How many times have you been in the chat and been utterly confused? Well, of course most of us spent our first few visits to OTF chat rooms in a daze pretty much. I'm referring to being confused because someone who is obviously an ensign is calling themselves Andrew Maxwell, Crazy Texan or another member whom well all know and love. (As soon as I say this I know I'm causing myself and others further confusion due to the fact that the ranks are currently broken and we are all CL2's. :p) This person is obviously not who they are claiming to be in the chat room and they may in fact think that it is all good fun.
Well it's not. Impersonating another member is strictly forbidden as per Prime Directive #9. It could seem like a cool prank if one could honestly fool people, but one can easily see where things could get ugly.
It has happen in the past that there are those who genuinely just want to hurt others and cause havoc. What better way to that then to impersonate someone and try to turn their friends against them. Maybe make an unwanted romantic advance to the opposite or same sex. These are definite actions that would cause trouble, especially the romance bit:p
Prime directive #10 is a little sticky in my opinion. It states the OTF recognizes and guarantees the right to free speech provided that all the other directives are obeyed. Unfortunately, in out little community not everyone has the same opinion. There are bound to be some arguments that start and potentially tempers flare and often times things are said that cannot be taken back.
We can't take #10 to mean that we have the right to say virtually anything. There are so many fine lines that can be crossed. When does one cross that line from just stating an opinion to being totally obsessed about it? It is often hard to tell. We always have to make sure that cooler heads prevail and just keep tempers from flaring. Otherwise I think the whole "guarantee free speech" bit chould be taken out so as not to cause confusion.
I hope I'm not getting to serious because this article is supposed to be a little on the lighter side. In my opinion, and it is only MY opinion, I think that sometimes we need to be reminded that this is not a democracy. It's a private club with an owner. We are all here to enjoy ourselves first and foremost. The only thing to do is to try and totally stay away from inflammatory subjects so as not to be on the 'sticky' side of PD #10. *thinks * Somehow I feel that I have censored myself in a way and for good reason. It's kind of a of a yucky PD to talk about and I'm glad it's over, aren't you? Well I think in my little series that I've just about covered the whole spectrum of the Prime Directives with my nonsensical banter. It's been fun but all good things must come to an end.
Sheesh……I just had to end with a cliché didn't I? :p
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