unforum

[Phaedra]

[META] In-game forums and UF

[konamouse]

/me adds her paw to the same thoughts.

During Monster Hunter Club, if we wanted to help another player to find us as a resource, we used private message, not PUBLIC posting.

There really should be NO reason to mention "UF" (in any manner) on the public venue.

[djsampson]

I only used the UFer term because at this point I am not fully sure that the forum is IG yet. We may have just stumbled on to some random forum. If so we must look like a bunch of lunatics. But I followed the finding of that forum. So I assume it is IG.

It just at this point doesn't seem connected. We have a site about hacking and phishing. Then in our trailhead there is H.P. Lovecraft and Frankinstien. Hard to connect the two at this point. Just hoping we landed in the right spot.

It almost makes ya wanna say well we're not crazy check out the 40 pages of info on the stuff on this UF site.

But, I digress. I see your point Phaedra. I just had to say what some are thinking.

[Agent Lex]

[djsampson]

OH well, thats good I guess I should have Whois the site. I didn't even think about that, because it was a forum. Well, now that I feel better about that, back to my lil' ARG bubble.

[rose]

Maybe the person/people just made an honest mistake? Is it possible to PM them about it privately? Honestly, I don't see it is a terrible problem. It is up to the PMs as to how they use information. They aren't going to break the ToS of unfiction by deciding they can post here because someone mentioned it in the in-game forums. I'm not sure how it makes it harder for the PMs, the characters or the story.

I would much rather people feel free to play the game and post on in-game forums without fear of doing something wrong.

Is this question really about control? Just asking.

Most of the important stuff will end up on one forum or the other, depending on where the players decide they want to be, either way people will end up linking stuff. (I'm trying to remember if I ever did this in Monster Hunter or Who is Benjamin Stove... I'm pretty sure I must have linked to or mentioned unfiction at some point.)

[dashcat]

No one commited a crime and no one is being prosecuted. Its just a general "for your information" type thing. Its a good idea to never mention UF on in-game sites. If you aren't sure if its an in-game site just ask in the forum, try doing a whois or ask in the IRC channel. If you are still in doubt then please PM a mod

[rose]

Yes, I agree with the personal messaging being a good approach. In fact I would have done that here, except there were replies in the thread that I thought should be addressed.

Just keep in mind both i love bees (dana's site) and Last call poker (the forums I think) had mentions and links to unfiction on their game sites, so it can be done without causing any harm.

[carmenmiranda]

I guess I don't mention UF because of the TINAG philosophy. We don't know who these people are, or whether they can be trusted. If this, whatever it is, were happening in the "real world", I would want a safe place to discuss the goings on with the people who I DO trust. A place that the questionable people didn't know about.

Although I think the PMs are too polite to *actually* come here and read the posts, I feel like it is rude of us, as Phaedra said, to force them to behave in a manner inconsistent with TINAG.

[Phaedra]

It's not a hard and fast rule, obviously, and I think I may have (in an embedded link) linked to a UF post in response to other players' questions on WIBS. I don't see anything wrong with that -- the in-game characters on the site can plausibly ignore it.

However, I think there's a difference between a subtle direction to other players, and directly telling characters, "We're from this place called Unfiction!" when they're trying to figure out where we're from. There's no good in-game reason for them to ignore our direct answers to their questions, so it puts them in a very awkward position.

As always, just my opinion, but while in the end I fall on the side of it being the PMs' responsibility to deal with whatever the players throw at them, I also think it's nice to play fair when possible.

Anyway, I now return you to your regularly scheduled ARGing...

[Taluria]

Yeah, I figured it wasn't exactly kosher to mention UF in an IG forum, but I tend to try to be as nonoffensive and indirect as possible with this kind of thing.

[cissmiace]

I tend to agree. I mean, Id never mention UF in game ever. I just dont see how it would benifit - (unless it was a 'honest' question ingame by a charecter. For example the sentry guys wondering where the hell all these new people came from ) but even then I would be dubious of mentioning it.

Recently on another arg, someone was going around asking all the in game charecters if they were 'part of the arg on unforums' and 'omg are you in the game D: '
I found it really irritating to be honest.
I know Ive not been an active arger for long, but, I took the time to find and read all the taboos and etiquette beforehand.

Obviously people make mistakes, but Ive heard in the past, mentioning things like this ingame can be detrimental to the game =\

[IcyMidnight]

As for the site being in game, I think I found an inconsistency that would lead to the site being created later than it appears.

If you look at the forums the wiki was created on Jan 17.

If we take the Outpost History page for example and look at the history page the changes are made between Jan 19 and 24.
If you look at the Recent Changes page, the changes (for the most part) are made Apr 12 (day before first batch of CL) and Apr 16 (day before second CL batch)

[aliendial]

I think the PMs legitimately just want to be sure that innocent passersby can find out what's going on, so they have a character slip in a UF mention (and other forums too as appropriate). And then the character develops amnesia and doesn't actually go to UF themselves.

Note there was no viable in-game reason for Dana to post the link to UF in ILB - we all just pretended this didn't mean Dana understood she was a character in a game we were playing, and of course Dana took it no further herself. A little crack in the TINAG facade, but a useful one for everybody. They did that in the Beast too, when Spherewatch got an in-game mention in the early days. etc etc

So yes a mention, yes private messages to confused civilians, and no discussion of what's actually going on at UF.

[rose]