[Discussion] Potentially, OOC or Trolling Violation?

[Tarsonis]

So it's no secret NSG has seen a number of "Almighty '_____' nations crop up. Political threads especially, from time to time, become inundated with posts like these:

?

You do know it is still bad when Trump does it? I don't even like Trump, I'm not sure why you brought it up unless Trump is living rent free in your head.

That’s the thing. The only policy Democrats have is being anti-Trump. If I were to stop posting on Truth Social, the MSM would lose half of its viewers and Saturday Night Live, which has been very mean to me, would go bankrupt. It’s quite beautiful, really. Very beautiful. So beautiful

So the question I have is, while it's obviously not Trump, (and I have a sneaking suspicion these puppets all belong to the same person or group of people) wouldn't IC posting as the named person violate the OOC rules of NSG?

Further, as is custom in election years for the rules in political posting to be enforced a bit tighter than off years, would not pretending to be a political candidate and posting inane things as said candidate, not be trolling in the same vein as say political nicknaming? [list=][/list]

[Almighty Biden]

I cant speak for Trump Almighty but my "Almighty" nations (yes I admit to having a few, but not all of them are mine) are intended to simply be the United States as led according to that particular leader's wishes. (For example: Almighty Roosevelt is just the US if TR were able to do whatever he wanted without opposition.) On the forums I usually post OOC, except maybe in certain F7 games which have a slight roleplayish aspect to them. I will admit however that when I made this nation I did make some ICish posts in NSG, but gave that up as being unconducive to the discussion and in murky waters, ruleswise; and as pointed out, I now follow the guidelines to post OOC only.

[Trump Almighty]

I’ll accept whichever way the mods rule on this, but since I am posting to defend myself, I’d just like to add that I’m not a puppet of any of the other Almighty “President” nations (including Almighty Biden or Almighty Roosevelt). Additionally, political nicknaming refers to giving crude nicknames to other political candidates, which I don’t believe applies to anywhere in my post. If this is treated as spam, I’ll try and stop posting OOC as well and limit my activity on NS General

[Stalin as a DEAT]

Honestly, I think the poster should make it clear that it is satire or a joke or whatnot by specifying in their sig or something

[Reploid Productions]

Honestly, I think the poster should make it clear that it is satire or a joke or whatnot by specifying in their sig or something

Not everyone has sigs enabled for various reasons, and "I'm just joking lol" has never excused rulebreaking behavior.

That said, successful satire is a very difficult line to tread, and this thread does raise some good points; it is very easy for a satire account to take the joke too far and end up in actionable territory. Coupled with NSG being explicitly an OOC forum, "I'm just playing a character" likewise doesn't fly. (Come to think of it, we had a DOS who tried to use "Oh I'm just committed to the bit, I'm not really an obnoxious, edgy ass!" to try and excuse their flaming and trolling.... that didn't fly either.) Add in to it that it's a US election year and likely to be an incredibly incendiary one at that, it makes it even easier for intended satire to miss the mark and overshoot into trolling or baiting.

It's probably something that we'll need to discuss among the team at greater length if it develops into too much of a problem/bandwagon (kinda like how when a particular 'fad' type of thread starts popping up in excess in NSG we start locking the copycats.) At the moment, I would simply urge a great deal of caution from anybody that's playing a bit in NSG for the above-mentioned reasons. I know I've said at least once before that a user behaving on here the way Trump does IRL would undoubtedly get their butt tossed out the door pretty quick; the former president's conduct were it to occur here would be an absolute dumpster fire of flaming, trolling, baiting, and maybe even spamming- something for aspiring satirists to keep very much in mind.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

Isn't it going to become much more of a problem when the US election gets into full swing? Having people putting words in the mouths of the candidates seems likely to be more incendiary than things that gone banned, like using the name Drumpf.