Today was an interesting day, I watched as several people were killed due to their actions and words within the IRC room #crewleader.  There were a shocking sum of players who thought that their words in an IRC room would hold no weight inside the realm of the game.  Personally I distinguish it in a very simple system that my friend Satanta voiced today much better than I could if I tried to explain:

[16:50] <@Satanta> we're in a room where access is 100% based on our characters ig

[16:50] <@Satanta> if our character dies, we lose access

[16:50] <@Satanta> to suggest #cl isn't/shouldn't be ic seems wrong imho

And that statement plays into my personal viewpoints, if you are in a room where the ops hierarchy is determined predominantly by your place and role in the game, then I consider that to be an in-play room so to speak.  Crew rooms for instance are popular for doing that, as the owner of the channel is usually the leader of said crew.  The point is you should be a lot more careful with your words than Kung and Matt Haas were today, because you may not think IRC should hold any bearing over the game, but there are a lot of people with Godfather characters who do. 

I have always thought the same as you and Satanta. Any family or special game room(#Crewleader) is a in character place. It might not always have in character talking going on but its pretty much still a character based place where respect for those who out rank you should be shown majority of the time.

#DivineLunacy of course not,#Molson I never go there but I think whatever goes on there should be treated same as #Divinelunacy and any other public room as just a public speaking anything goes that isn't against irc rules of course. Only my opinion of course.

In all honesty with 90% of the people on here there is no dividing line IRC and the game will remain eternally linked no matter which room you choose to be in be it #molson, #divinelunacy, #reprobates.

Some people are totally unable to differentiate between OOC and IC and will always relate your IRC persona to your game one.

You run the risk of being held accountable for anything you say, regardless of whether it is in the streets, OOC or on IRC.

I would have hoped it was apparent, that in a room of the most powerful characters in the game, you should be on your best behaviour. 

I like to use IRC to get away from the game, which is why I'm never in #crewleader, as similarly to the above I believe it is just a faster method of communication for your characters.

~T~

This is why time and time again I tell people to always act as if they were in character. If you're going to talk about something to someone that could get your family killed/warred there's MSN, Yahoo, AIM. Plenty of clients for it or you could simply make a room where only certain people are allowed.

People have to mind their mouths just like tall people mind their heads in short clearings. Always be careful as to what and who you say things to, may very well be the last thing you say.

i never once thought that it had any bearing on the game but i'm glad i read this.