Postfurry Worlds

Postfurry Worlds is a roleplaying venue meant to support MUCK-style RP and interaction using a more modern platform. Currently, PFWorlds run on Mattermost, a Slack-like webapp.

Policies

Users of Postfurry Worlds are expected to be excellent to each other (at least in an OOC context) and try to not interfere with anyone else's good time. If someone asks you out of character to stop, then stop. Harassment will not be tolerated. If you're running into trouble, contact an admin on your world or on Meta.

Getting started

All the worlds can be found at http://worlds.postfurry.net and can run in any modern desktop or mobile browser, or any Mattermost client. If you're not logged in, going to the site will show you a list of available worlds. Most worlds require an invite link to join; you should have this already. With an invite link, you'll need to supply an email address, a username, and a password. We recommend you use the same username and password for all worlds, but it's not a requirement.

Once you're connected, you're presented with the channel interface. It works very similarly to Slack or other chat programs; you can see the list of channels and users down the side. You'll only be connected to the Announcements channel to start, but you can see what else is available by clicking the 'more' link below it. The specific channels on each world will vary, but there are a few that every world has:

• Announcements: Everyone is always connected to the announcements channel. Therefore, this channel is kept mostly quiet, only used for admin matters and, sometimes, new room creation. Please keep chat off this channel, to make it easy for everyone else to see the latest important info.
• OOC: This channel is for general out-of-character chat. All other channels are assumed to be in-character, so this channel is for socializing and also coordination of roleplays, etc, in other channels.

From here, you can join whatever other channels a world offers, or even create your own channels or private rooms!

Recommended client settings

For best results, there are a few things you might want to set in the upper-left menu. These should be server defaults, but until Mattermost allows those to be set by admins, they'll need to be set by each user.

• Account Settings > Display > Teammate Name Display: Set this to "Show nickname if one exists, otherwise show first and last name". Most worlds make a lot of use of Full Names and Nicknames, to allow more detail for name and easy changing for specific concepts.
• Account Settings > General: As implied above, you'll probably want to set Full Name and/or Nickname here, as well as Profile Picture; the defaults aren't very pretty.
• Account Settings > Notifications: Many users like to turn down both the desktop and email notifications, as the defaults are a bit noisy. Set these to your preference.

Platform considerations

The Mattermost platform has several differences from MUCKs or other sorts of RP spaces. These can be considered helpful or complicating, but in any case it's a good idea to keep in mind the differences between this and other venues. Some of the most important consideartions are:

• Persistent Logs: Users can see everything that happens in a channel, regardless of if they were in it or not, back to the beginning of time. This is helpful for understanding the context of the current goings-on. It also means users should feel free to enter and leave rooms based on their availability, without having to worry about missing anything.
• Persistent Connections: Users are essentially always connected to the system, and may be checking in at any time from any device. This means it can be a bit difficult to see when someone is around and available, which is why it's helpful to let folks know your availability by leaving and entering rooms as appropriate.

World conventions

We want Postfurry Worlds to be easy to pick up for new users, and accommodate many styles of interaction. All the worlds should use the following conventions to make sure users know where to go and what to expect. These conventions are not set in stone, the current conventions have been arrived at based on discussion of users needs, and are open to more discussion. Join the World Conventions channel on Meta if you have ideas or concerns.

• Announcements Channel: The default channel in each world is Announcements (Due to default Mattermost configs, the URL for this room is likely to be /town-square/ but the room name should be Announcements). Users can't leave this channel, so communication on it should only be used for important messages that everyone should be aware of. Reasonable topics for Announcements are admin news, and new RP venue creation.
• OOC Channel: Each world should have a channel for out-of-character chat, called OOC. Other OOC channels may be created if needed, each of these should be named starting with 'OOC' as well. However, the intent behind this server is for IC interaction, so other OOC channels should be created sparingly. If you need to chat OOC, there are plenty of other venues for that. All channels other than Announcements and OOC-prefix channels are assumed to be in-character.
• Asynchronous Channels: In general, the main purpose of Worlds is to enable real-time back-and-forth roleplay, similar to what happens on MUCKs. However, not everyone can always commit to this sort of chat, and the platform we're using makes less-synchronous, check-in-occasionally style RP possible and easy as well. Some channels (or entire worlds) can be marked as 'async', either in channel name or header. In these channels, users should expect unpredictable delays between poses. A tip to channel creators: Async channels work best as large areas rather than small intimate rooms.
• Synchronous Channels: The default form of interaction is synchronous, meaning users can reasonably expect active responses from those involved in RP. Note that unlike MUCKs, there is no idle display for users; if you're not going to be active, it's probably a good idea to let everyone know via an OOC note, or simply leave the channel; you can always catch up on the backscroll when you rejoin.
• Adult Content: Since invitation is closed, we assume everyone is of legal age to view adult content. However, not everyone wants to deal with adult content in all contexts (e.g. work). Therefore, channels that might raise eyebrows should be tagged NSFW in name or header. We no there's no perfect definition of NSFW, so please use your own discretion.
• Names and Nicknames: Mattermost allows users to set a two-part full name, a username, and a nickname. By default, only the username will be displayed. It's recommended that you change this setting to show the other names ( Account Settings > Display > "Show nickname if one exists, otherwise show first and last name" ) Users should feel free to change their full name or nickname as appropriate (if playing difference characters, etc), but we recommend you not change username too often, to avoid confusion. (However, there are certainly cases where changing username can be reasonable and important as well; don't construe this as a mandate to not change usernames)
• Message Tagging: As mentioned above, in-character is the default mode of interaction in most channels. If you'd like to speak OOC, use the /ooc command, start your message with something like [OOC], or wrap it in (( double parentheses ))
• Channel Scope: Each channel should represent a location of some sort where individuals can interact. The channel heading should contain a description of the environment users there should consider themselves to be in, similar to a MUCK room description. If interaction between some users in a channel wanders too far from the location given in the heading, it's best to take the interaction to a new channel or private chat.

Commands

Slash commands have been implemented to allow users to set various character information, similar to description and profiled fields on a MUCK

• /look [username]: Look at a user, to get whatever they've set up as their description
• /setdesc [description]: Set the description that shows when you are looked at. Descs will be formatted using Markdown, meaning they can include images, etc. There is a 4000 character limit for descriptions.
• /info: Set or view fields like species and gender. See /info help for full details

Individual worlds

Separate worlds can be set up as desired to accommodate different RP contexts and needs. If you'd like to create a new world, contact an admin on Meta.

Meta

Meta is used to contact admins and deal with issues for the whole service. Unlike other worlds, Meta has open user creation, to make it easy for anyone to get access to admins. Meta is, of course, OOC.

Oneiropolis

This is a broadly-themed world meant to encompass the Oneiropolis meta-setting. There's very little that's considered out-theme here, and it's reasonable to create a channel here to field-test your theme idea before spinning it out into a full separate world.