OOC Seminar: PG-13 And You
When: July 23, 2003
What: A seminar to discuss what the PG-13 game rating means and what it
-doesn't- mean.
Logger: Pixie

-------------------------------------------------------------------
A Summary of the Points:

PG-13 is a rating that is not only about exact content; it is about
context and quantity. One swear in an intensely emotional scene may be
acceptable whereas a long string of swears would not be. One random act
of violence is different from constant explicit violence.

Swearing:
* Please restrain yourself to 'mild' swears whenever possible.
* Gloss over the swearing. "Joe curses a blue streak."
* "British" sounding words sound less offensive (to Americans) even when
they really aren't. Arse, Bloody, etc.

Violence:
* No sexual violence.
* No excessively violent scenes without plot committee oversight.
* Saying 'a dead body lies on the floor' is different from saying 'Joe's
severed hand still drips blood into the pool of mingled entrails and
organ tissue that is all that remains of his torso'. If you keep your
descriptions tame you will stay PG-13.

Sex:
* Same issue as with violence for the descriptions. If you keep it tame
and vague, you'll stay within the rating. This means no explicit
descriptions of body parts in a sexual context.
* Please remember what age your character is and have them behave
appropriately.

Remember that the rating for ALL rooms on the game, public or private, is
PG-13. The admins do not routinely monitor everything but are serious
about the rating. If someone tells us they are breaking the rating we
will have to take them seriously and investigate the matter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ariadne waves to all, especially to Amanda.

Seth AKs Draco.

Aubrey says "Yeah well I don't like you /either/."

Bennie is carried in by a couple of shining angels.

Pansy sits at Draco's feet as a makeshift footstool.

Isolde steals Draco's throne for herself.. "A Queen sits on a throne, not some
little prince."

Amanda wishes her entrance was all cool like that.

Ariadne ooohs, "It's permanent."

Draco eyes Seth and Aubrey. You and what army?

Ginger floats in a state of narly half-existence.

Seth shows his small army of house elves. All 10,000 of them.

Aubrey plays with her little green army men. "..me and this army! See? Bang,
bang! Pew, pew.."

Vanya drops a beanbag chair on Aubrey. "Sit." :)

Tengu says "Wow.. popular seminar. Maybe I should add the word 'SEX' to the
new player orientation one. ;)"

Tommy walks in on the Milky Way?

Aubrey pouts and flops.

Draco bwahahas.

Isolde laughs

Pixie laughs.

Amanda lols

Vanya says "Say what? ;)"

Adam laughs.

Seth laughs. "Sex sells..."

Ariadne rolls on the ground.

Ariadne says "Good idea Tengu. ;)"

Crews says "Wow, many peeps."

Lark would drop by. *EG*

Aubrey rolls her eyes, stuffs Lark in a box.

Lark says "I'm a new player. Really. >.>"

Lark is stuffed.

Pansy is too :)

Amanda says "They're all here because I'm so popular"

Tengu says "OO Sex C - Orientation. Hmmm. :)"

Ginger says "What on earth is... Pocky? o_O"

Draco says "Sex C? :D"

You say "Woohoo, SexC."

Draco low-fives Pix.

Seth says "Section C?"

Ariadne breaks the silence with a overbearingly loud, "Hah!"

Lark stuffs Ariadne in an iron maiden.

Amanda grins. wait.... I lol. I only get to lol in the nexus..

Polly stuffs Lark in a Megadeath.

Ariadne goes along quietly.

Bill and Ted exclaim, "Excellent!"

Aubrey tries to drag her Ravenclaw firsties in.

Seth points at his watch. "Time to start."

You say "Okay, let's get started here! The admins have been noticing that
there seems to be a lot of confusion about what our game rating actually
means. In other words, what is permissable and what is not."

Pixie ties Seth up and puts him in the corner.

You say "So I'm going to start by going over it in general, and then people
can just ask situational questions if they have them, I think."

You say "Basically: PG-13 is an extremely flexible rating. That's why it was
chosen. You don't have the enforced blandness of PG or the (nearly) complete
freedom of R. What we want is for people to stop and think: not just about
-what- they're doing, but about -how- they're presenting it."

You say "For those of you who arent' from the US and aren't familiar with our
movie rating system, PG-13 movies are usually rated 12 or 15 in the UK...
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with many other systems. But basically it means
-- children under 13 probably shouldn't (according to some random list of
qualifications) see this movie without their parents. But they can if they
want."

You say "The basic theory behind the rating is this: it permits a good level
of violence, sexual innuendo and even allows some flat out swearing. It
doesn't permit excessive levels of gore, explicit sex scenes or massive
amounts of profanity."

You say "And that's where, we think, the confusion has come in. What -is- too
much? How far is too far?"

Alexander says "If it involves Snape reproducing, it's too far. ;)"

Draco snickers.

Vanya chokes.

You say "Yes, that is profane. ;)"

Moor says "try Mundane"

Lark says "Nah. Apocalyptic. You know by then the antichrist's born. ;)"

Crews laughs.

Alexander acks. I summoned him. Who can I hide behind?

Aubrey says "I think if it starts getting into reconizable foreplay, that'd be
too far. Even if that isn't 'the act', it's extremely close. No roaming
hands, I don't think."

Lark can see it now. Damien Snape.

Moor raises her hand :)

Aubrey gahs, hand raising. Forgot!

Aubrey has been out of school too long, really.

Seth registers the signal to his arm to raise his hand. The signal returns to
show the hand is raised.

Nari says "No such thing as too long away from school... and here i am at a
virtual school!"

Aubrey is still sorry. Zips her lips for the remainder.

Amanda raises her hand.

Bennie staples Aubrey's lips together for good measure. :)

You say "I'll start with the swearing, since that's the easiest to quantify.
To American ears, a lot of more 'British' sounding words will pass the
censors without a hit, no matter their real connotations or level of
vulgarity. Arse, git, bloody -- all fine. What we're looking to avoid are
people peppering the logs with words they won't let you say on television.
There's a list of like 7, or something. I admit I'm not entirely sure what
all of them are, though I imagine if we all brainstormed we could figure it
out (or look it up online)."

Nari suggests they call any highschool boy...

Tengu says "He'd probably come up with more than 7. :)"

Amanda puts down her hand.

You say "In other words: if your character is going to go into a long string
of 'fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck', try and gloss over it instead of actually
having them pose it. 'Ron blisters the air with his cursing'"

Lark laughs at Ten

Ariadne covers her ears.

Seth's ears rupture.

You say "Hmm. Maybe I should stop for questions on the swearing issue now,
before we go on. Though I will admit this isn't one we'v eseen a lot of
problems with. Most people have been able to find the line with this."

Ginger plunges into a string of words that'd turn Coke into Pepsi. u_u~ Yeah.

Pixie laughs.

Tengu says "Is that what brought about New Coke.."

Amanda says "for anyone who wants
it...http://fauxpress.org/words_you_cant_say_on_tv.htm"

Crews raises his hand.

Moor question please

Snape pulls up a firstie and sits down.

You say "Any questions? When we're looking at logs, we -do- consider the scene
and the emotional content involved. If it's very intense, we'll let
something slide that we might not in a more casual scene."

You say "Crews?"

Crews says "What if the scene is private?"

Seth lowers his hand, and shoots Snape with a peashooter.

Crews pats his Snape. "No hurting Snapey."

Alexander stands out of the line of fire and conjures some popcorn.

Snape purrs at Crews and idly transfigures the peashooter to a sidewinder.

Seth says "Bloody git..."

Snape says "Yes?"

Vanya eyes the suicidal ones. Steals Alexander's popcorn.

Ginger forcefully shakes Snape's hand. "May I just say that I am an avid
follower of your future son Damien." He then proceeds to turn Coke into
Pepsi again for good measure.

You say "If you're in a room you own and the log will never be posted, you
mean? Well, in that case we obviously have no way of knowing what you're
saying or doing. The game rating and agreement states that this will be
PG-13. However, if you choose not to follow this in there and don't page us
saying 'ha ha ha, I'm XYZ' where XYZ is breaking the rule, then no one will
know and it's fine."

Snape . Just. Stares at Ginger.

Seth says "So in public places it's only PG-13?"

Tengu says "PRovided, of course, that everyone in the scene doesn't mind."

Aubrey is just going to +watch the meeting. Sorry.

Moor says "I know this probably won't happen because a lot of people wouldn't
want to or they'd lie. However, I'll ask. is there anyway we can get a RL
Over 18 flag or something. I'll be blunt, I'm a teacher rl. A lot of people
know this, but seriously, sometimes I say things on channel or whatever and
I'd like the peace of mind to be able to self monitor myself. I get the
feeling we have quite a few players here who are way under 18.""

Nari nods enthusiasticly and raises her hand.

Ariadne agrees with the idea.

You say "Well, that is possible Moor, and we have considered that. But
frankly, the admins have no way of knowing that you are who you say you are.
You could be a 15 year old pretending to be an adult. We'd have to restrict
that to people we'd met in RL or had in some other way proven their
identities."

You say "As soon as we get into marking some people as adults and others not,
we take responsibility for verifying that the information is true."

Moor says "How about a suggestion for people to put it in theri +finer at
least? I mean some people under 18 might just want people to know and vice
versa?"

Seth shakes his head. "People could lie..."

Nari waves her hand in the air... much like she does in school.

Moor says "I guess... it's just .. weird sometimes."

Ariadne agrees, "But you will always run into that problem."

You say "You can put it in your +finger if you want. But -no one- should
-ever- take something someone told them about their age/life/whatever as
necessarily the absolute truth. If someone tells you they're over 18 you
really have no way of knowing. The game rating is such that it doesn't
matter. Everything should be more or less appropriate for all ages."

Seth says "So no going over PG-13 in public zones?"

Ginger puts up his hand too.

You say "Also, it's not clear to the admins that asking younger players about
their ages is legal in the first place. :P It's all very messy, so we prefer
just to not do so."

Crews nods. "I used to say I was.. er.. 35." :P~~~

Tengu says "The other issue with marking people as /under/ 18, is that
predators may target them. Which is why we ask that people don't give their
OOC age out to people, especially if they're under 18."

Moor says "Ok.. I understand"

Seth squints. "Evil pedaphiles..."

You say "Seth: The GAME rating is PG-13. That includes every room, public and
private."

Seth emits a string of words that would turn Medusa into stone and then mud.

Polly says "What Pixie meant is that if you choose to break the rating in a
private room, they won't be snooping and probably wouldn't know about it.
But you'd still be breaking the rating."

Pixie nods.

Seth nods. "That I can understand."

You say "And if you tell us that you're doing so, we do have to do something
about it."

Nari says "@toad? Keep 'em in a jar in your offices?"

Ginger says "If, in one of these sneaky 'no ones supposed to know' type way,
the two characters do one of those verbal contracts immunizing each other
from prosecution... o_o The contract would be nullified anyway if one of the
players turned out to be under eighteen right? In the case of a player's
parent going nuts."

Snape says "Verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on."

Pixie isn't a lawyer and knows zilch about contract law. But I'd assume so.

Nari says "I think they'll need a witness..."

Crews shares some steak with Snape.. and any other Slytherin.

You say "Obviously this underage issue is a huge problem everywhere online
(just look at ebay :P)."

Nari grabs lettuce. "Cow killers..."

Seth says "My mom gets mad at me online, but she can't do much, since I'm an
adult."

You say "Did I miss anyone's question?"

Nari waves her hand in response.

Ginger says "If only one someone could invent the legality condom. o_o"

You say "Nari?"

Seth raises his hand.

Nari says "I suggest, that you don't go into a nice, long line of f*'s during
a seminar that is supposed to be about pg-13. they don't really say that in
pg-13 movies..."

Polly says "That was her point, Nari."

You say "Yes, that /was/ the point, Nari."

You say "Seth?"

Nari says "Sorry. I'm stupid like that... naive, stupid, clueless..."

Seth lowers his hand. "Okay, would snogging be considered too far for PG-13?"

You say "Seth, we're just doing swearing right now. I'll be getting into sex
and violence next."

Seth then rephrases.

Snape grins with antici ... ... ... pation.

Seth says "Is accidently swearing an offense if you apologize later?"

Amanda patpats Nari, does the Hufflepuff-comfort-friend-thing

Lark perks at the -v- word. >.> ;)

Vanya perks. "V?

Ginger says "The English have awesome ways to cover up naughty words. o_o
Goddamnit = Gordon Bennet."

Bennie says "Let's just try to avoid it in general, Seth."

Lark swats V. ;)

Seth says "I take offense to taking the Lord's name in vain... and I
accidently swore once :p"

Vanya owies.

You say "It's pretty hard to accidentally swear while you're typing. Even for
people who've been MUSHing for a decade, typing requires a lot more
/thought/ than speaking."

Ginger was just trying to make a point. x_o; Not offend.

Alley says "Sorry to interupt, but what is snogging? I never heard the term."

Amanda says "I prefer "got'em" my favorite curse-phrase always gets mutated
into that when children are around :)"

Nari shrugs. Kissing, right?

Seth is a IRCer as well as a MUSHer, so sometimes accidently touching base
with two.

Seth says "french kissing."

Alley says "Oh! Duh."

Alley says "I should have guessed that one..."

You say "If you accidentally swear, just apologize and move on. But please try
to read your poses over before you hit return."

Tommy heads off for the night...

Seth says "Cursing in another language?"

Nari says "Seth! Just don't curse! Simple as that!"

You say "Is still cursing."

Seth mutters. "Curses, foiled again."

Crews lowers, and shakes his head.

Nari says "Was that supposed to be a pun, seth?"

Vanya says "It would be just your luck to swear in front of someone who speaks
the language fluently. It's not hard. There's really no reason I can think
of where you'd /need/ to swear explicitly."

You say "Any other questions about the PG-13ness of swearing, how to pose
swearing so that it doesn't break the rating, or why while we would love to
be able to know everyone's ages, we just really can't do that?"

Crews says "But if you cuss once during the RP, then try not to do it again..
like a pg-13 movie, there is maybe a curse in one scene, then not another
one.."

Seth says "I accidently swore oocly :p"

Pixie nods. Quantity is also a consideration.

Ginger says "Is 'arse' a swear word as such? o_o Or is it supposed to be a
milder form of the latter? Is 'Bum' alright?"

Crews says "She said English Cussing passes the censors."

You say "Well, it is, but since it sounds British to Americans it's considered
classier. Whether it is or not. ;)"

Amanda says "that word sounds really dumb in my Midwestern accent... :)"

Nari says "I can imagine..."

Ginger rights. o_O So "'rse" is out and Bum is in?

You say "No, arse is fine. Bum is fine. Butt is fine."

Polly says "I think arse is probably ok."

Lark says "Yup"

Seth says "Ass is out"

You say "Ass is more or less okay too, depending on the context."

Ramsey says "the webpage linked to in the news seems to suggest that avoiding
Carlin's 7 and not cursing like a sailor is the main issue."

You say "Yes, exactly."

Crews says "You can also do like sh**... censor yourself.."

Nari says "Who's carlin?"

You say "If you're not sure about a word, do not use it."

You say "A comedian."

Ramsey says "George Carlin. Comedian who did a routine about 7 words you
couldn't say on TV, etc."

Amanda says "George Carlin.. rather offensive but hilarious."

Alley says "Yes, saying "I'm stoned off my ass" would not be okay, but if used
in the context of "Jesus was stoned off his ass" would be. Of course, there
is no mention of religion here anyway so..."

Seth says "Ass, jackass, both words for a donkey, or a mule"

You say "Okay... moving on..."

Crews says "Anywhoo"

You say "Violence."

Bennie says "Err... Yeah, good idea."

Vanya says "Whee! I mean..."

You say "This -should- be straightforward."

Crews punches Seth in the arm.

Moor says "Can we get to the sex? If people don't know what swera words are
the most offensive they can look them up?"

Alexander says "Just can't wait, huh, Moor?"

Crews LAUGHS

Polly says "Sounds like my last boyfriend."

Nari says "There is more to life!"

Vanya falls off her inflatable chair.

Amanda giggles

Seth grins. He's pushing PG-13 with his fanfic he's writing. He's already hit
R with the violence.

Lark patpats Moor.

Aubrey is um, back. Yup.

Seth raps on Snapes noggin. "Pay attention. This is what you CAN'T do to first
years."

Ginger quietly bets Snape is the type to pick his nose in the bath. And what a
nose it is.

You say "Like most things, how the violence is depicted weighs in on how we'd
consider it to be rated. If you leave it to the imagination -- no matter how
awful the picture your imagnation comes up with -- then you're safe, with a
few exceptions."

Vanya snugs Aubrey. Drops another beanbag on her.

Crews grabs Seth's arm and hurts it. "Stop messing with Snape."

Nari falls off her feet laughing. (She wasn't siting)

You say "As some of you are aware, we have a policy against sexual
abuse/violence in the news. This is a trigger issue for a lot of people and
we don't feel it has any place in the HP universe. So it's right out, no
matter how tastefully you do it."

Ariadne sits down on the fallen beanbag.

Seth rips off Crews head. Seth's mad. Seths wand is getting ready to hex.

You say "People, could you settle down?"

Seth says "Illegal IRL, illegal here..."

You say "No, Seth, that isn't what I said."

Seth shuts up.

And there was much rejoicing.

Crews laughs.

Seth laughs. Then shuts up and the rejoicing grows louder.

Nari joins the rejoicing.

Vanya says "Can we stop the random chatter and listen to Pixie now?"

You say "For other violence, it is all in the depiction. Lots of blood and
entrails and bits of skin and things? Not going to be PG-13. So -- if you
slice someone up with a sword, don't go into rapturous descriptions of how
the sword severed their arteries and you should be fine."

Amanda snickers. "Got it."

Aubrey says "Gore isn't that interesting anyway, for most people."

Nari says "That would be powerplaying, anyways, wouldn't it?"

Aubrey says "That can be a pun if you want."

Amanda says "you could always p the person first, make sure it's ok to beat
them up..."

You say "In general, scenes where there's a conflict that will lead to mass
quantities of violence beyond a fistfight will be being run by the admins or
someone designated by us, so it's not going to be an issue."

Ginger puts up his hand.

Pixie was assuming that the 'someone' in question was probably an NPC of some
sort. /Consent/ is a different issue, one not covered today.

You say "Ginger?"

Ginger says "What if someone asked me what was inside haggis? o_o"

Lark says "...."

You say "That's not violence, it's a recipe."

Seth chuckles.

You say "Unless you graphically describe how you executed the sheep."

Ginger ahs. ^^

Ariadne says "Ewwe. ;)"

You say "If recipes were illegal, Snape couldn't run potions class. :)"

Seth says "That would be for the best."

You say "Any other questions about violence and the rating?"

Ariadne says "No"

Aubrey says "Nope, that's the easy one."

You say "All right. Last but not least."

Moor gets out of control with Seth and a roll of duct tape.

Snape says "Get a room. ;^>"

Amanda stifles a Hahaha.

Lark says "..."

Moor says "I was bringing him to you. Last time I try to help you!"

You say "Sex: This is probably the point that's caused the most confusion.
People aren't sure where the line is. The facts of the matter are, this is
because there is no clear line. It is completely possible for two people to
pose out a sex act without ever breaking the rating, with both of them
knowing exactly what happened. It's also possible for someone to end up
breaking the rating just with posing kissing."

Bennie says "It's all in the way you present it, pretty much."

You say "Yes, exactly, Bennie."

Seth says "A sweet kiss on the cheek would be okay then?"

Lark says "Kinda like that log with Charles and Fiona then...must be safe if
it's on the log site. Mild precursor, fade to black, cuddly aftermath."

Pixie nods. Any log that's come through on the site was read by the admins
before it came through. So it's passed /our/ limits. Exactly why may be
subtle, so if you're not sure, you can ask.

Seth says "Where is the log site anyways?"

You say "Seth, yes, a sweet kiss on the cheek is probably fine, as long as
it's posed... sweetly."

Crews sweetly kisses Pixie on the cheek.

You say "http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hpmush-logs/"

Ramsey says "The log with Draco and Rebecca is another example of a fade to
black, no picking up afterward there."

Ginger makes with love with some misc. NPC, has a smoke and leaves. o_o -The
country. Before her father came home. <- How was that? :D Did it make it
through the censors?

You say "No. No smoking. ;)"

Ginger drats! XD ;)

Seth makes love with some misc. NPC. He lights a pipe, draws on it
thoughtfully, then leaves. "Acceptable?"

You say "Characters are going to have sex. They are going to make out and kiss
and hug and sometimes have children. This is PERFECTLY FINE. (Except for the
children part if you're a student.)"

You say "Though bear in mind that if your character is /11/, they should not
be doing it."

Amanda raises hand

Seth says "No huge details then explaining various parts of human anatomy..."

You say "Amanda?"

Ginger says "Unmentionables! =D"

Amanda says "can we say the..anatomical words.. in an anatomical sense, or do
we have to use euphamisms? (sp?)"

Amanda says "y'know.. 'tools of feminine persuasion' or 'manly bits'"

Vanya dies.

Ariadne takes Vanya's seat.

Aubrey mourns, and then gets over it.

Seth says "No naughty bits..."

Amanda says "they're not on the dont-say-on-tv list..."

Vanya blows a kiss to Aubrey. "Love you too, hon." *reclaims her seat and
listens*

Tengu says "I think if you're doing it properly and tastefully, there won't be
mention of any naughty bits."

Aubrey snickers.

Isolde says "Seth let Pixie answer."

Ramsey says "I think she was asking how it was appropriate to refer to one's
body parts in a non-sexual sense."

Amanda nods

And rejoicing came when Seth became silent once more.

Lark says "That's what I thought ^^;;."

You say "Taste is a matter of opinion. But think about a movie. When they show
you all the body parts and what they're doing, it's usually porn. If
everything is artfully blocked by sheets and camera angle, it's not."

Ginger says "In the Goblet of Fire they say bosom? =D"

Draco says "Just an opinion, but I think PG-13...congress...is mostly about
abstraction and emotions."

Draco says "But the admins can tell me that I'm full of ferret chow on that.
:D"

Aubrey says "I do need some new ferret food, don't feel like going out.."

Lark patpats Draco.

You say "Amanda, if your character is talking about something where she needs
to reference a body part for some reason, you can use the word she would
use. If she'd say penis, go ahead. If she'd say wand, go ahead. If it's a
sexual situation, be more careful of what she says; if it's, say, health
class, there's no real sexual connotation at all."

Amanda lols. "okee-doky."

You say "No, you've got it, Draco. :)"

Draco grins. Good.

Ginger puts up his hand.

You say "Ginger?"

Ginger says "Do they even teach anything refering to sexuality at Hogwarts?
o_o Or is it supposed to be a father-son mother-daughter type lesson? Or do
most wizards and witches get along by trial and error -if at all?"

Aubrey says "Health is an elective, and they do, I think."

Lark says "Oooh..."

Aubrey doesn't remember.

You say "Madam Pomfrey teaches Basic Health & Medicine to 6th & 7th year
students who elect to take it. That would cover some basic issues. Otherwise
the education is left to parents."

Seth says "Darn my french heritage (icly)"

Lark cracks up at the typical visual. ^_^ Stork and a bag.

You say "So it is up to you what your character's parents have told them. If
-I- was sending my 11 year old child to a school full of older students I
would give them some good information before they went."

Ramsey says "And wizards don't have the religious taboo, either."

You say "Right."

Seth knows too much, icly.

Ariadne zips up Seth's 'IC' thoughts.

Seth turns into a troll.

Amanda wonders "Has JK ever said anything about her views on Religion in the
Potterverse?

Vanya doesn't think there /is/ religion in the Potterverse.

Aubrey says "It just is never mentioned."

Isolde says "At least not in wizarding kind."

Ariadne says "Yeah, never mentioned."

Crews says "Yeah.. girls worship Lockhart."

Amanda says "but they celebrate Christmas, Easter, and Halloween... ah,well."

Seth says "Not religiously"

Ariadne says "Holidays."

Isolde says "probably as British holidays."

Crews says "And some guys too. :P *ducks*"

Vanya says "'news char religion'"

Amanda hmms and @teleports the discussion back on topic :)

Bennie says "Right, so normally, if you were going to say something such as,
"Oh, Jesus!" or "Oh, Lord!" I think most of the MUSH substitutes 'Merlin' or
the founder of their House at Hogwarts, correct? This is what I noticed,
although I never asked."

You say "The HP universe seems quite secular, aside from random incongruous
bits, like godfathers. In any case, on this game we've decided that the
witches and wizards do not have religious taboos about sex."

Seth cheers. Then silence. Rejoicing returns to the world.

Bennie knows that is off topic, he just felt perplexed to ask at the moment.

You say "Yeah, that's what's mostly been done, Bennie."

You say "They have their own taboos about bloodlines, but that's more for
reproduction and not necessarily sex itself."

Ramsey saw a reference somewhere to a pureblood character having said
something like 'Oh, God,' but hasn't tracked it down in the books. But it's
clear that active practice of religion is either nonexistent, /very/
understated, or considered private, or else it would have been mentioned
somewhere.

Amanda wonders how much inbreeding produced some pureblood families...

Lark says "Hagrid's said it in one of the earlier books. If I remember
correctly. And he was yelling at the time, it was in caps. ;)"

Ginger points at Draco. o_o

Pansy raises her hand.

You say "Pansy?"

Crews gasps.

Amanda says "Hagrid was raised by a Muggle, tho.."

Draco peers at Ginger. "You know, when you point, three fingers point back at
you."

You say "Hagrid was not raised by a muggle."

Pansy says "Earlier you said that it was possible to break the rating by
posing kissing. I guess I just assumed that kissing was always PG-13, unless
it's /where/?"

Ariadne says "His mother was a giantess and father was a wizard."

Lark says "..."

Amanda slaps her forhead "...I'm getting Hagrid and Seamus confused... they
are both half-wizard, tho" :)

Bennie though Pixie was referring to what the hands were doing during the
kissing, not the actual kissing, but I don't know for sure...

You say "It's not a -where-, it's a -how-. If you pose in explicit detail the
kiss, where everyone's tongue is, where everyone's hands are, what the rest
of their body is doing in reaction to the kiss, it is possible to get
explicit enough that we've left the realm of PG-13."

Seth says "snogging?"

You say "No, Seth."

Ginger puts up a hand.

You say "Ginger?"

Ginger says "Of course, if one really feels the need, they can carry on the
'lights out' bit on an instant messenger without putting the Mush itself in
any danger of legal messiness?"

You say "Yes, obviously we have no control over and no desire to control what
you do someplace else. Another game, IM, email, whatever."

Ariadne says "At least our admins aren't power hungry."

Lark grins.

Seth puts a gold star on Pixie.

Ginger just wanted to make sure that the Mush had no responsibility over a
player's characters. o_o Or... Something. x_x; Individual intellectual
property and stuff.

Seth says "Thankfully this MUSH doesn't have facist or communist admins..."

You say "We do ask that if you /do/ do these things off game, however, that
you please do not, for instance, make a website displaying the logs and then
publicize it on the game."

Lark says "Well legally the admins still call the shots. Ie. They can say what
can or can't happen in the database. But with character development or
whatever, I figure you can do as thou wilt. As long as..yeah, what Pixie
says."

You say "If you do that it starts to affect us and how the game is percieved
by the outside world."

Amanda rases an eyebrow. "Don't knock Communism..." :)

Vanya says "It's your business what you do off game - keep it that way. :)"

Ariadne knocks Amanda.

Seth grins. "Communism is good, if it's practised the same way Marx wrote."

Lark says -nothing- about communism. >.>

You say "Good way to put it, Vanya. :)"

Vanya grins.

Ariadne knocks all for good measure and with no connotations as to political
party.

You say "Any other questions?"

Ariadne says "No."

Ginger uhhs... "So Arse is okay?" ;) *ducks*

Crews raises his hand.

Pixie thwaks Ginger. Crews?

Draco facepalms.

Crews says "Can you say everything you just said? 0;)"

Crews ducks.

Pixie @toad Crews.. whoops.

Vanya snickers.

Aubrey thinks we covered everything pretty well..

You say "Any /real/ questions? If anyone's still concerned about a specific
issue, you can page the admins for clarification. But suffice it to say if
we feel you're trying in good faith to keep within the boundaries, we aren't
going to be upset with minor slippage."

Amanda nods.

Seth nods.

Ginger thanks Pixie thinks it was a very informative meeting! :D

Isolde noddles

Seth says "Waiting for the new char one now :D"

Vanya says "Thanks muchly. :)"

Ariadne says "Thank you for putting up with us our precious admin."

Amanda waves g'bye to all.

You say "Okay! Thank you all for coming. :)"