Formal RFC: Pryaxis as a Moral Authority on Terraria

[Ijwu]

I would like to put forward a set of guidelines which outline Pryaxis' involvement in matters of ethics or morality in the TShock and Terraria communities.

The main points I would like solidified in the handbook are:

• Pryaxis is not a moral authority on Terraria.
  • Pryaxis can not and will not take action on immoral or unethical actions within the Terraria game not hosted on Pryaxis infrastructure.
• Anything which does not happen on Pryaxis infrastructure or community pages is not subject to judgment or action from Pryaxis.
• Immoral or unethical actions are rated as such based on judgments from Pryaxis leadership as well as applicable laws in the United States of America.
• Pryaxis is headquartered in Colorado and is subject to the laws within this state.
• Discord is created by Hammer and Chisel Inc., which is HQ'd in San Francisco and is subject to California laws.
  • Immoral or unethical behavior which occurs within the TShock Discord community will be dealt with by Pryaxis leadership.
  • Immoral or unethical behavior which occurs in DM on Discord should be reported to the Discord Administration team. This is out of the jurisdiction of Pryaxis.
• Extremely immoral or unethical behavior may be escalated to external authorities as Pryaxis leadership sees fit.

TL;DR is that if it didn't happen in our community or on our servers: we don't care. Take care of your issues with proper authorities but don't come to us for validation of your judgments. We are not the police nor do we have the capability to act as such. We will act on all unethical or immoral behavior which we have witnessed within our communities or infrastructure. We will escalate immoral or unethical behavior within our communities or infrastructure as we see fit.

[hakusaro]

I would actually tend to disagree with the scope but not the intent of this particular RFC. I think in some cases, like in #2, we can make the decision to hold our community to standards that we deem appropriate. This RFC stemmed out of an issue that happened earlier which was primarily a case of "remote law enforcement," and I tend to agree that it's not our business to enforce things that leak into our community because people think we're the authority on everything.

I would say that, where ethics are concerned, it's too much of a grey area. I submitted #2 out of the desire to not have to support people who were running for profit businesses based on stealing other people's work. This is a flat out no go zone for me. Copyright infringement for private use has its own moral arguments separate from commercial profit. In this case, my suggestion was based out of the egregious violation of trust and security that server owners come to expect from the TShock Team & Pryaxis.

Other moral/legal zones are different -- in the case we received today, it was most assuredly:

• Presented in a way that couldn't authenticate the accusations that happened.
• Isolated from Pryaxis as the source.
• In an area where we have no legal or moral obligation policing.

In this regard, I think we shouldn't act. In other cases, though, I think we're obligated. It's not like RL is doing anything about this stuff. As a community, however, we have the capability to do something.

What needs to be done is done by those capable.

[hakusaro]

E.g., Let's say some crazy person is a nazi in every discord but ours. He's a verified accredited nazi to literally all jews in literally all discords but ours. If he shows up, should we not ban him?

[Ijwu]

The conversation spurred by #2 happened because the incident occurred in our community. I cannot say, with good faith, that we should act as moral authority for any scope outside of our own. It seems to presumptuous of us. I can see where #2 may conflict with this RFC. I think at that point we should work to figure out what the best solution is through leadership discourse. If we do make moral decisions then we should do so with a vast majority of the leadership team in agreement.

[hakusaro]

I think part of it did, but if we take action on, say, Voldey, then we're going to be breaking that line because technically it isn't in our community (re. #2).

[Ijwu]

I will form a PR with a proper document written up taking this issue into account. I will not be editing the issue I originally posted. That will allow us to preserve history and incorporate all feedback into the final product.

[hakusaro]

You could just post a new draft here.

[Ijwu]

That's smarter. Will do.

[Ijwu]

Here are the updated points including the conversation between myself and @hakusaro. Changes are bolded.

• Pryaxis is not a moral authority on Terraria.
  • Pryaxis can not and will not take action on immoral or unethical actions within the Terraria game not hosted on Pryaxis infrastructure.
• Pryaxis will not be an accomplice to or allow for users who violate our moral or ethical values.
  • i.e. If a user violates our ethical standards outside of our infrastructure we can still hold them accountable to that fact.
• Anything which does not happen on Pryaxis infrastructure or community pages is not subject to judgment or action from Pryaxis.
• Immoral or unethical actions are rated as such based on judgments from Pryaxis leadership as well as applicable laws in the United States of America.
• Pryaxis is headquartered in Colorado and is subject to the laws within this state.
• Discord is created by Hammer and Chisel Inc., which is HQ'd in San Francisco and is subject to California laws.
  • Immoral or unethical behavior which occurs within the TShock Discord community will be dealt with by Pryaxis leadership.
  • Immoral or unethical behavior which occurs in DM on Discord should be reported to the Discord Administration team. This is out of the jurisdiction of Pryaxis.
• Extremely immoral or unethical behavior may be escalated to external authorities as Pryaxis leadership sees fit.

[hakusaro]

i.e. If a user violates our ethical standards outside of our infrastructure we can still hold them accountable to that fact.

Looks good to me and this comment definitely wasn't edited.

[Ijwu]

@hakusaro Naw, I put i.e. because I intended to provide further clarification, not an example. :)

[hakusaro]

@Ijwu get back on topic I don't know what you're talking about

[Ijwu]

@Pryaxis Look good to the rest of you? I'm being baited by Shank here into non-topic conversations.

[hakusaro]

@Ijwu you forgot "sloppily" and "without logic" in this sentence:

Discord is created by Hammer and Chisel Inc., which is HQ'd in San Francisco and is subject to California laws.

[QuiCM]

LGTM