This official news post is copied verbatim from the WoTMUD website. It is copyrighted by wotmud.org.
Please be aware of the latest policy announcement dealing with "banning policy" at https://web.archive.org/web/20030510073936/http://...wotmud.org/forums/viewtopic.php?type=0&topic=29673&forum=8&0 . Sadly, occasionally it is neccessary to totally terminate people's logon privileges by removing their ability to log the player in (as opposed to a siteban); this has only happened a dozen or so times in all the years the mud has operated and is generally because they harrass people (in rl or abusively in game), publish information which invades people's privacy, or show blatant and repeated disrespect for the rules and authority, and so on -- bans such as those are usually simply "in the public interest".
The policy states that even if its mainly your character and you didn't get banned, if you share passwords with people like this and its recorded in the logs that we keep, we'll be forced to assume that you would do so in the future, so that particular character will also be "de-passworded" with no logons permitted, nor would you be able to transfer equipment etc.
My reason for posting is that some of you have, in the past, indicated that you do so in order that they might log your character on for you after a crash or something, ie a safety measure of sorts. That's understandable, but my strong advice would be to think very carefully before doing so bearing in mind the above policy. Ie, don't share passwords with dodgy people who have a history or tendency to push what's permissable to the limit and beyond, even if it is just as a backup to cover crashes etc. If you don't want to be penalised for the actions of people like this, if you're sharing... "Now" would be a particularly good time to reset your passphrase to make sure that you are never ever affected by this.
On related note, the houseguest rules don't explicitly state all actions which may result in bans because we can't possibly hope to anticipate them all. But, you're expected to use your best judgement considering the diversity and ages of players we have here, stay civilised, and if in doubt, just don't do it. This goes for both the game and the forums; both offensive actions and offensive posts. Interpretation of what is and isn't a sitebannable offence under that policy is incident-specific and entirely up to the staff. Bear in mind that whilst it's all good and fun being a fantasy roleplaying game, it is still fundamentally a "civilised" environment, and we do have minors here, so certain things are simply beyond "good taste" and unacceptable.