I saw a log on Dioxides that made me realize that the "Donation Pits" are inappropriately named in game, and they could put a seriously bad taste in the mouth of new player.

Tribunal laws regarding pits are designed to allow players a chance to recover gear that was in their decaying corpse, but allow others a chance to steal it with a degree of risk. Great.

On most muds gear either stays in a PC corpse or returns directly to the character, so something that is donated to these pits is fair game. It is free for the taking with no penalty.

Rename the "Donation Pits", remove the ability for people to entrap new players by placing gear in the pit, or do some kind of item flag so characters can readily determine what in the "donation pits" are donations and which items are corpse loot.

Renaming the donation pits might clear up some of the confusion, if there is any. I've never seen the situation you described actually happen. In the log you referenced, a character (who obviously is not too much of a newbie) takes an item out of the pit after Iktul gave a pretty clear warning he would lay on the hurt if anyone took it. The Laws helpfile does not say the item must have come from a PC corpse, it just has to be taken by someone who knows that the item belongs to someone else. What Iktul did was within the letter of the law, even if it was a #### bag move. The player who got wanted didn't really give a rat's ass about the flag with his level 2 shapeshifter, and decided to play a stupid game of chicken with Iktul and lost. If he had been level 20 or so with more time invested in the character and more to lose, you can bet he probably would not have been so testy.

I'm all for grabbing gear out of the pit when it's just sitting there and nobody is waiting for it. I'm all for pit looting someone if I happen to be there at the right now (and I think I can avoid the flag). 99% of the time, it's obvious whether items in the pit are lost / abandoned. If you see the person put it there, maybe it is a donation. When you see a Tribunal put it there after clearly explaining the law to you and telling you not to take it, as well as threaten to flag anyone who touches the cookie, you indeed deserve to be made wanted for taking it.

Oh, and .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5gOfiU2jr4

I've never seen this situation either, and I've played long enough to know not to give a bored Tribunal an opportunity to alleviate his boredom, but a player new to CF might not realize that what he has seen placed in the "donation pit" is not necessarily a donation but an attempt at entrapment.

It all depends on what Iktul would have done if he had been hidden at the pit, alone, saw some newbie roll up, see a few items in the pit and take them. In this case, I would hope any Tribunal would let it go, since nobody is there waiting for the equipment and the newbie has no idea whose it is and doesn't have any reason to expect somebody is waiting for it.

I don't have the full context, and Ikky did warn the guy even as he baited him into breaking the letter of the law.

I'm saying that the name of the pits suggest they are something other than what they are, and that something should change so legitimate misunderstandings do not occur.