Per arguments I have made previously, I am also not convinced that this is an area we should disavow any and all responsibility for. The Social Contract reads "No verbal attacks, insults or harrassment of other players. Err on the side of caution, especially if you don't know the other player well." It does not specify a medium. One could argue that the medium is implied to be the game itself, but it could just as well imply the opposite. My feeling is that if something is going on that's bad enough for someone to report it, it doesn't really matter how it happened as long as it's related to Battlemaster, and the content of the message in question clearly reveals that it is.
While I am cognizant of the possibility of overreach here, I am very much against the notion that if Battlemaster-related bullying or harassment is taking place we can not or should not do anything about it unless it happens directly through the game. That approach seems morally suspect, and amounts to tacit acceptance of players treating other players badly so long as they are careful to do it outside of the game. I think that the reaction would be different all around if this was a case of repeated, sustained harassment, so the question becomes why is that? Is there really a difference between that and this? Only one of degree I'd say, so I don't think we can hold that we should rule on one but not the other.
Some of us clearly find it distasteful to have to intervene in cases such as this, viewing them as petty differences that two players should be able to work out themselves. "Get over it," as the saying goes. However, if players could always work these things out, we wouldn't be necessary. Sometimes they can't, or they won't, and we have to step in and put a stop to the bickering. There is a cost to this game when pettiness like this gets out of hand or goes on for too long, a cost in disillusionment and disappointment from the players. It takes away from the atmosphere and damages the game. That's part of what made what was happening in Swordfell so toxic; all the players in that realm were exposed to spiteful personal conflict between players. If none of them ended up losing interest in the game as a result, I'd consider us lucky. I can tell you right now that if that was the first realm I joined as a new player, I probably wouldn't have bothered to keep playing. That's one reason why the Social Contract exists in the first place.
As far as Vellos' reasoning goes, I agree on every point so far.
