product, other shard, etc., is permitted to some extent, but should a staffmember deem your words to be an advertisement, you may be jailed, banned from chat, or even banned from the shard.
e. The staff reserves the right to deny use of any name in the game. If a player refuses to have their name changed, we will pick a random one. Should you have a complaint about another player's name, contact the staff. For disputes, follow rule 3.c and 3.d.
f. Don't spam. You are allowed an announcement in public chat at maximum 2 times in the same hour, and spaced at least 10 lines of other player's messages apart.
g. Please keep the public chat in english language only.

As far as what is acceptable that is more vague and I will refer to the shard's general motto: "Have fun and let others have fun. Use common sense and respect other members of the community." However, common sense is subjective between each player's definition of common sense.

My 2 cents...I would fall back on let others have fun and not step on anyone's toes unless they directly violate the "do-not-do-list" above. Complicated grey areas can be resolved by GMs but I'd much prefer they focus their energies on content rather than player disputes.

FYI if someone wanted to advertise selling 10 bandaids in world chat that's fine by me as long as it's within the spam rules. Generally you do not need screenshots as all public chat and PMS are recorded via the UOEX portal.

Lust wrote:Complicated grey areas can be resolved by GMs but I'd much prefer they focus their energies on content rather than player disputes.

Amen. They aren't babysitters.

When it comes to harassment and people imposing their ways, it's important that it be addressed, no matter how vague rules are,no matter what we want.

Even though you and I know the rules, or the vague outline. other gamers dont. this is a tool, being used, to push current gamers and potential gamers away.

I guess I'm still confused what the underlining issue is?

Someone wants to use [C to sell an item and was told to take it to [EXEX or something?

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with someone. Unfortunately, that's just a fact of gaming. The human condition is such that there are always going to be immature, childish, irritating, uppity people. Everywhere. It comes out moreso in video games because of the anonymity. There are also those that are veterans, who've been here a very long time and seen it all, and are usually just trying to help. But, there's no vocal tone or facial expression to be had in text, so sometimes it can come across in a way they didn't intend. Players accuse the staff of being mean/spiteful/condescending all the time, simply because they assume that by informing them of the rules, we're gleefully relishing in attempting to make someone feel bad. We aren't. I had it happen to me just last week, informing someone with a brand new account that we aren't hiring new staff, and a player must have an account at least 1 year of active play before being eligible. They somehow took this that I was being horrible to them, and proceeded to inform whoever would listen that I was condescending, mean, and wouldn't help them. In a lot of ways, that's just how the internet is.

I personally played UO on OSI for many years beginning at release. It had no world chat, and outside of Felucca, everyone tended to be relatively polite to other players they ran into. If you needed a res and couldn't get to a healer quickly, those fellow players were your absolute only hope of retrieving your hard-earned items. Part of having such a carebear shard actually leans the player mentality toward the unkind, I find. Since the risk of true loss is so low, players don't really feel the need to bother to be nice to each other unless they are just one of those nice-by-nature types, which sadly isn't everyone.

Generally, one needs to have a fairly thick skin to play any sort of MMO with a global chat function. There are times when players cross the line, and the staff need to be informed so we can step in. Lust's post included our basic chat rules, and anything that violates that should be reported to us (including excessive advertising). Harassment can be difficult to define since it is so very subjective, but again that's something that should be left to the staff. If you feel you are being harassed, send an email to me (nyx@uoex.net) with as much information as you can provide. You can also email one of the other admins (Coli or V), but I check my uoex email several times a day and you're likely to get a faster response from me. If the alleged harassment is in local/guild/PM, you can send screenshots. If it's in world chat, you can copy directly from the portal (portal.uoex.net). Describe your situation as best you can, and give us your character's name in the email. It's also usually good measure to send a page in-game mentioning that you've sent an email regarding harassment, and to whom you've sent it to.

I can't promise that every situation that irritates a player will be defined as harassment and the perpetrator punished by the staff once it's brought to us. In a lot of cases, it's not black and white. Sometimes the reporting player is being a little over-sensitive, sometimes there are other circumstances that weren't mentioned (the reporting player was harassing the other person right back), sometimes the player being reported is a veteran that the staff have had a lot of interaction with/years of viewing their behavior, and we can judge their 'tone' a bit better than someone who hasn't been here very long. For example one of our vets who posted in this thread earlier sometimes comes off to newer players very rude, but usually he's just being playfully sarcastic enough to put Deadpool to shame.

So, my best advice in a nutshell is to let as much go as you can. Players, especially vets, will often try to help younger/newer players by informing them of things (pricing that seems unlikely to initiate a sale, and other options for how to sell, for example) that can be construed as mean, but the intent is pure. Sometimes there's a genuine troll, and it's usually best to just ignore them (including with the actual ignore function in the [c menu). If you feel repeatedly harassed/terrorized by another player, bring it to our attention. Don't retaliate against the player. If they are contacting you privately, tell them to stop and put them on ignore if they continue. Then, let us handle it from there.

Terribly sorry, I should of mentioned my in game name. It's Nakkasu. I forgot my original forum account information. Your email i had lost and was looking for it. I'm glad you posted it. Thank you very much nyx

Well, email the details and copy/pastes of what's been going on and I'll handle it.