Telegrams and You

[Montana Buck]

Telegrams and You​

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By Fiona Swift & Jaena Shaw​

Think logically, it's not a private machine for personal use.

The Telegram Operator is a person.​

What is a Telegram?​

Telegraphy is a long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of a letter or note. The word telegraph alone now generally refers to an electrical telegraph, which in the timeframe WWRP is staged in utilizes Morse code as the main language for communication. What all this means, is in order to utilize the system, you must go through a Telegram Operator to send your messages, as the likelihood of characters knowing Morse code, or owning a telegram machine is highly unlikely.

What isn’t a Telegram?​

It isn’t an instant message or text system like you have on your cell phones which you can use privately and at your own leisure. Nor is it a post board such as Twitter, which can be used to propagate anyone’s thoughts (inane or otherwise) without any checks or balances because there’s no one between you and the Tweet button. Additionally, Telegrams are not a hand written document and instead come through a machine that must be translated.

What are Public Telegrams?​

Public Telegrams are a service provided by the Telegram Operators to permit towns to communicate with each other in a more public manner. When a Telegram Operator receives a telegram that is designed to be public, they post these physically on the board next to them for the public to review. This was implemented to enable people to advertise for their services, reach out to persons unknown, and generally operated like a notice board.

How should Telegrams be Used?​

Telegrams as a whole are an excellent system to facilitate RP, and they are designed to do so. Here are the types of telegrams, and how they should be used.

Private Telegrams are an excellent way to communicate with your peers about goings on, talk about your day, or tell the people you want to see that you are “around” and in state.

Public Telegrams are perfect for advertising businesses, goods you’re willing to purchase or sell, giving notices of Doctors and requesting medical assistance, warning the Public about criminals trying to murder people, and yes even threats to the public. This is not the place to indicate to people that you are “around”. If you’re going to announce you’re around, you should also be indicating what you might be interested in doing or what use you might be for others outside of your personal group.

Sheriff Telegrams are designed for the populace to inform the Sheriff Department of complaints, criminals, request to meet with individuals, and for the Sheriffs to communicate with one-another on department matters.

Anonymous Telegrams are a means to communicate using all 3 types of these telegrams without disclosing your Character’s true name to individuals. This is perfect for criminals who like to dance with the Law or threaten the public, or for even seedier criminals leaving a trail for people to follow. To use these Telegrams, the Staff Team encourages that you include a moniker or a way to track who you are that remains the same without giving away your real name, otherwise it will be extremely frustrating or even disheartening to people who are trying to roleplay with you. Misuse of Anonymous Telegrams is considered FailRP.

Telegram Operators like Tim (Above), are all Real People.​

As Telegrams are a complicated process, the only way to send telegrams is to talk to a delightful man like Tim here. These are to be roleplayed as if they are real people that your character will need to communicate through. This means that your character is speaking to a human being who is then translating and sending the message to another operator and that message will always be in English. This means that telegrams that are sent should be done so with the fact in mind that they themselves are not writing them, so telegrams that contain typos or threats wouldn’t usually occur unless the operator is bribed, or threatened with death to send things. For the operators that are forced to send threats, they’d likely sneak in details of the character threatening their lives into the telegram without your character even realizing they did so. After all, how would they know what the operator typed?

What does Abuse of Telegrams look like?​

Above we’ve discussed what Telegrams are, and how they should be used, but it is essential to provide examples of things that are not appropriate to be put into telegrams so we can keep the world as immersive and entertaining for everyone, while falling within the rules. Below we’ll list some common mistakes we see in Telegrams, and better ways to go about them.

Telegrams Stating “I’m Around”
Telegrams telling the general public that your character is “online” are extremely immersion breaking and can interrupt the flow of information to the public and can congest the already extensively used noticeboard. The “General” noticeboard is for PSAs, and Business advertisements, and other pertinent pieces of information that benefit the General Public, not your select group of friends. Your character should instead be sending telegrams to all their familiar friends and going places to find people, rather than an “I’m online” statement that has been 1899-ified.

Telegrams that include “Emoji”
Emoji like smiley-faces and other type-based expressions were not invented until 1950 and the use of them on the server is absolutely not appropriate in any kind of Telegram what-so-ever as a telegram is not a written document. If you would like to send a smiley to a friend, do so in a Letter, as that is something that is written by hand, and can contain any amount of expressions you want so long as they follow the Technology lock of 1899.

Telegrams that Include a language other than English.
While we understand the want to add flavor to the Notice board and give homage to heritages, you also must understand that all of the telegram operators in New Alexandria explicitly speak English through Telegrams. Which means that they will not post telegrams in another language and will instead ask what your translated message states. Additionally they do not have access to special characters that do not exist in the Telegram lexicon from the Morse Code article linked above. All of these systems are explicitly English, so if you wish to speak a different language, do so in a Letter. As you can write any format of wording or characters on a Letter as they are hand written. Just remember to be considerate of your fellow player and include a (translation in parenthesis) so that the character it is sent to can understand it if they are able, or have the ability to get it translated by another character that may understand, even if the player does not.