Lumiere wrote:
If you're basing your enforcement decisions on this, especially in a game whose playing pits people against each other and creates OOC enmity, the hammer of justice isn't going to whack every mole on the head.
The hammer of justice will never be able to whack every mole on its head. There is no system where universal enforcement is claimed in the world at large, except by deceptive people. I'm not sure anyone here has claimed the same. As the rules manager I will tell you directly we cannot whack every mole on its head, and by that definition there is a baseline unfairness built into our enforcement system. It's a fact that cannot be glossed over nor is it one I will hide from.
I also, myself, will not curse someone for profanity itself just for its existence. There have been tasteful examples of bad words that I have not cursed that I've witnessed personally, and I have not enforced action based on a few reports - one prominent of late in my mind though never reached the public was actually one of Dakken's.
Poor language and modern colloquialism is one of those few things that cannot ever be fit within a rigid framework, and trying to fully flesh that framework for the playerbase would lead to nothing but a mile-long example of what has been cursed for. It's one of those things where you can't define it, but you know it when you see it (with the reasonable qualification that English is your first language, and I keep that in mind when dealing with people). I will post my side (redacting personal information about the correspondence so it can be taken as a public statement) of a conversation I had over a report a few months ago to better flesh out my stance.
A Sadr PM Response From Oct 2014 wrote:
It is cognitive dissonance for us as a staff to welcome explicit conduct in the game yet have a puritanical issue against coarse language.
The language we have punished is use of modern slang - and profanity does not immediately mean it is outside of the environment. People have been cursed for profanity-free modern slang tirades IC. Profanity, alone, is not going to warrant a curse.
(...)I will suggest again that you take the time to find an open perspective on issues that offend you in the game. I'm not taking any effort to try to belittle you or demean your opinions. Being more open-minded, and taking the effort to try to explain to yourself why things are allowed in the game environment instead of why things are not allowed in the game environment might help improve your overall experience. That must be a stressful way to play the game, and when I say this, I mean it constructively.
You are always welcome to report anything and everything you feel might be against the rules. It is my job to review these things, and even if I don't agree, I'd rather have too many things to look through and deny punishment than not enough and allow things against the rules to fly. (...)
Thank you for consideration and care for the game's integrity.
Best regards,
Sadr
That being said, that rule of "trying to explain why things are allowed in the game" doesn't always work and punishment ends up needing meted out. If you have honest, constructive alternatives to how we can help set appropriate expectations of what will and won't be punished within the game's language rules, I am all ears for alternatives. Language rules, just like poor RP, are unfortunately some of the more subjective things to enforce but also require enforcement. It is a difficult line to walk and we're not opposed to suggestions on the matter, it's just that enforcement is never a sexy topic to talk about so suggestions rarely come to light.
I'm sorry it took so long for me to jump in and resurrect/rehash what seemed to be a falling topic - but these are the breaks and I felt it warranted this response.