I've noticed a few things going on in our community lately which are very out of taste. I wanted to bring this to people's attention, and I hope that they'll remember to use proper network etiquette when online.
First of all, it seems there is constantly some sort of heated / obnoxious discussion going on in #outpost2, anything ranging from politics / religious debates (and potentially flaming) to /me battles and other immature things.
This is something many of us have real issues over sometimes, especially when it involves politics / religion. The IRC rules themselves state that political and religious-natured discussions should take place elsewhere (like in the lobby).
There are a couple reasons for this rule:
1- The primary purpose of #Outpost2 is simply what the name of the channel is, that is, for playing OP2. Many people who come looking for a game could care less about religion / political discussion. (or don't care to hear about either discussion at any time). Personally I fall into that second category, the American media has enough bias in it to make anyone want to scream
2- Players are from many different countries. As a result some people could care less about how you think George Bush is a moron, or how much you like him. Put it this way: I'm sure a lot of American players could care less about British / Canadian / German / (wherever) politics.
And finally the biggest problem is how these discussions, once they get started, tend to pre-empt anything else. So, for example, someone who joins in the midst of a conversation is essentially drowned out by the discussion and ends up leaving without getting to play a game.
As for /me battles and such - if you really want to, do it in the lobby or some other channel. #outpost2 is not the place for it. It really irritates a lot of people.
Same goes for nick changing to stupid names or trading names with people. If this happens and an IRCop catches you, you will have your nick forcefully changed back. It's pointless, just keep the same nick you always use. You don't need to trade your nickname with other people -- it just creates confusion for someone who wasn't paying attention to the whole thing.
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Second thing is, how some people treat new users to our community who are perfectly fine users (you don't see them acting immature or unusual themselves). Some of the posts I've seen are simply downright nasty. (For example, some of the threads regarding OP1). If they seem to be repeating something over and over (which yes, can be exasperating) remember that you don't know their whole situation. For example, English might not be their first language so they may have trouble understanding directions or comments. Getting angry at the person is not going to help their situation, more likely they may just leave and never come back.
Similar things have happened when people ask for help with routers (or they get ridiculed in the open because they don't know what a router is). Keep in mind that not everyone who comes here is going to be unusually knowledgable about computers or the Internet, thus you must have patience with them.
Likewise, I've seen some comments on IRC which aren't that great either. If someone new asks a question, they should get an honest, serious response instead of some immature or foolish response. (To bring attention to one specific case, if you aren't sure what I mean, someone new came into the IRC channel and asked "Who exactly develops / maintains the game?" and the response was "Satan.")
People are on edge enough when they come into a community full of people they don't know anything about, whether in cyberspace or in real life. Everyone needs to do their best to give them the respect that they deserve as new users.
If you want to joke around or say foolish things to people, do so only after you've gotten to know them. And don't go about it in such a way that is immature or just plain annoying.
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Finally, some stuff regarding Hamachi and OP2 in general.
If, when you play, someone calls a build / attack mark (which often happens in LR games), don't complain -- just honor it. If you continually break bm / am people are going to be less likely to play with you.
Don't quit for trivial reasons. One of the games I played was on CCF and it involved someone quitting because another player SD'ed a scout near their base. When you do this it doesn't make a point -- it just makes you look really, really immature.
Don't argue because a game didn't go your way or because a player broke the rules. I always tell people that the best therapy is to just play another game of OP2, whether it be with the same people or different people. You don't need to start a war on IRC because someone 'cheated' or attacked an ally or did whatever they did to fall out of favor with the other players.
Finally, don't attempt to forcefully drop a player by blocking them on Hamachi. If we hear about people doing this, they will probably get banned. This is something that needs to stop happening. It is bad form, people will not want to play with it
Also, more of an informational note than anything -- The Hamachi networks have been changed to opu.net / opu.net_1 / opu.net_2 / opu.net_3. We are in the process of installing a bot on these networks to automatically drop users who sit in the networks offline. (and a system to allow multiple people to evict 'online' users who have been idling in the network for hours on end).
Please keep in mind that you must right click the network title and select 'leave network' when you are done with Hamachi. If you simply close the Hamachi client you will not be removed from the network and you will occupy space in the network (keep in mind there is a 16 user limit per network, including yourself and the OPUBot).
If you have questions, comments, or anything else to add feel free to post it.
If everyone is aware of these problems I've just listed, and takes steps to eliminate them, we will make OPU a much better place to be online.
