[dentin]

At some point, I would think that IC retalliation should kick in - challenge the jerk to a duel, petition the group to throw out the offensive party, etc. If someone tells you to take it less seriously, claim that you think it's funny OOC, but IC your character is -mad- and there will be consequences.

All this said, there's going to be some truly pathological harassers which require administrative action to handle. It should always be an option for a god to step in and do something - whether OOC player banning for harassment, or just an IC god stomping on the enemy of a follower. This sounds like a slippery slope, but it's much less slippery than you'd think - the ones that are a problem will persistently be a problem. You'll have plenty of evidence. All that's required is the intestinal fortitude to actually take care of the problem.

In the past, I've let this sort of thing go on far too long hoping that it would either go away, that code could take care of it, or that the players would work it out. In the end, the game suffered far more for my tolerance than it should have; the correct action would have been to take care of the problem immediately. I know better now.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD