The help file was updated eight months ago to reflect the rules changes.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO WHEN PRESENTING A DIFFERENT APPEARANCE
You must ROLEPLAY the appearance you are affecting. If you are affecting the appearance of a hag, you should roleplay as such. If you are affecting the appearance of a bro, when your character typically presents themselves as dainty and feminine, you should be roleplaying your character moving and talking like a bro.
You should consider your @nakeds and @description and @voice as well when affecting changes to your characters appearance. If your nakeds have hard coded 'he' or 'she' or 'him's in them, it is going to be jarring, so please consider using pronouns in your nakeds like %p (help pronouns).
The problem is that people still aren't roleplaying appear commands, they're not making changes to @nakeds and @describe when changing gender appearance, and they're not roleplaying different 'character mannerisms' when disguised. That's the issue. So when this happens, it's on the players to XHELP and report it to staff, and then staff has to go and verify it and then talk to the person who's not using the command correctly.
I've advocated since inception that the APPEAR command is primed for abuse, and that it needs additional coded restrictions placed upon it. Even today, the APPEAR command makes it entirely way too easy to commit perfect crimes or to game Sindome's chatter system in such a way as to strip nearly all information about things going on in the city. While it was made to make smallworlding less of an issue, it also appears to have made tracking down crimes and pinning people to actions through legitimate means -also- very difficult, and I don't think that was the intended purpose.
I fully support any changes to the command that make it easier on players and staff to uphold it to it's intended use, but I have to agree with ReeferMadnes here. Appear gives you significantly more 'bang for your buck' for hiding your identity than the disguise skill itself does, and considering disguise is one of the most important skills in the game for anyone looking to get into illicit activity, and takes a non-trivial stat and skill UE investment, I see that as a problem. I'd really love to see a comprehensive overhaul of the way disguises are handled in SD- and I've left suggestions and feedback both on the boards and via @notes in ways I think it could be changed in a positive way.