Harassment Is Now A Rule

[Moderator 09]

Dear Valued Members,

Since our April rules update, we've been evaluating our rules and etiquette to see how well they are working.  One that does not seem to be working efficiently is harassment.

The problem is that we assumed a member asking another member to stop was the same as a moderator doing so, and that ignoring either one should result in etiquette violations.  However, in practice us stepping in officially is serious enough that we feel compelled to give a rule breach for ignoring it.  Thus, we've been giving violating members both E1c and Rule 4 violations if they've been previously warned by moderators.  This is messy, counter-intuitive, and really not what Rule 4 is meant to cover.

To fix this, we're moving harassment to Rule 5.

Now, if someone is reported for harassment, we'll assess the current situation.  If it can be resolved without moderator intervention (the target asking the harasser to stop, using the ignore feature, not engaging, etc.), we'll help the members work it out.  Otherwise, we'll send an official notice to the harasser, after which further violations will result in a Rule 5 breach.  The TOS harassment policy has not changed.

Here is the updated FAQ entry.

Any questions, comments, concerns?

[Shawna]

I feel harassed by this rule.  I would like to request that this rule put me on Ignore.  Thank you.  That is all.

[Captain Luke]

Everyone else has already, Shawna. 

[Shawna]

Phew!  Thank goodness!  Now I can harass anyone I want!


Keep up the good work, mods.