A note on Player/Staff Complaints and Consent in General

[Draugr]

 We, the Staff of ArmageddonMud, take any report of IC/OOC Abuse, skirting of the Consent rules IG, or allegation of sexual misconduct by either players or staff seriously.  This is evidenced by recent changes being made to acceptable sdesc descriptors (eg. removal of youth, teen, etc...) and the minimum starting age of player characters, as all player characters in the game world are adults.
   When any such allegations are made, we guarantee a full review of any allegations is made before a response is provided or decision is reached regarding the allegations.  These reviews may include reviewing game logs, player and/or staff histories, discord logs, and communicating as directly as we can in this day and age with anyone who might have information about the complaint.
   These reviews also generally prompt a further review of our helpfiles on consent, staff behavior, player rules, and the policy against rape in-game.  As an example, it is worth noting that neither nudity (emo takes ^me tunic off revealing ^me breasts) or whipping (use whip <target>) require consent until such nudity / whipping is being described in a graphic nature or in an explicit way.  In both cases, players may ask for consent ahead of the act, but the action taken alone does not reach the bar of sexually explicit or maiming behavior.
   All of this said there can, unfortunately, be incidents where complaints are not made in good faith.  Where allegation are made that, via the tools available to us, are proven to be blatantly untrue or worse yet constructed maliciously; either against players or staff (past or present); we take this seriously as well and encourage everyone in the community to please be the best you can be towards each other.  We're all here to enjoy this crazy hobby of ours.  Let's leave the corruption and betrayal where it belongs, in Zalanthas.

[Shabago]

In the interest of further transparency and following Draugr's above post, we would like to address the most recent issue brought to our attention and then later made its way to Reddit. Our findings, after sizable review from various staff members is thus:

- The accusation as levied against Shalooonsh was found to be false.

How we arrived at this decision, based upon evidence and facts:

A) Discord logs were checked, RL time comparisons were made and pattern of text behaviour were compared. There are no logs of this discussion, times do not link up, and neither does the text/wording used.

B) The evidence put forward by the player in question was 1) easily spoofed and 2) The portions other than the screenshots were proven to be false.

C) As seen on the review and screenshots provided, staff were able to find direct links to another account that has been with us for years, with various matches to this 'new' account in various ways. This account in question has been well known to hold a personal grudge against Shalooonsh for some time now.

With the above considered to be unreliable and the lack of continued responses from the accuser there wasn't anything for us to follow up or take action on.  It was also in line with other attempts to bring members of staff into disrepute by falsifying information.

[Draugr]

One additional note/reminder:

Unless an event is specifically designated as an "consent required" event, held in a private location, "OOC: Consent or Leave" is not how the consent rules work.  If you ask for consent, someone may decide they want no part of it and leave.  That is not the requirement.  The requirement is that if someone says "No, I do not consent", the graphic play stops or gets FTB'd.  The "or leave" is on the person performing the action somewhere they are making someone's play experience uncomfortable, not on the person feeling uncomfortable.

[Draugr]

After much deliberation, castration/sterilization is classified as maiming, however, such actions should be very rare, very specific punishments (for example violation of a GMH/Noble contract) and not acted out in graphic detail as to avoid veering into sexual torture.  As always, the victim is free to choose death as an alternative and the onus then remains on the instigator to deliver.