First of all, while the good people here at the LARPer have lent me the use of this soapbox, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who commented, for good or ill, on the new site. Contrary to popular opinion, we actually like constructive criticism. (Though preferably not lobbed at a hundred miles an hour whilst flaming) When creating a resource for the community, it is imminently helpful to actually get input from said community from time to time.

Secondly, and for those readers who may not have noticed yet, the Forums area of The LARPer is now alive, well, and available for posting and discussions. Now, before you all go dashing off to pontificate the night away with your fellow role-players, I would like to hang onto the proverbial floor long enough to comment on the actual purpose of this article - to whit, why we as a magazine and a group are not here.

What We Are
As our fearless leader and editor, Gordon Olmstead-Dean, explained in the editorial of the virgin issue, The LARPer is the web incarnation of "a magazine for, by, and about the LARP community". We are sponsored by LARPA, an organization that exists exclusively to promote live roleplaying around the world. Our purpose was to create a playground with space for articles and open discussion within the LARPing population. The main caveat was to create a publication that was non-specific in enough categories to be universally useful to the LARPing community et all.

Our experience as gamers ranges from a 4-month novice to a veteran of 20 years, and we vary enough in morality, philosophy, and politics to have a few friendly restraining orders amongst ourselves.

What We Are Not
It does happen to be the case at the moment that we are fairly centrally located, with 60-70% of our staff within the same geographic 100 miles. It also appears, from our first two issues at least, that neither our staff nor our writers are showing any great turn over. While this would appear to be a standard case of wanting a sandbox only for us to play in, the situation is in truth merely indicative of our relative inefficiency at blackmail.

This publication is the brain-child of several unique individuals, who inspired some of their friends, who then pressured some of their colleagues, who finally resorted to blackmailing their spouses, neighbors, and house-hold pets in order to produce enough material for a complete issue. You see the same names in Issue 2 as in Issue 1 primarily because if blackmail succeeded the first time, it is likely to succeed yet again.

The LARPer is open to LARPers, period, regardless of nationality, origin, color, sex, or species. If you really think you still might be an exception, please contact us, preferably with pictures. Submissions - for articles, that is - should be sent to our Submissions Editor, who adds that she is certainly not above being bribed gratuitously. Submissions from anyone are welcomed and considered. If you have a strong opinion, put it in a coherent and preferably eloquent format, also known as an article, and send it to us.

We reserve the right, of course, to print what we consider appropriate, timely, whatever the dart lands on, etc.

How We Play 'Round Here
The initial inspiration for this rambling excuse for an article was a very small flame war that occurred in our fledgling Forums area. While the fray had about the same gusto as a game of paper rock scissors, it did make it clear that motives are more quickly misunderstood than not. So now that we've covered what we are and are not here to do, the playground guidelines are as follows:

• In general, try to avoid discussions which descend into "Is Not"/"Is Too!" debates.
• Think about your state of mind before speaking. If you are feeling argumentative, you will come across as argumentative, no matter how valid your points may be.
• Be sure to stay clear on what is fact and what is opinion. While you're at it, be sure to check your facts.
• Don't speak for someone else unless specifically asked to. By them.
• Remember, forums are for discussions. They are not for lectures or articles. If you have an article's worth of stuff to say, write an article. (Please!)
• Please remember the very diverse backgrounds and viewpoints represented in the readership and staff. What may be obviously true for some may be less clear for others.
• In general, try to avoid: Huffing/pouting, manipulating semantics, setting conversations "traps", "na-na-na-na-na", make belligerent challenges, quoting incorrectly, etc.
• Be sure to edit yourself and be sure the words you use convey what you're really trying to say. Writing for an international audience frequently requires extra attention to clarity. Also, please remember that there is enough divergence just among English speaking countries that shades of meaning can be completely misunderstood.
• It never hurts to be familiar with the quirks and customs of the medium you're in. A good general list of I-net communication rules (known as Netiquette) can be found at: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Finis
Publications throughout history have received "Letters to the Editor" with varying degrees of an incendiary nature. There is, however, a massive difference between commenting to one person (who is used to the slings and arrows of public opinion), and venting to the entire community.

We must choose either to work at overcoming the minor difficulties incurred when communicating, or resign ourselves to running for the wooden clubs and having a cudgel-fest with every new misunderstanding. By remembering the smallest of considerations, we'll get one nifty playground for our community.