From: jdeutsch@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Jeffrey Deutsch)
Subject: Re: Can a WIZ threaten you in RL????
Followup-To: rec.games.mud.misc,rec.games.mud.tiny
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 05:08:21 GMT

In article <1993Jan19.035007.10188@news.columbia.edu> jsb16@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Jennifer S Broekman) writes:
>In article <JSP.93Jan18185849@glia.biostr.washington.edu> 
>jsp@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Jeff Prothero) writes:
>>In article <1993Jan18.052344.14551@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> 
>>jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (Joel Furr) writes:
>>   In article <kennehra.727321305@craft.camp.clarkson.edu> 
>>   >kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:
>>   >Well, I figured it would be nice if we had a couple of girls pop out of
>>   >a cake and dance for him in VR, so I sent this mail message to females
>>   >on the game:
>>   >
>>   >Dear (player),
>>   >
>>   >   We would be most honored if you would pop out of a cake and dance  
>>   >for us at rob's bachelor party!  Thanks in advance!
>>   >
>>   >- Rich
>
>How did you choose the 'females' to whom you sent this? Character names
>ending in 'a'? Random characters whose @sex was 'female'? Characters you and
>the bachelor in question had met once or twice? Characters with whom you and
>the bachelor in question interacted on a regular basis?
>
>If a random character sent me mail requesting me to pop out of a cake and 
>dance for some schmoe's bachelor party, where I'd never met or interacted with
>either the character sending the mail or the character for whom the party was
>being thrown, I would consider it harassment. VR harassment, but harassment
>nonetheless. I would probably send mail to the person sending the 'invite'
>and a wizard requesting that the person sending the 'invite' learn some
>manners. If I were a wizard and received multiple complaints about the same
>character within a couple days, I would do something drastic.
>
	Sorry, Jennifer, but "harassment" is not a hunting license
entitling you to condemn anyone whose behavior you don't like, or
find offensive, or whatever. It has a very specific meaning: 
*Intentionally* and *repeatedly* contacting someone in such a
way that a reasonable person would believe would bother that
someone (like fondling someone, especially after s/he asks you
to stop), and in such a way as to violate that someone's rights. 
A single note asking someone to pop out of a cake and dance at
a party, however much it may offend your sensibilities, is NOT
harassment by any (reasonable) stretch of the imagination.
Anyone receiving such a request who didn't like it can simply
ignore it.
	You have no more right to invoke "harassment" to 
attack behavior of which you disapprove than did some of our
ancestors three centuries ago to invoke accusations of
"witchcraft" to condemn people for religious behavior of
which they disapproved.
	If anyone is to be accused of harassment here, it should
be those recipients of that note who, not content with simply just
DELETING it from their mailboxes (heavens no - that would actually
RESOLVE the whole thing with no fuss, no muss - and no opportunity
to do battle in the name of Protecting Those Poor Helpless Females
From Those *Awful* Male Chauvinist Pigs [redundancy?]!), felt
compelled to scream bloody murder and waste the valuable time and
energy (and as a wizard, I can attest to the scarcity of both) of
the MUD admins - let alone those MUD admins who actually took this
whole thing SERIOUSLY and came down on the guy worse than I normally
see illegal pkillers treated!

	Jeff Deutsch


-- 
Q: How many gun banners does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Let the police do it - private citizens can't be trusted with light
bulbs!