Being that I am at best an infrequent poster on these forums I'm go to preface my rant here with a brief background on who I am for those that do not know me. If you do know me you could easily skip over these opening paragraphs with out loosing anything.

So forthouse that do not know who I am. I'm Bedlambe Dionysus, I play Dion Lambert in DeadEnd. In my six years playing here, all with the same character, I have ran four different business and for the past few years lead the Adherents of Belial faction. I have been apart of the staff for some time now, starting as security and more recently as one of the sims Storyweavers. I have run, the Jade Dragon, Spunk, The Flame of Truth homeless shelter, and three different incarnations of the B&D Productions (BDP). I didn't find DE the first day I came to SL but I did find it within that first week, and it has been my home ever sense. I have been here a long time, and have seen it change much over time, mostly for the better. I feel as if I have evolved as a RolePlayer here, along with allowed my Character to evolve.

From what I can tell there seams to be a growing trend in the RP of DE where it is seen as acceptable to mass up hostily towards another, with no consideration for what they may want. Only thinking of their own personal stories. We all have our stories, we all have our own directions and paths that we want to follow with our characters. We all have our own motivations for having our characters do what they do. I'm not saying we should disregard our own stories and the integrity of our RP. What I am saying is. When you see a scene, or you go to and event. Think before you become apart of it. Think about what the people already there are doing, what the hosts may wish to do. Then consider what you plan on doing, and ask yourself, will I add to what is taking place, or am I merely going to cause a disruption or further complicate a scene that does not need it.

Let us say I'm walking through town, and I see a fight. Of course first I will wait a round of posts, making sure I know the full post order and how the scene has been progressing. Then I ask myself, if I enter the order, will I cause this scene to be too bloated to be manageable? If I see two people fighting, one I know, there is a good chance I will want to get involved. If I see a group of four or more, that I know, I will likely never post in and just walk away.

Another thing that I rarely ever see anymore, are people asking if they can enter a scene, though IM's, before posting in. As a note when you do that, you shouldn't just ask one person, if it is a conflict, you should really ask someone on all sides of the conflict. This is specifically directed to thous that like to play white knight characters. Too often have I been in a scene with someone, a scene that was arranged ahead of time with someone in IM's Only to have someone randomly walking about, to jump in without asking first if it was ok, basicly stripping me and my playmate of the fun we had arranged to have.

Clearly if you enter a business on a normal night and there are people there just chatting, there shouldn't be a problem, It should be ok to just walk in at times like that. Though if you get the impression that you are holding off something that they where working on, it might be worth an IM to the people involved to see if your interrupting something. Or if there is someone working and there is no one else there. Odds are safe that they will welcome the RP. Though there is always the chance that they are waiting for someone, something you should find out before getting too deep into the RP.

When it comes to events, if you wish to disrupt one, and there are legitimate IC reasons for doing so I will not claim otherwise. What you should do is contact the person organizing the event before it begins, and give them an idea of what you have planned, and then get their permission to disrupt or attack. You do not known what they have planned, you do not know what larger, possibly sim wide stroy they may be working on with that event. They may even surprise you and offer suggestions and idea that you never even thought of for something you could do.

The point is Respect. Respect for other peoples RP, for their stories, and for their fun. As I see it respect is on the decline in DE, and this lack of respect, mutually shared respect, mat hurt this sim more then anything else. Your enjoyment on the sim is important, my enjoyment on the sim is important. All of our fun is equal, you should never do something that compromises someone else's enjoyment and fun, to increase yours. If you want to say that stopping and waiting for a round of posts, or IMing the people already in the scene will take too long. Then what I say to you is, thinking like that, if anyone does think like that You are inconsiderate and rude, and I would not want to RP with you.To make sure this occurs, simple communication is all that is needed.

Never before recently have I ever had the thought, that it may be the case, that people are trying to make my OOC experience in DE so unpleasant that I would leave the sim. I try to be a laid back person, to roll with the punches. That's why I don't say much during these moments. I know my character is a bad bad man and has made a lot of enemies. All I ask and all anyone should ask of their antagonist, or the protagonists working against them, is for respect. the sort of respect that does not sacrifice one persons fun for another. I have let things slide a lot... because I believe in IC actions IC consequences, and I believe in giving mutual respect.