Though I can't pretend to personally know much about the Elephant's history, I agree with much of this because anyone should be able to opt out of interacting with anyone they don't want to or feel uncomfortable with. I also don't think it's unrealistic for mods to agree that one particular mod won't interact with that player for OOC interactions or play NPCs off of their character. All you have is their word that it's not happening, but it is something that can be promised.
But this suggestion sticks out to me:
"...then we will not place your characters in our specific factions..."
What do you do, exactly, when a moderator you've opted out from potentially has multiple high ranking characters in multiple factions, and these factions are repeatedly put into contact with each other for events?
Even in a perfect world where an opt-out is honored respectfully and tactfully OOC (and bear in mind there are many people who justly feel opting out officially opens them up to retaliation) I simply don't see how opting out from playing with a mod's character can realistically happen without closing the player off to a great number of things IC. Jigoku is a plot-heavy, NPC-heavy game, and starred/ranked characters speak with considerable authority on their faction's goings-ons, and have close relationships with the NPCs. Accommodations can be made by other mods, of course, but there is simply no world in which this player isn't getting hamstringed IC. Not being in the same faction helps, but not by too much. Avoiding them becomes as much of a task as actually playing.
That's a really tough position to be in to begin with without adding a lack of communication/unwillingness to engage with the central concern: mods declining to give even a simple statement to assure players that their personal boundaries are being taken into consideration. I'm sure there are many people who are happy to play here anyway and just not get CR with particular players or something, but to opt-out officially is difficult even with perfect communication and promised accommodations OOC, and we don't even have that!
People are justified in concerns about the lack of communication around this, even if it IS just a simple "we've decided not to comment on the identities of our moderators, and as we cannot reasonably accommodate this, anyone with concerns about their identities should drop." Ignoring it is uncomfortable.
no subject
But this suggestion sticks out to me:
What do you do, exactly, when a moderator you've opted out from potentially has multiple high ranking characters in multiple factions, and these factions are repeatedly put into contact with each other for events?
Even in a perfect world where an opt-out is honored respectfully and tactfully OOC (and bear in mind there are many people who justly feel opting out officially opens them up to retaliation) I simply don't see how opting out from playing with a mod's character can realistically happen without closing the player off to a great number of things IC. Jigoku is a plot-heavy, NPC-heavy game, and starred/ranked characters speak with considerable authority on their faction's goings-ons, and have close relationships with the NPCs. Accommodations can be made by other mods, of course, but there is simply no world in which this player isn't getting hamstringed IC. Not being in the same faction helps, but not by too much. Avoiding them becomes as much of a task as actually playing.
That's a really tough position to be in to begin with without adding a lack of communication/unwillingness to engage with the central concern: mods declining to give even a simple statement to assure players that their personal boundaries are being taken into consideration. I'm sure there are many people who are happy to play here anyway and just not get CR with particular players or something, but to opt-out officially is difficult even with perfect communication and promised accommodations OOC, and we don't even have that!
People are justified in concerns about the lack of communication around this, even if it IS just a simple "we've decided not to comment on the identities of our moderators, and as we cannot reasonably accommodate this, anyone with concerns about their identities should drop." Ignoring it is uncomfortable.