thatrainbowcity | (no subject)

A MOMENT, PLEASE

We would like to draw your attention towards the following innovations in

polychromatic's administration:

Characterization Complaint Thread - Regular Players.

Characterization Complaint Thread - Moderator Players.

Please read the rules and details surrounding each, and address all and any afferent inquiries either here [ will be unscreened ] or there.

We have felt forced to part the two threads in order to best respect and protect your privacy and the Polychromatic-instituted right to voicing a polite opinion.

That said, part two of this post...

HOW'S MY MODDING ~ ?

...now this might or might not hurt. If you have any complaints, comments, ~~love?~~ or suggestions for improvement concerning our moderating abilities, do please reply.

Feel free to refer to us and your interaction with us as either a collective, or respective individuals. We retain the right to dismiss all comments originating from sources we know as a fact to be unable to judge matters competently - this category consists of people we have banned or suspended. If you, however, wish to complain about the issue of said bans and/or suspensions, your opinion is most welcome as an unbiased third party's.

All comments screened, though their anonymity is up to replier discretion. I would suggest speaking freely, because... quite frankly, this is the only time when you can be adamantly certain that whatever you say will not be held against you in any way, shape or form. This, we guarantee, so please - PLEASE - help us model our own conduct in such a way so to make this community a more enjoyable place for you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Perhaps it's not really my place to say, and obviously w/your modly powers you guys have every right to delete this, but I think this is a well-intentioned, but very bad idea.

Rather then providing a complaint board, shouldn't we be encouraging players to deal with their issues with character play between one another?

Obviously I see the reasoning behind the screening comments and such, but what happens if one person takes offense to the way a character is played and just complains multiple times? There are certainly other ways this could "go wrong", and I think it would be in better form to simply encourage people to deal with this sort of thing personally. While I can understand the "complainer" wishing to remain annonymous in some instances, it is hard to resolve a conflict between players when said player doesn't know who has the problem with them. I know that at least for me personally, if a certain person had a problem with the way my character interacted with theirs, I would much rather they just tell me, so that I can alter things as I see fit.

Not to mention that I don't think this option really takes into account the feelings of the "affected" player. I can't speak for myself because I have never worried that much about the opinions of others, but I worry that this is only going to create paranoia and/or worry from people who are perhaps a lot more self-conscious or sensitive about their roleplay.

I guess my point is that I just don't see this as doing anything but muddying the waters and complicating things to where no one feels comfortable to just go to their fellow player and say "hey, I think your ____________ is a little off".

I should definitely hope that people who approach the OOC complaint board do it after having tried their very best to deal with matters between themselves and the OOC!player. We kind of even stated in the rules: mod mediation = last resort.

But we do get complaints about cases of OOCness - and in an end, we are expected to do something about them, if they completely mess up everyone's gaming. Fact of the matter is, there are circumstances that make it a touch bit imperative for us to intervene. I've personally had to deal with a number of good players who refused to even join

polychromatic, least of all activate in it, because certain crews had particular characters who were just... too out there, you know?

The idea was that - naturally - we wouldn't be paying mind to just one individual, but a series of them. If eight people say, "she's too whiny", and these five people take into account both the character's development since coming into the City, and the situation over which whining is being made... well, I can't say eight people were all so very wrong, now can I ?

Ultimately, the idea behind the compilation was precisely to ensure that we toned down the complaints and presented them in a reader-friendly manner. ^^;; I remember the How's My Driving thread. I know some things that were said could have been said much more the better.

...but this does not alter their veracity, and the fact that certain players are feeling very, very uncomfortable RPing with characters whose interaction they can't ignore. Take your Rukia and, dunno , for instance Ichigo, right? If Ichigo were the most OOC thing on earth [ not saying he is, mun, don't kill me!] and doing all sorts of... Godawful things... you'd have to have Rukia react to whatever he's doing, wouldn't you? And it would be a bit not-so-nice if that involved dragging her into situations where she honest-to-God doesn't belong. I'd say experimentation is the purpose of RP, but... sometimes, too much is too much.

Naturally, this isn't the best of solutions. Nothing tends to be. But... dunno, if you have any suggestions, I'd certainly love to hear them. Improving the system and all that...

I certainly understand the reasoning behind it, but I think the annonymity of it all will frighten some people. I personally know a couple of muns who are shyer in nature who have expressed concern that if someone complained to them this way, they would feel like dropping said character simply out of fear that there are MORE people feeling that way who don't have the balls to say something. It's the issue of wondering "well, if 5-8 people actually SAID something, and I don't even know who they are, then how many OTHER people feel that way and DIDN'T say something", whereas that person coming directly to them and saying "hey, I don't really like the way your playing ____________" at least gives some stability in regards to at least you know what to address in a more specific manner and you don't get the feel of paranoia there. And there's the issue of people using the annonymity as a way to avoid actually having to TALK to the mun they have a problem with.

I guess suggestion-wise, I'd say before you go to someone with a list of complaints, have the complaintants document where they have attempted to go directly to the mun in question. Then at least you know they aren't abusing the well-intentioned system.

We could always exclude the number of complaints received, as it provides players with a more abstract feeling... but that would imply our recording every individual complaint afterwards, because if it ever came down to a player's being all " I don't believe these complaints exist", the additional absence of a number of complaints would give further cause to their argument. [ granted, numbers can be made up, but still]

Ultimately, I really think it comes down to the premise that players will not abuse a function. Can we ask for them to all in all state when / how they have approached the OOC!mun? Of course. Can they lie? Damn straight. I think we might end up going with your suggestion. Personally, I find it reasonable. But in an end? It's all about not being ill intended, and... I don't know. I hope people aren't.