Member Discussions

Our mud abides by the spirit of the Rom license in that we do not accept money, donations, or any other form of monetary gain from the use of the Rom codebase. We refuse any and all help of server assistance donations. We, the owners, pay for it out of pocket every month. It isn't a hardship, but it is an ethical sticking point for us.

Today an idea was proposed by one of our staff members that I am frankly unsure if it follows the same spirit of the license or if it is in violation of it. A site was found that would produce "souvenir" products for whatever you wished, in this case, the mud. Logos, Tshirts, License plate covers, that sort of stuff. Any sales of the merchandise are done on the site, not by us or anyone associated with the mud. Any profit made is made by the owners of that site, and none of it lands in the hands of any mud administrators or anyone else associated with the mud. Honestly, I find the idea interesting and appealing, but I really am not sure if it is ETHICAL to do this.

Opinions and discussion is welcome, and I'm asking you to please help me with this dilemma.

Shezrai.

Since the administrators take no gain, then I would assume it should
be ethical in your point of view. I would certainly love to have
souvineers made up. I really want a hat that says dont feed the
mobiles.

I would have thought it would be fine even if it was by the admin,
no players gain anything in the game from it and also the license
wouldn't count for sticking -your- MUD name on a T-shirt for
example?

Only the biggest nerd in the world would buy a mud t-shirt. I think this is unethical in the sense that you are promoting such nerdiness by offering a product to make it possible.

> Our mud abides by the spirit of the Rom license in that we do
> not accept money, donations, or any other form of monetary
> gain from the use of the Rom codebase. We refuse any and all
> help of server assistance donations. We, the owners, pay for
> it out of pocket every month. It isn't a hardship, but it is
> an ethical sticking point for us.

You are in fact permitted to accept donations, as long as you don't offer anything in-game in return (because then it becomes a commercialisation).

> A site was found that would produce "souvenir" products for
> whatever you wished, in this case, the mud. Logos, Tshirts,
> License plate covers, that sort of stuff. Any sales of the
> merchandise are done on the site, not by us or anyone
> associated with the mud.

Unless you're printing Diku source code on those t-shirts/etc, they fall outside the scope of the license, and therefore there is nothing stopping you from making money from selling them. The Diku team have even suggested people use this approach for supporting their muds (I can dig up the relevent quotes if you're interested).

Careful though, it's a matter of time till companies will claim the exclusive rights to products with "don't feed the mobs" and other quasi funny mud related statements like that. It could be seen as unethical to support these practices, so I'd make sure the intentions of these sites are right.

> Only the biggest nerd in the world would buy a mud t-shirt.
> I think this is unethical in the sense that you are
> promoting such nerdiness by offering a product to make it
> possible.

Says the person responding to a post on a Mud message board.

If you wouldn't mind, I would certainly appreciate it. In the things I have read, yours has been some of the most reasonable and fully researched comments and suggestions. I was truely hoping you would respond, KaVir.

If it is easier, my email is posted.

Again, thank you.

Shezrai.

This somehow invalidates my statement because?

There's a difference between playing muds and spending money on t-shirts with the name of a mud on it.

If the t-shirt looks good, i'd get and wear one happily, just
because its designed because of a MUD doesn't make no
difference to me.

I'd like to point out that taking donations to keep the mud up dosen't violate the license...atleast no rom license i've ever seen, because all that is is trying to keep the game up, not trying to gain money off of the codebase.

Really, people who post on mud forums to talk about muds are far nerdier than people who'd just buy a mud t-shirt.

Just accept it. We're all nerds here.

Remember it could be far far worse. You might wake up one day and find yourself posting on a Star Wars forum. >:->

Admittedly, I would wear a mud t-shirt if it were free.

Otherwise, count me out...

I might spend money on one of those nifty D&D shirts though.

Honestly. D&D is less nerdier because? I think that of all the nerdiest stuff available, it would have to go to Magic cards, with a close second anything produced with the words 'Dungeons' and 'Dragons' in it. I think somewhere in a regulation it states that you lose 2 cool points for every hour played.
dataw0lf

Dude, i want a shirt that says.

'Im part of the Diku Family Tree!'