Rumors are the bane of any group of people. Those who start them, and those who spread them, are equally guilty of an act that stains their own honor.

Those who start rumors out of spite are simply cowards.

Those people who spread rumors, when those rumors prove to be false, tend to get reputations as being "a little loose with the truth," "unreliable," or as "having no clue."

Sometimes .... as simply liars.

The SCA is especially vulnerable to rumor and gossip, because we tend to assume that our fellow SCAdians are honorable, chivalrous people. Unfortunately, this is not always so.

If you have heard a rumor about anything, go ASK THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW!

Gossip and Rumor are -evil-. To carry gossip, and to spread rumor, is a blot on a person's honor; on the honor of the person repeating, or starting, the gossip.

It is a stain that says "I am a person that likes to hurt people." If you hear a rumor, squash it. If you hear a rumor about someone else, GO TO THAT PERSON AND ASK THEM ABOUT IT. Find out the truth FOR YOURSELF. If they deny it, give them the benefit of the doubt and believe them; a liar will expose themselves eventually.

And if you hear malicious gossip about someone, tell the gossiper to shut the hell up and walk away from them. They have shown themselves to have no honor and no clue.

If you hear a rumor, let it stop with you .... and tell the rumor-monger to shut the heck up and start behaving in an honorable manner.

Find out where the rumor-monger got their so-called information .... and then go to THAT person, and ask them where THEY heard it. Tracking rumors to their source is sometimes very instructive indeed as to people's motives. If they won't tell you where they heard it ...... well!

A rumor is a lie without a face. It, and malicious gossip, will destroy people's dreams faster than anything else.

• On Ethics (and the Peerage)
• Politics in the SCA
• The SCA Screwtape Letters
• What Rumors Do