- Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:03 pm
#21447
Due to recent events, I feel the need to institute a new anti-slandering rule. It is primarily intended to effect how stores behave towards competitors, but if necessary I am perfectly willing to extend it to include one player's comments towards another without giving prior warning. So, the details:
Slander is saying something about another store (or person) that is not demonstrably true. Basically, if you say something about another store that is bad, or allude to negative things about another store, than it will be considered slander. Because this is somewhat broad (see: easy to find a loophole in and slander someone with, and then protest innocence), I'm going to be giving some examples.
If store A says "We are the best store on Minerealm", this is not slander, because they are not insulting a competitor.
If Store A says "Store B cheats their customers" this is slander, unless they have concrete proof of this, in which case Store B is probably banned anyway.
If Store A says "Store B kills their customers out back for their items" this is slander.
If Store A says "Unlike some stores, we don't kill our customers" I'm probably going to consider this slander, because they are alluding to their opposing store in a obvious manner. Basically, if I can tell that you are referencing someone in your comments, I will consider it slander.
If Store A says "Our prices are cheaper than store B", then this may or may not be considered slander. For this, I would recommend not saying it, because it is overly broad. However, if Store A says "Store B charges 1000 credits for gravel, and we only charge 900", then it is not slander provided that these prices are publicly posted and that it was a provable statement of fact. If Store A says "Store B charges 10000 credits for gravel, and we charge 900" and they can't prove that store B does this, then it is slander.
Note: these rules will also apply to libel (For those less brushed up on legal terms that would be statements in a permanent form, like signs/forum posts).
If you have questions about this, ask a mod/admin, or post them here. If you are unsure if your statement is slander, then it is probably smarter not to say it.
One final note: if your advertisements become overly obnoxious due to their frequency, or having signs placed to deliberately block another group's signs, or in manners meant to attack/harass another store, I'll probably ban for that too.
Edit: If I think you are trying to circumvent this rule by exploiting a loophole, I will start waving the ban hammer around rather indiscriminately, smiting you, and any suspected accomplices. So don't do that, because I don't want to type that many ban reasons.
Flattened realms are an abomination
