Harassment

Because this is a serious issue that can pollute the waters of player communication and comfort, this page seeks to define harassment as clearly as possible. It also provides a few methods to avoid falling into scenarios where your actions could be interpreted as harassment.

Where can harassment occur?

We consider reports which are made to us that occur both in-game and out-of-game (via Discord, etc.), even if they take place in private channels.

• Private channels include things such as Discord DMs, group discussions in private channels or servers, etc. The reason for this is that they are ripe for 'avalanching' or 'echo-chambers'; players who are in these spaces, but unfamiliar with a victim will inevitably have biases against them when repeatedly exposed to an aggressor's negative portrayal of them, even if they have never met the player in question.

Example:

Risu and Air are friends. Risu dislikes Maria, while Air has not spoken to them. Risu repeatedly tells Air that Maria is a bad roleplayer and should be avoided.
Risu is harassing Maria by slandering them. Because Air and Risu are friends, Air may feel inclined to avoid Maria, even though Maria hasn't done anything to Air.
Maria is ostracized from interacting with Air due to Risu's indirect harassment.

What is harassment?

We define harassment as; any sort of targeted, repetitive, unwanted behavior with the goal of intimidating, humiliating, ostracizing, or making the victim uncomfortable.

• Contacting an individual, either publicly or privately, with the intent to insult, threaten, etc. them is not allowed.

Example:

Risu messages Maria, saying 'You should just quit this game already before I make you miserable.', or 'No one here likes you.' - Risu is harassing Maria by insulting and threatening them.

• Contacting the victim's friends or peers and attempting to spread misinformation about them with the same intent is not allowed.

Example:

Risu messages Zeo, Maria's friend, and tells him 'Maria is only pretending to be nice to you. She told Air that you were a turbo nerd!' - Maria never said anything like that. Risu is harassing Maria by slandering them.
If Air were to help spread that misinformation, knowing it's a lie, then Air would also be taking part in the harassment.

• Taking IC action with similar intent is not allowed. For example, entering an RP scene with someone with the intent to annoy, distract, or disrupt them for OOC reasons.

Example:

Risu's character walks into a scene where Maria's character is currently RPing with Zeo's character and having fun. Risu doesn't like that. Risu's character breaks a chair over Zeo's character's head and begins screaming profanities to ruin the scene for her.
Risu is harassing Maria by deliberately derailing and ruining Maria's RP, despite it being done IC.

• If more than one person is involved in the action(s) mentioned above (such as 'group bullying', or 'group intimidation'), all aggressors will be punished.

Retaliation

When you retaliate against someone who has reported you for harassment (or other issues), you are harassing them.

• Retaliation means any sort of aggressive or negative behavior taken by you, or others (at your behest), in response to you being reported, warned, or punished.

Example:

Maria has reported Risu for harassing them. Risu is warned by a GM not to do that.
Risu messages Maria and says 'Solve your own problems you little rat, don't run to your mommy GM and tattle on me.'
Risu is retaliating against Maria because she's upset that she got reported.

• This doesn't include things such as blocking someone, or removing them from a private group DM.
• It does include removing them from in-game Guilds or RP spaces. In the event that you like or need to pursue this sort of action, consult a GM first.

Disclaimer

Risu and Maria actually get along very well, despite the examples mentioned above. You, too, should always try to get along with every player you meet.