The Responsibilities of GM Status in a Game // Responsibilities of a Player in a Game

A Reminder to ALL GMs:

If you have GM status in a game, whether it is primary GM status, or secondary GM status granted by the primary GM, you are responsible for making sure that the game follows RPoL's ToU and Content restrictions.

In a mature or unrated game, that means:

If the game contains content not allowed on RPoL or content not allowed outside Adult rated games, ALL those in the game with GM status are responsible for closing the thread, contacting the players involved and letting them know this is not acceptible in the game (or on RPoL), AND removing the content from the game.

If you are not the primary GM, the VERY LEAST you need to do is close the thread, move it to a group that noone other than GMs have access to, and contact the primary GM and the players to let them know that the content is not allowed on RPOL.

In Adult Games GMs have the extra responsibility of making sure that threads visible to the public (public, archived & group 0 threads) do not contain graphic sexual content.  That means YOU are responsible for checking those threads and removing content not allowed OR making sure all threads are in private groups.


IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT RESPONSIBILITY, ask the GM to change your status back to player immediately, and contact the site moderators if your access isn't changed within a day or so so we can change the status for you.

If you have GM status, "I don't check that game" or "I didn't read that thread" or "I didn't know" doesn't work.  If you don't want to be aware of / take responsibility for everything in a game, then don't be a GM in that game.

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If you're a PLAYER of Adult Games, then you are expected to be responsible enough to notice WHERE you're posting content that isn't suitable for all ages.  If the thread isn't private, DON'T POST SEXUAL CONTENT in that group.  Ask the GM to change the thread to private, and WAIT until they do, POST in a thread that's already private, or take it to private messages within the game.

As long as we're elaborating on the different roles of people in rated games, what are the requirements of a moderator? Are they the same as for a DM, or do their lowered capabilites lead to lower responsibility?

I believe everyone in a game should take responsibility for noticing and reporting things that don't follow the ToU, first to the GMs if they are not one, and then to the mods if the GMs don't fix whatever.  And remember that even PMs are subject to following the rules, for instance no Adult material in non-Adult games.

Moderators can't see all threads in games, so their responsibility is less.  However, they can edit posts in the groups they're assigned to, so they are responsible for editing posts with content not suitable for minors outside of adult games OR in public posts inside Adult Games.


Likewise, if you're a player in a game and SEE people posting content that you know will get the game in hot water with moderators, then for heaven's sake, at the very least PM the people concerned & the GM ... and then if they don't respond (AND ESPECIALLY if they keep posting after your PM) contact the moderators.

If people are acting responsibly by letting us know so that we can head off problems, we're much more likely just to 'suspend' the threads in question until the problem is fixed.  When the GM isn't actively involved in the game and one or two players are ignoring the fact that their explicit posts can be read by any visitor to the game AND else in the game just keeps quiet because they don't want to get someone else in trouble, that's a good scenario for the game getting shut down because it shows that nobody is willing to take responsibility for it.

A mistake isn't that big of a deal -- it's usually results in nothing more than a 'Please pay closer attention' request from a moderator at worst.