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Old 10-09-2009, 03:37 AM   #36
drakkos
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Home MUD: Epitaph
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Re: Lets Talk about Voting - Shall we?

Becoming admin on a MUD doesn't grant you supernatural powers. You're limited very much in what you can actually do when people are not directly going through the MUD itself. You can lay down rules, you can even lay on a smackdown, but in the end, having rules that you can't enforce makes you look incompetent. And that's okay, because if you are laying down rules where you can't even detect *who* is infringing them, then you *are* incompetent. It all works out.

All you can do is try to encourage an atmosphere where voting is considered important, but breaking the rules is considered, as part of the MUD ethos if you like, unacceptable. In the end though, you are relying on people to police themselves. I think we've cultivated the right atmosphere on Discworld, for what it's worth, but it comes from social pressures between players rather than an edict handed down From Upon High.

Drakkos.
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