Rules Update: Community Harm

For many years we had a 'Community Harm' rule. A few years back we removed the rule, but we are now adding it back. The language has changed a bit--thank you to Mobius for writing the copy and putting it up for a vote.

4.G. Community Harm

Sometimes a player's behavior, despite not breaking other rules, negatively

impacts the entire game. The severity of this impact is subjective and

decided by the admins by vote. If a player cannot de-escalate misbehavior

after repeated communications with admins, they may be removed from the

game for an extended, or even indefinite, period of time.

By Slither at Mar 7, 2020 6:56 AM

Thanks for the update. I wasn't around when this existed before and am a little confused about this. Would it be possible to get an example or two of things that would fall under this rule (Not against the rules, but negatively impacts the entire game and warrants punishment)?

By BigArg at Mar 7, 2020 7:12 AM

This one's the one which immediately preceded the creation of the original Community Harm/Don't Be A Dick rule: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/game-problems/admin-abuse-201/

The original text of the old Community Harm/Don't Be A Dick rule can be seen here: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/-major--rules-n-policy-updates-1004/

Other items of note which come up when you search for "community harm" include:

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/game-problems/ooc-bitching-196/

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/ideas/alright--seriously--1490/

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/game-problems/are-admins-and-game-vets-normal--261/

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/game-problems/liars-302/

Should be a lot of examples there.

Basically it boils down to, there are people who harm the community by being a dick and abusing others (players, admin, channels, IC, OOC, use your imagination) while carefully not explicitly breaking any of the existing rules.

By beandip at Mar 7, 2020 11:15 AM

I'm more interested in what necessitated its return than the rule itself.

Is this a response to OOC negativity, or IC actions that cross a meta-boundary of sorts?

By Quotient at Mar 7, 2020 1:58 PM

I'm not privy to anything, but I'm sure whatever's going on currently is along the same lines as what went on previously. The examples in the links I provided are virtually all related to OOC behavior.

By beandip at Mar 7, 2020 2:00 PM

@Quotient

The presence of players who are emotional leeches, drain the GM resources, and are more focused on causing OOC conflict over IC ones.

Yes they aren't metagaming, they aren't cheating, they aren't being racist, they're just being dicks. The game doesn't need them.

By villa at Mar 7, 2020 2:09 PM

-	BitLittle	9m
-	Baphomei	39s
-	BigLammo	2m	youtu.be/NZR4EeTkRqk
-	QueenZombean	3m
-	Bruhlicious	5h	Deine Mutter stinkt nach Erbrochenem und Bier.
-	Komira	14m
a	Mench	5h	Doing a bit of everything.
And 18 more hiding and/or disguised

Rules Update: Community Harm This admin team has voted to bring this rule back

Rules Update: Community Harm
This admin team has voted to bring this rule back