FurryMUCK SM News File

' to read a section, i.e. 'news 1.1' 1.1 Table of Contents Section Title Points of Interest 1.0 Welcome to FurryMUCK The Ten Commandments, the Covenant 2.0 Legalities The Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP), copyrights, intellectual property, lawsuits and subpoenas 3.0 Public Behavior The PG-13 policy, policies on adult behavior, privately-owned public areas, offensiveness 4.0 Player Relations Threats, harassments, and no-contact policies 5.0 Building and Building limits, character limits, rules about Other Limits zombies/puppets and giving/sharing characters 6.0 Programming How to become a MUCKER, rules and limits on MUF and MPI, programming guidelines 7.0 Procedures How to create a new character, register for adult status, get @toaded, etc. 8.0 Administrivia What are wizards and helpstaff, how to become one, who are the current wizards 9.0 Miscellany Index, glossary * Changes The latest changes to the policies * Editorials Articles on current issues of FurryMUCK SM See 'news help' for help with reading news. 1.2 The Ten Commandments of FurryMUCK SM FurryMUCK SM is provided as a place where users may gather for the purposes of social interaction, role-playing, and the creation and exploration of virtual reality. Unfortunately, it's not always clear where the line falls between two users' rights to enjoy the system. The Ten Commandments are intended as "rules of thumb" for playing nice on FurryMUCK SM. See the full rules or consult helpstaff if you have any questions. 1. You are a guest on a private system. You don't have a "right" to be here. 2. Respect your hosts. They keep the place going. 3. Respect your fellow guests. Be polite and show some good manners. 4. Follow the rules. Ask for help if you're not sure what they are. 5. FurryMUCK SM is a game. Things happen. Don't take them too seriously. 6. If you cause trouble, you will be warned. If you keep causing trouble, you will be removed. 7. You're entitled to an opinion. You are not entitled to harass fellow guests or your hosts to make your point clear. 8. Your hosts will make decisions that you won't always agree with. Learn to live with them or find another place to play. 9. FurryMUCK SM is hosted in the United States. Don't do things illegal in the United States or a significant portion thereof. 10. Have fun! It IS possible to have fun without breaking the rules. 1.3 The FurryMUCK SM Covenant The FurryMUCK SM Covenant is our 'Declaration of Principles'. This is not to be confused with the Acceptable Usage Policy (see 'news aup') which defines our legal responsibilities and rights, nor does it replace our rules. It's a statement of how we, as the wizards of FurryMUCK SM and the providers of this service, view our relationship with you, the users of FurryMUCK SM. By registering a character, you acknowledge that you are a guest, on this service at the sufferance of the administrators, the wizards of FurryMUCK SM. As administrators, the wizards are empowered to run this system as smoothly as possible for the community as a whole. Please read each of the following articles: * 1.3.1 Article 1 * 1.3.2 Article 2 They may be long -- if you're having trouble seeing the whole thing, ask a helpstaffer for help. (type "helpstaff" and then page one of the names on the list) 1.3.1 Article 1 Any wizard has the right to penalize a user as he or she deems fit to remedy problems regarding the equitable exercise of entertainment for the community. This may include, but is NOT LIMITED to behavior as described under: - the FurryMUCK SM rules and codes of conduct - the laws of the state in which the server resides - the laws of the United States in general - International law as regards the Internet, copyright, and intellectual property We are under no obligation to give due process. We will consider opinions from users, but we will not receive demands, nor will we take votes from the public to decide an issue. Appeals to 'fairness' or 'rights' will be dismissed. We will consider appeals only if there is merit to them, i.e. there are facts in the case that were not considered by the original wizard who made the decision. We are never required to allow an appeal. The official decision of the full body of wizards is absolutely final and may not be further appealed. (see section 8.6) 1.3.2 Article 2 As a guest, you are granted the rights of personal expression, social interaction, exploration, and role-playing upon this system. These rights hold only until such activities infringe upon other players' rights for similiar opportunities. There is no Constitutional right for malicious intent. Only the right to pursue happiness is guaranteed. You are expected to comport yourself as befits the environment of the game; that is, as this is a 'virtual reality', we expect you to behave with the same etiquette and acceptable behavior that would be applied to a similiar situation in the real world. This is described in more detail in the FurryMUCK SM policies. Read them. Within the bounds of Article 1, you have the following entitlements: a. Freedom from harassment by other players. If you feel it necessary, you may ask one or more of the wizards to mediate a situation. It should be stressed that a wizard should only be called in when you feel your problem cannot be resolved in a peacable fashion. Negotiations between conflicting parties is preferable to invoking wizardly judgment. If you feel you are being harassed by a wizard, you should ask for mediation from the wizards at large -- see section 8.6. b. Freedom to voice an opinion where that right does not infringe upon another player's rights and does not conflict with our rules. Should that opinion fall into the realm of maliciousness, abuse, or attempt to incite others to malicious or abusive behavior, the wizards reserve the right to censure you and, if necessary, to delete that opinion from public areas. c. Freedom to leave the game. ("The Player's Option") If you're unhappy with the game, log off. If we feel that you're not coping well with the game, we will remind you that you do have this option. We may also give you time off from FurryMUCK SM to cool down. Remember, no one is forcing you to play here. See section 7.2 for more information about having your character @toaded. 2.0 Legalities While FurryMUCK SM has users from all around the world, it resides in and abides by the laws and the requests of the law enforcement agencies of the United States. This section of our policy describes how we stand with respect to the laws and how the laws may affect you. * 2.1 Acceptable Usage Policy. You should not play on FurryMUCK SM without having read this policy. MUST READ! (Long!) * 2.2 Lawsuits and Subpoenas. The place to go if you're thinking about suing someone or if someone's threatening you with a suit. In a word, 'don't do it', but for more details, see this. * 2.3 Copyrighted or Trademarked Characters. If you have a question about whether a user is violating a copyright or trademark, see this. * 2.4 Intellectual Property and Copyright. If you have a question about whether your creations are protected and in what way, see this. * 2.5 Service Mark. If you're wondering why (SM) keeps appearing after our name, look here! See also section 8.1.2 for our general principles on legalities. See 'news editorials' where we may post articles and essays dealing with topical issues. 2.1 Acceptable Usage Policy FurryMUCK SM Acceptable Use Policy - Last Revision 23 February 1996 FurryMUCK SM is provided as a place where users may gather for the pur- poses of Role Playing and exploring Virtual Reality. Each character is registered to a single player. You are therefore responsible for all actions taken by that character for purposes of this Acceptable Use Policy. By using your character login, you agree to the following Acceptable Use Policy: Access to FurryMUCK SM, and the computing resources required to operate FurryMUCK SM, is granted on a revokable basis, and at no time is this access guaranteed. FurryMUCK SM services may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmis- sion or solicitation for reception of material which violates US Federal or Wisconsin State Law, any Policy of the site where the Muck operates, or state or local law of the area in which you reside is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material that is threatening, libelous, or violates trade-secret, patent, or copy- right protections. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FurryMUCK SM, its Administra- tors (aka. Wizards), the owners/operators of the computing resources, and all other parties connected with the administration of FurryMUCK SM from all claims which are a result of your usage, without limitation. You agree that any traffic which originates from your character or connection is your legal responsibility. Notwithstanding the above, you agree that should we be found liable in a court of law for any action or lack of action related to your use of FurryMUCK SM our liability is limited to $0.00. Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) NOTICE: We reserve the right to monitor any and all communications through or with Furry- Muck computing facilities. You agree that FurryMUCK SM facilities are NOT to be considered a secure communications medium for the purposes of the ECPA, and that no expectation of privacy is afforded. Access to FurryMUCK SM may be denied for any reason deemed appropriate by the Administrators (aka. Wizards), including but not limited to: Using the system to transmit Real Life threats of harm to another player; Harassment of another player or character; attempting to crash or corrupt the database or computing resources of the Muck; Falsification of registration information. Such reason shall also be considered a violation of the terms and conditions of service and may be actionable as below. Violation of any of the terms and conditions of service may result in any or all of the following: - Suspension of access to the Muck and its computing resources for a time to be determined by the administrators. - Removal of your character and termination of access to the Muck and its computing resources without prior notice. - Notification of your site and/or system administrators - Notification of civil and/or law enforcement authorities. If you have further questions about the AUP, please see a wizard (type 'news 7.5') 2.2 Lawsuits and Subpoenas. Most of the legal issues concerning the use of FurryMUCK SM are described in the Acceptable Usage Policy. However, if you intend legal action of any kind, please see if your legal action might be covered under one of the following subsections, and if it is not, please contact a wizard. We regard legal actions and threats of legal actions very seriously. * 2.2.1 So and so has done something wrong! I want to sue FurryMUCK SM for letting it happen! * 2.2.2 What if I want to subpoena logs for evidence? * 2.2.3 So what? I have the legal and moral right to do it. * 2.2.4 What can be done? It seems like nothing is happening. * 2.2.5 So-and-so said they did something that is a RL felony! 2.2.1 Lawsuits and Subpoenas (cont'd) Q: So and so has done something wrong! I want to sue FurryMUCK for letting it happen! A: We take no responsibility for the actions of our users, nor do we endorse them. If given reasonable ground to believe a user has violated our policies, we will investigate the complaint (see "news logging") and take appropriate action to the best of our ability, but this does not constitute taking responsibility. The correct person to prosecute, if there is a legal question, would be the user committing an illegal action. 2.2.2 Lawsuits and Subpoenas (cont'd) Q: What if I want to subpoena logs for evidence? A: We will cooperate with duly authorized law enforcement agencies pursuing a violation of the law, and will provide copies of logs to them as required. However, we will regard attempts to subpoena FurryMUCK SM's machine or its disks as a threat to the livelihood of our site admins. Think twice before you invoke the law in a hostile fashion. 2.2.3 Lawsuits and Subpoenas (cont'd) Q: So what? I'm in the legal and moral right to do it. A: All you would be doing by either threatening us with a lawsuit or with subpoena'ing of resources vital to FurryMUCK SM and the company on which it runs, would be threatening the livelihood of its administrators-- people who are blameless for any problems you may be experiencing on FurryMUCK SM. And we will consider it a threat-- and remove such users as per our AUP. We cannot afford to deal with problem users on a daily basis. If we are sued or subpoena'ed, we will countersue for court fees and any damages caused by such malicious prosecution.~~~ 2.2.4 Lawsuits and Subpoenas (cont'd) Q: All right, but what can be done? It seems like nothing's happening. A: FurryMUCK SM is essentially a volunteer service. We ask that you have patience with us-- we can only get to issues as free time and schedules permit. It is rare that any one case must be dealt with on an emergency basis. The MUCK's not going anywhere. We may seem to act slowly, but we try to act impartially and fairly for all of our users. 2.2.5 Lawsuits and Subpoenas (cont'd) Q: So and so said that they did or do something that is a RL felony! They should be kicked off! A: If someone says, even if they're joking, that they commit RL felonies, they may be subject to immediate suspension until the charges have been investigated. If the claims are substantiated, the player may be removed from the MUCK. We treat these claims seriously because they put us at risk; please don't joke about them! Real-life pedophilia and solicitation of minors for sex are two obvious examples of felonies, but admission of other crimes will also count toward this policy. 2.3 Copyrighted or Trademarked Characters Q: So-and-so is playing a copyrighted character! Isn't that illegal? A: It may well be. The copyright holder may request that the character be removed in order to prevent compromises of the image of the copyrighted character, i.e. Disney may frown upon representations of their characters frolicking about a MUCK in ways which are not authorized by their corporate image lawyers. We will remove any obviously copyrighted characters on complaint from the copyright holder or those connected to the copyright holder. 2.4 Intellectual Property & Copyrights FurryMUCK SM Copyright Policy FurryMUCK SM (c) Copyright 1997 by the FurryMUCK SM Wizards The collective work which is FurryMUCK SM (the database, MUF and MPI programs, and any and all auxiliary files) is copyright by the FurryMUCK SM Wizards, and as such may not be copied in whole or in part by anyone without the express written consent of the Wizards. The name "FurryMUCK SM" is also copyright. This is a lengthy document, so it has been broken into several parts. * 2.4.1 Individual character and belonging copyrights * 2.4.2 Programs * 2.4.3 Publicly Accessable Areas * 2.4.4 Donation of Programs, Areas, and Property * 2.4.5 The Server 2.4.1 Individual character and belonging copyrights Individual characters (descriptions, associated text and work solely added by a player) belong to the individual player and may be copyright by that player. FurryMUCK SM does NOT claim copyright on individual character descriptions. It is understood however that in the act of a player uploading character descriptions to FurryMUCK SM, FurryMUCK SM will store, serve, and archive such descriptions of the character and its creations (rooms/belongings/programs) as required to facilitate the operation of the game. Note that, as original works, descriptions are copyrighted by their original author. FurryMUCK SM reserves the right to enforce such copyright within its own rules; in particular, the republication or reposting of any character, object, or room description without the express permission of its owner is forbidden and may result in the suspension of your character or other punitive action, as well as the removal by the wizards of the copyrighted material. The owner of any forum used to republish descriptions must respond swiftly to remove them upon receipt of complaint, or face similar sanctions. 2.4.2 Programs Programming works (MUF/MPI programs, user provided extensions to the game) will be permitted to be uploaded and used on FurryMUCK SM and the individual copyright will be retained by the author of such programs. It is understood however that FurryMUCK SM will store, serve, and archive such programs as required to facilitate the operation of the game. PLEASE NOTE: While FurryMUCK SM does not claim ownership or copyright of such uploaded programs, if you intend on making any of your works publicly accessible (by setting them Link-ok, or offering them for use) you grant FurryMUCK SM and its Wizards the right to store and copy and make available such programs and works for the benefit of its players and operation of the game. Should you wish to remove any programs or works from FurryMUCK SM or withdraw them from public access, you grant the Wizards a reasonable time to seek and provide replacement of your programs and works before their removal. Should the programs or works be removed without reasonable notice or time to provide replacements, the Wizards may provide archival copies of your programs or works for a reasonable length of time to facilitate the operation of the game. 2.4.3 Publicly Accessable Areas Publicly accessable areas (see section 3.0) remain the property of the creator/author and as such are not claimed copyright by FurryMUCK SM. It is understood however that such text/descriptions/programming of rooms and exits will be stored, served, and archived by FurryMUCK SM for the benefit of its players and operation of the game. Should you seek to remove such a public use area from FurryMUCK SM you grant the Wizards a reasonable time to seek and provide replacement of your area. Should the area be removed without reasonable notice or time to provide replacement, the Wizards may provide archival copies of your area for a reasonable length of time to facilitate the operation of the game. 2.4.4 Donation of Programs, Areas, and Property You may donate to the public use of FurryMUCK SM any area/program/work you create and as such release your claim of copyright. Such areas/programs/works will then become the property of FurryMUCK SM to be controlled by the Wizard core. Donations of such material must be clearly communicated to a wizard and arrangements will be made to transfer ownership. You must contact the wizards with any statement of donation-- we may need to contact you to find out exactly what it is that you're donating. See section 7.5 for information on how to contact the wizards. 2.4.5 Intellectual Property & Copyrights (cont'd) The Server code itself (Fuzzball) is NOT copyright by FurryMUCK SM, though may be copyright in whole or in part by others. See copyright notices included in the Fuzzball distribution. 2.5 Service Mark SM means Service Mark, which is a Rights mark for Services (as opposed to Trades, which therefore use Trade Marks). So, SM is the legal abbreviation (not "(SM)", not "sm") for Service Mark which asserts our contention that we own all rights to the name "FurryMUCK". FurryMUCK SM is a service mark of Furry Enterprises. We have reserved this in order to prevent other sites and companies from taking the name for their own uses and creating confusion between our site and theirs. 3.0 Behavior in Public Public areas are generally defined as any area which is open to the public (i.e. not someone's home or private and locked area) especially areas which appear on the WhereAre list or public shout channels. Within these areas, we ask that users behave politely and refrain from obnoxious or offensive conduct toward other users or in general. * 3.1 What is a public area? * 3.2 PG-13. We ask that users restrain themselves to a level of conduct defined as 'PG-13' but modified for our community. * 3.3 Adult Behavior Policy. We restrict access to areas where the PG-13 rules do not apply by age-locking them. To gain access, users must submit an adult registration form by e-mail or snail-mail. * 3.4 Offensive Behavior or 'Disturbance of the Peace'. We ask that our users not deliberately provoke other users even if such behavior is within PG-13 guidelines. * 3.5 Privately Owned Public Areas. Some areas, though made public, are owned by players. Complaints should be directed through area owners first. Note: for harassment complaints and other player-to-player issues, please see section 4.0. 3.1 What is a public area? There are presently no hard and fast guidelines as to what makes an area public, but in general: - If a room appears on the public whereare list and is not age-locked, it may be considered public. - If a room is easily reached from a public throughfare and is not a residence, i.e. marked as someone's home, it may be considered public. - If a room is advertised and conveniently accessable, i.e. has a taxi or teleport designation, it may be considered public. - If the room may be considered public but is owned by a player, not by the wizards, it may be a privately owned public area (see section 3.5) in which the owner may set rules and restrictions as they choose. - Shout channels open to the public ARE considered public areas. - Note that the PG-13 guidelines may be waived only in rooms which are age-locked. (see section 3.3.3) When in doubt about whether a room is considered public, please see a wizard. 3.2 PG-13 Guidelines PG-13 is a term used in movies to define a certain level of behavior. It puts restrictions on language, nudity, and violence. On FurryMUCK SM, it's used as a general guideline for what behavior is appropriate to public places and public shout channels. These are as follows: * No sexual nudity. This includes mention of genitals and female nipples. * No public sexual behavior. This includes heavy petting. * Avoid cuss words, foul language, and obscenity in general. (even euphemized) * No gore. Showing inner body parts, yours or others', is impolite. In addition, we ask that you be considerate of other users as follows: * Don't try to drag others into your role-playing. * Avoid bashing. Debate is okay, name-calling and threats are not. For more information, see 'news full-pg-13' WHAT DOES PG-13 MEAN? PG-13 is a term used in movies to define a certain level of behavior. It puts restrictions on language, nudity, and violence. WHY DO WE USE PG-13 AS A LIMIT? FurryMUCK SM isn't inhabited solely by white male heterosexual Christian college students. We have people as young as 12 and as old as 68. There are men and women here from all races, and from many different nations. We all have different things that shock us. We need a standard guide for courtesy, defining the limits of what is-- and isn't acceptable in certain places. WHERE DO THE PG-13 RULES APPLY? See section 3.0 for a definition of public areas, but in particular, FurryMUCK SM's Park (all four corners, the pond, the bandstand, and the treehouse), the streets, the library, and the Halfway House are public. The public shout channels are PG-13. It is impolite to engage in non-PG-13 conduct on others' property without either their permission or a posted statement saying that such conduct is acceptable. HOW DO YOU DEFINE PG-13? Our standard is based on the movie rating, with some alterations. In general, if it would be unacceptable in a hamburger joint in real life, then it is probably unacceptable in public on FurryMUCK SM. * No sexual nudity in public. You should not show off primary or secondary sexual attributes such as the female chest or the groin. Nudity of a non-sexual nature such as "You see a fox with red fur and white underbelly" is okay as a public description. * No public display of sexual behavior. There are a lot of places, both private and public where you may demonstrate your affection -- but don't start in with the heavy petting and fondling in a public area, take it somewhere private instead. * No obscenity. This includes the seven dirty words that you can't say on television (1), but also swearing and references to obscene subjects in general. One or two references won't get you removed, but if you keep doing it with apparent intent to annoy others, it will be considered disturbance of the public peace. * Euphemizing a word doesn't make it not obscene. Whether a swear word has its vowels replaced by numbers or is otherwise modified, or otherwise has substitutions performed upon it, leaving it easily recognizable as the original obscenity or offensive language, it may still be a violation of the PG-13 standards. This excepts swear words of ages past which have become socially acceptable such as 'dang' or 'jeez'. We understand that there are various standards that attempt to define what is considered obscene or offensive language. However, in the matter of determining what language is considered to be obscene or offensive the wizards will depend on their own experience which may be different than your definition. The decision of one wizard can be appealed to the entire wiz core but a decision by vote of the wiz core is final. * No gore. We're not talking about vice presidents here; in PG-13 movies, the amount of violence that may be shown is restricted. You shouldn't show bodily organs or otherwise try to disgust people with graphic violence. In addition to the movie standards, there are some public conventions we ask people to abide by: * No name-calling or threats. Along with a growing Muck, there is a growing diversity of people and ideas. You may not approve of someone else's computer, politics, religion, race, sexual preference, etc. but this does not excuse insults or threats of bodily harm. * Don't drag others into your role-play. Wearing a belt of dynamite and threatening to blow up the taxi stand, dragging a badly hurt person into the Park and demanding medical assistance, or portraying someone on the verge of suicide for the sake of a tinyplot are all examples of attempts to force others to role-play with you, when they are most likely in public to chat with each others. Instead, you should invite them to role-play with you and describe the plot you have in mind, so they are aware of what they are getting into. ARE ANY TOPICS PG-13? It depends on your approach. Some people are very good at euphemisms and may try to get around these restrictions, but still annoy others. Others may be just trying to discuss these subjects in a reasonable, responsible way, without trying to offend anyone. When in doubt, ask a wizard. (1) Re: George Carlin's 'Seven Dirty Words' routine: http://www.georgecarlin.com/georgecarlin/dirty/dirty3.html 3.3 Adult Behavior Policy While we believe in and support free speech, we must still defer to laws designed to protect minors. We cannot abide or tolerate players using MUCK resources to violate federal, state, or local statutes regulating what minors can or cannot do or receive via the Internet. This may include but is not limited to, distribution of obscene or indecent material, and solicitation of sex. We will not and cannot condone players lying about their correct date of birth in their age registration. Mistakes do happen and errors can be corrected, but blatant falsification may result in adult registration status being revoked for longer than it would take for the player to actually reach 'of age' status, or temporary or permanent removal from the MUCK. * 3.3.1 Adult Status * 3.3.2 Registering for Adult Status * 3.3.3 Management of Adult Areas * 3.3.4 Disclaimer concerning Adult Behavior and Areas * 3.3.5 Prohibited Activities concerning Adult Behavior and Areas 3.3.1 Adult Status All users who register with us will have an age property set with their birthday. This information is confidential and will not be revealed to other players. We will only reveal whether the user who is registered is in fact 18 or over. Only users who are both registered and 18 or over will be considered adult for the purposes of playing on FurryMUCK SM. - @age or @age here will show you who in the room is of age - @age will tell you if a player is of age, i.e. @age Tugrik We will not condone and will expel wilful violators of the law. If we receive information that suggests a user has lied about their age, we will revoke their adult status and may suspend such users until corrected information is received. See 3.3.2 for information on registering for adult access. 3.3.2 Registering for Adult Status To register as adult, e-mail an age statement with your character name(s), real name, birthdate, and country or state in which you live. We will take this in good faith as a legal statement that you are of age. Send e-mail statements to adult@furrymuck.com Send snail-mail statements (include copy of driver's license or photo-ID) to the following address: Furry Enterprises 101 1st St. PMB 554 Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 If there is reasonable ground to believe that your age statement is false, you may be asked to send in a signed photocopy of photo-ID to verify your birthdate. You may be suspended until such verification has been received. Please do not share your account with others who may not be of age! If you wish to transfer a character to someone else, tell us so we can record it. 3.3.3 Management of Adult Areas A room should be adult-only if it is accessable to the public (i.e. not a private home) and if adult behavior may occur in the room. The owner is expected to maintain public areas especially those listed on the WhereAre list and discourage adult behavior if the room is not adult-only. - To banish minors from a room, which removes them from entering the room no matter how they got in, do this: adultbanish or adultbanish # - To remove the adult banishing function from a room: unadultbanish or unadultbanish # - To prevent minors from going through an exit: @lock exit-name=$adultlock @fail exit=I'm sorry, only adults allowed! If you would like to use the library functions in your own programs on FurryMUCK SM, then '@view $adultlock' for more information. 3.3.4 Disclaimer concerning Adult Behavior and Areas Because numerous situations arise which may or may not be illegal to either BBSes, MUDs, or other electronic media, and which might be deemed to be illegal in print, we realize we cannot anticipate and regulate every possible situation which may arise. - We take no responsibility for the actions of our players, nor do we endorse their activity or presence based on the presence of them or their objects and rooms on our database. (per our AUP) - We furthermore claim no responsibility for ruling or failing to rule on the report of actions which would be illegal in a Real Life (RL) context, in particular where we have as yet no set policies. - As volunteers, we strive to keep FurryMUCK SM running safely and sanely. We ask that our users understand, and cooperate by behaving to the best of their knowledge by the laws which govern them and those with whom they interact. FurryMUCK SM runs by the good grace of Tugrik, who has graciously donated machine time and money toward FurryMUCK SM's operation. FurryMUCK SM is NOT a right, and as such, it behooves us to be good guests of Tugrik's resources. 3.3.5 Prohibited Activities concerning Adult Behavior and Areas Here are some examples of activity we cannot and will not condone on FurryMUCK SM: - Lying about one's age - Receiving a character whose age has been set in order to masquerade as a person who is of age (see section 7.3) - The solicitation of sex, virtual or real, between an adult and a person who is a minor or of unknown age, or between one or more people who are minors or of unknown ages. - Negligence in age-locking a public room in which adult activity may be expected to take place such that minors may be exposed to indecency. 3.4 Offensive Behavior or 'Disturbance of the Peace' We ask our players to be cordial while in public. If one player is engaging in behavior that is unreasonable for a particular location and offends the other players: - First please ask the offending player to cease and desist the offensive behavior. - If the offending player will not stop, contact a wizard (see section 7.5) with the specifics of the incident: who, what, where, when, how, and why. Logs of the incident are desirable. - A log of that incident will be taken and used as evidence for a discussion in which the wizards at large will vote on whether the actions displayed are or are not acceptable in FurryMUCK SM. - If a simple majority of wizards determine the action taken was offensive and intended to be offensive, the individual will be warned against further offensiveness. - Continued offensiveness may result in increasing lengths of time off from FurryMUCK SM. Accusations of offensiveness will be taken seriously, but please do not make frivolous or malicious accusations. They waste the time of the wizards and incur further stress on their part. Repeated unsubstantiated accusations may also result in time off from FurryMUCK SM. 3.5 Privately Owned Public Areas Many areas that are publicly accessable and open are owned by players. The owners of these areas will frequently have rules in addition to these listed here, as well as their own systems for handling offenders. For instance, the Truth or Dare Pools, owned by Skant, have an elaborate system of staff and votes to eject people from them. If you encounter offensive behavior or problems in these areas, please refer your complaints to the owners of the area first, or those responsible for said areas. If the owners cannot or will not help you, you should then address your concerns to the wizards. 4.0 Behavior between Players We ask and expect our players to get along with one another with, if not friendliness, at least courtesy, but failing that, we expect them not to deliberately annoy each other. * 4.1 Harassment. This covers any type of offensive behavior from one player to another where the other player has requested the first player cease. * 4.2 Threats. This covers threats of RL (real life) violence and other methods of intimidation. * 4.3 No Contact Orders. If two players do not get along well with each other, we may request the players avoid each other. * 4.4 Zombie and Puppet Actions. We proscribe certain abuses of puppets. * 4.5 Other ways to nark off players. 4.1 Harassment Harassment is defined as repeated offensive behavior towards someone despite their explicit wishes that the harasser desist. This includes such things as sexual behavior or offers, violence, attempt to provoke violence, or attempt to violate privacy or personal space (i.e. constantly following someone despite their clear requests for the stalker to stop). - If you feel you are being harassed, tell the person to stop first! - If the offense continues, warn the person that you will contact a wizard. Then file your complaint (see section 7.5). Include all details: who, what, where, when, how, and why. Keep log files if you can. - It may take time for the claim to be investigated. In the meantime, if the wizard cannot come to an immediate decision, the wizard may place a formal no contact order (see 4.3) between both parties. - If the claim is substantiated, the harassing party may be formally warned. If one or more past violation is found or the harassment is sufficiently severe (i.e. hacking of user password and destruction of property) then the harassing party may be suspended temporarily or indefinitely. 4.2 Threats Threats of RL (real life) violence or death will not be tolerated. At the option of the wizard, the person ascertained to be threatening someone else with RL harm may be suspended immediately, and appropriate law enforcement agencies advised of this information. We ask that our players refrain from such threats, even in joking manner. We cannot morally ignore even an apparently humorously intended threat if our inaction might contribute to harm coming to another player. 4.3 No Contact Orders Occasionally to keep two players from getting on each others' nerves, a wizard will place a no contact order between them. A no contact order does not imply wrongdoing has been determined on either player's part-- it does mean that the wizard thinks they are unlikely to get along well, and therefore, they are not to have any contact with each other. When a no-contact order is placed between two people, neither of them, through any of their characters or puppets, are to speak to or about the other person, or any of their characters, through any medium on the MUCK. For more information, please see the following subsections: * 4.3.1 Restrictions on direct contact * 4.3.2 Restrictions on indirect contact * 4.3.3 What happens when two no-contactees show up in the same place * 4.3.4 Restrictions on alternate characters and puppets * 4.3.5 Duration of a no-contact order * 4.3.6 Handling of violation of a no-contact * 4.3.7 Additional caveats on no-contact orders 4.3.1 Restrictions on direct contact A no-contact order covers all forms of communication between two players-- pose, say, whisper, page, mail, bulletin board messages, leaving objects with messages about or throwing them at the other person, as well as the more esoteric commands which display messages to the other person (page #ping, whereis). The purpose of a no contact is to ensure that the players stay out of each other's hair-- thus if you have to ask if it is okay to do something that would be visible to the other person, the chances are good that it is NOT okay. Note that no-contact orders are between _players_, not explicitly between characters; any action taken against (or by) a player's zombie (including sweeping that zombie) are as much a violation of NCO rules as actions against or by that player. No-contact orders do NOT cover forms of communication off-line from the MUCK, i.e. actual E-mail, ICQ or AOL Instant Messenger, IRC, other MUCKs, or real life (RL). If someone with whom you wish no contact insists on bothering you over these mediums, we are sorry but we have no control or jurisdiction over non-MUCK areas. Please consult the appropriate authorities in this case. If you have questions about whether an action would violate a no-contact order, please ask a wizard. 4.3.2 Restrictions on indirect contact No-contact orders also include communicating about the other party of a no-contact order to others, either to ask them to contact the other person or (for example) telling them what a rotten person the other person is in order to prejudice them and possibly arouse indignant action. The methods of communication prohibited include not only those mentioned in section 4.3.1 (direct contact) but also: Conversations whether in public, private, or on shout channels or on bulletin boards. It is permissible to be present in a conversation at which the other party of a no-contact order is present, and to participate in the conversation, but at no point should one's statements be directed to or about the other person. This violates the spirit of a no-contact order. Posted messages about the other party of a no-contact order are also prohibited. Other people are free to comment on either party as long as no no-contact order exists between them and the people commented on and they were not instructed to do so by one of the parties involved in the no-contact order. If you have a question about whether some particular action would violate a no-contact order, ask a wizard. 4.3.3 What happens when two no-contactees show up in the same place While the two parties of a no-contact order are obliged not to talk to or about each other, it may occur that they may be in the same public place at one time, i.e. in the West Corner of the Park, or they may both be participating in a shout conversation on a particular channel. This is fine, as long as the two parties of the no-contact order do not begin talking to or about each other. If you, as a party of a no-contact order, believe that the other person is violating the no-contact order, you may whisper to that person to stop. If the person refuses to stop, see section 4.3.6. If you are asked about the other party of the no-contact order, perhaps by someone attempting to provoke you into unwise behavior, please simply state that you cannot talk about them due to a no-contact order. If you feel the need to inform them somehow, you may carry out the exchange only off the MUCK, i.e. via E-mail or ICQ, and request their E-mail or ICQ number (privately) for that reason. 4.3.4 Restrictions on alternate characters and puppets A no-contact order includes all alternate characters for either party. To allow alternate characters to remain private, if one party is contacted in an alternate character by the other party, it is up to the owner of the alternate character to inform the other party that the character is an alternate. Otherwise the other party has no particular reason to know that they may be violating a no-contact order. Upon receiving this information, the other party is obliged to cease and desist contact. It is permissible to confirm with a wizard whether a character is the alternate of a player with whom one has a no-contact order if this character has made contact with one. Puppets are always identified by whospecies ('ws') as to their owner, so are always covered under the no-contact order provisos above just as if it was their owner there taking actions the puppet might be instructed to take. If you were thinking about logging in as 'guest' to talk to someone you have a no-contact with... Don't. 4.3.5 Duration of a no-contact order No-contact orders persist indefinitely. They may be revoked as follows: - If one player signifies his or her wish to have the no-contact order ended, he or she may contact a wizard, who will pass this note to the other player. The other player has the option of accepting the revocation of the no-contact order. - If the other player does not agree, the first player's wish to end the no-contact will be recorded on both players' wizlogs. The first player need not and should not take further actions; in particular, please do not seek out the other player to badger them into acceding to the revocation. - At such time as both players are on record as agreeing to revoke a no-contact order, the no-contact order may be revoked. Note that if the no-contact order was put into effect by a wizard in order to keep the public peace, even if both parties request the no-contact order to be removed, it is up to the discretion of the wizards whether or not it may be removed. If you wish to know if any no-contact orders are in effect with regard to yourself, just ask a wizard. 4.3.6 Handling of a violation of a no-contact The first violation of a no-contact order will usually result in a warning to the violator, and subsequent violations will give the violator time off from the MUCK for a week or longer, culminating in indefinite suspension. However, particularly gross violations of a no-contact order may result in immediate time off. If behavior occurs that appears to violate the spirit of a no-contact order but is not explicitly against the rules, such as repeated mentioning of painful and specific subjects, please proceed by the directions under section 4.1., i.e. begin by asking the offending player to stop provoking you. Accusations of provocation will be taken seriously, but please do not make frivolous or malicious accusations. They waste the time of the wizards and incur further stress on their part. Repeated unsubstantiated accusations may also result in time off from FurryMUCK SM. 4.3.7 Additional caveats on no-contact orders It is permissible to discuss a no-contact order or the other party of a no-contact order with a wizard. However, please do not ask the wizard to justify or affix blame for a no-contact order. No-contact orders are applied, as stated in section 4.3, when a wizard feels two players do not get along well and should be kept separated. There need be no more reason than that one of the parties of the no-contact order asked the wizard to separate him or her from the other party. If objects, bulletin board messages, or other 'persistent' artifacts on the system violate a no-contact order, we may request that they be removed, or carry out the removal ourselves, in order to ensure that the players do indeed stay out of contact with each other. 4.4 Zombie and Puppet Actions Zombies and puppets are things which can be forced by players to take certain actions. (see 'news zombies' for more information about how zombies and puppets are made) We limit the number of zombies a player may have in order to reduce spam. (see 'news 5.3') However there are certain actions zombies can take which players cannot, which we discourage. Please don't do these things; if you do, we may warn you or give you time off. If these things are done to you, please report it to us. - Do not throw zombies to people and then use the zombies to either spam these people or to steal their items. It's probably best not to throw zombies to people, period. - Do not use zombies to get into areas where you would normally be proscribed; for example, please do not request players to carry your zombies into areas locked against you. 4.5 Other ways to nark off players There will inevitably be more ways to annoy players than can be enumerated here; however a few bear explicit mention: - Please do not knowingly steal another player's name. Occasionally players will rename themselves (e.g. "Lynx" may become "Linx" as part of some humorous role-play) and will not be pleased if someone steals their name while they're temporarily name-changed. If the name theft is confirmed, you will be warned to change out of that name. If you do not do so, your character may be repassworded and renamed forcibly. You may at that time request repasswording of your character so that you can log in again. - Please don't steal objects or litter by leaving objects in other people's areas. Puzzle areas where you are expected to take objects for use in a puzzle will be marked as such; generally what people have in their personal areas are either mementoes or furniture, neither of which they want to see wandering off. If you have an item stolen, it is possible to get it back by using @find to locate the object, then @teleporting the object back to yourself. See helpstaff for more information on this procedure. - Please respect it if another player uses page #ignore or #haven, whereis #hidefrom, etc. to hide from you or from all players. We may consider attempts to get around these preventive measurse to be harassment. 5.0 Building and Other Limits The MUCK's resources are limited. We cannot allow every player to build a hundred room dream-land as the database might then exceed the capability of our machine; correspondingly we have put into effect the following mechanisms to share the available resources between our players. * 5.1 Quotas. Players are limited in the number of things, exits, and rooms they can build. If you'd like your quota increased, check here. * 5.2 Multiple Character Limit. Users are limited in the number of characters they may have. * 5.3 Care and Feeding of Zombies and Puppets. * 5.4 Idle Purge. Characters not logged in for longer than ninety days may be purged without warning unless protection is requested. * 5.5 The Bandstand Purge. Don't sleep under the Bandstand too long. * 5.6 Sharing and Giving Away Characters. If you acquire a character by getting it from someone else or give a character to someone else, see this! * 5.7 Anti-Idle-Out Programs. Why do we kick off idle players? 5.1 Quotas Each character is allowed to build no more than 20 things, 100 exits (actions on oneself or on rooms), and 20 rooms. This should be adequate for small building projects such as homes. More than one character could cooperate to build large projects with discreet use of @chown and @chlock to allow them to link to each other's sections. If you have a need for more items of any kind, please contact our current building wizard (see section 7.5, 'news wizards'): page #mail your request and include the specific number of each type (things, exits, objects) quota you require. Be sure to include a brief statement about how this quota increase will be used. Quota requests are processed at least three times a week. We are aware that it is possible to @chown objects even when one is above quota. We discourage such actions and if we have reason to believe that a user is exceeding quota deliberately, we may warn the user to stop and trim their belongings back to their quota, or we may trim their belongings for them. Remember, the database is a limited resource and available space should be shared between our users fairly. 5.2 Multiple character limit We reserve the right to limit the number of characters allowed to each player. Presently the limit is ten. If we find that a user has more than ten characters, we may ask the user to trim their characters down to the limit. 5.3 Care and Feeding of Zombies and Pets Zombies are objects that can be created by a player and remotely controlled to act like they are alive. The owner of the Zombie object can force the object to move and speak and do things as if it was a real player. The Zombie object will report back to the owner what it sees and hears. * 5.3.1 Limits on zombies * 5.3.2 Building a zombie (Long!) * 5.3.3 Zombie Administrivia (Long!) 5.3.1 Limits on Zombies To reduce confusion and spam, we limit each character to no more than two zombies, unless there is good reason for additional zombies; please see a wizard if you believe you have a good reason for this. Anyone found using a zombie to violate any of the standard rules for a player (non-PG-13 behavior in the West Corner of the Park, harassing other players, entering areas from which the player is prohibited) may be banned from using zombies. See section 4.4 for more information about banned behavior. Zombies can not be used as bugs: a zombie set Dark will not function. Zombies may not have the same name as a player; i.e. if a player is named Julia, a zombie named Julia Childs will not function. Zombies may be swept out of any room by anyone, subject to other applicable conduct rules (e.g., section 4.3.1). If someone seems intent on sweeping your zombie every time it appears in some area, please do not keep bringing it back; just wait for that person to go away. If you obtain the permission of the room owner, have the room owner link your zombie to the room, then it will not be sweepable. 5.3.2 Building a Zombie You create an object, and set it's Z and X flag. You then create an action on yourself that will allow you to force the Zombie to do what you want. Here is an example: 1) @create Feep (Creates an object called Feep) Object Feep created with Dbref #12345 (remember the number) 2) @set Feep=z (makes it a Zombie) 3) @set Feep=x (make it xForceable) 4) @flock Feep=me (Set the ForceLock so You can use it) 5) @action zom=me (you can call the action anything you like) 6) @lock zom=me&!me (this action must always fail, me&!me is false) 7) @set zom=h (the action must be set h to allow MPI to work) 8) @fail zom={force:#12345,{&arg}} (This uses the fail section of the action to run the MPI program that sends your commands to the Zombie. The #12345 of course would be replaced with the # of your Zombie.) 9) @lock Feep=me (optional - so no one runs off with it) 10) @link zom=$nothing (if you attach the zom action to something other than yourself, it is accessable to other players. Other players can link unlinked exits, thus taking ownership of them.) Now, drop Feep, so it's in the room with you. Ok, you have created the Zombie object, and you have put an action on yourself that allows you to control it. Now what do you do with it? zom say hello Should make your Zombie say hello. zom look Would make your Zombie look at the room its in and it would display back to you something like: Feep> You are standing in a wide field.... (or whatever) zom west Would make your Zombie move through an exit to the west. Just about anything a player can do, a Zombie can do. 5.3.3 Zombie Administrivia Exits set Z will be unusable by zombies. Rooms set Z will prevent zombies from transmitting to their owners what they see or hear; they will be ejected from such rooms on attempt to enter such a room. Any exit locked against a player, will be locked against that player's Zombies. Z locking only works against zombie objects; @locking against a player will work against any objects owned by that player, whether set Zombie or not, if they are forced (via MPI or MUF force) to go through that exit. Any Zombie set Dark will prevent it from transmitting back as well. Any Thing named the same as a player cannot be Forced. Note: Any "THING" you own can be "forced" with the MPI Force function, it does not have to be set "Z" to allow this. The "Z" flag enables the transmission back to you of what the Zombie sees and hears. Anyone found using the MPI Force function to annoy, spoof, or otherwise cause trouble will be BANNED from using these functions. If you are going to use Force on an object that is NOT going to be set Zombie, include _puppet?:yes on the object so it will display in WhoSpecies and who. Version 2.2fb5.27 of the server includes the Xforce-flag and the @flock function to better control security of the MPI FORCE command. The latest version of WhoSpecies will show a Zombie's name and sex enclosed in [square brackets]. It will also show the Species then the name of the Owner and [asleep] if the owner is not on line. "who" will also list Zombies as puppets. Other useful programs: see pet #help - will make objects follow you 4/15/94 -Riss 6/18/94 -Riss 2.2fb5.27 10/17/94 -Kimi 7/08/99 -Lynx 5.4 Idle Purge From time to time we will run an 'idle purge' which will purge any chracter which has not been logged into for more than ninety days. We will try to give warning of these idle purges in the @bulletins which all characters see when logging in. If you have reason to believe you will be gone longer than ninety days, please contact a wizard to be 'idleprotected' and give the reason for your absence; also specify how long you expect to be off-line. We will not protect players for longer than a year. When you do return, please inform a wizard so the idleprotect can be removed. If your character has been lost to a purge, it is some times possible to recover a log of lost information, but you must ask quickly, we do not keep backup databases around for very long. We also reserve the right to remove single characters that have been idle for ninety days or longer and that are not idleprotected, in order to free up the name. For instance, if a player requests the name Graywolf, then does not sign in for ninety days, if another player then requests the name Graywolf, we may at our option remove the first Graywolf and then create a new Graywolf character. 5.5 The Bandstand Purge We periodically clean away characters that have not yet found a home and are thus still linked to Under the Bandstand, in order to reduce the number of players that coexist in one room at any time. All characters have, from their creation date on FurryMUCK SM, 30 days in which to find a new home. At that point, they may receive a warning to find a new home. Characters will receive two warnings, and then on the third scan (a scan being run about once every three or four weeks) if they have not yet found a home, they may be removed from the MUCK. If you have any questions about finding a new home, please see a helpstaffer. 5.6 Sharing and Giving Away Characters If you give away a character or share it with another user, we ask that you notify us so that we can adjust our records. Otherwise we may be under the impression, for instance, that you have more characters than you really do, and ask you to trim down. Also, such characters will be on record as alternate characters of yours; any administrative action taken on these characters will then reflect on you. In particular, if the character has an age set (see 'news adult'), you must notify us. We will not take any responsibility for the actions of adult characters which are transferred to the ownership of minors, and if we detect such a transfer, we may at our choice either unset the character's age, or suspend the character. NOTE: we do not accept free e-mail accounts for registry of transferred characters. We also reserve the right to reject a character transfer, i.e. the gift of a character to someone suspended from the MUCK. 5.7 Anti-Idle-Out Programs Normally, players are not allowed to idle beyond 60 minutes; at that point, they will receive a message saying they have been automatically disconnected for inactivity. This is for several reasons: see 5.7.1 for the explanation. The use of anti-idleout scripts or programs is prohibited on FurryMUCK SM. The use of anti-idleouts will result in a warning for the first time and repeated usage will result in a suspension ranging from a week to longer periods. Anti-idleout scripts or programs are anything that causes the character's idle time to be reset without any action or input by its player. Examples include, but are not limited to, MUF program, a MPI macro, a setting in your client software, or a shell script. To be fair to all of FurryMUCK SM's members, anti-idleout scripts or programs are prohibited and no exemptions are granted. 5.7.1 Reasons for Prohibiting Anti-Idle-Out Programs The primary REASON anti-idleout scripts are bad is because they cause programs to use more CPU based on the square of the number of connections. This means when we have 500 connections, each extra person who is connected unnecessarily adds 30% more CPU than each extra connection at 400 users. Therefore, anti-idleouts aren't appreciated. The secondary reason that anti-idleout scripts are not allowed is that FurryMUCK SM has a limit of the total number of connections. Currently there is approximately 9000 registered characters on FurryMUCK SM and if less than 10 percent of the total used anti-idleout scripts all of the available connections would be used. If anti-idleouts were permitted, the time could come that you would try to connect and the connection would be refused because all the allowed connections were in use. 6.0 Programming FurryMUCK SM has two programming languages: MPI - a macro programming language that can be used in descriptions and other messages and is accessable to builders. Somewhat simpler to use but not as powerful as... MUF - a stack-based language which is 'compiled' to tokens. More powerful. It can only be used by people set as 'muckers'. Because either language can be abused by sufficiently clever programmers, we have rules on how they may and may not be used, and whether or not access should be granted to people for these languages. If a player violates the rules, we may suspend their access to these languages, or even suspend them from the MUCK entirely. * 6.1 How can I be a MUCKER? * 6.2 What does a MUCKER do? * 6.3 What if I just want to use MPI? * 6.4 What are the rules of programming? * 6.5 Are there any programming style guidelines? * 6.6 Intellectual property and programs * 6.7 Oops, I broke a rule! What happens now? * 6.8 History of the MUCKER policy 6.1 How can I be a MUCKER? We welcome both experienced and neophyte MUCKERs! We ask only that (a) you help the general Furry public, not just yourself, by writing useful programs of some social benefit or aid to building, and (b) that you abide by the spirit and letter of our MUCKER policy. There are four levels of MUCKER bits. See the below sections for information about how to apply for a MUCKER bit of that level, what restrictions apply to that level, and what abilities that level has. * 6.1.1 M1 - Apprentice. * 6.1.2 M2 - Journeyman. * 6.1.3 M3 - Master. * 6.1.4 M4 (W) - Wizard. Programs generally run at the MUCKER level of the programmer. See: * 6.1.5 MUCKER levels on programs 6.1.1 M1 - Apprentice To get an M1 bit, contact one of the MUF wizards. (see section 7.5) Include in your request your agreement to abide by the MUCKER policies (the full contents of section 6) as well as the general MUCK policies. Provided there is no evidence that would suggest authorizing you is a bad idea, you will be set M1. The technical aspects: Level one MUCKERs are apprentices. Their powers are restricted as they cannot get information about any object that is not in the same room they are. ie: OWNER, NAME, LOCATION, etc all fail if the object isn't in the same room as the player. Level one MUCKER programs always run as if they are set SETUID. NOTIFY, NOTIFY_EXCEPT, and NOTIFY_EXCLUDE will refuse to send messages to rooms the user is not in. Level one programs cannot use ADDPENNIES. They also cannot set properties on objects not owned by the program's owner. 6.1.2 M2 - Journeyman To get to M2, you should have written, tested, and debugged some useful programs. Ask the MUF wizard (see 'news wizards') to look over your programs for programming style and usefulness. You must also present a program or a program proposal which requires this level of permission and which will be useful to the users of the MUCK at large. This is subject to the MUF wizard's agreement that it is indeed a useful program. If there are no problems, you may be granted M2. The technical aspects: Level two MUCKERs are allowed the general run of the MUCK but are still not able to write _properties on objects the person running the program does not own. (they can read them, making _properties ideal for owner-settable-only properties) They do not have access to the connection info primitives or the object creation primitives. They can only use EXITS on rooms they own, and can only use MOVETO to rooms which are JUMP_OK or which they own. 6.1.3 M3 - Master is granted only to very trustworthy muckers who require this level of access to write and debug programs which require almost wizard-like powers to perform their functions. We do not normally give these out. We may grant temporary M3 bits for sufficiently worthwhile programs and trustworthy programmers and take them back when the programs are completed and can be @chowned to a wizard. The technical aspects: Level three MUCKERs are referred to as Masters. They can use the connection info primitives (ie: CONDBREF, ONLINE, etc.), read the EXITS list of any room, use NEXTOBJ on objects, can use NEWROOM, NEWOBJECT, NEWEXIT, and COPYOBJ without limitations, can use QUEUE and KILL, and can override the permissions restrictions of MOVETO. 6.1.4 M4 (W) - Wizard M4 is never granted to any player. It is a function of the wizbit (W). A program set W and owned by a wizard runs at MUCKER level 4. The technical aspects: MUCKER level four is required for the RECYCLE primitive, the CONHOST primitive, the FORCE primitive, and the SETOWN primitive. ML4 also allows overriding not listed by NEXTPROP with ML3 are listed with ML4. 6.1.5 MUCKER levels on programs The MUCKER level permissions that a program runs at is the lesser of its own MUCKER level and the MUCKER level of it's owner. I.E. If it is owned by a player who is MUCKER level 2, and it is set to MUCKER level 3, then it runs at MUCKER level 2. The one exception to this is programs owned by a Wizard player who otherwise do not have MUCKER levels set. They run at MUCKER level 2 if the program itself is not wizbit, and at MUCKER level 4 if the program IS set wizbit. A player may set the MUCKER level on a program they own to any level lower than or equal to their own level, and a wizard may set a program or player to any MUCKER level. If a program is set to MUCKER level 0, it will no longer function. 6.2 What does a MUCKER do? In general, MUCKERs are granted their abilities in order to contribute toward the MUCK and help others. We frown upon programs and activity which would seem to indicate that a MUCKER is using their abilities for their own gains, such as spying upon others. We prefer programs to be generalized so that they could be used by others, rather than specific to any particular area or player. If you're a first time MUCKER, see these sections: * 6.2.1 Getting started with MUF * 6.2.2 Tips and tools of the trade If you're ready to move to the big time, see: * 6.2.3 Programming for the public 6.2.1 Getting started with MUF If you're a first time MUCKER, you'll want to learn your way around our system. Start by reading the MUF tutorial and the MUF manual. These can be accessed by using 'info' to see what files are available, 'info (topic)' to get that file. Be warned, these are long files so you'll want to log them to a file. If you don't have file logging and upload capability, you should reconsider becoming a MUCKER. Scotfox's excellent tutorial is also available at: http://laurel.actlab.utexas.edu/~artie/legacy/ftp/info/muf-tutorial Use 'man' to get help on MUF primitives. Be forewarned that this is a technical reference, not a tutorial. If you write small programs to test something, or no longer need a program, please remember to clean up after yourself! FurryMUCK SM is low on available space, so save where you can. 6.2.2 Tips and tools of the trade @prog is your gateway to programming. However, you can also use "@prog (name of program)" where the program is already on yourself to begin programming it. (you could also use @prog #dbref or @prog $registered-name) This allows you to make easy program upload scripts like this: @prog command-koosh del 1 9999 i (program here) . c q If you ever lose track of where you are in the program editor, use '.' to exit text input mode, and 'q' to exit the program editor. If you get stuck in a program which is using 'read' to get input, or you have reason to believe your program is going in an infinite loop, use '@Q' to abort your program. Many more differences and notes about the MUCK are contained in the info files; see 'info CHANGESfb1' through 'info CHANGESfb5'. 6.2.3 Programming for the Public Whenever you write a program, and especially when a program is publicly accessable (LINK_OK), please make sure it adheres to our guidelines: - It must be useful. (social, building, programming, or otherwise) - It should not violate our guidelines of privacy, respect to other players, or honesty. (see section 6.4) - It should not be wasteful. - If your program would use much space or CPU time (i.e. it scans the database) then ask a wizard if it is reasonable. - If your program would duplicate an existing program, either negotiate with the programmer of the prior version to extend it, or offer a replacement version to the wizards. Type 'programs' for a list of public programs or examine the contents of the Anastasia Library (from West Corner, west, south, east). If your program qualifies for addition to these resources, set it LINK_OK and submit it to a MUCKER wizard for addition. Include a description of your program. Programs may be submitted for approval as global commands, but only very useful programs that seem to suit the MUCK will be approved. Type 'globals' to see already-existing global commands. 6.3 What if I just want to use MPI? MPI was always intended to help builders improve their descriptions, for instance, by allowing them to select phrases or sentences from lists based on the time of the day. It was not intended to make general-purpose programs. The closest thing that can be done with MPI in that direction is to make global commands that use MPI instead of or in addition to MUF, or to register MPI macros on the global environment, thus extending the language. (see section 6.2.3) If you're looking for information about MPI, try the 'info' command, then use 'info mpi-intro' (for instance) to get the MPI primer. Use 'mpi' to get help on MPI functions. Be forewarned that this is a technical reference, not a tutorial. The programming guidelines apply to MPI just as much as they do to MUF; in other words, you should not use MPI programs to violate others' privacy, abuse other players in any way, or deceive them. You should also not abuse our resources by making MPI that takes up large amounts of space or CPU time. See section 6.4. 6.4 What are the rules of programming? These are divided into the following major sections: * 6.4.1 Privacy. Any information not available normally to a user such as a character's description (when the character is in the same room and thus can be 'looked' at) should not be gotten through a program. * 6.4.2 Respect for other players. Programs should neither spoof other players, making it possible to make it appear that they did things they did not actually do, nor rewrite their properties without permission. * 6.4.3 Respect for the MUCK and its rules. The MUCK was designed to operate in a certain way, tempting as it may be to circumvent those rules for one's convenience. If you have a need for a program that violates one of these sections or which you suspect may otherwise warrant wizardly attention, please speak with a MUCKER wizard. We may be able to suggest changes that would bring your program 'within code'. 6.4.1 Privacy If you couldn't find something out by normal means (not including the use of MPI) or without the permission of the users, then you should not be able to find it with a program. The only exceptions are where explicit or implicit permission is given to reveal this information. Examples of illegal programs: - programs that listen in a room or that duplicate page, whisper, say, pose, et cetera in order to capture a player's commands and store or relay them elsewhere without the player's knowledge - programs that locate players or examine their properties and belongings without their permission and knowledge - programs that reveal private exits in rooms without permission of the room owner Examples of legal programs: - pinfo, smell, and whatis, where the user writes information with the expectation that others will see it. Note that if the information was only intended to be seen by others in the room, programs should not be written to find this information out at distance. - programs that broadcast messages to designated rooms with the understanding of the users of the program that this will happen, to create "stages" and "windows" -- the use of these programs must be obvious, not disguised. - programs that filter the available information that a user could obtain any other way, such as watchfor which shows you who is on the WHO list and lets you know when people connect. 6.4.2 Respect for Other Players Certain programs may, while not invading a player's privacy, harass that player, or make it possible to do so in a way that is undetectable. Players are entitled to respect and dignity. Examples of illegal programs: - spoofers which allow a player to simulate another player's actions. These would allow players to forge insulting or harassing messages. Messages which could potentially be spoofed should be made obvious, i.e. by making it clear the message is a spoof and by allowing it to be determined who spoofed a message. - programs which are designed to harass players, i.e. spamming them or whispering to all but that one player. - programs which overwrite a player's messages or description without their permission. Examples of legal programs: - programs may set temporary properties or properties that obviously belong to the program and do not interfere with other programs. - programs may overwrite other properties or messages if they give the user full knowledge of what changes are about to be made and request permission, i.e. morph programs. - programs which assist the user in building, i.e. a 'room hammer' 6.4.3 Respect for the MUCK and its theme This section will be added to as necessary. It is not an inclusive listing; programmers inevitably come up with new ways to frang the infrangible. 6.4.3.1 Geographic Continuity - prohibition vs teleporters 6.4.3.2 Money - prohibition vs programs to generate money 6.4.3.3 Idling - prohibition vs programs or client behavior to bypass our programs which remove idlers 6.4.3.4 Timequeue - prohibition vs programs which remain on the timequeue indefinitely without approval 6.4.3.1 Geographic Continuity FurryMUCK SM prohibits general teleporter programs that would allow players to invade private rooms or that are intended to violate virtual reality, e.g. encouraging people to teleport directly to a room, ignoring intervening areas. Teleporters are allowed in limited cases: 1. Players must agree explicitly, or implicitly by entering a vehicle, following another player, being picked up by that player, etc. to be moved. 2. Programs to move players can only move players from or to rooms for which they have permission, and under such circumstances as are appropiate, e.g. a taxi to various taxi stop rooms. 3. Such programs must be appropiate to the circumstances, the "virtual reality" of the situation in question, etc. 6.4.3.2 Money Programs which add pennies should be approved by a MUF wizard. Pennies are available at the FurryMUCK SM bank and are used by various programs such as @announce. If we wanted everyone to have all the pennies they wanted, we wouldn't charge. 6.4.3.3 Idling Because of Furry's size and number of players, Furry does run a program designed to disconnect anyone idling for too long of a time. This is a twofold purpose. (1) So that connections will be freed up for others wishing to log on and (2) In case you lose contact and cannot get back you do not have to worry about being stuck connected forever. As a result, any programs (Muf or Mpi) or scripts from clients that one runs to prevent the idleout from performing its function are illegal on Furry. Please do not use such on FurryMUCK SM. 6.4.3.4 Timequeue Any program or script which perpetually keeps or self-regenerates a constant entry into the timequeue, without prior wizard approval, is also considered illegal here. Please do not use such on Furry. 6.5 Programming Style Guidelines Programs that can be run by users should have help of some kind accessable either by looking at the command (if it is a global) or as an option. For instance, the page program allows you to type 'page #help' for help. Please don't obfuscate your code. Making the code unnecessarily complex so that capable MUCKERs cannot read it is impolite. Please document your programs where possible! If they are link_ok, you should put comments at the top. Type 'look @view' for information on how to set a program so that the comments can be automatically viewed. We recommend that the comments at the top describe the purpose of the program, name the owner, and include a copyright statement. Macros should be commented, or else obvious from name or definition as to what they are intended to do. It's recommended a macro be defined in the following form: def nameofmacro ( input -- output purpose-of-macro ) actual-macro 6.6 Program Copyrights Many programs are set link_ok so that they can be readily used. This does not mean that you are free to copy them to other systems, or for your own uses. Please ask the permission of the creator before you copy programs! See also section 2.4.2 with respect to putting your programs on FurryMUCK SM and making them publicly available. Essentially, by getting a MUCKER bit under our policies and making your programs available, if you should later leave the MUCK or desire your programs to be retracted, you agree that we can take a reasonable amount of time to replace your programs, rather than immediately removing it and inconveniencing whatever users used your programs. 6.7 Oops, I broke A rule! What happens now? Accidents and oversights happen; on the other hand, a deliberate infraction may well lose you your MUCKER bit immediately. You will be informed of the reasons for any actions we take as regards you or your programs. If you misuse MPI, your BUILDER bit will be removed. - If you write a program that may considered abusive or forbidden, you may be warned and asked about why you need such a program. For clear abuses, the program may be confiscated as evidence so that it cannot be deleted and made not LINK_OK so that it cannot be used. - If the program serves a useful purpose, you may be asked to modify it so that it is acceptable. If not, or it cannot be modified to be acceptable, you may be asked to delete it. - If you do not comply with requests to modify or remove a program, it may be removed. Programs that may crash the server may also be confiscated or removed. You will be informed what you should avoid doing to prevent repetitions of this event. - If you repeatedly upload programs that were removed as abusive, or crash the server, or otherwise abuse your MUCKER bit, then you may be deMUCKERed and offending programs will be removed. Violations with MPI will result in the loss of your BUILDER bit as well. Appeals will be allowed under extenuating circumstances. 6.8 History of the MUCKER policy Adapted from the original CROSSROADS Muckers policy. Original draft v1.0 written 2/4/91 by Tygryss (Insane Mucker in Residence) Revised v1.1 3/12/91 by Lynx (Lynxiwynxipooflemuffins) Revised v1.2 3/29/91 by Cinnibar Revised v2.0 2/28/92 by Lynx Revised v2.1 3/ 8/92 by Lynx Revised v2.2 3/15/92 by Lynx Revised v2.3 6/11/94 by Riss to include MPI and Mucker Levels. Revised v3.0 6/30/99 by Lynx to fit into the new policy system. 7.0 Procedures To get a new character, see section 7.1 or type 'news join. The number of characters you can have total is limited; see section 5.2. To register for adult status, see section 3.3.2 or type 'news adult'. it is recommended you read section 3.3 in its entirety. To request that your character be removed from the system, see section 7.2 or type 'news toading'. If you intend to transfer a character to another player, please see section 7.3. If you forget your password, please see section 7.4. Need to contact the wizards for some reason? See section 7.5. 7.1 Getting a New Character When you send a new character request to us, you will need to include: - the name that you want (up to 16 characters and without spaces) (we recommend not choosing an obviously copyrighted or trademarked name) - your password (also a single word that can be changed by you later) - your email address Where possible, try to insure that an email request is in plain-text format: Sending email in HTML format becomes difficult to read on anything but a graphics-based mail reader and also sends a lot of unnecessary data. Where possible, check your mail program to insure that it is set to text-only (or text and HTML) format. It will expedite the character creation process. Snail-mail requests must also include: - your real name - your postal address for return communication (where necessary) Your request should be e-mailed to join@furrymuck.com if you chose to snail-mail your request to the address below: Furry Registration P.O. Box 24523 Huber Heights OH 45424 You may also attach adult registration information; see section 7.1.1. This information is optional but may be used to help confirm your identity should you ever forget your password. Snail-mail requests including adult registration information should also include a copy of photo-ID. We don't e-mail back your password. Please write it down first. If you have any questions about the new character creation process, please send e-mail to join@furrymuck.com. Requests usually take 24 hours to process during the week, and if on a weekend, till Monday. See section 7.1.2 for more notes about registration. When you receive your new character, see section 7.1.3 or 'news newbies'. 7.1.1 Registering for adult access with your new character We are required to abide by current United States laws which govern electronic forums and media. Among these is the requirement that potentially obscene or indecent material should not be made available to those who are underage. Certain access restrictions therefor apply to FurryMUCK SM. These restrictions may be overcome if you are registered as an adult. You can register this character as an adult right now by sending us the following information with your request. *WARNING* This will be taken in good faith as a legal statement that you are of age. See 'news adult' for more information. If you choose not to turn in this information, or if any of the information sent is partial, missing or incorrect, your character may be created but it will not be set as an adult: - your real birthdate (MM/DD/YY) <- PLEASE NOTE FORMAT -- IMPORTANT - your real name <- Initials are not acceptable - your real current age - your country (and state, if in the US) of residence All the above information must be submitted for each new character you request with adult status. Email addressing information for real name and email address is not sufficient. For more information about the adult restrictions, programs using this function, and how to register existing characters, type "news adult" when online with your character. 7.1.2 Restrictions and Notes on Registration Note that if your request comes from a site that does not permit return E-mail or offer proper Domain Name Service for hostname-matching, we may refuse your request or require additional confirmation of your identity. Your name, birthdate, age and email address will be kept private but are required for our records. Do NOT send in character descriptions, sex, abilities, etc., as these are things you set up after you have started on the MUCK. Please don't request a character from a book, movie, comic, or other source that you did not make. This is copyright infringement, and we may be required to remove your character. See 'news legalities'. 7.1.3 Getting started with your new character For more information on FurryMUCK SM in general, please see the web page at http://www.furrymuck.com/ You can also set up your new character by, when you sign on, going behind the bulletin board -- from Under the Bandstand, go 'out', then go 'around' the bulletin board. There should be further directions there. You can get help from helpstaffers by typing 'helpstaff' to find a list of helpstaffers who are on-line, then 'page = ' to ask one of them for help. 7.1.4 Deleted 7.2 Toading - Leaving the Game - Recycling your character FurryMUCK SM characters can be removed from the database on your request by the process known as toading. The process to get your character removed is as follows: Page or page #mail only ONE wizard, while signed in as the character in question. (Making the request of multiple wizards can cause confusion.) Request that the character be marked for toading. Do this for each character you want removed. You may, optionally, have all of the belongings of your character given to another character, but only with the permission of that other character. After this, there is a 24-hour wait period. This is to ensure that the request is not merely spur-of-the-moment; many people have changed their minds within this period. If, after 24 hours, you still wish to have your character recycled, contact the same wizard again and reiterate your request. The character will then be recycled; all of its belongings will be deleted unless prior arrangements have been made. Once the character has been toaded, it is irrevocably gone and nothing can be recovered from it. Note the second request must be made within 72 hours of the first one. 7.3 Transferring your character to another player If you intend to transfer a character to another player, please record the transfer with us! In particular, any adult information on the character must be reset. Section 3.3.2 explains how the other player may reregister for adult access; without this, if the character is left as adult, we may choose to regard it as lying about one's adult registration information. We do also monitor players to see how many characters they have; we do this by keeping track of 'alternate characters'. If you transfer a character and don't tell us about it, then it will still count against your limit. 7.4 Forgot your password? You should make sure that your current e-mail address is always on registry with us. The simplest way to confirm that you are you is to e-mail to wizzes@furrymuck.com or to a specific wizard (sign in as guest and page a wizard explaining that you have lost your password and wish to confirm your identity) from your current e-mail address, stating that you are so-and-so. We may also ask you your real name and birthdate, if these are registered on your character. Consider supplying this information even if you aren't interested in adult access, as it will help protect your character against people who may try to claim that they are really you. If you have changed e-mail addresses or lost access and gained it on another machine where you don't have access to the correct passwords, things get considerably more complicated. In this case you'll have to be able to provide us some sort of information to testify that you really are so-and-so. Sign in as a guest and contact a wizard explaining your circumstances. 7.5 How do I contact the wizards? If you're looking for any available wizard, type 'wizzes' and then consult a wizard who is marked as 'on duty'. If you're looking to contact a specific wizard (a building wizard, a MUCKER wizard) then type 'news wizards' to see who is in charge of that duty, then type 'page #mail =' to send a message to that wizard. If you would like to address all the wizards, try: page #mail wizards= Or e-mail your question to 'wizards@furrymuck.com'. Note: if you just have a general question, try 'helpstaff' first and speak to a helpstaffer about whether your concern should be addressed to the wizards or not. Our wizards are generally very busy people and should not be disturbed for trivial questions such as 'How do I build a home'. 8.0 Policy of Administration FurryMUCK SM is run by a relatively small group of wizards. Wizards are nominated and appointed by vote of existing wizards. Please do not ask how you can become a wizard; it is not a position of prestige so much as a volunteer position of responsibility and work helping our users. If you have a question, it's best to ask helpstaff first (type 'helpstaff' for a list of helpstaffers). * 8.1 Basic principles of FurryMUCK SM * 8.2 The role of wizards and helpstaff * 8.3 About warnings, banishment, temporary and indefinite suspension * 8.4 About suspended players and helping them * 8.5 Logging of commands * 8.6 I have a complaint about how the wizards handled something * 8.7 I have a complaint about... * 8.8 I have a suggestion... 8.1 Basic Principles of FurryMUCK SM We try to run the MUCK in a reasonably fair way in order to provide a useful social MUCK which has a general audience. It is not our intention to cater to any particular special interest, nor do we enforce the theme of the MUCK, chat and role-play about anthropomorphics, in any way. However, in order to provide service to our general audience, it is sometimes necessary to make policies that upset a minority of our players. * 8.1.1 This is a game * 8.1.2 We live in the United States * 8.1.3 We respect our users' privacy 8.1.1 This is a game This is a game, not a necessity of life. You do not have a 'right' to play here-- you are granted that privilege as long as you follow the rules. Please behave as would befit a guest in someone's home. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. In general, we will only eject someone for a reason of some kind, such as violation of other players' rights or offensive behavior or abuse of the server's resources. But we are empowered to refuse service to anyone, for any reason or for no reason. If you are suspended, temporarily or permanently, please do not demand that we reinstate you because you 'need' to be on here, or because we were somehow 'unfair' in our decision, or because we 'owe' it to you in some way. If you have evidence (not opinion) that we failed to consider in our prior judgment, please submit it to wizards@furrymuck.com and we will consider your appeal. 8.1.2 We live in the United States FurryMUCK SM runs on a server in the United States. We are willing to hear out proposals for moving it to other machines but we prefer our current site because we have a good relationship with our site admin and our site admin is willing to commit the time and resources toward supporting us. Thus, we abide by US laws and regulations. See section 2 for more information about legalities. The United States legal system is notoriously thorny and difficult. Please do not involve us in it to the best of your capability; we will take it very unkindly, no matter how morally principled your actions. In particular, if two of our users are engaged in legal battles, we reserve the right to suspend them from the MUCK until such time as their legal dissension is solved. This ensures that whatever contentions they have will not be on MUCK resources and thus said MUCK resources will not (from the time of suspension) be needed as evidence in a court of law. This is a touch draconian, but it points out how seriously we regard legal threats of any kind to our service. 8.1.3 We respect our users' privacy We will attempt to respect our players' privacy as best as possible, but we grant ourselves the power to investigate and to review commands in order to pursue specific complaints. We will not reveal information obtained except to duly empowered agencies of the law or to those with a sufficient 'need to know'. Some examples of 'need to know': - If a player is threatening suicide. We believe that human life is sacred; if we have good reason to believe someone is planning suicide, we reserve the right to contact appropriate authorities to provide help for that person, or to provide information to those who can contact said authorities. - If logs of a particular event are required by a legal authority in pursuit of a specific investigation. We will require identification from said legal authority to confirm that they have the right to requisition the logs. - If a player is subject to a no-contact order and has alternate characters, we may confirm these characters are indeed the player's alternates to the other party in the no-contact order. (see section 4.3.4) See section 8.5 on our use of command logs in investigations. 8.2 The role of wizards and helpstaff For most technical questions such as 'How do I describe myself' and 'How do I build a house', please contact helpstaff first. Most of the wizards are busy with other concerns such as 'How do I get a link off of the Park' and 'Make X stop talking to me' and 'Why can't I do Y in the park'. Type 'helpstaff' for a list of helpstaff. See section 8.2.1 for more information about helpstaff. Only if a helpstaffer cannot help you with your problem should you then contact a wizard. Type 'wizzes' for a list of wizards, or 'news wizards' for a list of wizards. See section 8.2.2 for more information about wizards. If you have a problem you'd like to address to all the wizards, see section 7.5. E-mail is most appropriate if you have a lengthy log to include. 8.2.1 Helpstaff A nice group of players that have volunteered their time and knowledge to assist folks with questions and general help. Furry is not always the easiest place to get started in for a newbie, but between the Helpstaff and Wizards, we try. Talk to the helpstaff wizard (type 'news wizzes') if you would like to be on the helpstaff, but PLEASE do not spam him with requests. The last word: As in all things, we try to cover all the bases as best we can, but as in RL, VR has as many unforseen problems. So, in this game, the Wizards reserve the final say on all subjects to themselves. These documents undergo revision when the need arises. And by no means should be looked at as the be all and end all. The best gauge is your own common sense. In the end, the only rule is for everyone to have FUN! 8.2.2 Wizards We are: a small bunch of folks who have taken on the task of trying to maintain the system known as FurryMUCK SM. Most, if not all of the wizard's work is grunt work. Creating player logins, writing and checking MUF programs, fixing bugs, cleaning up the database, servicing requests for help, and other mundane chores. What we are not: here to make anyone nervous. We are also not omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient; that is you can't always page us for something and expect an immediate, or for that matter, a knowledgeable answer. Why? Because there are thousands of rooms, objects, programs, and other little details. It's hard to keep up with the flow even for wizards. We have abilities that aid us in repairing database foulups or errors and this means that for the most part, that if it exists in Furry, we have access to it. This does NOT mean we use this access to upset the normal flow of VR. * 8.2.2.1 A Listing of Wizards * 8.2.2.2 Explanation of Wizard Duties 8.2.2.1 A Listing of Wizards For general questions, almost any wizard connected can help you. However, if you need detailed information or have suggestions, problems, or questions that pertain to one of the areas listed below, please talk to the wizard responsible for that function. For example, major building projects MUST be okayed by the building wizard. Drew: @age Registration / Player Relations Tugrik: Site Administration / Builder Wizard / Quota Aragh: Player Relations / Character Creation Lynx: Server Problems and Restarts Nightwind: MUF/MPI / Helpstaff / Idle Purges / @age assistant Shaterri: Player Relations K'has: Player Relations Frang: Player Relations Lisa_Lynx: Player Relations Any problems with connections, lag times, etc should be reported to Tugrik. 8.2.2.2 Explanation of Wizard Duties Site Administration: this wizard is responsible for the site as a whole, meaning the machine on which FurryMUCK SM runs and the network which connects it to the world at large. If you have any questions about either, please contact this wizard. Character Creation: this wizard handles the character applications which have been e-mailed to join@furrymuck.com. If you have any questions about a character application, please contact this wizard. @age: this wizard handles the adult registration applications which have been e-mailed to adult@furrymuck.com. If you have any questions about the status of an adult registration application, please contact this wizard. Server Problems and Restarts: this wizard handles the server itself including the database. If you have any questions or requests involving either, i.e. a crashing bug report or a request for data that now exists only on a backup, please contact this wizard. Builder Wizard/Quota: this wizard handles requests for additional building quota and supervises the geography of the MUCK; for instance if you believe that your building is worthy of being linked into one of the public areas, consult this wizard. Idlepurge: this wizard runs the idle purges, which are periodic (approximately four times a year) removal of all characters idle for longer than 90 days from the service. If you have any questions about protecting your character from the idlepurge or if a character was deleted in an idle purge, please see this wizard. Helpstaff: this wizard manages the helpstaffers. If you have any complaints about a helpstaffer or want to become a helpstaffer, see this wizard. MUF/MPI: this wizard handles matters dealing with programming, which is covered under section 6.0 of this policy. If you would like help with a MUF or MPI program, or would like to be granted a mucker bit, please contact this wizard. Player Relations: this wizard handles player complaints about other players or about public functions of the MUCK such as violations of PG-13 behavior in the West Corner of the Park. If you're not sure who to talk to, contact this wizard. 8.3 Warnings, Banishment, Temporary and Permanent Suspension Here are a list of punishments that we may impose for offenses. This is not inclusive; other punishments may be imposed as seen fit by the officiating wizard. * 8.3.1 Warnings. These are logged in a player's "wizlog". * 8.3.2 Banishments. Players may be banished from public areas or functions such as @shout. * 8.3.3 Suspension. Players may be suspended from the MUCK temporarily or indefinitely. * 8.3.4 Probation. Players may be put on probation when returning from suspension or after sufficient complaints. 8.3.1 Warnings A warning is logged in a player's "wizlog". If they commit another offense of the same or similiar kind as that proscribed in a prior warning, their next punishment will be escalated from this one. Also, players that accumulate many warnings may be designated as "problem players" and thus subject to more severe punishments. (see 8.3.4) Warnings have no time limit. We expect players to remember to behave, but ask us and we'll give you a list of warnings and no-contact orders you've received, if any. 8.3.2 Banishments Players abusing public areas such as the West Corner of the Park or resources such as '@announce' may be banished from those areas temporarily or permanently. Note that we will not unbanish you automatically when the banishment period expires. You must request a wizard to allow you back into whatever banned area or function you have been prohibited from using. Further violations will result in longer banishment periods or in suspension from the service. 8.3.3 Suspensions Players may be suspended for short periods such as a day or a week or a month, to give them time to cool off, or they may be suspended for six months or indefinitely with option to appeal (or without option) to give the MUCK time to cool off. When a player returns from suspension, they may be put under probation. (see 8.3.4) This indicates that we feel the player needs to be reminded that if they continue to cause problems, they will be removed from the service. As with banishment, return from suspension is not automatic. E-mail us at wizzes@furrymuck.com if you have been suspended and your suspension period is now up. 8.3.4 Probation We may put players on probation if they've caused problems in the past. While a player is on probation, any kind of problem related to the player may result in immediate suspension. Probation is typically for some set period of time such as six months or a year after return from suspension. Players on probation may be restricted to one character and prohibited from acquiring any more. We like to avoid confusion, and giving a troublesome player more than one character tends to lead to various mind-games that we like to avoid. 8.4 Policies regarding suspended players If a player is suspended either from a limited part of the MUCK or from the MUCK in general, we do not wish to see any of the player's characters logging on thereafter, either known alternates or unreported ones such as characters borrowed from other players. A suspension applies to ALL characters owned or borrowed by the player, including those created after the original date of suspension. * 8.4.1 How do we deal with suspended players sneaking on? * 8.4.2 How do we deal with people helping suspended players sneak on? 8.4.1 Suspended players sneaking on If a suspended player sneaks on by whatever means -- an unsuspended alternate character we either did not know about or did not get to for some reason, a character created by a new e-mail address, or a borrowed character from someone else -- we will suspend the character immediately on confirming the player's identity. We will then send e-mail to the player's last e-mail address known to us, to tell them what has been done. If a player wishes to appeal a suspension, the correct procedure is to e-mail an appeal to wizards@furrymuck.com including any reasons why the suspension should be reconsidered. Violation of suspension may be taken as grounds for having a suspension period extended, either to the next longer time period or permanently. 8.4.2 People helping suspended players sneak on If a character belonging to an existing person is loaned to a suspended player, the character will be suspended. We may opt to allow the player to reclaim his or her character if the player did not know about the suspension; however, the player will be warned against loaning his or her characters out again. In general, we recommend against the practice of loaning characters out for any reason, especially those which are age-set. (see section 3.2.2) 8.5 Logging We keep approximately three to four days of logged commands on the server at any time. When searching the logs, our policies are as follows: 1. We access logs only when investigating a complaint. 2. We limit searches as much as possible. 3. If the complaint is verified, the investigating wizard will take action as recommended by our policies and by their judgment. 4. Information found in searches is private and will not be revealed. We do not guarantee privacy, but neither will we invade a user's privacy without due cause to believe that user has violated our policies. Please see section 8.5.1 or 'news logging-all' for our expanded policy on logging. FurryMUCK SM's Policies on the use of System Logs: We keep three to five days worth of logged commands on FurryMUCK SM's server. We do this to diagnose causes of server crashes, allow us to investigate accusations of harassment, disturbances of the peace, and other problems without having to rely on possibly biased statements or user logs which may have been tampered with. We access logs in the following manner: 1. Only when pursuing an investigation of a user-complaint. 2. The search will be made as specific as possible (ie: Will run searches on keywords such as the names of the people involved). 3. Any violations of FurryMUCK SM's policies found during the search will be researched if necessary and then acted upon as follows: a. If the problem has been caused by the parties in the original complaint, immediate action will be taken. b. If the problem has been caused by unrelated parties, but has turned up during research into another case, further investigation will only proceed only after at least two other wizards have reviewed the evidence already found. c. In the above case, a wizard may continue an 'unrelated investigation' if it is felt that time is of the essence, but that wizard will then have his or her actions reviewed after the fact by the body of wizards. 4. Information found in searches will be considered to be private and will not be revealed or disclosed except to other wizards on a need-to-know basis. Results will not be summarized in whole or part to any user. 5. Searches on the logs looking for keywords or phrases either in the logs of a whole, or related to a particular user are NOT done. 6. A follow-up investigation which includes a log search may only proceed after at least three wizards (including the researching wizard) have agreed that a continuation may be in order. We would like to believe that our users will act in act in accordance with all our policies. Only when it becomes evident that a user may have violated any of our policies do we investigate, reserving the right to review the system logs as listed above. 8.6 I have a complaint about how the wizards handled something... Not all of our decisions, much as we wish they could, will please everyone. Much of the time, one party or another will feel wronged, denied a fair chance to speak their mind or given the short end of the stick. In this case, follow this course of escalation: - If only one wizard participated in the decision, you may appeal the decision to the majority of wizards -- see section 7.5. - If the decision is then ratified, you may only appeal further if there is new evidence that we failed to consider in the last appeal. (for instance, if the other party of a no-contact order wishes to rescind the no-contact order and thus any punishments based on it) While we run our MUCK for the benefit of the players, and we are willing to listen to feedback, we will not overturn our decisions for the sake of 'my friends don't agree' popular appeal, 'who wronged whom' blame-finding, or 'the rules don't say that specifically' fine-print smudging. Please behave by our rules and leave it to us to handle offenders; two offenses will not cancel each other out. 8.7 I have a complaint about... We're willing to hear out your complaints, but please remember that we may not always see things the way you do. Since we're the ones enforcing the rules, please abide by our judgment and only appeal per section 8.6 if you feel that your complaint was, for some reason, incorrectly handled. We do ask our users not to be persistent troublemakers. If you raise a large number of complaints that turn out to be unsubstantiated, we'll warn you against further unsubstantiated complaints. If you keep it up, we'll suspend you from the game to give you some time to cool off. If a large number of complaints are raised against you as well, we'll ask you to refrain from whatever kind of conduct it is that's raising the ire of other users. See section 3.4 for our policy against offensive behavior in public. If you have a complaint, please amass as much evidence as you can to substantiate it. Take logs of any incidents that occur, and submit them to the wizards with information on who, what, where, when, and what happened, and why you feel it to be a problem. But do report your complaints as promptly as you can once you have sufficient evidence; we cannot investigate anything older than a few days. 8.8 I have a suggestion... We attempt to run the MUCK in a reasonably fair way for all of our players. To this end, we tend to be fairly conservative. If you have a suggestion for how we could run the MUCK better, bear in mind that our resources for changing the MUCK or managing it are relatively limited including: - Our time to spend in implementing or managing this change - Our ability to find someone to code the desired change (if coding is required) - Our patience in getting whatever it is to work. In addition, we may find that a proposed change would either upset a significant number of users or would provide benefit to far fewer users than would justify the effort spent in making the change. If your change is sufficiently useful that you believe these factors could be dealt with, by all means discuss it with a wizard. If you have a request for a global program or command, in particular, discuss it with a MUCKER wizard. 9.0 Miscellany * 9.1 An Incomplete Glossary of MUCK Terminology * 9.2 Index to the Policies * 9.3 Connecting to FurryMUCK SM - Port Listing 9.1 An Incomplete Glossary of MUCK Terminology A quick meaning of common terms on FurryMUCK SM. Compiled by Riss. :) CHARACTER The Virtual Reality being. FEEP Contraction of Feeping Creature, which is a spoonerism of Creeping Featurism. (also any useless program command) HELPSTAFF Volunteers who like to help characters with things. IC In character. LYNXISM Anythyng that ys so syckenyng KYOOT and knows yt! MAV An 'oops' misdirection of a Say or Page, usually embarrassing. MPI Programming/Description language on FurryMUCK SM. MUCK Doesn't stand for anything... Honest. MUCKER See MUFFER. MUF Multi User Forth. The programming language on FurryMUCK SM. MUFFER One who writes programs for use on the Muck. NEWBIE A new or novice character or player. (Not a bad term.) OOC Out Of Character. You are talking to or being your player. PLAYER The real life person at the terminal. SPAM Any large amount of useless drivvel scrolling across your screen. TS TinySex - Historical name for on line sex. WCOP West Corner Of Park - Furry's central meeting place. WIZARD Grunt Workers who try to keep the place running. YIFF Cute little sound a fox makes. YIFFY Lots of cute little foxes making cute fox sounds. 9.2 AN INDEX OF FURRYMUCK POLICIES 1.0 Welcome to FurryMUCK SM 1.1 Table of Contents 1.2 The Ten Commandments of FurryMUCK SM 1.3 The FurryMUCK SM Covenant 1.3.1 Article 1 1.3.2 Article 2 2.0 Legalities 2.1 Acceptable Usage Policy 2.2 Lawsuits and Subpoenas. 2.2.1 So and so has done something wrong! I want to sue FurryMUCK SM for letting it happen! 2.2.2 What if I want to subpoena logs for evidence? 2.2.3 So what? I'm in the legal and moral right to do it. 2.2.4 All right, but what can be done? It seems like nothing's happening. 2.2.5 So and so said that they did or do something that is a RL felony! They should be kicked off! 2.3 Copyrighted or Trademarked Characters 2.4 Intellectual Property & Copyrights 2.4.1 Individual character and belonging copyrights 2.4.2 Programs 2.4.3 Publicly Accessable Areas 2.4.4 Donation of Programs, Areas, and Property 2.4.5 The Server 3.0 Behavior in Public 3.1 What is a public area? 3.2 PG-13 Guidelines 3.2.1 The full PG-13 Guidelines 3.3 Adult Behavior Policy 3.3.1 Adult Status 3.3.2 Registering for Adult Status 3.3.3 Management of Adult Areas 3.3.4 Disclaimer concerning Adult Behavior and Areas 3.3.5 Prohibited Activities concerning Adult Behavior and Areas 3.4 Offensive Behavior or 'Disturbance of the Peace' 3.5 Privately Owned Public Areas 4.0 Behavior between Players 4.1 Harassment 4.2 Threats 4.3 No Contact Orders 4.3.1 Restrictions on direct contact 4.3.2 Restrictions on indirect contact 4.3.3 What happens when two no-contactees show up in the same place 4.3.4 Restrictions on alternate characters and puppets 4.3.5 Duration of a no-contact order 4.3.6 Handling of violation of a no-contact 4.3.7 Additional caveats on no-contact orders 4.4 Zombie and Puppet Actions 4.5 Other ways to nark off players 5.0 Building and Other Limits 5.1 Quotas 5.2 Multiple character limit 5.3 Care and Feeding of Zombies and Pets 5.3.1 Limits on Zombies 5.3.2 Building a Zombie 5.3.3 Zombie Administrivia 5.4 Idle Purge 5.5 The Bandstand Purge 5.6 Sharing and Giving Away Characters 5.7 Anti-Idle-Out Programs 5.7.1 Reasons for Prohibiting Anti-Idle-Out Programs 6.0 Programming 6.1 How can I be a MUCKER? 6.1.1 M1 - Apprentice. 6.1.2 M2 - Journeyman. 6.1.3 M3 - Master. 6.1.4 M4 (W) - Wizard. 6.1.5 MUCKER levels on programs 6.2 What does a MUCKER do? 6.2.1 Getting started with MUF 6.2.2 Tips and tools of the trade 6.2.3 Programming for the public 6.3 What if I just want to use MPI? 6.4 What are the rules of programming? 6.4.1 Privacy 6.4.2 Respect for Other Players 6.4.3 Respect for the MUCK and its theme 6.4.3.1 Geographic Continuity 6.4.3.2 Money 6.4.3.3 Idling 6.4.3.4 Timequeue 6.5 Are there any programming style guidelines? 6.6 Intellectual property and programs 6.7 Oops, I broke a rule! What happens now? 6.8 History of the MUCKER policy 7.0 Procedures 7.1 Getting a New Character 7.1.1 Registering for adult access with your new character 7.1.2 Restrictions and Notes on Registration 7.1.3 Getting started with your new character 7.1.4 Character Registration from Personal Domains 7.2 Toading - Leaving the Game - Recycling your character 7.3 Transferring your character to another player 7.4 Forgot your password? 7.5 How do I contact the wizards? 8.0 Policy of Administration 8.1 Basic Principles of FurryMUCK SM 8.1.1 This is a game 8.1.2 We live in the United States 8.1.3 We respect our users' privacy 8.2 The role of wizards and helpstaff 8.2.1 Helpstaff 8.2.2 Wizards 8.2.2.1 A Listing of Wizards 8.2.2.2 Explanation of Wizard Duties 8.3 Warnings, Banishment, Temporary and Permanent Suspension 8.3.1 Warnings 8.3.2 Banishments 8.3.3 Suspensions 8.3.4 Probation 8.4 Policies regarding suspended players 8.4.1 Suspended players sneaking on 8.4.2 People helping suspended players sneak on 8.5 Logging 8.5.1 Full Logging Policy 8.6 I have a complaint about how the wizards handled something... 8.7 I have a complaint about... 8.8 I have a suggestion... 9.0 Miscellany 9.1 An Incomplete Glossary of MUCK Terminology 9.2 Index to the Policies 9.3 Connecting to FurryMUCK SM - Port Listing Unnumbered sections: 'news help' - for help reading news 'news site' - describes FurryMUCK SM's present site 'news changes' - check here for references to changed sections of the policies 'news editorials' - check here for articles about issues on FurryMUCK SM 9.3 Connecting to FurryMUCK SM - Port Listing You may use telnet or one of many MUD clients to connect to FurryMUCK by any of these ports: 8888, 8889, 8890, 8891, 8892, 8893, 8894, 8895, 8896, 8897, 8898 If your MUD client supports SSL-encryption, you may also connect to the SSL-only port: 8899 If you are in need of a MUD client, may we recommend Trebuchet? It is available for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux, and can probably be ported to other systems which support TCL/Tk 8.3.3. http://www.belfry.com/fuzzball/trebuchet/ FurryMUCK SM Editorials cda - deals with the Common Decency Act and what FurryMUCK SM is doing to stay within the law with respect to adult behavior on the Internet Last updated on August 12, 1997 FurryMUCK SM and the CDA The comments below are not those of the wizcore as a whole, but are solely those of S'A'Alis, former administrator of FurryMUCK (and his legal counsel as indicated). The update, concerning the overturning of the CDA is followed by his original comments concerning the CDA and FurryMUCK SM in general. Update: August 12, 1997 Since the overrulling of the CDA by the Supreme Court, there have been a lot of discussions and rumors concerning the disposition of the Age Policy on FurryMUCK SM. I have checked with our legal counsel concerning the ramifications and the current sentiment is that we should keep in place the current age policies and restrictions for the following reasons: - State and local statutes still may supercede Federal mandates. The law is unclear on this point as it touches the subject of state's rights. - It is unclear at this time whether or not the CDA decision extends to the realm of other, still illegal activities (an example would be "child pornography") - Maintaining the current policy offers a measure of protection, while not complete, that is better than nothing for FurryMUCK SM's present site provider, the Wizards and for the players themselves. For more background on FurryMUCK SM's Age Policy, why it is set up, and why I am commenting on it, see below. S'A'Alis -------- April 18, 1997 There has been a lot of nonsense written lately on the Bulletin Boards concerning the fate of FurryMUCK SM with regards to the CDA. As the person who owns the site at which it has resided for several years, I would like to make a few comments about all this. FurryMUCK SM is not owned by any one person. It exists as a collection of programs and data owned by their creators, including the users. It runs at a site owned and maintained by me. The domains are also owned and maintained by me. I ask no fees for this and donate the services and time of myself, my company staff and others to keep the site and network running. The only thing I have ever asked is that our denizens understand that FurryMUCK SM is a privilege, not a right, and that they treat it as such. In return, I have pledged to provide a site, connectivity, domains, etc. for FurryMUCK SM for as long as I am able. In light of the CDA, therefore, I asked the wizzes to consider implementing policies which would, in effect, cover my butt (to put it bluntly). This would go a long way to making sure that me, my employees and my company were protected as much as possible so that we could continue to provide FurryMUCK SM a home. They agreed and I donated the services and time of my company's legal counsel to render an opinion on how best to implement this. Other wizzes did likewise, weighing in with the legal opinions they received as well. The result of this is the AUP and Age Policies now in force. Contrary to popular opinion, then, the age policy is not an attempt on the part of the wizzes to "dictate", to be "draconian" or to play "big brother". It is an attempt, pure and simple, to continue to provide a place for FurryMUCK SM in the face of controversy. Now to the subject of FurryMUCK SM's much-predicted demise. I have stated before, and I state again that I have pledged to continue to provide a site for FurryMUCK SM as long as I am able. That said, one must understand that the phrase "as long as I am able" includes the fact that I will not endanger my company, the people who've invested in it, my employees or myself. As I've said above, this means that I have and will continue to seek legal counsel wherenever any such issues arise and will act accordingly on that counsel. To date, there have been no changes to my position that I will continue to provide a home for FurryMUCK SM. My legal counsel assures me that so long as we, the wizzes, and me, the site owner, continue to exercise "due dilligence" in our attempts to comply with statutes and legislation, we are very defensible against anyone who might attempt to "shut us down". What this means for you is two things. First, it means that FurryMUCK SM is not shutting down. Second, it means that so long as our users continue to be "good citizens" of FurryMUCK SM, so long as they understand that FurryMUCK SM is a privilege and not a right, and act accordingly, then the first part will continue to be true. Lastly, I want to emphasize that idle speculation does no one any good. You have, on FurryMUCK SM, wizzes who make, as a whole, policy decisions. If you ever have a question about those policies, about the state of the Muck, about anything, PLEASE go directly to someone who knows or can find out the correct answer, a wizard. S'A'Alis