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Whether or not you think a person is annoying does not by proxy make them a sexual assaulter. Take it off line.
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Remember that scene from Underworld where Viktor was this dry, dusty, dessicated pile of twigs under the floor, but then Selene fed him her blood and alla sudden there was this animation of veins filling, cobwebs disappearing, and he was brought back to being an evil, juice-filled and no longer dry, dusty villain fuckhead intent on killing whoever didn't follow his commands? No one wants to be a tired, bored, dusty, cobwebby vampire. Anyway, I just randomly thought about that (totally unrelated), but I think it's great how much a debate about whether or not it's okay to bully or accuse someone brings out so much energy in people.
Posts made by Ghost
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RE: The Pack Discussion
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RE: The Pack Discussion
Sometimes when I don't want a conversation to exist, I interrupt it with off-topic accusations and pictures of food to make it stop.
@Cobalt Sorry if it got buried but I'd love to hear your side of things, have those questions answered, and if in the end if Macha was clearly in the wrong I promise you I will hold them accountable for it (alas, without attacking them for anyone's enjoyment, but you get the point).
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@simplications said in The Pack Discussion:
Y'all should rename this thread to "a handful of
exceptionallyawesomelyproblematichumanpeoplemeat popsicles cluelesslydemonstrateimprovving why they arepariahsconsidering going to Subway for lunch but are also considering one of those make-your-own-pizza places idk."Fixed it for ya. Good on you for having villains to provide conflict for you in a terribly mundane and virus-ridden world.
Give me a VPN and two weeks, and half of everyone who hates me will think I'm their new best friend depending on whose ass I kiss and who I dogpile on. Scene is flimsy and predictable af.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@Cobalt Let me explain, here. You're not being attacked and I'm deeply sorry for why things were triggering for you in the log. Your past experiences are your business and you do not need to justify whether or not they are valid.
However, this incident was described as "extremely traumatic" and as an "attempt to rape/seduce a character who is under the influence of drugs". I read that you didn't want to name names, but specifically named @Macha 's character and omitted the name of Isaac's bit. I also read that you said that there were "other creepers", that OOC drama was involved in the situation, and it was enough to close the game altogether.
That's a lot to wrangle.
So as someone who is trying to understand the full scope of things, I have the following questions (and you're in a place that won't personally attack you, which is a bonus):
- Were any of your PCs intimately/romantically involved with the Isaac bit and were you and @Macha both potential victims of a harem building situation?
- What is your reason for not questioning the accused to get their side of things? Options for course correction, etc
- Were you aware that MacKenzie was helmed by @Macha and why did you name them specifically in your account of things despite there being multiple alleged creepers on the game?
Because from what's been said, @Macha did not intend for their RP to come across as rapey in any manner, has posted their side of things, and sounds like they would like to reach an amicable solution. It does not sound like they intended to (or are callous to) any triggers that were tripped. There seems to be an opportunity here to learn something and move forward without people being attacked.
But to be 100pct transparent...if you had characters ICly romantically involved with this Isaac bit, I am going to ask why @Macha was specifically called out in a situation in which you had a personal stake in (and why this was never disclosed), and am going to ask whether or not you were upset when you learned that the Mackenzie and Isaac bit were RPing intimate things privately.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@Macha Question.
When the SA accusation/ban was handed down, were you able to explain your side of things?
The reason I ask, is because from what I've read here and the logs, if you had no intention of hurting anyone or triggering anyone, it feels reasonable to be able to say "hey, this wasn't my intention, etc" and work towards some kind of resolution. We've seen some pretty heinous shit in logs and what was in this logs didn't seem agregious, at least from a "forcing self on someone" context.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@Cobalt No one has accused you of anything, but situations like this have been seen before. Best to understand the whole scope.
Were one of your PCs on this game ICly involved with this Isaac bit (in some sort of intimate/romantic character arc)?
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@Derp Yeah. Just giving the whole thing a 10,000 foot view, I feel like "Why did this result in a banning and an SA accusation coming to staff?" and "Why is the owner of the game saying this incident is involved in the decision to close the game?" are strange, unanswered holes in what is clearly a caustic situation. Having not just started MUing last week, I've seen situations like this before, and in a good number of those situations there is some kind of triangle factor where one person is more invested in it than they claim, or are invested in the situation for reasons they're not making known.
Obviously, with the site closed up there's no log evidence to pore through and (shockingly) the accusation was taken to the one place where people don't need much empirical evidence to "seek rational justice and discourse" (airquotes), there's no way to really figure it out...
...which is why I think the answer to the question if Cobalt had a PC involved with this Isaac bit is pretty important.
Alas, if someone is being accused of sexual assault roleplay, popular or not, they deserve to at least be able to explain their side of things before they're marched off as horrible person #32 this week. In this case the logs don't contain SA and I think it's fair game that they shared their receipts. We are clearly not dealing with some shady person that's surprising people with rape rp.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
And for what it's worth, I still wanna know if the "SA accuser" had a PC in some kind of IC relationship with this Isaac character. Not accusing anyone of anything (yet?), but I think it's important information while trying to responsibly get down to the bottom of what has happened here. Something is definitely off.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@Macha I just question that "crap talked people", "contributed to the MSB/BMD split", "has minions", and "has been accused of being toxic" are a qualified list of offenses on a forum full of people crap talking others with their minions, who have been accused of being toxic, who were also part of the MSB/BMD split...makes any sense at all.
That's kind of like Kool-Ade accusing Tang of being a powdered flavor-drink.
Also, I prefer Dark World to Ragnarok.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
@simplications said in The Pack Discussion:
and there's a healthy discussion about the long problematic history of the author of this thread.
Lol yeah I felt the list of their totally nonbiased misdeeds including "has minions" "crap talked someone" and "was a contributor in the MSB/BMD split" was both healthy and empirical.
Let's not use that term "healthy" too liberally, now, lest "Played Hogwarts Legacy on PS5" and "Prefers Thor2 to Thor3" end up on their "rap sheet" lol.
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RE: The Pack Discussion
I've read the logs in question and agree that it's characters making bad choices, but the leap from that to SA (which I think is unfairly accused) sets off some red flags when paired with the fact that the other player wanted to keep info about your scenes private.
I'm curious. Was the admin who banned @Macha and turned this into a super public SA accusation involved romantically with this Isaac character on one of their PCs? It feels like something critical is missing from the equation.
- Player doesn't want to make details of your scenes public
- Macha reaches out to admin to ask questions about player
- Suddenly, admin bans player, explodes in SA accusation publicly, decides to shut game down
I've seen similar situations before where a player wanted to RP "intimate" stuff with other female characters, but wanted to compartmentalize who knew the scenes were taking place out of fear of ramification. Eventually the person they don't want to find out about the scenes does (which could have happened when you messaged admin), and it turns into an explosion, accusations, etc. If this player told the admin it was "forced" on them to save their own skin, this whole thing starts to make more sense.
I feel like my gut telling me that "game owner" was ICly involved with this Isaac, found out by player who accidentally asked questions, Isaac gets questioned, says it was forced on him, admin explodes in SA accusation but closes the game down due to feeling betrayed...makes a little more sense than calling what happened in these logs sexual assault.
As for the accusation and what's going on at that other place? Don't sweat it @Macha . Thems just a bunch of confirmation bias sharks reveling at the scent of blood in the water so they can claim moral high-ground with eachother after bullying the shit out of someone. Apparently abusing people for a "good reason" excuses people from being abusers so long as their peers/fellow abusers give them high fives for it!
Edit: I've been informed the site was taken offline? So no logs, details, etc can be researched. Yeah. Somethin isn't adding up. This feels fishy
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RE: Searching for Star Wars RPI
@Ganymede said in Searching for Star Wars RPI:
I will hear no more ill of Unicron.
Lol TBF I had to take a moment to think of a staff naming convention I hadn't seen before to avoid making it look like I was targeting a specific admin.
"Zeus? No. Jupiter? No. Optimus? Probably already used. Unicron sounds safe?"
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RE: Searching for Star Wars RPI
@Misadventure said in Searching for Star Wars RPI:
seems to be a repeating pattern across a few places. Staff keeping their predator friends protected and inflicting damage on players.
Yanno, I've always kind of done a sort of mental "head math" when it comes to how often games are plagued with the same inappropriate behaviors on staff, be it a power-clique, sexual harassment, or other unethical issues.
Take the number of truly active non-sexMu mushers. Ballpark? Let's say less than 100.
THEN consider how many of those are willing to take the time to be on staff (not just HEAD staff, but any form of staff)
THEN consider how many of those people are willing to take the time to create a new game, if even from a stolen/copy-pasted code base, build a wiki, write policies, figure out cute little staff naming conventions, etc. Then they actually commit to administrative/decision-making staff positions (i.e. not simply a scene-runner or creative resource, but admin-type "keep the lights running" staff who approve characters, bbposts, set policies, dispute the inevitable hesaid/shesaids).
THEN consider the truly low number of people who understand code well enough to create or modify a code base so that the game actually works (honestly I'd put this at less than 12 total and why these people don't charge money for it is beyond me).
One might say it's almost as if...the same repeat minor population of people are coding, staffing, and running games? That "Flublywub" at HorribleGameA shows up a year later as "Unicron" at HorribleGameB? It just seems highly logical to me to consider that the reason why these staff behaviors are so common is that the same refreshing pool of people actually take the time to set up free entertainment for people who dislike them, anyway?
Just a thought.
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RE: Hogwarts Legacy
@ZombieGenesis Same. There's something very relaxing about the game while also having good puzzles and exploration. In the last few years I've really taken a shine to "lower stress" games like the Lego games or games with a "story" difficulty. I probably needed more relaxing games after being the "Soulsborne" gamer that I am.
Importing your WizardingWorld stuff was neat. Turns out I'm a Gryffindor. Huzzah
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RE: Hogwarts Legacy
@Ganymede That's fair. Rowling is a fucking moron. There were probably hundreds of reasonable ways to approach her concerns but she went and took probably the 2nd worst way possible of going about it.
Regardless, it IS a good game and I enjoy the setting.
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Hogwarts Legacy
Ok so...first impressions? I'm about 8 hours in and there's a shitload of stuff to do. Game is gorgeous and very low stress. Absolutely encapsulates the feeling of being a student at Hogwarts. It'll be hard not to see this game as a competitor for GotY.
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RE: Taking a Hiatus
@Runescryer Good on you, and best of luck to you. There's a certain amount of freedom in stepping away and leaving the whole "MU drama/community drama" baggage behind that really aids in the R&R process.
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RE: WebMU still in use?
@faraday You are 100% right about HTTPS connections via the web portal. HTTPS uses TLS to encrypt that traffic, so it's better altogether than using a MU client from a work device (or arguably ANY form of connecting to a MU using Telnet). The IT Professional in me would say always use TLS/HTTP instead of telnet when available.
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RE: WebMU still in use?
@Scissors said in WebMU still in use?:
Oh well, I spoke too soon. Even though I could connect via Mushclient on a USB stick, it's still constantly disconnecting me. It looks like the corporate firewall is set to periodically shutdown telnet connections everywhere, so I may be SOL.
IT guy here. PLEASE read this.
Telnet (port23) is a hideously insecure protocol that transmits everything in clear text. Most companies these days outright block all telnet traffic to ensure that private information isn't at risk of snooping. Nothing is encrypted in telnet. Everything (everything) is readable like a keylogger: transmission of userid/password, every incoming/outgoing message, your RP, etc.
WHY PEOPLE WHO MU FROM WORK SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS
- ALL of your transmissions via telnet are subject to capture and review by any modern information security software and/or firewalls
- If you're roleplaying stuff your tech-savvy spouse wouldn't want to see, it's easy to implement a firewall to log all traffic via telnet
- ITSecOps software often will flag or alert to attempts to circumvent security settings and most corporate acceptable use policies would consider connecting to a MU (or using an outside device like a thumb drive to use a company pc to connect to MUs) as a fireable offense. Using a thumb drive to get around security rules is technically in the same category as using a thumb drive to introduce a virus (intentionally or accidentally), which is why there are so many rules for connecting outside devices to company property.
- If you've TSed over a MU using telnet and using a company laptop/network? Best of luck to you. Your TS is readable by Information Security.
HOW TO GET AROUND THIS
- on your private device/laptop you could use a VPN to encrypt your traffic on the machine, but since it's telnet (and telnet cannot be encrypted) the telnet traffic from that endpoint to the MU is clear text
- While at work use a personal cell phone not connected to company WiFi (use your cellular connection) to MU.
- If your MU has paid a certificate authority for SSH encrypted communication, you should always use SSH. This is a bit of a stretch as I don't know of any games that have paid for this as an option. SSH is an upgrade from telnet that allows for encryption.
...in short. You're taking your life into your own hands when using company resources (internet connection, wifi, company issued device) to MU. You're making it even worse if you're TSing or doing anything that HR would frown upon.
I know of one person who was fired at my last job for attempting to MU from work. EVEN IF YOUR BOSS SAYS IT IS OKAY, your transmitted content (or attempts to circumvent existing security) are subject to company policies. It's kind of like if your boss says it's okay that you use YouTube during the day they're expecting music videos, audio books, and sports clips, but if you start watching sex scenes on YouTube with nudity you could still get in trouble.
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RE: MUers in the news?
Forcing "purity" (interesting term for the topic, isn't it?) in an RPG is a slippery slope.
Sure, Genre-wise you don't want Luke Skywalker using 2022 tiktok meme examples in RP (he's supposed to be from a galaxy far away in a long time ago), but there's a pretty big line between "Creative preference" and "tyrannical GM nonsense". In the case of BofD and these two mentioned in the topic, their angle is that they view themselves to be an authority on the setting and they're literally inviting people to play content they view themselves to be owners of. So I don't get why people even bother to play that game, because ultimately it comes down to playing "house" with a couple of kids in their backyard and they'll make you leave if you're "not doing it right".
Why bother trying to be creative or create ANYTHING in an environment with someone who will tell everyone what their characters are, what they think, what they would or wouldn't do, etc?
These people are all "No" and not "Yes, and". They're not even "maybe, so" or "No, but". At the risk of sounding snide, they're literally using someone else's literary work and reputation to build themselves as an authority on the content and gatekeeping the shit out of it...and one of their preferred gates to keep is that BIPOC aren't in the ruling caste, make racist jokes, and consider black characters in the setting to be a matter of "woke cancel culture".
So, constructively, this should all be a lesson on do's and don'ts when it comes to understanding a few key things.
- if you don't want people to try to create their own things and having a stake in it, you should be solo-writing it and not running it as an RPG where you falsely promote the concept of logging in to have agency over...well...anything.
- Yes, it's true that players/fans blur the concept behind a character's skin color as being indicative of support for ACTUAL people with that skin color. Is it a minefield? Yes. Is it 100% about the content? No. It's somewhat shades of politics, social issues, etc blurring it's way into content. Still, it's best to understand this and take at least a "maybe, but" approach.
You could create a setting where 1000 all-white families boarded a spaceship and colonized a planet, and after 200 years there are 10,000 people who have ONLY mated with people on that initial all-white spaceship, and people will STILL be like "...can I play a black character?" and your answer should always, ALWAYS be to question why the fuck you decided creatively that everyone in that ship was white to begin with. What's up with that?