Good luck! I ran a talker, which is a text-chat version of a MUCK years ago. The software is usually buggy and in constant need of attention. Fun times though when it's working :)
If you spend much time with it, you'll want a real MUCK client. I recommend MUSHclient. It's a bit tough to start with, but you'll appreciate the advanced features before long.

I use Atlantis as a client, if that is what you are saying.

what?

Whoa I'm a hardcore mucker, gotta check it out.

I put in an application. I had this sinking feeling when I read the title for this journal it might have some correlation to Nambroth's earlier pursuits.

I can only hope I'm up to par with your standards @-@ The setting sounds awesome

Why a sinking feeling?

You know, I think that's the first time I've noticed an improper use of an idiom from my own lips (or in this case fingertips) D:

i have failed yoooou

.....What's MUCK? :V

Text based role play thingie. The internet can answer you better than I can, I'm still learning about it myself. On the Haezyn website, there is this: http://featherdust.critter.net/haezyn/connect.html

Basically if you like to write, and make believe with others, you might enjoy this.

Though, and I'm sorry for commenting once again, for actual roleplaying, in terms of hunting/gathering, what have you. Let's run this scenario;

You're a mountain lion. You need food, obviously. Must you hunt down another player's character, or simply spin the yarn of your own roleplay by hunting down a "NPC" animal yourself?

If that's what you want to roleplay, you would have to talk to other players and see if anyone will play with you on that. The lion could also eat fish!

But honestly, I don't know how this will go! I am curious to see how many characters will want to break the "taboo" of eating other sentient characters/people.

Me too XD I really really really really love this so far @u@ Nambroth needs to sleepwalk or intuitively turn on some computer somewhere to read my registration form.

ill just assume that one would hunt an npc animal for the time being >> <<

Vore. :l

Oh. Didn't even think about that. But, well, whatever people want to do in private is fine, though it seems there are a million other places to play out that sort of scenario.

Not in public. I'll banhammar it.

Hm. On what grounds? If the scene is otherwise PG, is that to be a bannable offense simply because you disagree with the content?
If so, is there a comprehensive list available for topics you disagree with in this manner?

On the ground that it's a private server and I make the rules. :) If you read the rules, it's clearly stated.

I'm asking you what the other taboo topics outside of the realm of rating are.

I'm not trying to cause trouble, for the record. Having read the rules, I'm really confused as to why a consensual, non-violent, non-sexual, non-gore vore scene would result in a ban.

"If you are a predator, you may choose to hunt/eat intelligent creatures if you wish."
"You may kill someone else's character ONLY if they give you specific permission to do so. Please see the general rules (you may not roleplay overly graphic descriptions of violence or gore in public)."

I think it is the connotation of the word "vore". In this context, here on a furry website, "vore :|" seems to mean the usual connotation of vore, a sexual type thing, as opposed to a realistic predator/prey scene which I personally would never call vore. I would call it a hunt/kill. I am not the final say on this of course, but I think that is where the confusion may come from.

This.

I realize. I'm using the term illustratively. :)
One person's murrypurryvore is someone else's hunt scene.. they're the same thing in practice, though.

My worry, with that sort of ambiguity, is where the line's drawn.
It doesn't actually matter, I guess, and I feel like it's just getting into territory where it might upset someone, so I'll happily drop it.
Was only curious. :)

I suggest the Golden Rule.

Which is?

Well, phrasing it in a far more liberal sense than the Sermon on the Mount: "dun' squick folks what dun' wanna get squck".

0_o' Golden rule?

Okay. I was mostly being flippant and not paying too much attention to what I said. Bad me, and you don't have to pay much attention to me.

But, well, since you put a question mark in your response... I'll take that as an excuse to expand the implicit concepts that were behind my response. I do not mean to imply that you were in any way ill-behaved, or that you actually need this as any kind of lecture! From later comments I see that it was mostly just confusion over whether "vore" is sexual, so my comment was pretty irrelevant anyway.

Anyway:

---

The Golden Rule, as you're probably well aware, is, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." But, in the context of acceptable behaviour in an online forum, it's probably better formulated as, "don't gratuitously upset people".

You are totally reasonable and within your rights to ask Nambroth for general guidelines of what's acceptable and what's not. But, while you ask for that, it's worth remembering that those rules will always, always be somewhat flexible and indistinct, because it is totally impossible to give a completely rigorous definition of what goes and what doesn't. There will always be things within the letter of the law that are actually offensive, and there will always be things outside the letter of the law that are actually acceptable. Well-written rules keep these grey areas to a minimum, but they can never be eliminated.

With most rules, the best way to read them is not as immutable laws, but as very strong hints about how to get along with people in the society, so that you can be reasonably sure of following the Golden Rule. The flip side of that is that you allow the administrator (Nambroth) a certain flexibility in laying down the law -- if people are basically being kind and sensible and following the Golden Rule then she can allow them technicalities. And if they're not, then she can lay the thunder on them even if they're technically within the rules. Borderline cases.

---

So that's why I started remarking on the Golden Rule when people started asking about rules. Even if you were being perfectly fine, I just had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, just in case you turned out to be one of those unfortunate and destructive souls who think that real goodness follows any rule other than the Golden one.

I hope you forgive me for that. And for my long-winded wittering. :)

>_> I thought the golden rule was if you can't say something nice, don't say anything.

Well, that's a most excellent rule too. :)

(Also: long answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Rule .)

Did you read the site? There are in-depth sections on the predator prey issues and ethics. :)

Yessems. Though I was curious if hunting another player's character has to be the only way you get food, or if you can just imply/play out your own huntings with non-player characters such as "random elk # 15". :<

Oh! Sorry that it's not clear. I don't see why not, as long as your player recognizes that it can be an ethical taboo. Even "Random Elk #15" is 'uplifted' and sentient. :)

Hm. This looks promising. I might have to check this out. In depth. I always wondered how some one goes about making these. What do you use? Is it complicated?
Anyway. Looking forward to creating a character and checking it out. Looks like I should do some research. Wonder what I should be....

I don't know how to make it, but the Haezyn website has a lot of information about connecting http://featherdust.critter.net/haezyn/connect.html

Yeah. I already downloaded a client. mushclient. I think its called. Anyway. Looks legit. and friendly. I played another mud type game. But its was just soooooo hard to get into. Way too much going on at the same time. In order to play you had to be super hard core and REALLY know how to use the Mud, Muck, w/e system. Which I'm still learning. Looking to get better. This looks fun though. I'll give it a shot. And if it doesn't work out, I'll gie myself up for bantha fodder. lol.

I like Mucking. Was how I found the fandom. Wouldn't mind finding/participating in a non-anthro themed one, if such a beastie exists.

That's what this whole post is about: It does exist.

Because it's what this journal is about, try this Haezyn one first! But if you have time, check out Meadows Muck sometime too at Amber.org.uk 7000 . It's a nice non-anthro muck that's been around a few years and could use more active members. =^.^=

Oh yeah, I tossed a couple of character requests at the site. I haven't done MUCKs in almost a decade (since FM and Taps), but loved them when I was a part of them.

See you in text.

I'm a MUCKer from the old days! I hope you can get a lot of interest in this. It sadly seems like a lost art now that everyone has fast connections, pretty graphics, and Second Life. :P

I gave up on MUCKing. The people there are either out for TS or just will not RP. Some of the feral MUCKs I visited had some rather elitist players, demanding a paragraph with each pose.

What maybe a good alternative is to join FM and create a private world (rooms) there. It is not hard but you need to let others know so they can be invited in. As the owner of the rooms you can ban people if they do not obey the group's rules (hopefully not strict rules). At least being on FM you already have a MUCK that is up and running with scripts that you can readily use.

I don't know what TS or FM is. If there are elitist MUCKs out there, this isn't one: there are so many noobs there, myself included. Don't judge it! The thing is already up and running and there have been several fun scenes so far. I mean, if you look at the site you see the rules are straightforward and simple. It's supposed to be fun!

"TS" = tinysex or old skool murrypurry. "FM" = FurryMUCK, the original text-based furry world. Or at least, the biggest and most active at one point. Ah, the lingo from the 1990s is finally beginning to fade.

And I think I used to be an admin on one of those elitist feral mucks; well, at least, we used to enjoy some pretty intense (and long-winded) RP there. Gods, it was fun. If there were enough hours in the day these days, I'd come check out this new space. Text-based muck/mud RP simply hasn't ever been surpassed for the combination of fun, creativity, and brain-action. :)

Good luck, Vantid and Nambroth!

Shiny! How does one play? I mean I've played D&D and Ars Magica before, but what is "MUCK"?

I might get in on this :)

Text based role play thingie. The internet can answer you better than I can, I'm still learning about it myself. On the Haezyn website, there is this: http://featherdust.critter.net/haezyn/connect.html

Basically if you like to write, and make believe with others, you might enjoy this.

Just to be helpful randomly, don't think of a muck as a 'game' that you 'play'. I would more compare it more to a chatroom that you can make actions and roleplay in...A lot of folks speak of a muck like a game, and call it 'playing', but I've always felt those aren't very good terms for it. You don't roll any dice to see if you did something, for example, you just -do- it, like writing a story except you write in a way that works for interacting with other people. You generally don't have things like stats and HP and whatnot. Y'know? You're just a character. :)

For example!:
Swiftpaw trots along and wags his tail, barking hello!
BoogerBear grins, "Oh look, a little fox! They make good pillows.
Swiftpaw eeps and tries to hide under MochaWolf.
MochaWolf acks, "Hey now, I don't like things under me! Get outta there!"

XD

And for historical reference, there are other places similar to mucks called MUDS and Mushes, where they -do- work like a game, with HP and abilities and D&D essence and whatnot. :)

Ah so its just another name for online RP

Sort of! But a muck offers a text-based virtuality where you can create rooms/regions, objects, items, etc. Like a supersandbox. :3

still isn't quite the place i'm looking for, but i like the idea and wish it well.
not being about war or money are both a major plus, and have me cheering for it.

but i want to be what the dominant sentient of some other world, where we have fur, tails and pointy ears, could be, in a world with little people sized trains (everywhere, 24-7) instead of cars, and a preference for forests over cities, and residential neighborhoods that look like rural villages with lots of gardens.

nothing against higher then the highest imaginable tech, but without it having to be incompatible with wild nature, nor having evolved in support of aggressiveness.

it is indeed the culture and its perspective that is (for me) the thing.

many years ago, in the relatively early days of furry in the modern sense, back in the fur nation era, there was a place called socio-political ramifications, that looked over all like it might have been sort of the "right" (meaning as close as anything can be expected to come to my own dream) idea. i never really as well and far into it for reasons partly technical on my end, not quite mastering the complexities of creating rooms, and my not being all that social in general.

what broke it up of course, was people wanting to get propritory about their conceptualizations.

I don't quite understand what you're saying through a lot of this message. =P But! SPR is still around. Unless you just mean it broke up administratively or had drama or something.

...I've never been there though. They demand a "non-free" e-mail address, so gmail and hotmail doesn't work for them...and I have no other e-mail, sooo, yeah. :3 I gave up after they were that picky.

well i think there was some drama, but that was all ages ago. i had no idea it existed still or again as the case might be. the transition to getting "that picky" may have been PART of the drama. or may have came after it. or, i can't really say. you know the way some people are, you can't really blame some places for getting 'picky'. still doesn't make doing so attractive either. they were just an example that came to mind from back in that era. they sort of tried to have a transit system, which interested me a lot. but, whatever else, i only visited a few times, and that was way back then. so i totally hadn't kept track since. right now i'm having to buy metered bandwidth on a monthly contract, so i'm not really able to get too deeply involved in anything anyway.

if its still around, "broke it up" is an obvious exaggeration, but person or persons claiming proprietorship of key elements leaving or having drama, was something i do remember their own statements to the effect of, which is why i thought it likely to have.

Aah I see. :)

Also ewww metered bandwidth. That suuuuuucks but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that. heh. Hope they go un-metered some day soon for you!

yah me too. it super sucks to live in a place with neither landlines nor wi-fi. which is the reason.

I really miss the message board based RP. That was the only kind of role play I could ever really get into.

that's not completely gone. but i don't know of any that are still open ended and casual. and i can kind of understand why that happened.
last i checked fur 2 fur, sci-fur, and the non-furry (but with a respectable minority furry population as well) nation states, all have forum based roll-play.

but ...

they all (these i've mentioned that i know of) pretty much insist on ooc signups for each roll play group/scenario, expect publication ready prose of at least a paragraph a hit, and commitment to regular and frequent participation at that kind of level. all of which are a bit well beyond me.

there aren't, again that i know of, casual and intermittent open roll play. the rise of blatant, crude, unredeamining sorts of trollism is of course largely if not entirely to blame.

I've been on a great non-anthro-only muck for a few years now. Ever hear of Meadows Muck? :) ( Amber.org.uk 7000 ) It could really use more active members.

If I have time I'll hafta try and remember to check out this Haezyn place sometime. :3

Er meant to leave a link too: http://sites.google.com/site/meadowsmuck/

I've been considering something like this since I've been getting more in touch with my 'feral' self. I think I may just give it a try :)

Ahh this is fantastic! I've never been able to really fully flesh out Aun as a character, because I'd never been able to really 'place' her in a world before, and as such never been able to give her a real history. This looks exciting, I'm so glad ya'll did this :) Application sent~

the site lists three MUCK clients with no opinions given on them. Being that I am totally new, can someone here give me a push to their favorites?
SimpleMU, MUCKclient, MUSHclient

I invented my own RPG back some decades ago. (Gad has it been so long), anyway I wrote it instead of pursuing the American (Liability) Dream like most of my class of 73'. (I wanted to be famous for something and leave no record of my actual life, much like Poe)
So, yep I know how to Role Play. SOOOOO If you have a place for me than I could go ref a game there maybe?

It's not an RPG, it's just a place for free form text based role play chat.

oh

I wonder what non-anthro MUCK you're referring to in your first statement?

Anyway, I happened across all this today, and have been poking about a bit for more information on the game... I'm a long-time MUCKer as well as a headwizard of my own 'talking animal' game, Meadows, and I'm always interested to find other similar themes when they pop up once in a while. :3

AfterMUCK, which was made by Sidian.

Hope to see you on Haezyn!