(no subject)

[lucetimods]

Sup guys, this is kind of delayed, my bad. Got a few things to discuss/mention to y'all, so eyes here for five!

1) Friend/Add Remove

The list for this cycle is below:

friend add thedicearecast friend add burningdownfate friend add pridefulfists friend add thewholemaker friend add queenly_valiant friend add gunsnpudding friend add bookworldly friend add moezuo friend add normalwhispered friend add moo_yah friend add allthefunever friend add the_mikester friend add tintobrat friend add banditsblindly friend add interstellars friend add coolstempers friend add unmarryable friend add notsofunnybones friend add ishisfriend friend add isntyourfriend friend add mistyarc friend add feltrighteous friend add first_darkness friend add ufo_fanboy friend add queenly_valiant friend add pridefulfists friend add kissdiet friend add perfect_service friend add unbalancedsoul friend add ricketytrickery friend add sea_king_bait friend add oflambs friend add moezuo friend add tvorbust friend add realityanchor friend add etreici friend add cowledcrusader friend add cluelessflower friend add vibrafinal friend add onlykissesgirls friend add sapphire_sniper friend add ofthediaphragm friend add cutefiancee friend add toothfull friend add ninjacane friend add schwayginnis friend add paradoxwraith friend add honorbeforeall friend add gaveupthesword friend add consultmybooks friend add gekkoukanclown friend add demonkingdhaos friend add commanderubend friend add fortune_prince friend add fideliter friend add rabidrapido friend add dreamfandom friend add ingrate friend add mirrorblade friend add pungere friend add paranoidpatriot friend add moonaligned friend add sans_dwarves friend add seraphgoddess friend add chainedraven friend add subethical friend add twinbullet friend add eighth_strike friend add erodingearth friend add stringless_doll friend add forbrotherslove friend add hatesghosts friend add flamingbandit friend add choseheroism friend add electroporation friend add byebyehalcyon friend add break_the_past friend add dontgetcuter friend add windythings friend remove autocrossbowplz friend remove chandra_ablaze friend remove lucathedraw friend remove healeveryone friend remove hallowedlight friend remove dragonhero friend remove selfless_chosen friend remove denyingreasons friend remove after_march friend remove steadfastest friend remove devilinthecards friend remove prat_prince friend remove ballkicker friend remove bang_ihaveagun friend remove blue_velocity friend remove bravare friend remove brewinthunder friend remove expediency friend remove failuremage friend remove idle_magic friend remove im_brilliant friend remove ivorygunslinger friend remove kazakami friend remove listenstorocks friend remove lunaticked friend remove lusus_scientiae friend remove magnanimity friend remove nightsofrain friend remove nofireallowed friend remove phasingly friend remove rebeloutcast friend remove restoremyhonour friend remove sofar_sogr8 friend remove thesearepants friend remove tsuntrader friend remove willbeawinner friend remove hanatarou friend remove compos_mentis friend remove pinkribbons friend remove swordboning friend remove gandrism friend remove loyalotter friend remove slayersidekick friend remove scalethetower friend remove causeblocked friend remove tempest_break friend remove amazingasa1ways friend remove orchidsandfire friend remove ima_greywarden friend remove nattocat friend remove plantsactivist friend remove followstrangerz friend remove likeraditz friend remove univalent friend remove symp3thy

Copy-pasta HERE to set yourself up. NEW PLAYERS: if your name is not on the add list, you will not be added to the master list! So get your butt over to the Add/Remove post and comment to it. Yes, you! ...Are they gone? GOOD I HATE THAT GUY


2) Recruitment (again)

Many of you are aware of this, but for those unaware and/or new: Luceti occasionally has a special mission draft, aka Recruitment, where characters are voluntold for the war going on outside the barrier. For the amount we send each time, numbers tend to dwindle quite quickly! As such we like to draw attention to it. Like so. |D

To sign your character up for it, the post is HERE.


3) Activity Check

The AC in February was our first time using the new system, and while it went well for the most part, there were a number of complaints, comments, and suggestions that were worth listening to. Namely, the unfairness of the journal versus comment-thread policy. This was a mod-consistency error (I admit my failing in that regard, and I apologize) and we'd like to amend that. So thus, the next AC will have the following addendum:

The 30-comment rule will apply to journal entries as well as threads.

This means that you either need 30 comments on the entry itself, or a combination of entry + 1 or 2 threads to bring you to a minimum of 30 comments. We'll be counting the entry itself as a comment, to be fair to the poster.


Little Leftovers

Just a friendly reminder that if you haven't commented to the following pages or your information is out of date, now is a good time to do it!

- Map and Housing
- Player Contact Post
- Taken Characters


Aaaaand lastly, we're putting an event up this weekend, so. Look forward to it. |Db

Comments

[crisisrain]

As one of the people who did comment on the AC rules, I'm happy to see it amended (This is what I thought you meant anyway when it first went up).

Oooo event 8D

[breaks_destiny]

So basically, the journal entry has to be of at least 59 comments (+1 initual entry) overall, assuming a one on one interaction, to be able to count on its own, right? Otherwise we add 1 or 2 threads until we get the 30 comments min on part of our char.

Also does that mean that if there's no journal entry, we can provide up to 3 threads to get to the minimum?

[lucetimods]

It's basically the same rule as before; three threads, or two threads and an entry, or just an entry with all the comments you need, or a log... you basically get three links to provide whatever activity you think is needed.

[baka-jyanai.livejournal.com]

Um, I am VERY VERY not comfortable with this change. Especially seeing as Cirno recently had a post here that generated very few responses, and I see this happen to a lot of other people too. Saying that a post will ONLY count if it generates that many comments is kind of extremely uinfair to those of us who are thread dropped on. A lot.

[precto.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with this. If this rule was around last month, I would have failed activity simply because people wouldn't continue threading with me. As in, I would have been forcibly dropped because other people wouldn't tag back, which isn't fair in the slightest.

[lucetimods]

We do make note of who drops what threads, and it's something we take into consideration when we're judging activity. However, it's also extremely unfair to require 30 comments from some players when just posting an entry and sometimes abandoning it outright is enough for others to pass. That was the issue last time, and this is how we can resolve it.

If threads on the entry are getting dropped, of course it's not your fault, assuming it's not a ridiculous timeline. But all we're trying to do here is level the playing field.

[meowzy-chan.livejournal.com]

Question!

Imagine I haven't posted an entry in that month. Is the maximum of threads I can link still three? Because I have to say, that's kind of unfair. Entries can have a limitless amount of incredibly short threads, but if you don't post an entry you can only reference to that small amount of threads. I can understand what you're doing, implementing the 30 comment limit to entries as well, so that's very good. But it's still not balanced. People with entries still have a major advantage.

So just like last time, I'm going to once again suggest upping the thread number (just threads, no entry) to four. This is something that was seconded by at least two people on the last HMD, so it should have merit.

Also, I realize just how dumb and ungrateful this sounds. I'm just trying to help make things more fair. ^^'

[baka-jyanai.livejournal.com]

Actually, people who use entries as their AC don't have much advantage at all if people thread drop in our posts. Which happens to me, and several others, a lot. Looking back on Patchouli's posts, over half of them wouldn't qualify under these new rules at all.

[unseenspy.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the entry would count, regardless of how many small threads it would contain, because it would still be only one link for the mods to click on. Which is part of the reason they made this change in the first place, to cut back on the number of links they'd have to click.

[lucetimods]

We're trying to make it so that we don't have to click a zillion links when we're checking activity. Scrolling over the threads in a linked entry is much easier than checking numerous threads, not to mention the comment count helps, too. It's undeniable that it's better to post an entry than just provide threads. Three links, however, is the limit we've chosen, and I'm prepared to stand by that decision.

It's not like we haven't been lenient with people in the past, either.

[unseenspy.livejournal.com]

The least we can hope for is that the new rules will encourage people to not thread drop so much, but if people have to drop threads for RL reasons, then that can be an issue as well. Especially at this time of year, when people are on hiatus/slowatus.

Speaking of slowatuses, what's the policy on threads that are still "in-progress" during an AC?

[lucetimods]

Activity that counts is still only between the dates posted, but if you have an ongoing thread (or threads) and you're behind on the comment count, we can check back to see if those threads are being continued and let that count towards new activity.

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

I can see the point of this new AC rule, but it honestly seems like it's ostracizing new people or people who don't get a lot of tags because people are on hiatus or whatever the reason happens to be (RL does suck sometimes), in addition to punishing the people who throw up a post and leave it just to pass the check. While that's an issue that needs to be dealt with, this measure comes across as unfair to more people than it punishes (though I may be biased).

Between the draft and the event coming up I'm not terribly worried now, but the wording leaves me concerned for the future.

[emp3thy]

I'm all right with 30 comments. It's a decently fair amount. However, the thing that still bothers me about ACs is that there is no definite date for when they go up. Last time, I got upset because it was set earlier than it was in previous months, so even with a longer timeframe I wasn't fully prepared for it.

If you gear everything about the ACs towards trying to punish people for being squatters, you end up just stressing those who really are and do want to play in the game. Everyone has slow patches, everyone gets burnt out, and I don't think anyone wants to have to comment-count just to pass muster. I think the current activity requirements are fair, but they are only fair if it is clear when they are due. Even something like "the AC will be between the 15th to the 17th" would work fine. Otherwise, it's like we're always playing towards a pop quiz.

[wizardoftheweek.livejournal.com]

Seconding all of this.

[breaks_destiny]

Actually I agree with this. I know that it's also part of "responsibility" (per say) from the players to be active, it's a compromise and the rules require activity once per 2 weeks if I recall correctly. But I don't think people really count how long it has been since their last entry/thread to know if that rule is being followed. Of course if it is, the AC would work fine even if it came with no warning but, sometimes there are no ideas for a post, some chars aren't easy to post with or easily pinged by others' posts which can leave a gap in activity even if outside that gap they are pretty active.

If we are going to have to even consider forcing the char to be active, having at least a general idea of when the "red zone" comes in would be helpful. And with the idea of giving a general spawn and not a concrete date there's still the chance to surprise people. There's also the fact that it could be said that if people claim an hiatus shortly before the AC comes up, that before they hiatus completely they provide some sort of show that they have been active up until then, just to know that they aren't just hiatusing to avoid the AC.

[magnifien.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with this, as well.

[de_bel_survivor]

Agreeing with this.

I don't mind the number of comments we need to do, but the uncertainty over when AC pops up bothers me.

[crisisrain]

Seconding this. I really dislike not knowing when the AC is going up myself.

[unseenspy.livejournal.com]

While I do agree that it helps to know when an AC will be, I also remember seeing the comments in the suggestions post about making the AC less predictable. So idk what can be done about this...

[kenpo-kitty.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound dumb, but I'm just a little confused on something, and I want to make sure.

In the instance you post an entry, are the 30 required comments a TOTAL thirty in the entry alone, or do you basically need 30 comments from the character?

Basically, you're asking for 30 comments total (entries counting as 1 comment rather than passing AC now)

[lucetimods]

Thirty comments from your character, specifically! But it doesn't have to just be a journal entry; if the entry only gets a handful of comments to it, you can still supplement with threads. We're just trying to give those with posts the same expectations as those with threads, that's all.

[byname-bynature.livejournal.com]

Question! ...mostly because I never quite fully understood how this worked under the old system, but what of hiatuses? Are we able to link to a post made on the OOC comm to explain insufficient activity during the AC period?

[kyoshi]

There's a hiatus post that players should use if they're going to hiatus for like. A week or longer (since that's how long the AC lasts, so it's a precaution in case you're away and don't notice the AC has been posted!).

If you're on the hiatus post when the AC rolls around and your hiatus is legit, you don't get removed. Also, if you were on hiatus during the time BEFORE the AC and don't have enough comments, we're very understanding about that.

[one-green-eye.livejournal.com]

1) I think the 30-comment rule is a fair one. And, um, will back that by personally offering to thread a 30-comment thread with anyone who feels it isn't fair/ they get dropped often. I mean it. AIM me. I don't have as much time to look for low-comment entries these days, but if you ping me I will totally tag with ANYONE. I generally have only ever dropped threads when I feel like *I* am being boring/ school gets to me.

2) As someone who also worries about OMG MISSING THE AC during a bought of no-internet days-- I still have to say I *support* keeping it a little ambiguous. Because I still. see. people hiatusing consistently in a timeline that neatly covers a potential AC, and a set time would only make that happen more often.

[ayu_nee]

I agree with both of the above points. :|b

Maybe we need a "ping me if you want tags" sign-up post. Or... uh, just a I-want-CR meme.

[magnifien.livejournal.com]

Quick question, and I apologize if this has been asked and answered already. Will threads on the newly implemented appointment posts count towards activity?

[lucetimods]

Yep! As long as they fall within the proper time period. (Which is stated when the AC goes up.)

[soundfrequency]

Question! The mod journal currently has my listing for Neku on the Taken Characters list, would it be okay if I could post it instead? I need to update my AIM name and this way I can edit it whenever I need to update something. It's here for reference.

[markofthewise]

Sure, go ahead! Once you do, we'll delete the original mod version.