First time users: please read!

ROMANTIC CIRCLES HIGH SCHOOL MOO CODE OF CONDUCT

The MOO and its users make up a community and when you log in under your account you become a participating member of that community. Please act accordingly when you chat or build objects, showing respect for the other members of your community.

MOO characters, like spaces and objects in the MOO, are most interesting when imaginatively created and described. Be creative with objects. This is made possible by an object-oriented computing environment, but it is very important to remember at all times that people logged into the MOO are NOT objects. Please exercise caution and common sense in how you represent yourself. Always treat other users and their spaces with respect, just as you would in real life. For example, don't pick up and take away other users' objects without permission. Human interaction and communication in the MOO should be based on the fact that there is a real person behind every character (except of course for bots)--a real person at the other end of every connection.

Romantic Circles High School is designed as a creative, playful, but ultimately educational space. Remember to conduct yourself in a way that would be appropriate in a real-life classroom and that would further the larger community goal of creative learning.

YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR IS CAUSE FOR YOUR MOO PRIVILEGES TO BE REVOKED AND YOUR GRADE TO BE PENALIZED.


TIPS on COMMUNICATING in THE MOO*

1. Write in short bursts of text. Lengthy sentences or paragraphs of text are difficult to read while lots of other text is causing your screen to scroll up as the conversation continues. If you want to write in snippets, using an ellipsis (. . .) before you hit Enter tells the others in the room that you still have more to say.

2. Be careful about using all capital letters. It has the effect of SHOUTING!

3. Keep in mind that if you are being funny or ironic, unless you accompany what you say with a textual emote (like smiling or rolling your eyes), the other players may not get the joke. They might even take offense.

4. Try to direct your talk to specific people when you are not addressing the whole group (use the "stage talk" feature). This cuts down on the confusion when lots of people are talking in the same room.

5. If you want to say something to another player better said in private, and you are in a group, please page or whisper to that player. But be careful about accidentally saying to the whole room what you meant to say as a page to one player. This has caused many an embarrassing moment.

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* tips from _MOOniversity_, ed. Jan Rune Holmevik and Cynthia Haynes (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000)