I just want to point out a couple of facts and leave it at that. Since I'm not quite sure this discussion is doing any good.

1: It's extremely difficult for immortals (non-IMP) to start throwing logs of active players on message boards. It's not sanctioned in any manner nor is it good form. Asking for us to crucify an active player probably isn't going ot happen.

2: There are going to be "mistakes" in judgement. Guess what, that's human error. The problem I have with this is that you have a very vocal playerbase (Champions of the public so to speak) that has a history of dropping slander-bombs on Immortals that may not take a popular approach to dealing with characters. On a whole, I think we as an Immortal happen to make some pretty good judgement calls on the vast majority of incidents that do happen. Take that how you want it, but some of our finer Immortals have managed to be the target of public slander. Sure, we could lock or delete those threads but then we'd be criticized for "taking away your voice" and it would still occur on other forums.

3: This game can easily become what you want it to be: a game where the "Immortals" only moderate the rules. I guarantee you will see more players leave when the Immortal interaction stops and rules enforcement is all that occurs. Guess which other games have this? WOW, DAOC, SC, online console games - while they might be fun initially, those games tend to loose their luster quickly.

4: I fully support Lyr, even if his decision wasn't popular. It's obvious other Immortals felt the incident could be handled differently, so I support their decision as well. I do however, think the player in question could have been handled this very differently also. Oh, I don't know, an email to IMPS would have made it less of the dramatic "woe is me" as it happens to have become.

Twist made it clear that most situations will be handled on a per-incident basis. We can't write players a set of guidelines which tell players how to use common sense. So here's an Immortal asking for you to, "Use common sense."

While Immortal/player interactions aren't going to become brotherly overnight, I think we are ALL responsible for taking into account how our actions impact the game. Please also take into account that police officers in and out of game are never really that popular. This game happens to have "police officers" that actually try to interact with you to better your experience. Incidents like this are going to contribute to making that go away. That has the potential to drastically change the landscape of this game.

One last point: It is VERY easy to perceive tone in text. It is also easy to misunderstand the intentions of a post. Case in point: how easily a post turned into: Great job Twist, to "!@#!$ you Twist." Again, in situations like this, take a step back and use common sense.

Anyhow - a top down approach is going to be necessary to standardize how rules (and perhaps RP) enforcement is handled. I still don't see how players can act like these incidents are any worse than Cador Transing you and cursing you out like a dog - but how soon we forget.