Whistleblower Rule

[Halaster]

Armageddon's whistleblower rule is meant to allow players leeway to bring to light things they think break the rules or are abusive. It provides for exemption from the normal consequences to their character, game account, GDB account and Discord account that might otherwise happen due to the nature of these activities.  It does not provide an exemption for activities that go beyond this, and there is no intent that this rule be used to shield a player engaging in bad faith behavior.

With this in mind the new Whistleblower Rule is as follows:

A player will be exempt from a rule breach if they have made "good faith" attempts at resolving a dispute over an issue with staff, staff's behavior, a fellow player, or a fellow player's behavior and failed to receive a resolution.  This does not cover game issues such as bugs, or systems the player disagrees with.  It does cover things such as staff behavior towards a player that goes unresolved, or fellow players' behavior that goes unresolved.  A "good faith" attempt means that the player has legitimately attempted to work the issue out through the proper channels.  This could be a player complaint if the issue deals with another player, or this could be a staff complaint if the issue deals with a member of staff.  The proper channels are:

- The player has engaged with staff in a back-and-forth conversation about the issue, and was dissatisfied with the outcome
- The player has escalated the issue to a more senior staff, or in the case of a Producer to a different Producer, and was still dissatisfied with the outcome
- The Player Committee has been presented with the issue (as a staff complaint) and advised on it, and the player is still dissatisfied with the outcome.

If after these steps have been attempted and the player feels the issue was not properly resolved, and the issue breaks game rules or the spirit of the game rules, they player will be exempt from a rule breach associated with publicizing the issue (whistleblowing) if:

- The player explains the issue they are "whistleblowing" about, and does not attempt to bring in other, unrelated issues
- The player does their best to avoid outing who plays what character, unless doing so is relevant to the issue
- The player does not publicize any personal, real-life information about people involved in the issue, unless doing so is relevant to the issue

No other instances of breaking game rules will be covered, only those directly related to the "whistleblowing" activity.  For example, if a player meets the criteria above and publicizes a violation that was not resolved properly, they would be covered under this rule.  If in doing so they also divulge game secrets, name who plays what characters, or post logs of private conversations all unrelated to the issue they are "whistleblowing" about, those actions will not be covered by this rule.