No ladies and gents I'm not writing this about the wonderful Sesame Street, (although that would make an example for what I will be talking about) I am talking about recent posting activities.

Lately I've noticed a lot of threads that are very borderline between whether they should be considered OOC or if they should be in the Outside category of threads. But the biggest culprits of blurring lines and things have occurred in recent street threads.

Now ... apparently anytime a conversation happens in a coffee shop or mobmail its posted to the streets the same way our characters would view it ... now I get that things need to be verified and such but that just doesn't seem right to post such information in a format like that in the streets.

I feel that those people are posting that type of information there in order so that it gets more traffic ... well I don't think that justifies it being placed in the wrong venue.

What causes the most trouble is that once a street thread goes off topic whether it starts there with the writer of the original thread or it’s a poster that replies with information that is obviously out of character, the rest of the responses seem to follow suit in the debauchery, as if like a yawn, OOC talk in the streets becomes contagious.

SO I put this out there to the public to find out if they too have noticed this same behavior and what if any consequences should be enforced for the breaking of these well noted rules (if you take the time to read) what do you like to do in order to bring things back into order ... I personally have often contemplated slamming a gavel on my keyboard but I don't think that would convey the message properly either ...

The contagious aspect is often why people call it OOCitis, like its sorm sort of affliction that has came over the person(s).

People have always got the wrong idea with OOC and Outside, but thats why threads are moved. I don't think the users can actually justify thinking of actions to take when such things happen, by definition OOC is completely outwith the realms of In Character punishments due to the very nature of that forum. Though I do suspect you were talking in jest when you mentioned consequences, but felt it worth noting none the less.

There are many different interpretations of OOCitis and this is where the problems lies.

I do not consider someone writing out a story in italics to be roleplay... it's just telling a story. It has little or nothing at all to do with what your character is actually doing. However, a lot of people consider this to be the concept of roleplay. I do not consider speaking from a 3rd person standpoint is roleplay either.

There will never be serious consequences to speaking OOC in the streets because everybody has a different opinion on what not being "in-character" consists of.

I think most people would agree when people reference things like "the Game" and IRC, etc. Thats pretty OOC.

When I was putting up my post, I was doing it from my character's standpoint. To see how other characters see it. Not how the person see's it OOC.