neutral is too general a term I think. It gets even worse when people start saying "$bar is neutral towards $foo" and such.

Well, obviously the best thing to do is simply spell out what you intend to do, rather than messing with silly labels. Which is exactly what ryan did in the first place before all this "don't shoot me, I'm neutral" stuff came up. People like to use general labels though, despite how horribly inadequate they tend to be. (Maybe even because of that, for the types who like to make excuses.)

Well guys, I did a lot of thinking about this and I believe I came up with an adequate definition of neutral that we can all agree upon. Tell me if you have any suggestions or changes to this. First, some starting definitions:

pirate: someone who kills anyone who doesn't pay them in some shape or form (with the exception of some pirates, allied guilds) OR someone who kills anyone regardless of any factors (again with the exception of some pirates, allied guilds)

neutral: someone who doesn't get attacked by anyone but pirates.

Now I think this leaves out the case when there is a person with a personal vendetta (pardon the pun) against a certain guild and who solely targets that guild, and also doesn't bring up the question of whether someone SHOULDN'T be attacked by anyone but a pirate or griefer but sometimes is, but those are finer points.

EDIT:
I've combined previous terms due to a technical point brought to my attention.

Your definitions are bullocks. A griefer is somebody who kills or harrasses for out of game reasons. If they have any valid in-game reason, they are not a griefer. Killing somebody because they said something you dislike is justified, as is killing them simply because you dislike their character. Or you dislike their name. Even somebody like me who kills tons of people because it's fun is not a griefer, just a murderer.

Some games do not allow very many in-game reasons for violence and try to force people to play nice. Those are the sorts of games where "griefer" means something. In VO, the term is nearly meaningless and is only used by assholes who want to imply that violent players are somehow not following the rules of the game. Unlike most games, here we are allowed and even encouraged to play villains. Playing a villain (even an irrational one who only wants to watch the universe burn) is not griefing.

As for pirates, a pirate isn't only somebody who demands payment in some fashion. Killing somebody so that you can take their stuff, without any communication before hand, is also piracy (indeed, it's a purer form of piracy, though extortion does count). For more details, study the following educational material.

I plan to trade with anyone who asks. If they attack, we either send them knocking on Satan's door or we kick the bucket. That is how it would work.

How about if I do a sed 's/griefer/murderer/g' on my previous post rin?

Didn't know exactly what to call it, but murderer works fine for me.

sure.

Ok I changed the definition a bit but it still doesn't take into account people who would target that guild only for some personal reason. Keep in mind that these definitions aren't meant to actually define the term on the left hand side, but are more like variables where the name on the LHS is arbitrary and simply used so I don't have to repeat the right hand side every time I want to say it, instead I can use the term on the LHS to say it, which is much shorter.