FEDERATION 2 GAME RULES SUPPLEMENT: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BEHAVIOR
This document was last updated on June 25, 2004
INTRODUCTION
This supplement to the Fed2 Rules discusses the difference between "public" and "private" in Federation 2.
We do not concern ourselves with what you do in private. You can say what you like in private conversations, and do what you like provided no-one is likely to walk in on you. We don't police private conversations, or patrol the game looking for things to be offended by.
Note, however, that this rule assumes there is consent and that both parties to the conversation or activity must be comfortable with it. If you send unwanted messages to another player then whether the messages are vulgar or not, it's harassment and is dealt with under the harassment rules.
RELAYING AND LOGGING
Federation 2 allows players to broadcast everything that they see, so it can be seen by another player. This means that unless you are in a location completely alone, talking to nobody, there is no privacy in Fed.
When you are having a conversation with another player, they could be relaying everything to somebody else. Or they could be saving a log of the conversation, with the intent to send it to a third party.
That doesn't mean that, for the purposes of the Fed2 Rules, you cannot do what you want in private conversations. Provided the person you are talking to and interacting with is comfortable with what you are saying or doing then your conversation still counts as private. If they relay to somebody else then the responsibility of not offending the receiver is theirs.
Leaving aside relaying, there is always the chance that somebody could walk into your location just as you say something terribly secret. So if you want to have a truly private conversation, maybe Fed isn't the right place for it!
DEFINING PRIVACY
So what, exactly, constitutes privacy?
Private situations are those things that people cannot come across as part of their normal activities in the game.
There are a couple of things that can categorically be stated to be private, with no question:
Private Conversations
A conversation conducted using TBs is always considered private, even if the other party is relaying.
Obscure Locations
An out of the way location that nobody is likely to walk into accidentally is considered private.
If somebody should walk in on you during the course of a conversation or activities that may offend, then you should stop what you are doing unless you are sure they will not be offended. You may ask them to leave but if they refuse then it's your responsibility to move to a new location where you can continue.
Chances are that if they are likely to find your actions offensive, they will leave.
However, a special note for busybodies... I won't have much sympathy with people who stick around to watch, and then send in a capture, complaining about how they were offended the whole time they were watching!
DEFINITELY PUBLIC
In some ways it's easier to define privacy by listing some of the things in Federation which are not considered private. These include:
Player Name
Everyone will see your name whenever they come across you in a game, or look at a list of players, so your name is certainly not counted as private. The same goes for any other names such as company name, planet name and so on. They show up in all kinds of ways in the game so players can encounter them without warning.
Mood
Just like a name, a mood is something that players will see all the time, so it is considered public.
Clothes
Clothes are also considered public. Although no-one can see your description without asking for it, they aren't to know whether they may find it offensive, so clothes are always considered public. Same goes for ship descriptions.
Postings on the electronic noticeboard
No explanation needed!
GREY AREAS
There are other ways you interact with players which are grey areas; sometimes public, sometimes private, sometimes in between:
Conversations in Bars
A group of people hanging around in a bar chatting is a grey area. It could be said that they are a private group and therefore they can relax and say what they like, but this only applies if everyone in the bar is comfortable with the level of conversation.
If someone else enters the bar the group should moderate their language/behavior until they are sure the newcomer is not going to be offended.
A group cannot ask someone to leave the bar. Everywhere in Fed is a public place so if necessary, the group should move to a new location if they want to continue their conversation in private.
XT and Comm Messages
The same thing applies to XT messages. People can tune to an unused channel and talk about what they want, until someone else tunes to the channel who may be offended. Note that unused means not the help channel or a channel being used for an event, or a channel that is already being used by others to chat.
LATE NIGHT CHAT
There is no watershed time, after which you can assume the kiddies are in bed so the adults can do what they like. The Internet is global, and timezones would make this a nonsense. Even when it's 4 in the morning eastern time, it's 9am in the UK. Besides, sometimes adults that stay up late don't want to see things that offend them.
This Supplement was written by Fi Craig, Director of Game Management for ibgames
Read the other supplements:
Harassment
Acceptable Language
Electronic Noticeboard
