This is not a rant, per se...

...but it's really problematic to ask the staff for a criminal background check on another *PC*. If it's an NPC whose actions and background we're most intimate with, it's okay. If it's another PC, well, you've got access to as much information as we do, primarily from news articles that are available and archived in our Wiki and in-game.

Not every criminal that becomes a criminal on OS writes a background AS a criminal, so we're not liable to have their bad acts on every world at our disposal. And while it's flattering to think people believe we'd remember everything there is to know about hundreds of player characters and their criminal backgrounds, we're really just not THAT amazing.

So, if you run into a case where you're investigating another PC and you can't coax it out of them through RP, the staff *can* try to arrange an OOC meeting of the two parties where the staffer refs for research rolls and lets the PC under investigation dole out information based on the success of those rolls.

Preferably, though, a couple of good mature PCs can sit together in a room without admin oversight, conduct the rolls, and share information as needed *without any need of admins at all*. True story.