[Terloch]

I'm curious as to what other admin have done to try to deal with an overflowing amount of OOC comments/etc on their respective sites.

We've had an OOC channel, which was removed due to rediculous spam.

We've had an osay local room command which was removed because of complete over-use.

We've had people preface gossip and other global comments, and other local things like say/yell with (ooc) and so on.

So what have you done, if anything to deal with the over-abundance of people wanting to be OOC and making OOC comments in general? Do you just let them? Do you ban it outright? Do you ignore it?

[TG_Hammar]

In general, our players can be OOC if they want, but since we are an RP MUD, when they join a guild, as most players do, their guild administrator will restrict the amount of OOCness they are allowed. Some of the more serious and more difficult guilds are nearly IC all the time. Other than that, it is an honor system.

[Alastair]

What you also could do is to set up OOC rooms or areas (taverns etc...) and limit the listening to an OOC channel to those rooms.

No matter how you try to police that, people will want to ooc from time to time, even the most hardcore RPers. If you forbid it in the game, they will OOC while IC, or resort to external chatter software instead... and eventually leave.

[John]

I'm not an Imm, but I've seen a few Muds and I'd have to say that the current Mud I'm on now, which is an RPI mud, has virtually no OOCing.

Is your Mud heavily based on RPing? If not then I don't think this should be a problem, but I'm assuming it is. On H&S muds, I've run away cause of the spamminess of global chats, so perhaps a way to combat it, is to have the default for global channels (except for a newbie one) set to off, so when new commers come, they won't be tempted by them.

And also have an OOC command that is restricted to the room only, this way people can OOC when it's neccessary but not abuse it.

Also, create a Message Board on your site or even a chatroom. If you can't create a message board then sign up for a freebie and link to it. This would allow people to get it out of their systems.

But just a question, why do you use global channel anyway? Any global (IMHO) is an OOC thing, unless you have something that makes sense for it within your setting, I wouldn't know I haven't played it. But in the game I'm in, there isn't ANY global channels.

Originally Posted by (John @ Sep. 17 2002,05:42 am) Also, create a Message Board on your site or even a chatroom. If you can't create a message board then sign up for a freebie and link to it. This would allow people to get it out of their systems.

Yikes. Careful with message boards. On the game I play on, there is an extensive out of game message board. It serves in part to help with questions about mechanics, expected rp of races and guilds, questions from newbies, and non-game related chit-chat. But it also serves to create hostile, angry, unproductive conversations that the moderator eventually pulls. And unfortunately, too many players take their frustrations with others responses on the OOC boards into their characters IC actions. Message boards bring as much bad as they offer good.

[Sanvean]

We've got a pretty active discussion board - to the point where we're moving it soon, heh, since it's cutting into game bandwidth.

We do try to keep OOC out of the game, since it's jarring to be playing and have someone yacking away OOCly about the episode of Buffy they just watched, but it's totally understandable that players (and staff) tend to form a community built around their common interest, and I think it's a good thing. I'm not so fond of people sharing information about plotlines, but we can't really police that sort of thing except inside the game.

We get some great contributions from players as a result of the community spirit, and it helps us get to know the players -- which is very important, since that's where our new staff members all come from.

[Ashon]

Originally Posted by (Alastair @ Sep. 17 2002,04:53 am) What you also could do is to set up OOC rooms or areas (taverns etc...) and limit the listening to an OOC channel to those rooms. No matter how you try to police that, people will want to ooc from time to time, even the most hardcore RPers. If you forbid it in the game, they will OOC while ICcccccc, or resort to external chatter software instead... and eventually leave.

This is kind of a cool idea, have the ooc channels only work in certain rooms, so when they are in different parts of the world they can still be ooc with each other.

[Iluvatar]

Why not just make the OOC channel a toggle the morts and turn off or on? Someone whines about OOC bothering them, your response is turn it off. I prefer this to them taking it to AIM or some other instant messenger where I can't monitor what's happening.

We have OOC and it's specially colored to allow an at-a-glance knowledge that it's OOC and I find I typically tune out that one color unless contents warrant action. We're not rainbow so it's not a problem for the color.

[Dionae]

The problem we had is that after the ooc channel was taken out, people started to use the question/answer channel as their global ooc chat channel. I would be reluctant to toggle that off, because sometimes people do have actual questions they need help with. But there were times when it just got rediculously spammy.

I felt the same way about osay. No, I didn't want to sit around and listen to people carry on lengthy ooc conversations in the middle of the city square, but I also didn't want to miss when someone had a real question, or needed to clear up something that was going on, which they couldn't do ic. Though I suppose tells can be used instead of osay for most things.

I do believe that it's nice to have some form of ooc communication though. It can be a real help to players who are brand new to the game, and can also give people an outlet which is sometimes dearly needed. I think the key is just to not let ic and ooc lines cross.

[Jazuela]

I hate OOC channels of any sort, but I also recognize a need for people to break character sometimes. Often it's to ask for syntax help, or to deal with someone who's new and has done (or is about to do) something REALLY out of genre or inappropriate. Sometimes it's just a need to get out of the heavy intense roleplay and goof around and relax with friends in an OOC manner.

Sometimes these things need immediate reaction rather than a post on the boards and waiting for a response, which may or may not ever come.

For this reason, I like how Inferno sets it up. No, I don't play there anymore, but I still love some of the systems they have and feel comfortable extolling those systems' virtues <g> So here's how they have it set up. Opinions welcome of course.

When you log in, you don't log in as your character. You log in as your UID (User Identification). So my UID was Ephemera, and the character on the Ephemera account was Nirani.

Now Ephemera is logged in, and exists *only* in a 10-room area called Ice9 Reality. In Reality there exists the OOC message boards, a post office for in-house mail, a conference room for OOC forums when admin needs/wants to discuss things with the player base (like major changes to the accounting system, or rollout of a new quest via an event that might take many hours to complete and they need to warn the players to arrange their personal schedules appropriately if they want to do so), and a few rooms where people can talk privately one-on-one in an OOC way (like a GM helping a newbie understand things, for example).

There's also the chargen entry and game entry in the "upstairs" area, and the character goes through one or the other and ends up in the game, either wherever they left it, or at the local "dropoff point" for new characters.

It's a physical separation of OOC, and it allows the RP to stay RP, while still giving people the opportunity to go OOC without disrupting the game in any way, shape, or form.

[OnyxFlame]

I never realized ooc in this form (as opposed to ooc cheating) was such a problem. I've never noticed a problem with it on the mud I play, which is oriented towards RP. (Usually BAD RP, but still RP. )

How we do it is this: we have NO global channels, ooc or otherwise. Shouting and being heard by the whole town is about as close as it gets. We also have no tells, except to creators (who tend to frown on it unless you're in an emergency), and spells (which are typically used for IC stuff because a spell isn't a particularly ooc function). So most (legal) ooc communication is relegated to the ooc command, which is visibly only in the room the speaker is in. Yeah sometimes you get a long drawn out ooc conversation that interrupts the flow of things, but it doesn't get too out of hand because the people it annoys can move, or the people talking oocly can move. Most of the time ooc conversation is about the game anyway (what's the syntax for x? well 3 years ago y wasn't coded. oh I really like this mud except for z.).

We also have an ooc area accessible from most towns, which contains various message boards and ooc mail. (There's also an IC mail system.) Most of the boards stick the poster's name on, but there's an anonymous one, as well as a few only creators can read, and one for creator announcements. When they were testing feudalism, they put some castles in oocland and we all ran around swearing fealty to each other and generally screwing around before they actually released it into the game. It was pretty neat.

Also, one of the creators has a site about the mud, containing helpfiles, interesting logs that aren't politically volatile anymore, and a message board where people end up flaming each other more often than they say anything useful.

In general, the players are pretty good at keeping ooc and ic separate, except for cheating which they mostly do on ICQ and such anyway. Occasionally a newbie will say ooc stuff with say, and vice versa, but we're pretty tolerant at first and tell them how to do it, and only complain if they keep doing it. If someone messes up and uses the wrong command, we just generally ignore whatever they said. (i.e. Joe says hey what's on TV, and Fred doesn't go asking what the hell a TV is, he'll either ignore it or respond ooc)

[shade]

Been reading and something strikes me as amazing. Alot of you asume players come for rp, or know its pure rp. Rp is only a little part of the mud world theres alot more to it and theres also alot of the Die hard and fast pk muds out there who could give a s*it less about rp. Now what i mean to say is tolerance to ooc must be given, if someone played a hard core pk mud and did not rp for 5 years expecting him to get into the all funky mystiqe rp worlds thats has been developed during a long time is hard. This is especially since players who played a rp mud for a long time have a tendancy of growing elite and thinking they all mighty along with the basic stereotype playing wich in my eyes makes rp boring. Anyway take this from a person who plays rot pk muds to kill and insult people, it takes a while to relearn how to act (I started playing a moment in tyme) and yelling wont help.

Shade
Mercy is for loosers.

Originally Posted by (shade @ Oct. 06 2002,4:52 pm) This is especially since players who played a rp mud for a long time have a tendancy of growing elite and thinking they all mighty along with the basic stereotype playing wich in my eyes makes rp boring.

In the spirit of this threads...

I hope your OOC frustrations and dislike of long time rpers does not manifest itself ICly through your character when you do choose to rp.

We trust are players to keep the OOC and IC separate. Though some times I poke them and say should that be said here? : ) Me personally I love being hit with tells from the players. They got a question, personal problem, or what not I try to be there as much as I can to help them out. I think ooc channels are a needed thing. Some times people just want to log in and chat with they new friends they have made on the game.
Or just point things out, help others, give ideas ECT. My self I do my best to keep IC and OOC apart. But then again I am not any better then any of the other players and we all make mistakes.

Anyway that is my few ducats on that : )
Sargon

[Mandrake]

A MUD is a place to play. From that standpoint, folks will always need a way of venting and communicating. Out of character communication needs a place, but it needs to be meetered in such a was as to not infringe on the atmosphere of the rest of the world.

Personally, I hate OOC. My disdain comes not from someone asking about syntax, or telling a story about how their day at work went.....its the frustraitiion of folks who flip-flop and finkle-fart back and forth between IC and OOC when it makes little sense. The classic example is the player who brandishes weapons, dons colors, and charges into battle....gets beaten and whines to the world about game mechanics.

How do you keep a reasonable guide on you OOC?
You can code it....level restrictions for channels, mana costs for gossips, or special rooms that prohibit chatter.
You can police it with Immortal hall monitors who hand out detentions.
You can try and lead it. The important part here is that your immortals and guild leaders themselves refrain from contributing to the spam, and that they pro-actively usher those types of things into quiet places once they begin to cause problems.

~Mandrake