I personally think it's doing far more harm than good, but I want to see what everyone else thinks.
I've also suggested to the Admin. that we have the poll question it next time they decide to change it.
It works out rather nicely, I believe.
People, on occasion, get a little to hopped up on some intoxicating substance, or over tired and under stimulated, and use it as a form of amatuer night where they do all forms of embaressing things like rant, insult, and even sing on occasion. This sets a terrible example for the newbies, which are always invited to join the channel, as it makes it appear the average age of the players look to be around 13, and the MOO is their personal chat romper room.
Aside from this though, I have to admin the OOC channel has provided most people with a much needed outlet for their aggression and relief from the stress of RP.
I'll refrain from making comments about people who don't think RP is stressful and can sit and play Sindome without feeling any anxiety, anticipation, or emotion, and simply say that most people are affected by their character regardless of their best intentions to seperate the two.
It also provides newbies with an invaluable resource durring their critical first few hours on the MOO. That resource would be otherwise unavalible without the OOC channel and the people who listen on it, and has been responded to very positively by would be players who became players.
To date I've only ever seen one instance of improper use (providing IC details on it), but I personally think it wasn't intentional abuse and was just someone trying to vent their frustration.
Do the benifits outweigh the problems?
I'de love to hear opinions…
-Kevlar
@xcon ooc - connect to it
@xsilence ooc - disconnect from it
@xalias bob - change your OOC channel alias
xm goat - say 'goat' on the OOC channel
xto bob goat - say to bob on the OOC channel, 'goat'
xsocials - display the plithera of very very OOC and sometimes annoying socials that have grown into the chat system over time. The vast majority of these were never meant to be used by players and some of them probably need to be removed for the sake of not offending the not-so-thick skinned.
There are also commands like:
xsing whatever - sing those songs that get in your head
xthink whatever - the channel version of the overly abused IC feature.
If you find yourself suffering from Kevlar-isms where you accidentally type 'xm' instead of 'cm' and say something very IC over the OOC channel or vice versa, you can @xlisten ooc and use the command 'xooc' in place of 'xm'. This way, you have to type something very different to talk OOC instead of IC. I use this strategy myself to prevent me from making a mistake
