================================ Public Policy================================
Message:11/70                      Posted        Author
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ             Thu May 23    Mouse
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When Staff is asked to witness a roll for any reason, whether to gather information or cast a spell on someone or for any other purpose, these rolls will often allow the target to receive a roll to notice what is happening. This may be an Awareness roll, a Kenning roll, Alertness, Influence-related, or any number of other possibilities.

Staff will often choose to make that roll for you. In NO case is Staff required to inform EITHER player involved that such a roll has been made. If you fail your Awareness, Alertness, or other roll to notice something is occuring your character does NOT know. You are not entitled to any information on the subject other than what occurs.

The reason this is the case is that by allowing someone a roll they gain OOC information which is then quite frequently used to A) demand further information, in order to determine who instigated the roll, B) Find out what occurred even though they aren't actually aware, C) Create OOC whisper and slander campaigns against players who act in ways that people do not like or feel are justified.

Usually, all of this is done without proper knowledge of what actually occured, how it was done, or why. I have fielded many jobs THIS WEEK where people accused others of improperly gaining information about them and frequently told others about it as well. Often, they did not know the mechanism used or even if they should actually have received a roll. Sometimes, they didn't even accurately determine who the instigator was.

You are quite welcome to ask a Staffer or put in a +request to find out if the rolls were witnessed, and if what is happening is legitimate. However, Staff does not and probably SHOULD not, have to tell you anything more than that the roll was witnessed by an appropriate judge. If you know ICly something is up but not what then rather than make an OOC demand for information it will often garner results to simply investigate ICly. Many times a situation gets OOCly out of hand before any IC investigation ever takes place and is immediately solved when it does.

To reiterate: At NO time are you entitled to OOC information about the legitimate actions of another player's character. And it is so frequently the case that information shared in good faith is abused or manipulated that it is my general opinion that it should simply not be shared.

Questions or complaints about this post in particular? Feel free to put them in ATTN: Mouse. I will accept criticism or suggestions. However, I will only act on them if I feel it is warranted.

Mouse
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