Virtual Communities Companion/Virtual Communities Companion.iso/disk1/wizard_manual_121.0

Text File | 1997-07-29 | 32KB | 770 lines

Guide for New Wizards and Old
(Version 1.0)

Topics
======
Introduction
Function of a Wizard
Talking to users
Classifying Palace Abusers
Member Killings
Death Penalties
Site Bans
The BanList
Gagging and Ungagging
Pinning and Unpinning   (New)
Hide, Mute and other Member Cmds  (New)
Getting info about Users
Talking to Other Wizards
Sending Global Messages
Authoring
The Wizards Mailing List

Introduction
============
This is a guide for wizards on the "Main" Palace Server,
currently located at palace.thePalace.com port 9998,9999 and 10000.

This information also applies to wizards at the "Members" Palace server,
located at port 9996.

The guidelines suggested here do not apply to other servers.

Most of this document consists of guidelines and discussion about how to
recognize and deal with abusive users on the palace.  At the end there
are specific instructions for how to use the special commands available
to wizards.

Most of the guidelines suggested here have been violated at one time or
another by either myself (Jim) or one or more of the other wizards.  It
is my experience with the consequences that have led me to
suggest these Guidelines.  I hope that this will be a dynamic document
- with lots of input from other wizards, and perhaps some testimonials
about specific incidents, and how they were dealt with.

[ 9/18/96 Note from Jim: That was written January 9th, 96 - as of yet
  there has been little input to this manual.  If you would like to
  provide some input - please e-mail it to me, and I'll add it in. ]

I should also mention that most of the guidelines mentioned in here are
exactly that - GUIDELINES - not edicts of law.  You will notice that I
use phrases like "it is a good idea to" and "you should probably" a
lot. There are two reasons for this.  Firstly, you will sometimes
encounter situations where these guidelines are inappropriate. If so,
(as Nero Wolfe says to Archie Godwin) "use your natural intelligence
and wits to guide you", AND be sure to let us know what happened (via
the wizards mailing list) as it is sure to make for an interesting
story, if not a possible addition to this guide.  Secondly, all wizards
are individuals and have their own styles - and this is probably for
the best.

Function of a Wizard
====================
Some people think that wizardship is a "reward" that we give to people
who have been on the Palace a long time. This is not true, and it is
one of the reasons we typically don't award wizardship to people who
ask for it.  Wizards exist for one principle reason:

    To help make the Palace a better place.

Obviously, "better" is a relative term, so perhaps we should append the
phrase "for the majority of users".  This can and should be
accomplished through the following means, listed roughly in order of
frequency:

    a) Being your usual brilliant, entertaining self.
    b) Talking to users.
    c) Reprimanding abusers.
    d) Killing extremely obnoxious abusers.
    e) Gagging less obnoxious abusers.
    f) Occasionally making minor modifications to the rooms using the
       authoring tools.

[ 9/18/96 Note from Jim: VERY occasionally, or under controlled circumstances,
  see below.. ]

The last three methods are the unique powers that you, as a wizard have.
To quote Stan Lee, "with great power comes great responsibility", and
to quote some other guy, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely", and yet
another guy, "A little power corrupts a little".  Because of these
issues, I'll spend most of this guide discussing these powers, and how
to use them appropriately.


Talking to users
================

TALK is GOOD!

It has been said many times, and is worth repeating repeating that it
is generally better to "talk" than to "kill".

At the very least, an obnoxious user should be warned before being
killed, and given sufficient opportunity to amend his behavior.
Although it is true that the "house rules" posted at the front gate
indicate that obnoxious behavior can result in being "killed without
warning" - this is primarily to deflect criticism of the automatic
mechanism that kills flooders - not to give wizards carte blanche to
kill without warning.

Having said this, there are clear cut examples where one must kill
without warning. Two examples that immediately come to mind are:

  a) A user who is continually flooding the server by repeating the same
  message over and over again (using the up arrow).  In this case it may
  be difficult to warn the user, because he is using all the bandwidth.
  In some cases, the system may do your job for you, but in others, you
  have no choice but to kill.

[ 9/18/96 Note from Jim: Although GAG would be more appropriate in this
  case... ]

  b) A recent previous offender who has returned and shows signs of
  continuing the same behavior (See Psychotics, below).

Classifying Palace Abusers
==========================
There are a few different types of Palace abusers, not all of them should
be killed - some should be gagged, and others simply ignored.

I) "Criminal Psychotics" or "Psychotics".  These are users who enjoy
annoying others in the worst ways they know how, and will typically
intentionally try to provoke wizards into killing them.  Typical
quotations:

   a) "Suck my Dick" (repeated 100 times by hitting up arrow return)
   b) "<insert wizards name here> is a bitch and deserves to die"
   c) "Kill me Kill Me Kill Me"

Psychotics are generally the easiest to identify, and are probably the
only case where a killing without warning may be required.  However, be
careful not to confuse a "child" with a "psychotic".  Psychotics will
typically attempt to return immediately when killed - see below for how
to identify this.

II) "Children".  A child is a young user (typically <= 15 years old) who
delights in the freedoms of the Palace, and gets a kick out of seeing
the word "fuck" appear on his computer, probably because he is not
allowed to use the word at home. Children can easily be confused with
"Psychotics" but there are important differences. One big difference is
that children can usually be "talked down".  Typical behaviors for
children:

   a) Repeating the ")Wind" sound 20 times.
   b) Saying "Anyone want to screw?"

A Child's level of abuse may vary greatly at different times, depending
on the hormone levels.  A Child's level of abuse may be borderline and
may intentionally be just provocative enough to piss you off, but not
enough to kick.  Such is life. In many cases it is better to GAG a
child (see below) rather than to KILL a child, thus  confirming the
Puritan notion that "children are better seen than heard".

III) "Breathers".  A Breather is someone who continually propositions
every user with a remotely feminine name or appearance to have sex,
typically (but not always) using private messages.  There are two
varieties:

IIIa) "Horny Breathers"  A horny breather simply wants to have sex.
Unlike the psychotic variety, the horny breather will go away when
asked.  Probably the best thing to do with a horny breather is to tell
him to "take it upstairs". Typical quote "Will you go upstairs with
me"?

IIIb) "Psychotic Breather"  A psychotic breather specifically is trying
to offend, and when greeted by a negative response, will persist even
harder.  Psychotic breathers tend to be much more obscene and offensive
than the milder variety.  In some cases it may be possible to fend off
a psychotic breather by acting receptive, but this is probably a crap
shoot --  A clear-cut Psychotic Breather should be killed.

In both cases, Breathers who use private messages to other members
present problems, because we can't monitor chat.  You are essentially
taking the word of one member over another's.  In most instances, this
is pretty clear cut, but nonetheless, I would suggest asking for
specific examples.  It is not enough that a member named "Jane" says
"Guest 3412 is being rude to me".  It's possible that Jane is 12 years
old and is offended by  words she doesn't understand, like
"existential". It's also possible that Jane has a personal vendetta
against Guest 3412. In these cases, ask Jane to give you more specifics
- ideally quoting directly from her log window.  This would also be a
good point to explain the "'mute" and "'hide" command to Jane.

When Users have complained about Breathers in the past, we have had some
success by "going undercover" to catch them in the act.

IV) "Depressives"  A depressive is a user who is not very happy and is
using the Palace as a form of personal therapy / escape.  Depressives
may act perfectly normal on some days, but on other days may act
exceedingly weird, and make unusual bids for attention.  Depressives
are typically Members, rather than guests, and will take it very
personally when  killed.  They don't want to be killed, they want
someone to talk to them, and this is probably the best approach, if you
are up for it.

V) "New from AOL / IRC"

Users who are new to the Palace and come from IRC or AOL bring a
different culture with them.  For example on AOL, it is considered
normal / acceptable behavior to continually spout the following lines:

     a) "M or F?"
     b) Age/Location Check?
     c) "Any SWFs out there?"

Certainly this type of behavior is not worthy of being kicked, but if
you would like to see less of it on the Palace perhaps you can do what
many people do and provide utterly inappropriate replies, such as "I am
a zygote, and I live in a tea kettle".

VI) "Utterly Clueless"

Some users are so clueless that they do things that can be interpreted
as abusive even though they don't intend to.  Some new users, for
example, habitually hit the return key twice (kind of like hitting the
elevator button twice).  Such users are in need of education, rather
than reprimands.  I've had a few instances where such users also didn't
know English (which exacerbates the problem).  Probably a glance at the
IP is a good idea if you think this might be the case (see the `list
command, below).

VII) "Parodists"
Some users reproduce the behaviors of other abusive types in an attempt
at humor.  I have seen at least one instance where a tired wizard,
weary from a session of endless kills, killed such a user without
warning.  Perhaps this is why there is a sign at the airport asking you
to refrain from talking about bombs at the metal detector. This is
another good reason why it is good to talk to users before killing
them. The point is that after you've met and killed 13 Psychotics, it
is easy to pigeonhole people - especially Guests who are wearing the
same props - don't. The "15 yr old psychotic" you are killing may
actually be a 45 year old psychiatrist.

VIII) "Sleepers"
Sleepers are users who have walked away from their computers.  Sleepers
are completely unresponsive.  For the most part, sleeper's should be
ignored (not killed) unless the sleeper is in a private room.  In this
case the sleeper should be warned, given 20 minutes, and then killed.
The reason for the private room is because the sleeper may be an
eavesdropper.  20 minutes is needed to insure that the sleeper isn't
simply lagging.  When killing a sleeper it is important to use a death
penatly of ZERO when killing them.  For example:

'kill 0 Sleepy

We've had at least one instance where a presumed sleeper was killed who
turned out to be lagging.  Because the "default" death penalty was used,
the user wasn't able to get back on.

IX) "Eavesdroppers"
An eavesdropper typically waits in one of the private rooms or in
Hallway 200 and attempts to eavesdrop on private conversations in the
bedrooms.  Eavesdroppers typically use "invisible" props and have very
brief names such as "." or "".  Thus far, for the most part, I have
ignored eavesdroppers, but it is a good idea to warn other users about
them from time to time.  The best way to detect an eavesdropper is to
keep an eye on the number of users as shown in the status bar. An
eavesdropper who won't leave a private room when requested should be
warned, and killed, if necessary (see Sleepers above).

X) "Blockers"
Blockers stand in front of other users, or invade their personal space.
For the most part, Blockers should NOT be killed, and if you really
feel it is necessary, I would suggest killing them for a short period
of time (say 1 minute).  Often blockers are lagging, and they may not
be responsive to your commands for that reason.

Since blockers are abusing physical space, it IS appropriate to PIN them,
if they're obviously doing it to be obnoxious.  This is one of the few
instances where PIN is appropiate (It is not appropriate to use PIN
if someone is abusing the language only).

XI) "Friends"
I have seen at least two occasion where a wizard killed a friend as a
joke.  Don't.

Keep a Notebook
===============
I recommend that you keep a journal to keep track of your wizardly activities.
New wizards in particular should log all 'gags 'pins and 'kills.  Keeping
track of ip addresses and regkeys will help you to identify repeat abusers
later.


How to Kill [ greatly modified 9/18/96  ]
===========

Always perform 3 basic steps when killing a member or guest:
'list  'kill and 'comment, as outlined below.

In this example, we'll assume your name is "merlin" and you need to kill
someone  named "jbum".

1) Get a list of their IP address and regkey, by typing the following:

'list -k

The server will reply:

*** ; m jbum salon.thepalace.com (206.17.52.5) Wizard's Study {DFEF}

[ more on the list command below ]

Record the user's ip address (salon.thepalace.com) and regkey (DFEF)
in your notebook.  The regkey is only provided for members - it gives you
a unique alphanumeric key you can use to identify them with, even
if they use a different ip address or name.

2) Kill them by typing:

'kill 120 jbum

The server will respond with:
Page from System: jbum [salon.thepalace.com (206.17.52.5)] killed by Merlin

The number 120 is the death penalty, in minutes.  This means that jbum
won't be able to get back on for 120 minutes.  120 is the "normal"
death penaly, and the one you should use most often.  If the person
is being HIGHLY offensive, you may use a larger number, up to 3000.
If you think the person should be banned longer than 3000 (which is
a little less than 3 days), then send a message to the wizard list.
If there is consensus, then the death penalty can be extended using
the 'extend command.

3) Comment your kill by typing:

'comment 206.17.52.5 Called everyone a "weenie" and showed us a picture of one.


You can ALSO use the 'list and 'kill commands by selecting the user
as if for private chat, and then typing the command without the username.
For example
    'list -k  or
    'kill 100

This is helpful if the person has a long name that is hard to type.
Due to a bug, this doesn't always work.  Another way to get the user's name
is to paste it in from the log.

Guest Killings [ new 9/18/96  ]
==============
When you kill a guest, the server can only keep track of the user's
IP address.  Therefore, if the guest switches IP addresses (which may
be as simple as hanging up and dialing back in) they can get back on.

When there is a repeat offender, you'll see a pattern to the
ip addresses like so:

*** ; n Guest 1223 dal23.why.net (205.240.253.23) Palace Gate
*** ; n Guest 1228 dal37.why.net (205.240.253.37) Palace Gate
*** ; n Guest 1232 dal18.why.net (205.240.253.18) Palace Gate

If you believe a guest is a repeat offender (typically - only the last
part of the ip address will change) than you should ban the guests's
ip address like so:

'banip 120 205.240.253.*

The "120" is the death penalty.

The "*" indicates a "wildcard" ban of all addresses beginning with 206.17.52.
Again, you should comment the ban to indicate who you are keeping out.  In this
case, you should provide the first 3 numbers only for the 'comment command:

'comment 205.240.253 Guest 1223 violated at least 3 of the 10 commandments.

Member Killings
===============
It is important to recognize that killing a Member typically has more
consequences than killing a Guest.  There are two principal reasons for
this.

a) When members are killed, the software keeps track of the user's
serial number and prevents the member from getting on from ANY IP
address.

b) Members have paid the measly sum of $25 and therefore tend to feel
that they are entitled to more leeway than Guests.  This isn't true, as
far as abuse goes, but it does imply that we are more likely to hear
complaints from Members than Guests.

I don't suggest giving Members special treatment - Members should
understand that abuse is abuse, and all users - members and guests
alike have "signed" an agreement which indicates that they agree not to
abuse the system.  All users should certainly be warned before being
killed, and if they are killed, they should have a clear understanding
of why there were killed.

Death Penalties
===============

When you kill a user, you should always assign a death penalty -
a period of time within which the user is banned from the server.
For example:

'kill 120 Guest 133

Assigns a death penalty of 120 minutes.

120 is considered the "normal" death penalty, and is the one
you should use most often.  I suggest using larger penalties for
repeat offenders.  If the person is being highly abusive, and
is a repeat offender, I suggest bringing the matter up to the
wizards via the mailing list.  A longer ban may be in order.

You should use a death penalty of zero before killing a sleeper, or
any other kind of "mercy killing".

Site Bans
=========
[ 9/18/96 Note: this is redundant with the "guest killings" section,
but I left it in because it contains some additional material ]

When you kill a member, the server keeps track of the member's
registration number, so a ban based on the user's IP address isn't
necessary.  For highly abusive Guests, however, it is sometimes useful
to do a generalized ban of all log-ons from a specific host.  For
example, you may see a psychotic user continually reappear from the
following addresses:

*** ; n Guest 1223 dal23.why.net (205.240.253.23) Palace Gate
*** ; n Guest 1228 dal37.why.net (205.240.253.37) Palace Gate
*** ; n Guest 1232 dal18.why.net (205.240.253.18) Palace Gate

In this case it is desirous to site ban the entire dal*.why.net domain.
You can do so by typing the following:

`banip 1500 205.240.253.*

A few notes:
a) The banip commands works with numeric addresses ONLY.

b) The asterisk at the end of the IP address indicates that this is a
"wildcard" site ban that will affect all addresses that begin with
205.240.253

c) The number 3000 indicates a ban of 3000 minutes, which is a little
over two days. This is a good number to use for Psychotic users.  I
don't recommend using larger numbers (> 3000) since I will typically
unban these sites anyway.  Most abusive users tend to give up after
they can't get on for a few hours.

d) WildCard bans only ban Guests from that site, not members.

When doing a site ban, please do the following

1) Extract examples of the abusive behavior from the log, if possible.

2) Record the IP addresses the user was using and the exact times he
was killed - this can be used to help the user's system administrator
identify him.

3) Send this information to me (jbum) so that I can notify the sysadmin
of the site and take steps to get the user reprimanded or removed.

The BanList
===========
To see a list of who has been banned, and why, do a `banlist.  This info
appears in your log.  Here's a sample.

*** ; Flooder  5 min (0) (192.147.170.47) Guest 6389
*** ; Killed   120 min (79) (pheiffer.dialup.access.net [166.84.192.118]) C.J.
*** ; comment by jbum: was a weenie
*** ; Flooder  5 min (0) (ppp3.spacelab.net [206.42.130.193]) Cory
*** ; Cracker  3000 min (2841) (slip144.UCS.ORST.EDU [128.193.5.144]) Guest 302
*** ; Flooder  5 min (0) (198.105.194.108) Ferret
*** ; Site Ban 3000 min (2667) (138.47.16.0)
*** ; comment by Chrissy: Guest was a major weenie
*** ; Killed   120 min (0) (dialup-12.remote.LaTech.edu [138.47.16.12])
Guest 6603
*** ; Killed   120 min (0) (206.29.84.142) Jay

The banlist can be very large.  To search for a specific person, type
'banlist NAME or 'banlist IP-ADDRESS (or both).

Each record shows how the person was banned, for how long, how much time
is remaining (in parens) the IP address and the name at the time the
user was kicked. Some of the record will have comments attached to them,
the result of the "comment" command, described above.

"Flooder"  means the user was killed by the server for flooding,
flooders are only killed for 5 minutes.

"Killed" means the user was killed by a wizard (typically for 120
minutes) using the ~kill command.

"Cracker" means the user was killed by the server for attempting to use
an invalid serial number (we get a few of these a day).

"Site Ban" means a range of IP addresses was blocked out using the
`banip command (see above).  Wildcard site bans are listed with a zero
in the last position of the IP address.  These are only shown
numerically - you can use nslookup to determine the verbal IP.

The server gods periodically do a `purgebanlist to get rid of expired records.

Gagging Users
=============
You can gag a user named "Paul" by typing `gag Paul.  You can ungag him
by typing `ungag Paul.  Gagging a user prevents him from saying
anything to anybody in any room.  If the user is a Member, the gag will
remain in effect permanently until the Member is either ungagged, or
remains logged off for 2 hours.  We have had at least one Member report
a "bug" which turned out to be that he had been gagged.

If you Gag a guest, they can simply sign off and sign back on to
release themselves from the Gag.

It's pretty much a matter of personal discretion whether to kill or gag
an abusive user.  I have had occasional success in gagging abusive
users, talking to them and then ungagging them after getting a visual
sign of their acquiescence.  However in many cases, this has simply
pissed the user off and made them more obnoxious than ever (this is
probably one of the differences between a "child" and a "psychotic").
In such cases, you have no choice but to kill the user.

I would suggest the following guidelines when choosing whether to gag
or kill: If the user isn't using obscene or foul language, and is
simply being an obnoxious pest (repeating the same phrase in upper case
only quite frequently), I would suggest gagging.  If the user is being
obscene, I would suggest warning & then killing.

You do not need to warn before gagging a user, but afterwards, you
should explain to the user that they have been gagged, what the effects
are, and ask them to indicate visually that they understand.  I have
for example, asked users to put on the "green fez of submission" in
order to get me to ungag them.  After ungagging them, you probably have
a 50% chance of success.  Good luck.

Pinning and Unpinning
=====================
The `pin and `unpin commands were added more recently (Mid January '96).
They work similar to `gag and `ungag, but have a different effect.

`pin Guest 5757

This command pins the guest to the lower right corner of the screen and
puts a "chain" prop on the guest.  The guest is not allowed to move,
nor to put on any props.  If not `gagged, the guest can still talk
however.

`unpin Guest 5757

This removes the effect.

Pinning is particularly appropriate for guests who abuse the physical space
of the palace (e.g. Blockers).


Prop Gag
========
This command was added more recently, and allows you to prevent a member
from showing offensive props.  Members who are showing obscene or hateful
props should be prop gagged, like so:

'propgag Sexy Sally

After prop gagging them, talk to them about the prop, and unpropgag them.
If the member continues to wear the prop, kill them.

A note about "sexy" props (new 9/18/96)
=========================
At the moment, the palace mangement is concerned about public perception
of the palace as a sex-oriented service.  For this reason, we are being
especially strict about the use of "sexy" props at the Front Gate(s) and
Harry's
Bar.  Props which display partial nudity, or appear to have been scanned from
pornographic magazines should be discouraged in these areas.

Hide, Mute and other Member Cmds
================================
There are some commands that members can use to protect themselves from
certain kinds of abuse.

`mute Guest 13    This prevents a member from seeing anything that
                  Guest 13 says

`unmute Guest 13  This cancels the effect.

If a member is complaining about another user who isn't being
particularly abusive in your opinion - then recommend that the member
use the `mute command.

`hidefrom Guest 13
`unhidefrom Guest 13
`hide
`unhide

These commands hide the member from the "Find User" window.  The
`hidefrom command hides from a particular user, while the `hide command
hides from everybody.  Neither of these commands work against wizards,
however - wizards see EVERYBODY.  It can be upsetting to a member if he
thinks he is hiding, and then receives and ESP message from a wizard.
We intend to modify the client software to show wizards which members
are hiding, until then, please use discretion in your ESPs when you are
in Wizard mode.  For example, don't send ESPs to people who are in
closed rooms.

`rejectprivate on
`rejectprivate off
`rejectesp on
`rejectesp off

These commands allow members (and wizards) to reject either private
messages or esp messages (since esp messages are private messages,
`rejectprivate works for both kinds).  When you turn these settings on,
they remain in effect until you turn them off - even if you log off.


Getting info about Users
========================
The `list command can be used to get info about users (name and IP
addresses). This is primarily useful for identifying the return of
chronic abusers.

`list
The `list command lists the names and IP addresses (both verbal and
numeric) of all the users in a room.  It can take the following
optional arguments.

`list Guest 123
This variant lists only info for Guest 123. This is definitely the
preferred way to get info on a user, as it makes only one call to the
Name server, instead of one for each user in the room.

`list 205.23
This variant lists only info for users whose IP addresses begin with
205.23, note that you MUST use a numeric address only for this to work.
 This variant is especially useful for identifying if an abusive user
from a particular site has reappeared.

'list -k jbum
The '-k' variant adds an alphanumeric key to the end of the listing, which
is based on the user's registration code.  It can be used to uniquely identify
members.

`list -g
This lists all the users on the server, don't use it, as it lags the
server.

In all cases, the `list command has the following format:

*** ; g ratbot salon.thepalace.com (206.17.52.5) Red Room
*** ; n Guest 679 204.87.136.14 Red Room
*** ; m CrashCat slip0.worldnetoh.com (206.21.38.10) Red Room
*** ; w Mark J closet.thepalace.com (206.17.52.4) Red Room
*** ; m Lally orlfl2-6.gate.net (199.227.1.134) Red Room
*** ; n Guest 529 la-ip29.via.net (204.188.133.29) Red Room
*** ; m rorschach 206.17.52.6 Red Room

The single letter in the front is the member's status:

    g = God
    n = Newbie (Guest)
    m = Member
    w = Wizard

Note that if a verbal IP address isn't provided (as in the case of
rorschach and Guest 679, above, then the server's name server couldn't
find one.  You may be able to find one by doing an nslookup on your
local ISP, if you have access to a Unix Shell Account, or an nslookup
utility.

As a general rule, DO NOT PUBLICLY EXHIBIT a user's IP address.  Palace
servers keep this information private as a favor to users.   I have
occasionally violated this when talking to an abusive user ("is
everybody from slug.net as obnoxious as you?"), but it's probably
better not to do this.  Of course, I DO recommend passing this
information to other wizards via the ~page command (see below).

Talking to other wizards
========================
Wizards can talk to each other by using the ~page command (e.g. ~page
Hello!). The purpose of this command is to allow users to page wizards
for help, so users can use it too, but only Wizards can see pages.
Because of this, the Wizards have tended to use the Page feature as a
kind of "wizards cb" channel, and it works well for that.  For example:

Page from jbum: Keep an eye on Guest 1641 from 206.17.52.4, I had to
kick him earlier today.

Replying to Pages (new 9/18/96)
=================
There are two ways to reply to a page.  The most common is 'er.  This command
(emergency response) will notify the other wizards that you are responding,
and instantly transport you to the room where the page came from (this only
works when the page emanated from a non-wizard - e.g. it keeps track of the
last non-wizard page).

If you just want to the talk to the person, use the "reply to page" command,
like so:

** Page from Joe in Red Room: Wizard Help!!
'repage What can I do for you?

Again, the other wizards will be notified that you have responded:

** Page from System: Merlin has responded to Joe's page via 'repage

Regarding the above exchange, in general, members should be encouraged to
provide useful information in their initial page.  It's quite irritating
to see this:

** Page from Joe in Red Room: wizard

Sending Global Messages
=======================
The command ~gmsg (as in "~gmsg Hello Everybody!") can be used to send a
message to everybody on the palace.  This is the command I typically
use to announce that the Server is about to go down, or that a game is
about to start.  Only wizards can use the ~gmsg command.  I suggest
using it to announce group events, such as games, guided tours, etc.
Otherwise, it shouldn't be used.  In particular it shouldn't be used to
send messages to individuals.

[ new 9/18/96 ]

Sometimes the mages need an announcement to be sent out to announce a
party or event on another server.  In this case, please oblige them.
We may soon add a feature that will allow the wizards to grant temporary
"gmsg" privilges to members, for this purpose.

If you wish to send a message to an individual in another room, use the
newer "esp" feature instead (e.g. select the person for private chat
using the "find" window).

Authoring
=========
Although it is possible for wizards to author on the server, (that is
create new rooms, or modify existing ones) I discourage it.  The only
kinds of authoring activity I condone are:

a) Temporarily turning scripting / painting on in a room.  Normally this
should be done only to a) correct a mistake made by another wizard, or
b) temporarily demonstrate a feature for somebody.  Rooms should be
changed back when finished.

b) Modifying word modification in Harry's Cafe.  Word modifications
should be kept within the bounds of good taste.

c) Maintaining a room that you "own".  Some wizards have requested
that rooms with a specific functionality be created, and in this case
that wizard owns the room.  If you have a good idea, I'd like to
hear about it.

I would prefer that wizards refrain from creating new rooms, creating
new hotspots, or from adding new pictures to rooms.

If you feel there is a need for a new room, tell me.  If you want to
"mess around" with authoring, I suggest you use your own server for
that purpose.

The Wizards Mailing List
========================
All Palace wizards should be on the Palace Wizards mailing list.  You
should be automatically added to the list when you become a wizard.  If
you haven't been getting any traffic from the list, contact Jim at
[e-mail].

** end **