Best posts made by Ganymede

I don’t know why I have to get angry at this.

If you have the sniffles, stay at home. If you have a fever, stay at home. If you are coughing, stay at home. But if you are having respiratory distress, go to a hospital.

Do not fucking go to private practices. Do not go to pain clinics. Fucking don’t go fucking out of your fucking house if you are sick.

The number of sick people showing up at clinics and not disclosing their sickness until after they set foot in the waiting room is mindnumbingly irresponsible and fucking stupid.

For fuck’s sake.

@Derp said in How to Approach (nor not) a Suspected Creep:

So, let me just say this bluntly -- you, as a third party, don't get to decide that someone is a victim of anything. Period.

I concur.

Players are not mandatory reporters. And, arguably, players should not by fiat be considered too incompetent to report abuse (which is why we have mandatory reporters). In the proffered scenario, you can report to staff, but I can understand why staff would be very hesitant to jump in.

And for the reasons already stated by Derp, I would not act and kindly tell the reporter to have the alleged victim make a report if he/she/it at any time feels victimized.

@RightMeow

I'm trying not to judge, but here's what I do know.

With my insurance, I pay $100 for urgent care and $300 for emergency care.

My private clinic demands around $75.

I am told on a daily basis about how wrong it is to value money over life, which is fair.

So, here we go:

Spend the extra money to save lives.

Because I tell you, the private clinics have donated most if not all of their PPE to hospitals, so you risk those health care workers and everyone else who visits the clinic if you're sick.

@Ghost said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

Come to think of it, it'd be pretty hard to roleplay being a photojournalist without NPCs.

Maplethorpe did quite fine.

@RightMeow

You still should see a lawyer. I don't know what jurisdiction you live in, but you may be entitled to paid leave under the recent federal legislation and you may still be entitled to unemployment for a voluntary layoff resulting from the pandemic under state law.

@Alamias

Ironic choice of picture?

Pretty sure that was Tony-face one night with May.

@TNP

No. Those were her words, not mine.

Sleeping on the couch isn’t a punishment because we have a guest room with a huge bed and her feet are like motherfucking ice.

@Macha said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:

I was not trying to imply anyone was abusive. Just how privacy is important, etc, off what I had.

I don’t think anyone had any ill-intent by offering their thoughts. I am simply advising not to share them unless a parent asks for them, for the reasons stated by Rightmeow.

We could discuss why or why not until we are blue in the face, but none of that matters. Just don’t.

@TNP

Of course.

I’m not strongly attached to life.

@Kestrel said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

Whether intended or not, the phrasing of this policy, as expressed here in particular, can come across as pretty victim-blamey. I can only speak for myself that it wouldn't in any way encourage me to come forward with any complaints I had, because it implies that doing so isn't the adult thing to do, and makes me somehow lesser. It also puts the person complaining on equal footing in staff's eyes with the person they're complaining about, as a baseline.

I cannot argue against how the policy makes you feel, but I would suggest that you are reading too far into it.

I think it irrefutable that expecting players to work issues out among themselves is reasonable. I also think it irrefutable that if this cannot be done, for whatever reason, contacting an authority is the next step to resolving the situation. Frankly, this is exactly what I tell my own kids to do: don't fucking bug me unless you can't work it out between you two, you little shits. (And, as they are twins, they are on equal footing with each other and this is another problem all on its own.)

So I believe Faraday's policy to be appropriate and reasonable for most if not all issues. Going to staff immediately about harassment or discomfort is perfectly reasonable and fits within the policy. Ultimately, whether by +warn or some other command that alerts staff to inappropriate behavior, what we are discussing is a way for players to: (1) notify staff of a problem; and (2) have staff resolve the issue.

It has been said by greater minds than I that you cannot invent code or implement policies to change social issues. Harassment and the anxiety associated with reporting the same are social issues. The issues I see in this discussion is whether there is value to implementing more tools, and, if so, how should those tools work. Faraday's policy is of itself another tool: a printed policy.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

It's particularly grating when said friend, who treats her untrained dog like a child she has to take everywhere, is mystified that I don't want it at my house. And that people at restaurants/Target/everywhere might not want it in their business.

I think the same about other people's untrained children.

@Arkandel said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

Conditions, aspirations etc do very little to affect that.

If you say so. But let me go back to your original opinions.

@Arkandel said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

The exact mechanics, XP availability, city selection and aspirations code aren't very significant in terms of making a flagpole game.

What's a flagpole game?

IMHO staff selection, plot availability and setting (meaning making different interesting concepts available, so think 'post apocalyptic' or 'dark ages' rather than 'Chicago') are all far, far more impactful.

I think this is a truism. If you have good staff, good plot, and a good setting, people will tolerate the clunkiness of a system; conversely, if you have a good system that people like people will tolerate deficiencies in staff, plot, and setting. If you take the four different parts I think you could fairly debate that strength in one or more will off-set deficiencies in the others. So I don't think the opinion is really going to spark a meaningful or spirited debate.

These days modern codebases matter.

But this was always the case. We used to have spirited MOO v. PennMUSH v. TinyMUX debates.

If you're a fan of well-produced, accurate documentaries, Netflix has the best ones in my opinion. Aside from American Factory (hello, Dayton!), the Rotten and Dirty Money series are exceptional. And then there is Ugly Delicious and its ilk, all of which I could watch fo-ev-ah.

@Arkandel

Let’s set aside the flagpole question.

As I implied, the staff, story, setting, and system are all important to me. I believe the tendency to get mired in mechanics is due to a reasonable reaction to announcing what system will be used. That said, when announcing new games here, posters tend to lead with the system used, so that’s the first thing to hook onto. And some people have strong feelings on particular systems, so they get caught up with that issue rather than examining the other important issues.

I’ll stop there for now.

@Rinel

I've done federal habeas work for a judge, but I'm guessing it's out of date.

Yeah, sucks.

@Auspice said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

Make an opt-in. Make people running scenes, plots, writing shit for the game, etc., label their stuff clearly.

What's the default level of play?

If you have an opt-in, there has to be some expectation of baseline play. What is that baseline? What if baseline RP naturally progresses into a kind of RP that requires an opt-in, but the players involved forget about using the right command and barrel on in?

@Lotherio said in Good TV:

The movie released on Disney Plus (then I concur, I loved that one), or the series on DC universe (which I don't have and is one of the few reasons I'd consider getting dcu)?

The Harley Quinn animated series is worth the membership alone.

I wanted to add something.

Maybe we ought to add in our character applications a little section where people can inform staff as to RP that they do not want to experience or be a part of. I'm thinking about the Arx thread and the post which triggered trauma in a player. I don't intend to victim-blame at all, and the section should not have to explain why that RP makes the player uncomfortable, but that little section might at least give staff a heads-up as to what might be inappropriate in a game-wide setting.

@Rinel

That is so fucking annoying.

I have this BWC case, and it's like:

"Well, the Ohio AG's office is defending this, so we don't have to worry about handling the heavy lifting, Employer Client!"

after reviewing draft from Ohio AG's office, two days before deadline

"Holy shitballs they can't write, so looks like we'll have to defend this after all!"

@Derp said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

...until when? You have a massive list of stuff that people aren't allowed to engage in and everyone must completely memorize?

It's not about "allowed to engage in"; it's about giving staff some heads-up about what might really hurt someone. And if staff has some idea of what might really hurt, they could also tell the player before approval that the game is probably not for them.

@Ghost said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

You may be right. It's not like rpprefs kept instances from taking place, and I'm sure there are some instances of stating "not looking for TS" made it hard for some players to find RP.

Probably. But putting it up front means you can bar someone from engaging in that kind of RP with you. And if that means you don't get the RP, then maybe the game isn't for you.

As Derp has said multiple times since time in memoriam, not every game is for everyone. That's a truism. And I concur that there is an expectation that if a player makes a character that staff can and will bend over backwards to have them included. That is just not the case anywhere.

And this is what I think backgrounds are for. I couldn't give two shits about why you are a world-class fencer and bourbon distiller, but I really would like to know if your concept and RP preferences are ill-suited for the blood-orgy Vampire game I'm running.