Indeed. It could be poor form, but it's also kind of poor form to "think" against others to pass a message across while denying them an opportunity to respond.
If you go about "If only everyone knew he told me he'd do the exact opposite, thought Bob", Bob's player would be in his rights to respond and say "You seemed distracted, seemed like you were thinking out loud, there, buddy..."
Rubbish, it creates stories, when people need to worry about everything being used in character, we run into the problem of characters never having a chance to emote or create backstory. The result is that when ever someone does an action that is "out of the blue" we end up with masses of complaints about how it was meta gaming, power gaming or otherwise acting contrary to the characters established persona. Because far too many people can not stand to know something as a player and not have their characters act on it, the world in general lacks character persona's. We keep those hidden away or shared only with a handful of players to ensure that plots and plans are not derailed by those that seek every advantage.
Well actually I think the rule is: if you post it for people to read, people can use it.
Yes that is the rule. That in no way makes it IC knowledge, it is simply an acceptance that we have not the systems nor the resources to police what is and isn't IC. The easiest solution then is to make a blanket statement, one which could be assumed would cover secondary characters if they existed as well.
Is there an official ruling on this? I was under an impression that if someone sends you an RP letter, you are free to assume you somehow learn this information in character (spies, rumours, etc.)
Otherwise, what's the use of publishing RP that does not interact with anyone in any way? Taking cheap shots while denying others ability to react? What kind of roleplay is this?
As they say in pbp communities, characters can not reads thoughts, so don't use italics to bait other players out of character. If you want to insult someone, use direct speech and face the consequences.
Back stories, points of interest, context for events that might occur later, establishing a character for the benefit of players rather then the benefit of characters. Like I stated above, the fact that people will use such information means that people don't post it. Characters in BM are bland, this is especially true of characters that intent to get up to underhanded activities, as any HINT of such is jumped upon almost instantly. Then the player base complains when a character that seemed so loyal ends up being dishonest.
Any good book has story elements that are between the reader and a specific character, that are not the knowledge of the rest of the characters in the world. It allows the reader to actually fathom what is going on. RP is a story telling tool, and our stories become that much poorer and harder for the audience to understand in BM because in so many cases we can not provide that privileged information to players in general.
