Keeping it IC when possible

[Hauwke]

Rehashing the point I made earlier about guys who train, then logout:

Awhile ago, there was this guy in a clan, he showed up to sparring, sparred, then went: Say Gate!
Then walked off and parked himself in the barracks. A little while later he was still logged in, so he was asked what he was doing, and he again, said Gate!
And he still didnt actually log out, he was clearly at his keyboard still, and using an OOC thing to get out of chores and such.

Side-note, I am pretty sure he was either new, or very much intending to break rules, I didnt deal with it much further than being present for all of it.

[James de Monet]

I'm beyond flabberghasted at just how fragile your characters must be.

Hell, it's a grumbled 'Yessir' and likely never a topic of conversation again.

Heh, now who's misunderstanding whom?  People seem to be reacting to the idea of what you said, moreso than the context.

The problem isn't that it is automatically a huge deal.  How big of a deal it is is going to be a factor of the event and the character (and how often it happens).  The problem is that, as someone mentioned above, it's tantamount to power emoting on the part of the leader.  A player who isn't physically logged in for a "required" event has four choices:

• Say they were virtually present.  Whether or not this is acceptable is going to depend on the event, character, leader(s), and staff.  Keep in mind that being "present" doesn't have to mean "decisively engaged".  They could be stuck at the stables with the remounts, or watching the unit's back from two rooms away, or...
• Use a generic excuse for their absence (like gate duty, latrines, medic, another unit, etc.)
• Make up a specific, positive reason for their absence (working for the LT, got called to help a Templar, recruiting new members, etc.)
• Make up a specific, negative reason for their absence (drunk, sleeping, in jail, didn't feel like it, etc.)

#1 requires the most planning and interaction, but is sometimes helpful and appropriate.
#2 is the most common, and generally means the player is not interested in RPing out the reason for their absence.  IF A LEADER DECIDES that this means the absence was unconstructive (bad), they are essentially power emoting the other player.  Why?  Because they are deciding things about the virtual world that are not in their purview to decide.  Leaders absolutely have the right to punish their minions at will, but they don't have the right to unilaterally decide that a character did something virtual that OBJECTIVELY DESERVES to be punished.  There's a difference.
#3 is iffy, and may constitute power emoting on the part of the absent player.  Why?  Because they are deciding things about the virtual world to the benefit of their character that did not really happen.  That docs are pretty clear about that.
#4 is great, and if a player wants to do that, they are inviting the leader character into further RP regarding the absence, to include punishment.  Totally fair game.

The problem is, a player who was absent really only has these options.  If they are forbidden from using #1, and don't want to use #4, they're stuck with using #2 (or trying to carefully use #3).  If you decide that their use of #2 is actually a use of #4, you've made decisions about their character's character that they never made.  They can't magically make themselves be present.  Figure out how the story happened with them.  Don't tell them you get to narrate their part in the story because they weren't present.

[Hauwke]

The accusations, also do not have to be true. Do keep that in mind folks.

If I am sargeant whats-his-face, and I hate Trooper whats-his-nose. I dont need an actual reason to whip the Trooper, citing the reason as: You were caught slacking off on duty. When in reality, I have no clue what the hell this guy was doing.

[Delirium]

If that's the case, you can make it more obviously a roleplay scenario so they don't feel OOCly picked on.

Make up some sort of reason that has plenty of IC merit but is obviously, OOCly, a fabrication.

[Armaddict]

Yeah.  Totally power-emoting, right there. 

[James de Monet]

I've already belabored the point.  Further explanations are unlikely to be productive.

[Dahlia]

This was ages and ages (and ages and ages) ago, but...

We had someone in our clan that had to miss an RPT because of RL circumstances, so the clan came up with a story about his glory that day that just got bigger, and bigger, and bigger for years.  It was great and became a huge part of the character's story.

For goodness sake, it doesn't always have to be negative.

Edited to add: I should also mention that we had been playing together as a group for RL years at that point, so there was a measure of trust with one another about doing things like this.  There's maybe one person that I can think of that I would trust with that now.