From: johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu (John Martin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud,rec.games.mud.misc,rec.games.mud.tiny
Subject: Conference on Admin Ethics (WAS: Conf. on Player's Rights)
Date: 8 Jan 1993 06:11:25 GMT
Organization: Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon
Distribution: world
Reply-To: johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: cajal.uoregon.edu

                CONFERENCE on ADMIN ETHICS
                ==========================
          (formerly conference of player's rights)

The time and date has now been set:

        Sunday, January 10, 1992 at 7:00pm Pacific Time

The conference will be held on:

        Singlenesia   cajal.uoregon.edu 6250


All are welcome to attend and observe the proceedings. Note that
Singlenesia usually requires prior registration for players.  This
requirement will be temporarily suspended for the duration of the
conference. All characters that are created at the login screen
will be destroyed at the conclusion of the conference.

The conference has generated much more enthusiasm and support than
we had anticipated.  Widespread response has forced us to revise
our initial invitation.

Each mud is invited to send two representatives who will
participate actively in discussion.  These representitives may be
gods, wizards or player provided they have the authority
to speak on behalf of the mud itself. If you are in such a
position, your mud is not yet represented, and you wish to
participate, please send e-mail to:
singlenesia@cajal.uoregon.edu

Notice that I'm calling the conference something else now! The term
"rights" was both ambiguous and emotionally loaded. This immediately
became obvious both in private e-mail I have recieved and through posts
on these newsgroups.  It also failed to accurately reflect the purpose
of the conference.  Thus the new name. The goals remain the same hoever.

As I had explained in prior posts, I used the term "rights" only
to mean the respect for human dignity which I believe is due to all
people. The term can be interpreted in a number of ways, however:
legally, Constitutionally and philosophically to name only three.
These interpretation may have led to a misconstrual of my
intentions.

What is really at issue is personal responsibility. I say "admin
ethics" in the name of the conference, but really what we are
talking about is basic courtesy and respect that all people should
extend to others.  Players and gods alike are entitled to such
considerations.

I do *not* intend for this conference to produce any type of
binding document, or lawbook, that mud admins would be required to
obey.  It is not intended to be enforceable, or to delineate crimes
and appropriate punishments.  This would be an impossible task.
Law and enforcement remain the concern of individual administrators.
Wrangling over these issues could diminish the usefulness of the
conference and lead to factionalism as well.

What I do intend is to produce a statement generated by as many
admins as are willing.  The document would specify the ethical
responsibilites of mud admins.  The admins will sign the document,
as a show of agreement to the contents of the statement. In effect,
this becomes a promise from those admins. This is *not* meant to
be a contract, however, merely a statement of intent. The purpose
of this statement is to provide some solid information to players,
about various admins' attitudes and policies.  This knowledge will
enable the players to make an informed choice among worlds. A
secondary purpose is to provide an ethical guide to current and
future admins. A guide such as this would prevent the need to make
up the rules as they go along, and would provide stability and
consistency in the worlds whose admins accept this document.

-- 
John Martin                                        johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu
Institute of Neuroscience,   University of Oregon,    Eugene, OR,    97402
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud,rec.games.mud.tiny,rec.games.mud.misc