These MOO Manners Guidelines are meant to give you an idea of the ways people are expected to behave in MOOs and MUDs. - The first three lists are rules from educational MOOs (CollegeTown, DaedalusMOO, & Diversity University).
- Next is a good list of rules from JaysHouse MOO, a MOO populated by programmers -- definitely not the place to take your class or to wander about and figure out what MOOing is about, but they have a nice list of rules.
- Finally the list of rules from LambdaMOOthe first MOO -- so its rules are often copied. Lambda is a social MOO and also not appropriate for taking your classes too.
- Policies for Connections are available at the Connections Website.
Essentially, no matter what MOO/MUD you're visiting, if you follow these rules, you should be following the appropriate netiquette for that space.Some places will have more specific rules, but in general, as you can seefrom the repitition below, the same guidelines are in effect everywhere.
CollegeTown (next.cs.bvx.edu 7777)
*** A Guide to Manners ***
Welcome to COLLEGETOWN. As a member of this community or asa guest we invite you to join with us in supporting the followingsocial interaction guidelines:
- RESPECT OTHER PEOPLE. Citizens here are of all ages and range from first grade students to college professors. They come from many different parts of the world. Please do not offend others with your language or actions. It is polite to ask permission before visiting someone else's home.
- DON'T WALK OFF WITH OBJECTS THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU. CollegeTown is based on trust. Put things back where you found them.
- DON'T SPOOF. Don't make it appear that other persons are saying or doing something they aren't.
- ONLY TELEPORT YOUR OWN THINGS.
- DON'T SPY.
- DON'T SPAM. Don't annoy others by overloading the screen.
- NO WEAPONS. This is an academic environment.
- NO HARASSMENT.
This is an educational community consisting of people of all ages. Please read 'help purpose'for more information. There are some specific guidelines for behavior here. Please follow these rules:1. BE NICE TO OTHERS. Remember that there is a person on the other side of a computer somewhere reading what you type.
2. BE POLITE. In general, treat others as you would if you were to meet them in a face-to-face situation. Don't harass them, and don't be rude or offensive.
3. RESPECT PERSONAL PRIVACY AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. Don't intrude on others (always page first) and don't take things which aren't yours.
4. DON'T SEEK REVENGE. If something goes wrong, remember you can use @gag, @refuse, and @reject. Send MOOmail to a wizard to report a problem.
If you can't follow these general guidelines, you might be more comfortable on another MUD. The wizards at DaedalusMOO will enforce these rules.
Expected Behavior and Manners for Diversity University MOOThis document describes the guidelines and expectations for acceptable behavior on Diversity University MOO, as well as some general suggestions for how to interact with others on the MOO. Users are expected to behave in a reasonable and responsible manner at all times, as laid out by this document, and failure to do so can result in disciplininary action by the wizards of the MOO.
General security issues and matters which involve the functional integrity of the MOO, access to unauthorized abilities or areas, or real-world legal concerns are not covered in this document. For information on these policies, please see 'help terms'.
Social Interaction
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The MOO is not a game. It is a real social environment with people of all ages, from all walks of life, from all over the globe. Citizens of Diversity University are expected to act accordingly. This means the following:
1. Harassment of other users will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, spamming (filling their screen with unwanted text), teleporting them or their objects without their permission, repeated paging or following them after they have expressed a desire to be left alone, broadcasting messages to everyone on the MOO, or actions done with the specific intent of causing another person annoyance or discomfort.
2. While freedom of speech is an important part of Diversity University, obscene language, violence, unwanted sexual acts, or other blatantly offensive behavior will also not be tolerated.
3. Spoofing (displaying text that is not obviously attributed to your character) to deceive others or avoid responsibility for one's actions is traceable and is not allowed.
4. Spying on others is expressly prohibited. All objects which relay messages heard in a room to another person or location must clearly state that they do so. Silent teleportation is also a form of spying, as is any mechanism intended to intercept messages not intended for you through unanticipated loopholes (this last is also a security issue, see 'help terms').
5. Common courtesy is expected from all users toward others on the MOO. In addition to the above points, this means paging others before joining them in a non-public space (a private room, a classroom, etc), asking before taking or using objects that do not belong to you, leaving objects where you find them, and all of the other courtesies you would follow when visiting someone else's house or place of business.
Users should also attempt to respect other people's sensibilities. Inhabitants of Diversity University come from a wide range of cultural, religious, and racial backgrounds which should be acknowledged and respected. Not everyone has the same feelings of acceptable speech and behavior, and consideration of others' feelings is an essential part of reasonable behavior on Diversity University.
Diversity University is also a family environment with participants of all ages, and actions and statements made in this environment should reflect this. Public use of language or actions which are not suitable for children will not be tolerated on this system.
Should you have problems with another user who is not following these requirements, please report their actions to a wizard or other designated authority. If none are immediately available, some commands for temporary sanctuary are available. For more information see help on @gag, @refuse, and @eject.
For tips on contacting wizards and other busy people, see 'help wizards'.
Polite Use of MOO Resources
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Be considerate when designing verbs and objects to perform tasks on the MOO. MOO resources are shared amongst all the inhabitants, and badly designed systems can affect the performance of the entire MOO. Do not design code or create systems that consume inordinate amounts of processing time or resources without consultation with the wizards first, and always design code in such a way as to be as efficient and server-friendly as possible.
Help keep database size down. Use verbs such as @copy only when absolutely necessary. Do not copy nifty verbs someone else has made to yourself so you can use them. Ask them or a wizard to put the verb on a feature object instead. Use @rmm to remove personal mail messages once you are done with them, and keep cross-posting (sending the same mail messages to multiple recipients) to a minimum.
When copying or modifying other people's code, be sure to ask permission first, and comply with any requests they have regarding the use of their code. Simply because something is readable does not give you the right to use or copy it, and use of another person's code against their wishes is a form of invasion of privacy.
Another limited resource of the MOO is player names. Player names and aliases, unlike the names and aliases of other types of objects, are required to be unique. This means that if you have taken a certain name as your name or one of your aliases, nobody else can have a character with that name. For this reason, please keep the number of your aliases, particularly common ones, to a minimum. Users should only have aliases that relate directly to their character's name, and possibly one (reasonable) nickname.
MANNERS=======
JHM, like other MUDs, is a social community; it is populated by real people interacting via a computer network. Like members of other communities, the inhabitants of JHM have certain expectations about the behavior of its members and visitors. Thus, the Community Group (CG) provides this general outline for social conduct here; please familiarize yourself with and observe these guidelines when you log into JHM.
In general:
Behavior that would be considered rude in `face-to-face' interaction is rude here, too.
Some ways to interpret that:
Be nice. Don't be rude or annoy other people. If someone requests that you stop a particular behavior or action, please respect eir wishes.
Avoid interrupting other people who are working or conversing with their friends. You're welcome to explore the public places and ask for advice if you're stuck, but please try to read the online documentation and help yourself, first.
In addition, please realize that many players who log in here are busy with other things, both virtually and in real life, and therefore may not always be able respond to you immediately.
Harrassment of other players will not be tolerated. Emoted violence and obscenities are considered inappropriate in the social context of JHM.
It isn't reasonable to `:kiss' or `:hug' folks you don't know. Also, speak out loud to people you don't know, rather than paging or whispering.
Respect other player's sensibilities. MOO inhabitants and visitors come from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, both in the U.S. and abroad, and have varying ideas of what constitutes offensive expression. Please keep text as free of potentially-offensive language and material as you can.
Making logs of JHM conversation for the purpose of public posting is considered unethical unless each participant in the discussion expressly agrees to allow the conversation to be posted.
Try to avoid arguing or debating with another player in a crowded public room; such interactions interrupt the other players in the room. Instead, consider paging or moving your conversation to one of the many empty public rooms.
Although visitors to JHM are asked to use one of the guest characters for initial explorations, we encourage character creation if you become a frequent visitor. That way, you become a fuller part of the JHM community.
==============
Rude or offensive behavior can result, unfortunately, in your removal, either temporarily or permanently, from JHM.
If you are uncertain about the meaning of any part of this document and would like clarification, please consult a Community Group member (type `help cg'[1] for a listing of players involved in the group or mail to *cg, the mailing list associated with the Community Group).
LambdaMOO (lambda.parc.xerox.com 8888)
LambdaMOO, like other MUDs, is a social community; it is populated by real people interacting through the computer network. Like members of other communities, the inhabitants of LambdaMOO have certain expectations about the behavior of members and visitors. This article lays out a system of rules of courteous behavior, or "manners", which has been agreed upon by popular vote.
First of all, any action that threatens the functional integrity of the MOO, or might cause legal trouble for the MOO's supporters, will get the player responsible thrown off by the wizards. If you find a loophole or bug in the core, report it to a wizard without attempting to take advantage of it. Cracking falls outside the realm of manners. Read `help cracking' for more information.
Beyond that, there are two basic principles of friendly MOOing: let the MOO function and don't abuse other players.
==== LET THE MOO FUNCTION =====
Besides not trying to hack or break things, this means not hogging resources by taking up more memory or processing time than necessary.
To help keep database bloat down, please @create thoughtfully, @recycle unused objects, @rmmail when done with it, use feature objects instead of copying lots of verbs, and don't recycle and recreate objects seeking "interesting" numbers (this inflates all the object #'s, which are long enough already).
The MOO server is carefully shared among all the connected players so that everyone gets a chance to execute their commands. The more demanding players' commands are, the more of a load there is on the server, and thus the more lag there is.
If you are writing a program that will run for a long time, please make it wait at least five seconds between iterations (use `fork (n)' or `suspend(n)' where `n' is at least 5). This will give others a chance to get their commands in between yours.
==== DON'T ABUSE OTHER PLAYERS =====
The MOO is a fun place to socialize, program, and play as long as people are polite to each other. Rudeness and harassment make LambdaMOO less pleasant for everyone. Do not harass or abuse other players, using any tactic including:
* Spamming (filling their screen with unwanted text)
* Teleporting them or their objects without consent
* Emoted violence or obscenities
* Shouting (sending a message to all connected players) Don't shout unless you have something everyone needs to hear. This basically means emergency system messages from wizards.
* Spoofing (causing messages to appear that are not attributed to your
character)
Spoofs can be funny and expressive when used with forethought. If you spoof, use a polite version than announces itself as a spoof promptly, and use it sparingly. See `help spoofing' for more information.
* Spying
Don't create or use spying devices. If you reset your teleport message, make sure it is set to something, so that you don't teleport silently. Besides having a disorienting effect on people, silent teleportation is a form of spying.
In general, respect other players' privacy and their right to control their own objects, including the right to decide who may enter or remain in their rooms.
Also respect other players' sensibilities. MOO inhabitants and visitors come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds both in the U.S. and abroad, and have varying ideas of what constitutes offensive speech or descriptions. Please keep text that other players can casually run across as free of potentially-offensive material as you can. If you want to build objects or areas that are likely to offend some segment of the community, please give sufficient warning to casual explorers so that they can choose to avoid those objects or areas.
===== SELF-DEFENSE ======
Avoid revenge!
If someone is bothering you, you have several options. The appropriate first step is usually to ask them to stop.
If this fails, and avoiding the person is insufficient, useful verbs include @gag, @refuse, and @eject. Help is available on all of these.
If you have a serious problem with another player, you may want to consider invoking mediation, in which another player decides the dispute. Since mediation is some trouble and is binding on both parties, make sure you really want it before invoking it. See `help mediation' for details.
==== PROBLEMS WITH GUESTS =====
If you are having a problem with someone logged in as a Guest, you have another recourse: you may @boot them. Type
@boot
This will ask you for a reason. Enter the reason on multiple lines, followed by a `.' on a separate line. Please note that abuse of guest-booting is quite serious, and are subject to the mediation process. All guest-bootings are logged.
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If you have a question about something in this text, or about anything else on the MOO, type `help' to see a listing of available help texts. If you don't see what you're looking for, page Help or use the Helpful Person Finder in the Living Room to find someone who can answer your questions.
If you couldn't read the above text because it scrolled off your screen andyou don't have any text capture mechanism available on your host, type `help@pagelength' and `help @linelength' to learn how MOO can help you read this and other lengthy text.Type `@tutorial' for an introduction to basic MOOing. If you have not already done so, please type `help manners' and read the text carefully. It outlines the community standard of conduct, which each player is expected to follow while in LambdaMOO.