May we have your attention please! [Activity and HMD]

[samurai-mod.livejournal.com]

And lo, doth a mod post descend from on high...

Well, not quite. But we would like your attention to draw away from posting for just a moment for some serious business.

Issue One; Activity Rules

We've noticed some increasing complaints in the department of activity. First off, let me take this opportunity to direct you to the official outlet for these complaints, here, in our complaint section. So far, exempting characters being taken for repeatedly making the inactivity list, this is your option for getting things done about the character that isn't really doing up to snuff. As of now, at three complaints, they receive a letter, much in the way of the characterization complaints. But what we'd like to look at now is more geared towards what constitutes a character being taken away for inactivity.

As of right now, we only take action to remove a character if they make the inactivity list twice in a row, with no hiatus to cover. [It may also be worth noting that, even if they're declared, or if you come off of one, but go right back on, a hiatus only covers a maximum of one month concerning activity.] We've heard multiple suggestions on what could make this system better, so we've decided to put it to a vote, if you'd please participate. ♥ I'll try and answer any questions I can, if you have them, and please feel free to debate and raise concerns in comments.

[Poll #1247733]

Issue Two; Upcoming HMD

RUN FOR THE HILLS, IT'S COMING, IT'S COMING, IT'S GODZI-

HOW'S MY DRIVING~!

If you all remember, and for those who don't, last HMD we implemented a no-anon policy, after several rounds in a row of abusive anonymous comments. We gave it that trial period, and then polled the community, and the majority voted for anonymous to remain off.

However, for those who still wish to either receive or give anonymous commentary, we remind you of ye olde concrit posts. We're highly encouraging people to link to their concrit posts during this HMD, so that those who feel the urge for anonymous commentary can still have their two cents, too. The format we'll be giving you to fill out will look like this, and we'll provide it for you again come HMD time.

<b>Player name:</b> <b>Characters played:</b> Character :: Fandom :: Character LJ <b>Personal concrit link:</b> <b>Anonymous allowed/encouraged? Y/N:</b> <b>Other comments?</b>

So that's anon turned off and ip logging on, so let's not get foul mouthed. ♥ Another handy new change, we're splitting up the post, to prevent your poor browser from breaking. Something like... players Abe - Kurohiko in HMD [I] and Laekin - Zimon in HMD [II], so it will not be wading through a sea of comments to find the player you're looking for.

THAT SAID: Let's see some healthy discussion and voting, Poly! If you don't vote, then your voice won't be heard!

Comments

[canisfidelus.livejournal.com]

We're getting listed alphabetically? :O!

Sounds good to me~I like the no browser breaking rule.

[samurai-mod.livejournal.com]

Surpise~! HMD always tops thousands of comments, so I bet LJ wanted a break. ♥ Er... literally!

[shahni.livejournal.com]

Man, we definitely need the post-splitting after the MAX COMMENTS REACHED and all that fun jazz. I was just curious as to how it would be organized, if you could elaborate on that? Yes, my mind probably complicated it a LOT more than it should have, ahahaha.

[samurai-mod.livejournal.com]

Fun jazz is right. >D

As for organization, don't worry, it really is as simple as it sounds! Just go to the Taken Char list, look at the players' listed name/nick, and go to the appropriate post, they'll be in one of the two, so they should both be smaller and less difficult to navigate.

[dark-butler.livejournal.com]

*pimps the spreadsheet (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pjEadIK0GzKT3VXRIkEHKMA&output=html&gid=0&single=true&range=A1:I999) for finding people, too*

[thunderwitch.livejournal.com]

And, if you don't mind, here's where I put my own two cents in, with the disclaimer that yes, I am the moderator who handles the inactivity checks, however, my opinion as a player in no way is enforceable unless it gets voted to be, and that my opinion is in no way representative of the mod group as a whole, etc, etc. ♥

That said, I'm of the opinion that activity should be a more enforced thing. While I understand that sometimes there are circumstances, hiatus' cover those for some time, and I don't feel a need to up the post requirement from where it is right now. What I do feel we should look at is being able to enforce activity when someone makes the inactivity list multiple times in a row, just not necessarily with the same character. When there's an obvious pattern of inactivity, even if it's with different characters every time, I think there should be some measure of accountability.

In the instances of an inactive pattern developing, I think there should be a warning, that activity is under scrutiny, and then I believe it may be better to remove characters, or, rather, give them the choice of which character should be removed. If there's a pattern, then there's a persistent inactivity problem, and I think it could be better for the community as a whole if people who did have a noticable problem making activity each month were required to lighten their loads, and become more consistent with the characters they keep.

[rappigtastic.livejournal.com]

Rizu why so sexy. >:

[not-alaska.livejournal.com]

I agree~ (shortest comment evar?)

[lionrampante.livejournal.com]

Clarifying why I put other for action without three complaints!

I like having a minimum monthly post count, and I think the current monthly minimum is very reasonable. But, I don't think post count should be the main way to judge inactivity. Some characters, I really don't see keeping a journal. Players would struggle to create posts, but they fear being inactive. Two posts is reasonable, but sometimes they're compelled to make more just for interactions. Then at times, a character could post quite a few entries, but still be 'inactive' enough to prevent the cast from having certain plots.

For example, Character A posts 5 times a month, but continually misses important plots or other things with their cast. Real life aside, it's kind of a damper on the cast when a player is continually MIA at very important times. I think it would be pretty reasonable to have a moderator check on a character if a cast member lodged a complaint. There wouldn't have to be any large repercussions for just a single complaint, but more of way to have the mods aware that there could be a problem? Sort of like a Facebook poke.

I understand castmates could e-mail each other about it and ask what's going on, but sometimes it makes things easier when a moderator checks in just to make sure things are running smoothly.

I haven't run across any problems like this before, but it's just something that came to mind after watching Poly for a few months.

[unkindnessof.livejournal.com]

I agree with you; I understand that having the minimum post requirement is the easiest gauge for activity, but players can still post however many times and still fail to tag back, thus really negating the point of the posts. It would be hard, and probably unreasonable, to expect the mods to check every single post made for that, but if it was brought to their attention, perhaps there could be some kind of follow-up?

IDK, just throwing that in.

[rappigtastic.livejournal.com]

This, so hard. ♥ I've seen plenty of people that make the monthly req. for posts but are still barely around to interact, but there's also, on the flipside, some characters that just aren't compelled to post very much and do a lot of threading around in other journals.

I've even seen some RPGs that institute the usage of those buttons in the profile, where you can send a nudge alert to someone that hasn't updated in a certain amount of time.

[lulutiffany.livejournal.com]

The thing that I find most frustrating is when people app a character but never play with them beyond one or two posts. I am not sure how to fix that, though. Maybe it’s just my bad luck.

[theotokos.livejournal.com]

No, no, it's not, I see people do this all the time :/

THE MORE YOU KNOW?

[rappigtastic.livejournal.com]

Also, as a small note to the mod, the first link to the inactivity post has an extra " at the end and the link doesn't work unless you take off the %22 it adds in the URL. ♥

[samurai-mod.livejournal.com]

Whooooops. Fixing!

[the-bastard-ds.livejournal.com]

I-I fail at really understanding the inactivity stuff. So, uh. I won't vote. XDD I'll let the smart people decide that.

As for HMD.. I'm kinda sad there won't be any anon option, but like you said, we have our own concrit threads for that. I like the set up though. Making two seperate posts for all the players. *nodnod*

.. Amazing feedback, huh?

[alldevouring.livejournal.com]

Way to go, dude. :|

[rappigtastic.livejournal.com]

Better than mine. >:

About the anon thing though-- I wonder how much it was even used last round. I know whenever I browsed, I never saw any, but comments were probably screened anyways.

WE CAN BE SAD TOGETHER, K?

[unkindnessof.livejournal.com]

Only note on HMD is that I really wish people would use the available concrit posts more often. Of course, that's not something that can be enforced, so :<

As for activity checks, I don't know if this is plausible, but as a suggestion: it's been mentioned that some characters just aren't really suited for posts. I think that's true, but I also know that tracking threads and tags is pretty much impossible for the mods. SO. I was wondering if a character who does not make the minimum post requirements could instead make a post tracking their threads for the month and the mods can use that to judge activity in place of the posts? Of course, that begs the question of what would equal adequate activity, but it's a thought and this way, thread-tracking would not be the responsibility of the mods, but of the players themselves? Which would not be impossible, since, y'know, we play them.

[rappigtastic.livejournal.com]

O hay that'd be sexy, I think we had a mun that made activity posts like that. --Ah, she deleted them. ;___; But it was an ES21 player; she'd make a monthly post and keep track of all her posts and threads, and it was pretty hot.

But I'm also lazy, ahahaha.

[monochrome-mind.livejournal.com]

I really don't have much to contribute to the scene right now. I think the current monthly requirement is very easy to keep up on, and more of my complaints with the game lie elsewhere.

I just want to personally point out a wonderfully written article by another player, which I think needs to be reinforced/mentioned way more than it is.

http://community.livejournal.com/poly_tldr/220393.html

[dark-butler.livejournal.com]

That post is made of six flavors of awesome. Good link.

[dresden4hire.livejournal.com]

I am not so good with the smarts and understanding all of this, so I didn't vote (and honestly, all options looked acceptable to me so I wouldn't complain about any of them).

What I will say though is that if people can't make the monthly limit because their character "just doesn't post much"... I don't think that's a reasonable excuse. With all the curses that happen and 600 characters posting (if everyone were to just meet the minimum requirements, that's 1200 posts a month) they can't find two things to post about? I... don't buy that. And if they can't find something to post about? Make a post about that.

In short, I guess I don't think there should be a special way for characters who tag lots but don't post much to make the activity check.

[eccentric-ox.livejournal.com]

This!

[just_rayne]

I didn't vote and I have nothing new to offer to the discussion. I honestly feel I could live with any of the suggestions up there. So I don't feel strongly one way or another.

Edit: Wait a minute. I do have something to add. I think Logs in tampered should count toward monthly activity.

[floating-bamboo.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

...not that I personally log much, but logs = more effort then posts (generally).

[kawaii_gaara]

I personally like the three strike policy.

[toughened.livejournal.com]

For HMD-- would it be broken down like alphabetically? Like for example, post A-K will have their respective letters commented to it, and then those characters that have their first names or something, the people who have characters they want crit on comment under the thread with that letter or will it just be a free for all kind of thing?

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

Alphabetically, as it says in the post. =) Although it will not be alphabetical within the post. Just post 1 is for A - K and post 2 is for L - Z. I'm replying by email, but I think the post actually has the names listed for ease of breakout.

[pitselly.livejournal.com]

I am late, but only fashionably.

Personally, I like the idea of two tampered logs = one normal post, because, while tampered is harder, it isn't as interacty unless they're open party logs.

Re: HMD. Personal opinion *obv cares more about hmd than activity issues* It's obviously too late now, but could we try something where there's a big post, and you comment to list all your crit threads? Because the big poly tl;dr post is, imo, kinda redundant without the anons, but people tend to forget about the crit threads/are too lazy to look. It's be more informal that way, and... easier on my browser, splitting it in two notwithstanding ...ooor something, idk.

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Do you mean something like our master list of crit posts? http://berryfloss.livejournal.com/8430.html

Those are usable all the time, after all.