Hi everyone,

Normally I come to you with sync reports, a cause for celebration. However, today we have to take a moment to discuss the rules, because people seem to be forgetting them. SWC is a game with a strong focus on information, and a review of the spying rules is sorely needed.

First, you may not impersonate other SWC members. So long as you break no other rules in the process, you may of course mask your identity, but always remember that you may not claim to be someone you are not.

Second, you may not use OOC information in an IC manner. You may not require people to give you any OOC information that they do not wish to divulge. You may not, under any circumstances, treat a player's life as actionable material. You may not prepare a dossier on their OOC lives. You may not publish any information they might otherwise keep private. There are several factions who require listings of previous handles on their application process. This is not allowed and must be removed. Punishment will follow if this continues.

Similarly, you may not use IC information from a previous character. Each new character represents a completely independent beginning. This means no asset recovery from a previous character, no reinstatement of position or fast-tracking through a faction, and no sharing of information learned as a previous character.

Third, you may lie about IC information, and you may object to or interfere with other players' IC endeavors so long as you follow the rules and do it in an in-character manner. Posting slander about someone on the GNS is acceptable; attempting to prevent them from using the game website by spamming messages is not. Harassing people on IRC is not permitted. You may disagree with and dislike someone, but there are reasonable standards of decent conduct that must be observed to ensure that everyone is able to play the game without fear for their comfort or safety outside of the game.

Finally, please remember that ASims do not have characters, and players with characters are not ASims, regardless of membership in other teams or community standing.

Thanks.

We also have several related bans to announce. First, Athena Carlyle has been banned for 6 weeks for attempting to post secret IC information on Holocron after being executed. The actual punishment length is only 3 weeks, but an additional 3 weeks were added due to the respawn timer. This does not extend to IRC.

Kyran Caelius has been permanently banned for profiling and attempting to profile players' out of character lives, more commonly referred to as "doxxing." Leigh Kellan and Alexander von Ismay have both been banned for 3 months for facilitating Kyran's activities as accomplices and for making extensive use of player history to affect IC actions. All three of these bans include the IRC server.

Felix Goreclaw has been banned for 1 month for receiving his previous character's assets and being fast tracked through his previous faction to a high ranking position. The related assets have been removed.