Good [_]morning, [_]afternoon, [_]evening, [_]night, POLY!

First off, crone_mod would like to direct everyone here. It's always good to start things with a laugh.

Second, we, your mods are currently getting complaints from multiple directions about some problems that do arise from time to time in most RPs that live past their infancy.

We feel we must point out to you again that we are a game with more than 180 players. The same way one cannot sit in a classroom of 30 and like every single other person there, be it students or teacher, not everyone is going to like everyone else here in Poly, not as characters and not as players.

Personalities, mindsets, styles, and plans clash. It happens. But the same way people "get on with it" in class, we hope players can "get on with it" in the game.

We strongly discourage allowing OOC dislike of another player affect IC gameplay. We additionally strongly discourage allowing OOC liking of another player to affect IC gameplay in a manner that requires characters to act illogically and out of character. (Curse days not withstanding, of course.)

Just because Homer Simpson's player is BFF with Spock's player, that does not mean that Homer will spontaneously convert to vegetarianism upon hitting the City streets and meeting up with Spock. Characters do not instantly change characterization because players are friends.

Likewise, characters should not change characterization when the players are the opposite of friends either. Just because Marge Simpson-mun stole Homer Simpson-mun's IRL pet sheep, Homer would not suddenly and immediately demand a divorce from Marge in-game. Okay, maybe that example is a bit extreme (they were divorced for a few hours in canon, weren't they?), and plots and curses change matters, but the germ of the idea is there.

Here comes the point:

OOC situations should not mean IC situations, whether friendly or laced with venom. IC is IC. OOC is OOC. IC/OOC has an impenetrable barrier--a slash!--in it for a reason.

We realize that most people realize this. But, sadly, if we continue to receive player complaints about these IC/OOC divide problems, we will be forced to take further action. And we hate doing that. We really do. But we simply cannot permit Poly to degenerate into a place where people's OOC situations are acted out in the game. We have to think about the 178-odd other players who are not involved in any particular IC/OOC situation--except in character.

Do it for them. Do it so they can be IC to your IC-ness.

If you feel you absolutely cannot interact with a player because of some issue between the two of you, simply do not interact with that character or player. It's really quite straightforward.

RP is about improvisation: you can come up with a creative way around the situation. There is no excuse to claim that you are "forced" to interact with someone with whom you are incompatible. This excludes plot-related situations, of course, but you should be able to come up with an IC reason to keep away from that other person's character(s) in basic comment spam.

And, of course, as ever, if you have a problem, don't hesitate to bring it up with the mods.