This is an independent page about Sociopolitical Ramifications, written by unci, who has been there since the beginning and helped building it up as a wizard. It is not affiliated to the wizards of SPR as of 2001.

SPR is history!

Sociopolitical Ramifications was intended to be a world like this, and for a long time came close to the ideal.

Sociopolitical Ramifications has been elected MUD of the Month September 1998 by The MUD Connector.

Today, unfortunately, this ideal cannot be upheld in all aspects. Read the history page to see how things went ....

It is not easy to get reliable information about the situation on SPR today. In 1999, the fights between wizards became worse, and some wizards acted on their own against players. As a consequence, a number of good players and wizards have left SPR.

In 2001, the news are inconsistent and contradictory. Some say that things have improved, that after a number of reorganizations, wizards are cooperating again and things are in order. According to Snout, the number of wizards has been reduced from 30 to 8.

Others warn that some things still have not improved. One example is this logfile of Sorsha's @toading. It came surprising, without being clear about what rules were broken.

Another, more recent case is how Zinn's return to SPR was handled. See the mail exchange here (external link).

So those playing on SPR should be aware that there is some chance of their character getting eradicated suddenly without explanation. To be prepared for such situations, it is a good idea to @archive your belongings - see below.

Another problem is the unsolved question of player copyrights. When a player leaves for whatever reason, voluntarily or not, the player apparently cannot always decide what should happen with what she or he created on SPR. The situation regarding this might have improved somewhat recently, though ....

I (unci) created many areas of SPR: the Kamiyama mountains, the way north towards the arctic, the connection south to the savannah, the art gallery and the station in the city, the train system. I recently heard that other players took possession of some of these areas without notifying me.

Latest news (November 2001): I am trying to talk reasonably to some wizards of SPR. It is not easy (it was not easy either back when I was a wizard); some are accusing me of hate fixation - which is quite ridiculous .... But I am not giving up yet.

I recently found out that another site about SPR was using my maps. I requested to link to my site instead, where updated versions are kept. The maintainer of those webpages has refused to link to me, though. His arguments didn't make sense to me.

SPR is best experienced directly!

spr.ctrl-c.liu.se 23

SPR has interesting building!

• To the SPR maps page

SPR has potential!

So, is SPR a dead MUCK? Many have already given it up, but there is still some hope - if the MUCK is seriously reformed. Here are some of the things that are needed - you may call it "unci's reform plan":

• Reconsider all "permanent" banishments, invite those back who have been unfairly @toaded, and apologize to them. Take every effort to solve the problem that has led to the original banishment and the personal conflicts in a constructive manner. (This would probably mean to engage some universally accepted integration figures as neutral mediators.)
• To repeat an old quote of DivineVixen: Once and for all, SPR does not banish sites! So it once stood in the MOTD, in better times ...
• Rewrite the wizard rules, making clear that banishment is only a last resort and should be agreed upon by all active wizards. Too many banishments have occurred in the past without even notifying all wizards or giving those who could a chance to solve the conflict in a more constructive manner.
• Giving Winged a policy wizard position was a wrong idea from the beginning. He was helpful on the coding side, but otherwise caused only trouble, when I was there and after I left, by his combination of unfairness, rudeness and general social incompetence. Zinn's case is just the latest example of this. Removing Winged from the wizard staff alltogether would probably be the best solution (and solve a lot of problems as many of them appear to be personal issues between Winged and other players).
• Space rearrangement: Either make outer space a truly public area again, or let Arian run his space as a private area without wizard privileges, and build a new space that is truly public. The current situation of a wizard running his private space area has led to too many problems: according to the rules he could banish anyone from his area that he doesn't like, but with such an important and big area, that tends to become a problem.

I, unci, do not connect any personal endeavours to my proposals. These come only from my long experience as a wizard on SPR, as ideas how to get out of today's situation. I am not running for any office in SPR and I am not applying for a character again. I would only reconsider this if there is a considerable number of players asking for it.

Archiving your creations

1. First save yourself. Start a logfile and type:

   @archive me

   You will get a lot of output, containing all your properties and the commands to create the objects you are holding.
2. To save your areas, first make sure that they are all under a common parent room, or if this is not the case, make a different @archive for each of your parent rooms. Go to the parent room and type:

   @archive here

   You will get even more output. Close your logfile again and, if you have other areas with their parent rooms, go there and repeat the procedure.
3. Don't forget any rooms not under your parent rooms. To get a list of all your rooms, type:

   @owned =r=location

   and, if you find any rooms not under your parent room, go there and type

   @archive here

   again.
4. Time to look at things! To see which things you own, type:

   @owned =t=location

   For each thing in rooms not owned by you, you have to teleport it to yourself if you want to archive it. Remember the database number (dbref) and type:

   @tel #dbref=me
   @archive #dbref

5. If you have any MUF programs, you can just @list them and capture the listing to a logfile.
6. And you're done.

@purge me=yes

You can now leave the MUCK. Submit a first @toad request to a wizard of your choice, then, 48 h again, another one.

Alternatives for roleplayers

It is always worth to look at Rhal's furry MU*s page, which has detailed descriptions for a number of MUCKs. I would just like to warn you not to go to FurToonia, which since a long time has been infamous for regular wizardly abuse (one of the reasons why SPR was created).

When choosing a new world, it is important to take a close look at it first, and see whether you would fit into the theme. Some MUCKs are more strictly themed than others, and each has its own distinctive flavour.

One example of a themed MUCK is Furscape, a multiplanetary world with no building quotas and a diverse enough theme that almost all areas can find a home there. First check out the WWW page to read more about the theme, a realistic world of recoms and aliens (no humans) in the universe around the year 2200. The character guide can help you to set up your character according to the theme. (The possibility of creating new alien worlds still allows a wide variety of new species, but those should be well-described to allow other furries to play such alien species as well and integrate into their societies.)

Go there and look around as a guest, get a character once you feel ready, and set it up (either using editplayer or by uploading the @archive file you made earlier of yourself, if the character concept already fits in). New areas for roleplaying - be they nature, urban, industrial or space-based - are always welcome, within the level of realism set by the theme. For suggestions where to place your area, e-mail me, unci, with a short description. I could also take a look at your logfile then (but please don't send them without announcement).

You might want to rework your logfile before reuploading it, especially for properties that refer to programs. Most programs, or equivalents of them, also exist on Furscape. Best make sure that your logfile works before you upload it all.

Differences between SPR and Furscape

Furscape, on the other paw, is a multiplanetary world. Players currently start up on the moon of around 2200, but can choose to live anywhere in a number of worlds. Annyrion is currently a planet with quite some similarities to SPR - some of its best areas have been improved and imported there, and if you have a nice outdoor area, it would certainly be welcome there.

The main difference is perhaps that Furscape has a strong focus on (free) roleplaying, rather than just sitting together and chatting. As a consequence, the various adult-oriented places where furries tend to congregate on SPR don't have an equivalent on Furscape - players have something better to do. Furscape does not look for sex places that have run into trouble elsewhere - as furries are not likely to be as bored as elsewhere, we don't need such places there. What you do in private is up to you, but it would be best if you come to Furscape and intend to roleplay.

You can use it for OOC conversation as well, you can do whatever you like while you are in private, but the general rule for public areas is that in-character, in-theme interaction is preferred. "Realm rules", detailing the desired level of IC/OOC and sub-theme information in each area, are another speciality of Furscape.

As another difference, Furscape has a "no humans" rule. Humans are extinct since long, only recoms and aliens exist on Furscape.

Unfortunately, some Furscape members seem to have a fear of the "twinks of SPR". It is up to you to prove them wrong and to demonstrate you are better than SPR's reputation, that you are willing and able to bring new life into Furscape!

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