Harassment Petition
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This page is representative of a single player's point of view, and might not reflect official server policy or attitudes. |
NOTE! At time of writing, this is NOT an official rule of MinecraftOnline! If it ever becomes one, the page content will be moved from "Harassment Petition" to "Harassment", and the page will be added to Category:Rules.
In January 2022, a petition to modify the MCO rules to prohibit player harassment was started by 
abamacus, with support from multiple moderators and other users. The center of the petition is an in-game Written Book named Harassment.
Location
The Petition is centered in a hot-air balloon build, made mostly of Blue Wool and Purple Wool, located at: -243, 344
Text of in-game Written Book
Page 1
Petition for Rule against Harassment This book, signed on 2022-01-17, is the basis for a petition to amend the Rules of MinecraftOnline to reduce harassment of players in the game chat.
Page 2
This is as an extension to the Bullying rule, which (today) makes it clear that the Absolute Free Speech rule supersedes the Bullying rule. With this amendment, we want to stop repeated sexual harassment and threats against MCO players.
Page 3
Harassment, like Bullying, will be conditional, subjective, and enforced by admins (not moderators). Messages are not considered harassment until after the player has been asked to stop, by either the targeted player or a staff member.
Page 4
This rule is intended to reduce strife on the server generally, by carving out a well-defined and easy to administer area of extreme speech which will not be tolerated. (not so different from the existing No-Spam rule)
Page 5
What is harassment: - threatening physical harm to a player, or to people they know - describing explicit sex acts directed at a non-consenting player (especially a minor) - using racial slurs or other extreme language directed at a player
Page 6
What is not harassment: - threatening in-game violence - describing your own sex life - threats or derogatory language directed generally at large groups of people
Page 7
Simply changing from second person to third person does not preclude harassment. That is, talking about the victim to others counts as harassment exactly the same if it were said directly to the victim.
Page 8
To sign this petition: 1) from spawn, go thu glowing tunnel in NW corner 2) click [Lift Up] at -238/64/342 3) take an unsigned book out of an item frame 4) sign it, naming the book "Harassment" 5) place the written book back into the item frame
Page 9
To otherwise support this petition -- tell your friends! Distribute copies-of-copies of this book! (first-copies available by the Glass petition wall)
Petition
Signers of the petition were given a Book and Quill with the initial text:
By signing this book, I hereby agree with the petition for a Rule against Harassment.
Which the players then signed and placed in an item frame.
Advertisement
An in-game advertisement was taken out immediately following the creation of of the written book, ad text:
Tired of your friends being harassed? Let's make a positive change! Sign the petition for "Harassment" (details on the wiki)
Q & A
These are tentative clarifications of the intent of the proposed Harassment Rule, as written by abamacus (with some help!).
Q: Why do we need a rule for this? If harassment is such a problem, wouldn't we have more evidence to support a rule change?
A: From purely my own limited observations, a very small number of players harass other players in the in-game chat on a regular basis. The only reason this has not been addressed more definitely, is that when it is brought up, moderators state that the speech is permitted no matter how vile, pointing to the Free Speech rules of the server. This has resulted in encouraging those who would gain attention by harassing other players, and also silenced any objections to it.
Q: What if a player insults the nationality/race/religion of other players, without specifically naming them?
A: Ultimately all rulings on Harassment are decided by staff, so they will use their best judgment. The guiding principle should be that if the intent of the speech was to harass other specific players, it is against this rule. If it is of a general nature, it is not against this rule. In cases of ambiguity, the staff should discuss the matter with the offending player. Once the player is informed that a specific type of speech is in the bounds of harassment, and offensive to specific players, then that same speech in the future could become intentional harassment by definition.
Q: If I describe my disturbing sex life/thoughts in public chat with other non-consenting players present, is that considered harassment?
A: If it is not directed toward specific players, nor pulling in their unwilling involvement in the discussion (i.e. mentioning by name or referring to specific players), then it is not considered harassment, and falls under Free Speech rules.
Background
The original spark for this petition was an exchange in the game, between user Otis_Wong and another user.
Chat copied from Discord from November 28th, from 14:12 to 14:26 UTC. (the text was edited to use wiki-standard usernames, the victim's username redact, bold applied for emphasis, and irrelevant text removed)
<Otis_Wong> this server sucks ass <[][Redacted]> this server is cool! :D <
SlimeLizard> aren't they a kid or something? you shouldn't talk like that <[][Redacted]> idk whats a blowjob soo uhh- <
Raflamar> A blowjob is... <
Erttum> otis you need help
Bungling
The timing of this coincided with an admin effort to clean-up builds around the Spawn area. On January 16th (US time, which may have already been January 17th in UTC), a sign was placed outside the petition area to "Improve or remove by 16 January 2022". User abamacus asked an admin about this very abrupt timing, and 
Zomon333 added a sign to extend the date to January 22nd.
However, this extension was apparently missed, because an admin removed the structure within a few hours of that time. Some users helped recover some of the item frames and unsigned Book and Quill items, but unfortunately all previously signed petition books were lost.
At the recommendation of admin 
techkid6, a /greport was submitted to attempt chunk-restoration which should include the signed books, if it is possible from a world-backup.
Not wanting to lose any future signed petitions, abamacus constructed a rainbow-glass build similar and adjacent to the previous location, and moved most of the items over to it. This was not looked upon favorably by admins, so 
R3W5 helped build a much improved "hot air balloon" build nearby, to re-house the petition.
Build Bullying?
Attempts to rectify the initial admin warning, and to finish the rainbow-glass alternate building, were significantly hindered by PVP attacks from multiple players.
After many requests for them to stop, abamacus emailed the admins, to report possible Bullying behavior.
Opposition
<
swissm4n> because if someone is banned for speech it makes a precedent to ban others for it, and probably lighter things - 17.1.22
A significant number of highly vocal players opposed any limitations on Absolute Free Speech.
Signer Records
Signers in favor of the petition, as of June 2022:
7SeaSkalley
AriVB- abamacus
Auspek
butternutbamboo
by_kpan
caisworld
Cake70
cindyslee
diamondtrain
Kohall
l1npengtul
LuckyLolek
Luigifan100
Mango_podz aka 
WonkaOil420 (did not sign book, but instead put up own sign, in the presence of abamacus)
Marble_1
miaoler
MrSlimeDiamond
NedHuman
OiM8ItzCait
Pojoj- R3W5
Ratrun
ReactingManiac
Roostery
SleeplessTheCat- SlimeLizard
snakyman
tygod100
xybu
Spektra_
VERMONTIQUE
WegiboardUwU
Some time after the petition received criticism, instructions were also left on how a player could record opposition to the petition. Signers against the petition, as of April 2023:
