Postfurry Worlds

Postfurry Worlds is a roleplaying venue meant to try to achieve MUCK-style RP and interaction in a more modern setting. 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, let an admin on your world know, and they will help you out.

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.

• 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.
• Message Tagging: As mentioned above, in-character is the default mode of interaction in most channels. If you'd like to speak OOC, start your message with something like [OOC].
• 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.