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                             CONSENSUALITY POLICY
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1.- GENERALITIES
 
One of the cornerstones of good MUCKing in general, and vore role-playing in
particular, is the idea of consensuality. In short, consensuality means that
all the parties engaged in an activity or scening are in agreement regarding
the activity in question. This means that everyone when scening with someone
else needs to have consent from the other involved party(ies).
 
Definitions:
 
IC : In Character: virtual mode - the character being played.
OOC: Out Of Character: real life mode - the player behind the character.
RL : Real Life: your own OOC life, outside the virtual domain of the MUCK.
RP : Role Play: the scene you are playing with your character.
 
 
2.- RULES DEALING WITH CONSENT
 
Playing without consent is a violation of this policy, is classified as an
abuse, and will definitely -not- be tolerated. Get permission by negotiating
beforehand with anyone involved or, if it's a scene on the fly, ask via 'page'
or 'whisper' for OOC consent. Implicit OOC consent may also be granted via the
various OOC preferences set by each player (with 'voreprefs', 'wixxx', 'pinfo',
'sm #ok', 'mc #allow', 'vore #setup', etc...), but be careful still, because
such preferences are relatively coarse and fuzzy: a more explicit OOC consent
between players is often required and overrides any implicit consent given via
MUCK commands/settings.
 
Non-consensual play (ICly) must also be consensual (OOCly). For some, this can
be confusing. It means that some players and/or characters enjoy non-consensual
situations, and that is fine, but you still need to have OOC consent for IC
non-consent to be legal.
 
Some zones may be indicated as non-consensual areas. By entering a non-
consensual area (and they -will- be clearly marked as such) you imply OOC
consent to non-consensual play. So don't be surprised if very nearly anything
happens to your character in a non-consensual area !
If you build a zone where non-consenual situations can arise (with unavoidable
traps and the like), you -must- put an OOC warning into the @description of the
last safe room before the entrance leading to the non-consenual zone. Failing
to do so is a violation of this policy. However, if your rooms, objects,
zombies or actions use the standard programs of the MUCK without bypassing
their OOC consent mechanism (prompts, @locks, manually @set properties), then
you do not need to add your own OOC warning about non-consensuality. If in
doubt, ask a wizard or helpstaff member.
 
In the same way, the use of non-consenual programs (such as, but not limited
to, vore.muf, TRaM, SlaveMaster.muf, MindControl.muf), may get you into non-
consenual situations where part of the control over what happens to your
character is lost (for example, the character's @description and other
properties may be -temporarily- changed, the character may be moved around
without your consent, it may be bound and kept prisonner in a room, or it may
speak and act under another player's control). -All- such programs have got an
OOC consent mechanism (usually a prompt, or a property you set yourself on your
character to grant your OOC consent), and sometimes a safeword command (a
command reverting your character to its previous state and giving you back its
full control). Don't be surprised however to find yourself in non-consensual
situations once you gave the OK !  -No complaint whatsoever- regarding the
non-consensual aspect of these programs will be taken into account by the
wizards: if you don't like non-consensual programs, don't use them !
 
 
3.- SAFEWORDS
 
If you find yourself in a situation you didn't want to be in (because you
misunderstood the aim of a program, or misstyped 'yes' for 'no', or entered a
non-consensual zone by mistake), you can escape -any- situation by typing
'reform', which is the MUCK-wide safeword command (if you don't like the
messages issued by 'reform' and which imply the temporary "death" of your
character, you can easily change them via the setup menu of 'vore #setup').
 
Even during a RP which was OOCly consented to by all the parties, the OOC
consent may be taken back by any party at any time: such thing can be achieved
by posting an OOC with "safeword !" in it. On the reception of such an OOC, all
the other parties involved in the scene are to stop immediately all IC activity
and to go OOC so to enquire about the problem and solve the issue before
resuming the RP.
 
 
4.- COMPLAINTS ABOUT CONSENT VIOLATIONS AND ABUSES
 
If you feel you have been involved in a scene where your OOC consent was either
not given or abused, the following steps must be taken before talking to wizzes
or players relations helpstaffers:
 
- 'whisper' or 'page' the person OOCly that you require the activity to cease
  immediately and/or use an OOC "safeword !" (type: 'ooc safeword !').
- If the activity continues, make a log file and send it to a wizard or
  helpstaff member, then leave the situation immediately ('reform').
 
Only if the previous steps have been taken can a wizard/helpstaff member
intervene on your behalf.

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