Members who have known me through here for a while know that I am oft a stickler for process. Call it an occupational habit.

I have read more Reddit threads in the past week than I have in my life. I have looked through an old thread on DownWithOPP and I have read the recent thread about Azazello, Cullen, Talwyn, and other alts he has played. I have looked at my old chats with members here, all of whom were concerned that DWOPP was never banned and may be keeping tabs on the players he has victimized.

I said long ago that I wanted MSB to become more of a safe place than its previous iterations. I meant that. It is purely coincidental that Arkandel passed the torch to me to manage this place as his successor on the same day that we Americans watched an aged man serving his country, who then took the extraordinary step of taking action to, in his opinion, make his home a better place. And while I have never been comfortable judging people preemptively or prejudicially, I have also never been comfortable where others have felt uneasy and in fear of the people around them.

I do not know for certain whether DownWithOPP is the same player as Enervation, but I have read enough about both to decide that I don't want them around. I have decided to ban DownWithOPP, as well as SabotKick72, DropBear, and Enervation. I am not going to wait, as we did with Tyche, until something egregious happens. I see no point on letting him continue to lurk here. And while I am all-but-certain he will simply make another account under another false e-mail address, making the announcement that we will take action to keep him off this place -- we keep our regular troll friends off the place too -- is something that I hope will make some of our members feel a little more secure.

If anyone suspects there are other accounts accessed by the person behind any of the above accounts, please let the admins know and we'll have a looksee.

Don't break the number one rule: spouting hateful shit based on race, gender, identity, or disability.

Like, seriously people, don't do that shit. Especially when I'm at work. Especially when I have to prepare pleadings and motions for bankruptcy court. Don't fucking do this.

I have a daughter on the spectrum. I have a nephew on the spectrum. Some folks here are on the spectrum. Spouting shit like 'hurr hurr u sound autistic' is going to entertain swift action.

Autism is neither funny nor inherently negative. Using it as an insult or a pejorative will not be tolerated.

That's right, motherfuckers. We movin'.

As of Friday afternoon, EST, we'll be 'porting over to a new place. That means that if you post at around that time such post may disappear. So if you can all stop cat-fighting for, like, 24 hours, that would be good. Or swell. Or something.

This new place is brought to you by Digital Ocean and our committee on fixing our problems here with disappearing posts. Please thank Faraday, Derp, Roz, and Arkandel when you can. And, like, not on Friday afternoon, 'mkay?

Chet has been banned for posting the following in Game Development as a thread:

@chet said in River City Ransom MUSH:

A MUSH for special education students.

Combat system features four stats, standard for your character, and a secondary set for bonuses for your gang, if buffed, with an EQ set custom name to strip the buff, if you fit the special character class - listed below.

River City Ransom. You get a character, you get a gang, and a room, for a section of town, that gives you experience, for fighting in. You win a fight, in someone else's section, you steal their girlfriend, you get extra bonus points, in your section, for your gang, to pad your combat points, for attacks, that you lose, once you lose the fight. Female characters, are lesbians, they get an EQ bonus, from the shop, in the center city, the social area, that they have to RP in, with a grid token, to prove, they roleplayed with "Slick", the boss, whomever has the girlfriend, one maximum Slick, for all the women at a time, for the EQ, which gives them a special attack, in another person's quadrant, until they lose the fight, special attack lets them knock off the combat bonus for a round, twice a fight.

If I need to breakdown why, I am going to be very disappointed. I'll say it summarily:

• Don't use "special education students" in a mocking or derogatory way; some of us were "special education students," or had them in our circle of friends or family.

• We will not condone forcing any character of any gender into a particular sexuality or permit a game to advertise on this forum which does so.

If anyone wants further explanation, you're welcome to message me directly. I cannot guarantee that I will be patient with you if challenged on this decision.

My kitty has been found and is safe. Thank you to everyone who spiritually helped her find her way.

Y’all may now be relieved I will not destroy you all.

The past 40 days.

First, I found a house that my partner loved, and signed a contract to build it.

Then, I was elevated in the firm to partner.

Then, I had the privilege of picking up a new company car for myself on lease -- LEXUS.

And then, tonight, I just put our current house under contract.

@admiral said in MU Things I Love:

It's easy to roll with the punches and mature as a character when you know that staff will protect you from real consequences and feed you all the best plots/RP that others don't get.

On games where I have staff authority, I tend to hand players who can roll with the punches and act maturely important matters. This is because they have demonstrated that they can roll with the punches and act maturely rather than point fingers.

You can call that favoritism if you want, but there's a reason why I don't trust my cat to file important things with the clerk of courts. For one thing, the dog takes far less time.

I'm going to take the unpopular opinion here.

Whatever happened to scale or scope? What about a person's reaction? What about what's been alleged precisely?

C'mon. Let's just take a moment to distinguish and not lump everyone together.

Let's start with Al Franken. First, he admitted it happened. Second, he requested an ethics investigation. Finally, and most importantly, he acknowledged that what he did was wrong. To-wit: (1) forcefully making out with a woman against her will during a rehearsal; and (2) taking an awful, awful picture.

Let's go in the other direction for a moment to Bill Cosby. First, he admitted nothing, even though he testified to doing so in a deposition. Second, he continues to deny wrong-doing to this day. Finally, and damningly, he is alleged to have drugged women and have sex with them while they were knocked out over a period of decades.

I want to be clear: I don't condone either person's behavior. But I think it is also clear: these are not the same levels of wrongdoing.

This is a hot topic for me because a lot of my political friends are lumping everyone together, while some of us "moderates" are saying what Jules said in Pulp Fiction. What Franken did, relative to Cosby, ain't the same sport.

@aerianyx

1. Be aware that your boundaries are your boundaries. They may not be another person's boundaries, but that's irrelevant; the question is what makes you uncomfortable.

2. People who tell you you're overly sensitive are assholes. The proper response to "this RP is making me feel uncomfortable" is "I'm sorry I'll stop." Anything less than that is unacceptable, and a sign of an asshole.

3. Quid pro quo is disgusting and should be reported. I really don't (edited) care if it is totally in-character; it's disgusting and is one of the sorts of behaviors that should not exist in our hobby.

4. Stand firm, and get backup. When you set your foot down, it helps to talk to someone else about what happened. You don't need to identify who did it, but it's always helpful to know people have your back. And, by the way, if that "backup" tells you that you are being overly sensitive, remember Point 2 above.

5. It is always okay to suddenly disconnect. You never, ever, ever have an obligation to stick around. Ever. You may have to deal with the consequences later, but you never, ever, ever have to stick around.

Hopefully, this helps. I don't have much personal experience with this because I have very distant boundaries, but I've been told I'm a good listener. Also, I fuck up a lot but have enough presence of mind and awareness of self to not hold what I felt against the person I wronged.

My cousin passed away this morning.

His side of the family enjoyed considerable success. He grew up with my wildly successful aunt, who quite literally cut a bloody path of heads in the Chinese financial world until she made her way to a place near the top of a major multinational bank. He was a successful amateur tennis player and competitive swimmer in his youth, and went to and graduated from Upper Canada College. He later attended school in the UK, and ended up getting a pretty good job in Hong Kong in the financial world.

We were never close, but his mother and I were pretty friendly. We were both the sort of cool-under-the-collar kinds of people with ambitions and odd sensibilities, He got married a couple of years ago into Swedish nobility, but I didn't get to attend his marriage in Tuscany because my kids were just coming of age. I wasn't there when his son was born. The last time I saw him was at an event two years ago, where he came in like a tornado on a red-eye. The term "jet-set playboy" fit him to a T.

This weekend is the Moon Festival. He was vacationing at a resort in Hong Kong -- you can't really leave -- with his wife and child to celebrate it. Early yesterday morning, he was walking with his wife and child-in-stroller when he slipped, lost his balance, and fell off a precipice. He suffered a brain injury and severe internal injuries. The doctors tried to staunch the bleeding, but he succumbed a couple of hours ago.

Success is never a guarantee of immortality, or even a long life. My cousin had a lot of things going for him and his life was heading in a trajectory that many of us admired. But for COVID, I'd be getting a plane ticket and flying out to see my aunt and her family. The most I can do at this time is send an e-mail. My cousin is my father's god-son, and to hear my father brokenly crying on the phone -- he told me he had never felt so weak and helpless in his 80+ years -- was incredibly trying.

Hug your loved ones tight tonight, please.

@Ghost said in Ethical Question:

IS IT ETHICAL to join a bunch of MUs and embed yourself in roleplay with people who don't like you as a means to repair your relationship with them by being cool with them...and then later reveal it was you all along?

Generally, I don't find myself in such ethical quandaries because I have neither the time nor the inclination to try and convince people who don't like me that I am likeable.

@Ghost said in Telnet Safety:

NEVER give your address, phone, banking, fullname, general location, business information, etc over pages/chat in MU even if you trust the person because THE DANGER ISNT YOUR FRIEND, BUT THE SERVICE/PROTOCOL YOU ARE USING.

Fixed that for you.

You nerd.

To me, using AI to play a game that relies on writing makes about as much sense as watching gamers on YouTube play.

Like, okay, I can understand why you would be entertained, but I find it immeasurably boring watching others have fun that I could be having.

On an unrelated sidenote, I also hate watching golf. Also, I don't have time to play with myself.

I was reading a lot of Shakespeare at the time, while also studying gender identity back in the late 90s.

For PCs, I like to pick mundane names, none of which would seem unusual. I have a fondness for names with Goidelic roots.

@faraday said in The Case Against Real PBs:

I see no good answer.

This is usually the case when matters relate to personal tastes.

@Ghost said in Stranger Danger?:

Do you have issues finding/maintaining RP with players once they find out you're not open to IC-relationship stuff? That was always kind of my issue: I was able to find a lot of available RP, but people would suddenly have "electrical storm" or "rl emergency" or "sorry gotta go" when it was established I wasn't into TS/relationship RP with the person.

I don't have this issue either. Frankly, I prefer RPing with folks who take a similar position. I'm not against romance or sexual RP, but I RP from work a lot, and that's not the sort of RP I'd like when I'm trying to negotiate a seven-figure deal by email.

@Misadventure said in Stranger Danger?:

Know, learn or guess what your personally vulnerable roleplay topics are.
Don't do RP thats personally vulnerable.
Don't give out personal details like names, locations, job title.
Don't share any social media, it's a network of places for you and others to make security mistakes.

These four points are always good to follow.

I thought I had made friends over my past 25+ years of doing this, but I misjudged how firm many of those friendships were.

Last suggestion:

It's okay to let it all go.

And I have.

@Misadventure

I think so.

Not a podcast, but a YouTube streamer who I play with on Liberation. Really cool person who would love subscribers to their gaming videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@PlagueRootOfficial

@faraday said in When communication is too long to read ...:

Of course in an ideal world they "should" take the initiative of solving the problem themselves, but there can be many factors - shame, anxious avoidance, fear of reprisal, overwhelm paralysis, just to name a few - that may make it difficult for someone to reach out for help.

As the parent of a ND person, I do remind them that others won't know their needs unless they speak up. Thankfully, they do. Sometimes, in inappropriate loud ways, but, hey, they are young, and they've got some time.