PSA: Appropriate Content
Hey all, just a brief announcement for everybody regarding appropriate content for the forums, especially the chat. Recently, we've had an increase in the number of users who have approached the staff because they were uncomfortable by the topics being discussed in the chat. We would like to remind everybody about our "Civility" rule as outlined in the Rules of the Game post.
Quote:Civility and respect is also important in RoW, everyone on the game should be treated with politeness and courtesy whether they are staff or not and in return you should expect the same treatment. If any conflicts or disagreements do arise we ask you to keep them somewhere private (such as PM) and involve a staff member if necessary.
Although it is not explicit, the civility rule means that potentially uncomfortable and inappropriate topics should be avoided on the public discussion forums and the chat. These topics can range from religion, to sex, to politics, etc. We would like to ask that everybody be mindful that RoW has a very broad membership base, both in terms of age and in beliefs, and that some of these topics can lead to negative feelings that make others uncomfortable. The excessive usage of swear words also falls under this civility clause. So we ask that you please be mindful of the other members of the RoW community and be courteous to others if they ask you to avoid discussing a particular topic.
Can we discuss X topics somewhere?
The civility clause applies everywhere on RoW's site and related sites (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.). That said, we also recognize that we are a community and sometimes those difficult subjects come up and we want to be able to discuss them. There are a few options for this:
- PM: A private conversation between members is free to discuss whatever the participants like (excepting violations of our Terms of Service)
- Discussion Thread in Two Cents or Lifestyles forum: If you want to have a more formal conversation with the community about one of these more controversial conversations, you can, but we ask that you please mark your thread appropriately so that other members know to avoid the thread if they do not want to participate in such a discussion. This does not take precedence over the civility clause and staff have the freedom to exercise their best judgement if posts/comments are too offensive to be appropriate for the discussion.
- Chat Room: Users have the option of creating their own chat rooms that are available for others to join. This includes both private chats and other chatrooms that are available to the public to join. Just like the discussion threads, we ask that if you are going to use the chat as a forum to discuss one of these topics, it needs to be well marked so others can know to avoid them.
By providing these alternatives for discussion, we as a staff team are trying to be mindful that RoW's community is made up of a wide variety of users. All we ask is that you, as members of this community, continue to be mindful of other players and respect their concerns over potentially inappropriate content. As always, if you're not sure about a particular topic, you are encouraged to PM a staff member and we'll let you know.
If there are any comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to PM us privately or respond to this topic so we can discuss it.
Thanks for your cooperation, everyone!