Etiquette and Helpful Tips

General Etiquette

1. Listen First. If you join a group in comms, LISTEN for at least ten seconds to see what’s going on before you speak. Obviously, if you’re addressed, speak up.

2. Don’t dominate the discussion, especially when in large groups. Give space for others to respond.

3. Try not to interrupt or talk over other people. It can sometimes be difficult due to latency, but an effort really helps!

4. Pay attention to instructions. When the Officer In Charge speaks, listen!

5. The mission and function of the party takes priority over banter and other chatter. If the current room isn't working for this, splitting off into additional channels may be preferable.

Answering Questions

Let the Officer in Charge (OIC) answer questions. Five people answering at the same time is overwhelming. If the OIC doesn’t know the answer, they will defer to another member for it.

If a question was answered, but you feel the need to provide additional information, offer to pull the asker into another channel where you can properly explain the concept. If they decline, please refrain from long-winded explanations in comms with everyone else present.

Check Your Background Noise

A television, barking dogs, children playing, or kitchen noise in the background can be quite distracting. If you need to, enable Push-to-Talk (PTT) in Discord by right-clicking the Microphone icon on the bottom left and selecting the option.

Please refrain from eating, loudly burping, or breathing heavily into an un-muted microphone.

“Hey, you’ve got a hot mic”: we can hear things you might not be aware that you’re broadcasting! This is a request to either stop the noise, or mute your microphone temporarily. If you’re unresponsive, we may Server Mute you, which you can ask to be reverted through text chat.

Try Speaking in the Third Person

“Me and I are the First to Die”

When you’re in a busy channel, instead of saying “I” or “me”, use your handle/gamertag: “Go to Apollonaut’s ship” versus “Go to my ship”, and “CrayBacon down, need medic” instead of “I’m down, someone help me!”. When there are 20+ people in comms, it can be difficult to tell who “me” is.

Set up Push-to-Talk in Discord

Events with 10 or more participants in the same voice channel will require Push-to-Talk (PTT).

After enabling PTT, participants must continuously hold down a key in order to transmit audio, like a walkie-talkie radio. This encourages a higher level of focus, and helps to reduce disruptive and non-mission-critical chatter.

Some events will be marked as PTT-only, and some events may transition from allowing Voice Activated Transmission to PTT-enforced.

How to set up PTT

1. Right click the ⚙️ icon next to the Mute/Deafen buttons.

2. Select Keybinds

3. Select "Add Keybind" and on the new entry, open the first dropdown.

4. Select "Push to Talk" from the dropdown and assign it an input.

“Clear Comms!” or “Break Break!”

These are meant to serve as alerts for the whole group; stop whatever discussion is happening, and listen!

1. Commands from Event Leadership

2. Requests for Party Invites (don’t hesitate to do this, we don’t want to leave anyone behind).

3. Requests for recovery from incapacitation