Respect vs. Drama

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Welcome to Umbra Roleplaying!
We are an 18+ multi-genre roleplaying and writing community open to writers of all types.
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Hey, Umbra. Let's talk.

By and large the vast majority of Umbra's user base is respectful, friendly, and charming. We're incredibly happy people feel at ease here, and that we've so far managed to foster a healthy community space for people to interact and write together with minimal drama. However, that's just it; even minimal drama means there is SOME drama.

Such things are inevitable when you're dealing with large groups of people: personalities clash, ideals differ, and miscommunications happen. Sometimes people just have no respect. However, the negative incidents on Umbra can be counted on one hand. To the best of our ability Nev and I like to be discreet and professional when we have to deal with troublemakers, trolls, or tense situations.

Which brings us to the point: if anyone harasses you, mistreats you, or just makes you feel uncomfortable, let Nev, Candi, or myself know ASAP. One of us is almost always on, and if we're not, send a message anyway.

I get why you might not be inclined to do so. We've heard of (and experienced) a fair share of administrative abuse. Sometimes people in power cannot handle that power and mistreat or dismiss others. Sometimes they get outright unreasonable with their actions and decisions. Trusting us to treat you well may be difficult, but give us that chance. We want to help.

It's encouraged to turn the other cheek and be the bigger person. There is a desire among many of us to not "create drama," and thus we remain silent when someone mistreats us. While I'll agree that you shouldn't escalate an already hostile situation, there is absolutely nothing wrong with reporting someone being excessively rude or toxic. If they're treating you with zero respect, then they are almost certainly doing the same to another member of our community.

If one person is being toxic to ten people and ruining their experience, but only one of them reports that behavior, then it makes it that much harder for us to act swiftly. But if all ten report this one person, then we can know immediate action is needed.

We will never punish anyone for making a report. If you feel uncomfortable with an interaction, we want to know. Even if the offensive action wasn't a direct violation of Umbra's rules, it is important to know if someone has a track record of toeing the line and making others uncomfortable.

We will never share any information about reports with unrelated parties. If you report a toxic individual, we will not tell them who submitted the report. We will speak to the person in question and allow them the benefit of the doubt; after all, we all have bad days. Maybe so-and-so was just in a rotten mood and acted out. That's understandable. Our entire goal is to make sure EVERYONE is having a good time. After the situation is handled, the information remains confidential; we don't find it particularly helpful to broadcast when or if we have to warn or even ban problematic individuals.

If you want a step-by-step procedure for what to do, here you go:
  • First, as soon as the situation occurs, let Nev, Candi, or myself know via PM or use the "Report" button located on the bottom of every post. Do not post on the forums; do not make a personal status calling the individual out.
  • Keep the evidence of the interaction. If it was a DM, keep it in your folder for the time being. If it was on a thread, link us to it. We have to have proof of toxicity; hearsay is a dangerous slope and one we don't want to go down.
  • Once we've responded and have assured you we will handle it, you may want to use our new Block feature to make sure you don't have to deal with that person on any level anymore.
    • Block is a buffed up version of the default Ignore status. While the Ignore feature hides all content from a person you have ignored, Block will hide all content from that person and automatically put YOU on Ignore for THEM. This means that unless the Blocked person manually un-Ignores you, they will not be able to see your content.
    • As with Ignore, private messages sent from the Blocked person will never reach you.
    • Ignore had a questionable feature that would allow you to still see Ignored user content by clicking on a little link where the Ignored content is located. Block removes this link entirely. The only way to see content from a Blocked user is to go into your User Menu and manually un-block them.
    • Keep in mind, Block does not erase evidence of the blocked user's existence entirely. They will still show up on the "Members Online Now" sidebar widget.
  • That's it. You're done. Browse in peace of mind.

Again, while I can't exactly tell you that just ignoring a bully isn't the right thing to do, all too often these situations tend to reach out beyond just two parties. We want to make sure your experience is fun, secure, and drama-free. When we can act to smother drama-flares before they turn into drama-fires, we help everyone out.

The bottom line is this: we want everyone to respect each other. Respect us, respect your peers, and respect yourself. This respect is the foundation of peace, prosperity, and social comfort. It's what we built the heart of Umbra around, our core value and the tenet by which we stand. You respect others by not being rude; you respect us by trusting us to handle problems for you; and you respect yourself by reporting those who lack that respect.

That's all for now, Umbra. Happy holidays and happy new year. We'll see you all in 2020.

- Nyctibius, The Owl Dad