Someone took my spawn and I partitioned . . But no response
 

I need some clarification here. I and a friend were killing a 6 Min spawn on SF Island last night for over an hour and a 60 level mage came and took our spawn from us. She said it was within the rules to do that. Is that really true! And if it is, why is there a policy that promotes classism (obviously a 60 level mage can do that to many other classes any time they please) and it promotes rudeness, meanness, and bullying. I petitioned this twice, yesterday and today, to no avail. I really don't care to play a game were this type of behavior is encouraged.

Might makes right

Ok first off, relax. Yes, it is against the rules to take a mob someone else has engaged (modulo some special cases like a bard doing a massive kite). And yes, the staff does respond to petitions about those issues (I had them respond to Seafury island just the other day). But you have to remember, Seafury island brings out a lot of bad behavior (I'd guess something like 10%-20% of all petitions originate there), so this sort of thing happens.

EDIT: Just thought of another special case that's very applicable to Seafury island: if you are a Shaman doing the root/rot thing, and you get so caught up with it that you start rooting more than rotting (ie. you're letting un-DoTed Seafuries sit there), then you're basically denying other people the mobs while not using them yourself. That's a no no. So I'm not sure if this was the case with you, but I just wanted to mention that IF you were doing it repeatedly the mage he might have a claim to take a mob (although he'd be on much more solid ground petitioning you rather than risking getting in trouble himself by KSing; KSing is almost never the best answer).

As someone who's been on the island a lot lately here's my advice. If someone takes a single Seafury of your's explain to them (politely if you can) that you had already engaged it. If they give it back great. I've done this many times, and had others do it to me too (it's easy to land the second hit and take a mob even though it belongs to the person who landed the first hit). If not, move on with your life. One Seafury isn't worth the stress. If the behavior persists petition ... and again, move on with your life.

Remember, the staff is 100% volunteer. That GM you're waiting on has a real life, and when they have some time to spare to help you resolve your issue they will. You might not even know it, because maybe all they do is put a note in the mage's file ... but then the next time they get a petition about that guy they do more.

But whether you can see the GMs react or not, don't get all caught up in enforcing global justice. It's a 15+ year old game run by an entirely volunteer staff, you're not going to get perfect justice 100% of the time.

Luckily, you don't need 100% perfect justice to have fun. Just trust that people who break the rules will get petitioned and punished eventually if they deserve it and do your thing.

P.S. I just realized that when you said "took our spawn from us " I assumed you had already engaged it; is that correct?

Usually spawn stealing is frowned upon, but I believe all spawns are fair game on SF island. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think everything is a race for first tag there.

SF island is the wild west of mob tagging. Good luck out there!

Thanks . . . but
 

I appreciate your candor. I can easily put up with all types of behavior - I deal with worse than what ever happens in this game most days in my vocation. And I do understand the only thing that is perfect is the fact that nothing is perfect. But I really want to know what the game rules are for that type of behavior in that particular situation on SF Island - that's all - is it allowed, "yes" or "no"?

I'm no young lawyer, but my understanding is that once you have engaged a mob, unless you leave it rooted but un-damaged or unless you engage a whole ton of mobs at once (or do something similar that unfairly prevents others from getting mobs), then it is against the rules for anyone else to take it.

You mentioned it was your spawn, and that you had been there an hour, but you didn't mention whether you had actually tagged this mob when the mage took it. I believe that would be the deciding technical factor on SF island.

That island is FTE. If you are KSd, petition. Encounter logs are easy to look up. As Loramin said, I've been out there quite a bit the past few weeks. If nobody responds right away, just be patient. Your petition stays in the que until one of us responds and/or clears it.

The moment you start using "It is within the rules" as a way to justify shitty behavior you've officially joined the ranks of players who make this server a worse place to be.

It is against the rules to take an already engaged mob that isn't yours, period.

Where this gets iffy is all the confusion about what constitutes a camp. I've seen people claim that a GM told them you can't camp wandering mobs, I've seen claims that you can't camp anything on SF island because it has its own special rules. I've even been told that the GM's won't respond to petitions at SF island (while not true, SF disputes are probably low on the list, so can take a while/not happen)

As far as I know, the only rule that applies to seafury island is FTE above all. When I farm there and someone is sitting at a spawn point, farming just the one, I leave it for them. Lots of people will try to FTE it as it spawns though, then claim ownership. And that's the grey area, can you or can't you camp wandering mobs in outdoor zones?