On the Matter of New Players and Orphaned Plays

[Sepokku]

Yet, you can't bother to check suggestions or read through anything else to see that Rem forced private Universes into hiding when that was not desired by GMs. How can you claim that they are a privilage to be treated differently from others when you don't even know the full story?

It is slightly ironic that you as well haven't bothered to check or read through anything to see that CS can be removed from a RP. Instead, you attack people without knowing the full story, in multiple threads that are trying to work on fixing an issue...

And once more, I can't really be blamed for dropping out of an inactive Universe, even if the universe eventually got off the ground. Not all of us have a set and predictable irl schedule. If I joined an Rp, it is because I had time for it when I joined, not because I had time for it many months later when it finally starts. By your same logic I should have gotten a formal notice of MIA from the GMs of the aforementioned games. However, I never did, and assumed bowing out in the same way that they did was acceptable. None of those GMs seem to care/hold a grudge, so why do you...

[mjolnir]

I'm not trying to get involved. But, it's not easy for anyone to know that you can remove CS from an RP. I only know this method because of when the Roleyplay management page had a direct link under your profile icon in the upper right. It had been removed awhile ago, which I personally find very inconvenient. So, unless someone already knew this I doubt anyone easily can find this page or stumble upon it. The navigation on this site isn't the most user friendly. But I did put a comment about bringing this button back in the suggestions forum so that people have easier access to that page.

[mombie]

Yet, you can't bother to check suggestions or read through anything else to see that Rem forced private Universes into hiding when that was not desired by GMs. How can you claim that they are a privilege to be treated differently from others when you don't even know the full story?

It is slightly ironic that you as well haven't bothered to check or read through anything to see that CS can be removed from a RP. Instead, you attack people without knowing the full story, in multiple threads that are trying to work on fixing an issue...

And once more, I can't really be blamed for dropping out of an inactive Universe, even if the universe eventually got off the ground. Not all of us have a set and predictable irl schedule. If I joined an Rp, it is because I had time for it when I joined, not because I had time for it many months later when it finally starts. By your same logic I should have gotten a formal notice of MIA from the GMs of the aforementioned games. However, I never did, and assumed bowing out in the same way that they did was acceptable. None of those GMs seem to care/hold a grudge, so why do you...

You can go ahead and indulge yourself with this topic: pay-attention-roleplay-tags-t112550.html

Here, no one, including REM himself, states that a GM can remove CS from an RP. So, I guess you're really reaching for straws here, dude. Enjoy eating your own words. Instead of telling members that CS can, indeed, be deleted/removed, he just gave the ability to have a private function. I guess that means, by proxy, that even Rem has no idea how his site works. Neither do any of the other staff. Mjolnir knows. Okay, that's ONE person out of a bunch of people that do not.

You've got a real issue. You're a nasty gaslighter, and you really twist people's words to fit your narrative. I notice that you don't really respond to my actual points unless you can contort them into your own words.

You can be blamed for dropping out of Universes, especially for not having enough patience to see a Universe be completed before it started. You ghost out on almost everything you join for one reason or the other. You're one of the names that a good bit of us bring up to not want in our RPs for your inability to commit. You don't think these GMs hold a grudge, but maybe they aren't willing to tell it like it is. We remember the ghosters, especially the ones that do it over and over.

Just in case you can't read a whole thread (much like you can't seem to read a front page to see how many players/characters are there) I will drop off a few quotes from that former thread regarding the removal of CS from Universes. You will see that neither admin nor staff say whether or not CS can already be deleted, but imply that CS should not be deleted/removed but left in a limbo with a PM from the GM to the player of that CS. So, I guess you can say that NO ONE really knew of this feature, and that included people here for years (like Nemesia) and staff. 'Cept for Mjolnir, and that's just because they knew of this before when the feature was one click away in a navigation bar. Now it's no longer like that.

Peace out.

We already offer this feature of only allowing a certain number of characters via requiring GM approval of characters before they can play in a universe. Once the limit has been reached, all further submissions should be kept in limbo and then approved in the eventuality that one of the original players goes missing for a while in order to keep the activity rolling. Remæus refers to this as having a low "bus factor," which is an informal measure of how severely activity would be affected if one of the players were to be hit by a bus.

It is the GM's responsibility to keep players informed on these matters. Those being kept in a holding pattern should receive a politely worded PM explaining the situation so they don't waste their time waiting on a response and can go on to play somewhere else until a spot opens up.

I'm interested to know what you mean by a "spam CS" though. Could you link some examples so myself and my team know what to look for?

No worries, mombie. Sometimes I don't make sense in my writing and it gets difficult to convey things.

And thanks for the help! I apologize if this came off as cranky or rude or whathaveyou. That wasn't my intention at all; I was simply just trying to see if, maybe, something could be done about giving GM's the option to completely delete a character, especially for those of us who do private roleplays or 1x1's!

It would make life so much easier, and RPG is a state of everchanging organized--or in some cases disorganized--chaos! Still wouldn't really trade it for anything in the world.

I think that's the reason they gave us the option for OPEN and REQUIRE APPROVAL options so that we could control which characters were accepted, and which ones were not. As a way to give the GM control to which characters suited their universe--or even in some cases accept characters they personally liked.

All of the universes that I have created with my writing partner are active in a sense. We go through them one or two at a time. Take the Fire Emblem one, for example. That one has nearly two hundred posts alone, with Pokemon being our second active one, although we both had a mutual agreement that our Fire Emblem roleplay will be scrapped and revamped.

We should have the option to completely delete a character and remove them from the universe, period. As someone who used to do OPEN roleplays, it used to be that even with reservations, people were still allowed to submit characters for the same role as a means of competition. GM's would simply choose whichever one they liked best.

TL;DR
GM's should be given the ability to delete a character. Period. Or at least be given the option to remove that character permanently so that it does not show up as a character that is part of the universe and so that it doesn't appear in the character drop down menu if it so happens to start with a J and your character starts with a J.

[Connected]

There's something I'd like to address first off the bat.

There's a certain member of staff that has just a little over 40K words to his name, and it's weird since he's been here for 16 years. Strange really, to not be involved in your own community at all.

I get that you don't understand and that you maybe don't want to since you are also against these types of RPs.

And please, like you read all the rps anyway. You also dip on roleplays without word, too. So, what's your problem?

You're kinda nasty with a really bad bias. Honestly, you're not worth arguing with.

You can't bother to check suggestions or read through anything else.

You constantly choose to hop onboard the staff train and find ways to put certain groups of people down.

You've got a real issue. You're a nasty gaslighter, and you really twist people's words to fit your narrative.

You ghost out on almost everything you join for one reason or the other. You're one of the names that a good bit of us bring up to not want in our RPs for your inability to commit. You don't think these GMs hold a grudge, but maybe they aren't willing to tell it like it is. We have a list of members that join RPs and ghost after one or two posts, and trust me, boo, yours is on there.

This is not helpful by any stretch of the imagination, and for someone eager to throw the accusation of 'finding ways to put certain groups of people down,' you sure do a lot of that yourself. It would be wise to remember that we are looking for solutions here, not personal attacks.

With that out of the way, I'd like to pose an open question to creators:

What can be done to make you feel more valued by your players and the community at large?

Also:

There is a way to remove CSs from an RP if they're MIA, ghosted or whatever else.

This is a really useful feature and I'm glad you brought it to everyone's attention! It really would be nice to see this in a more prominent location for when players do go missing.

[mombie]

Why do you simply tell me that I am the problem when the other poster was also attacking me? In fact, he not only attacked me, but he constantly puts down an entire group of people? Why am I ALWAYS the only one being berated? It's bullshit, quite frankly. When I feel injustice, he constantly turned my words against me in a passive-aggressive manner to gaslight me. I guess since he's your pal, probably, that I am in the wrong. Gee, thanks. He's attacked me several times and gaslighted me throughout his posts.

I would apologize to him, but he refused to argue any of my points and instead decided to turn words against me in a lowkey attack which caused me to unleash. So, no, I am not sorry. I will apologize to you for derailing your thread, but I cannot sit back and allow attacks on private universes or whatever while the majority of us are in that group. That's just wrong. Others may not speak up, but I speak up. Just know that I am one voice, but I know I speak for so many others when I say that he put us all down.

Regardless...

First of all, REM could actually be an active part of the community. For an Admin, he has the least amount of activity and is always preaching to us to be more inclusive and more welcoming. How many times have we seen Rem roleplay? He has a little over 40k words to his RP, and that shows he doesn't invest much into his own community. It doesn't even look like he's into his own community, much less has any desire to roleplay at all. His fascination with cryptocurrency without actually roleplaying or doing anything else is weird.

Secondly, we should be listened to. We can only get moderators to step in when there are members screaming in their faces. Why is this?

The navigation on this site is horrible and needs a real re-working.

1x1 and small-group Roleplays need to stop being blamed for the site's inactivity.

The staff refuses to listen to GMs when it comes to anything. They've made the whole site a mess and we can't figure out how to do anything. GMs are constantly being blamed by staff for not being inclusive enough or advocating enough for their own Universes, etc. We are constantly under attack by staff, and now regular members like Seppoku, (non-MV GMs).

We aren't listened to. It's new players, yes, but it is almost 90% the staff that disheartens us. It's the state of the site. We have players that we love and value and we have settled into our cliques or whatever, and that's just how it is. That's how it's probably going to be for now on, to be honest. The staff has passive-aggressively assaulted our character by claiming "we throw hissy fits" because we are asking for solutions, and they are always advocating for the MV instead of listening to GMs or regular members.

We've given up on regular players. For us, right now - the GMs that are left - it's the staff that makes us feel disheartened and alienated and uncared for.

[Connected]

Why do you simply tell me that I am the problem when the other poster was also attacking me?

You're right - it wasn't right for Sepokku to retaliate. Nevertheless, thank you for apologizing! I am thrilled to signal boost your suggestions for changes.

We should be listened to.

This is, I believe, an opportunity. So speak and be heard!

The navigation on this site is horrible and needs a real re-working.

What changes, specifically, would you like to see?

[mombie]

We have spoken many times and we are never listened to. In fact, a common saying among myself and the group is, "I know nothing's gonna change but we think we should post it anyway."

You rarely get responses from staff beyond "you should do better then".

We need a system, right now, that puts those of us that are still here first. This means fixing the unfindable stuff. For instance, what mjolnir posted was unknown to all the rest of us. Do you see how many steps that took for them to complete?

We don't like the RPG chat. We want more Discord focus. We get so much gross spam in the RPG chat. Most of us are on Discord. I felt like more people spoke and participated in Discord. However, because one guy thinks there are issues with discord, suddenly discord ia discouraged.

We need to stop allowing new writers to create universes without a certain number of posts in an existing universe.

We can't do anything about players, but we can change the system that causes us older and active players so much wasted time and effort.

[mombie]

This will be my last post in regards to this.

I am extremely passionate about keeping my friends on this site. It comes off as hostile, but that hostility is a symptom of many wrongs, abuses of power, and exhaustion about trying to resolve things politely. You're sorta new, so maybe you haven't seen our many battles with RPG over things. That's fine.

I apologize, Seppoku, if I came off as rude or condescending. My intent is not to be an asshole, but I am very blunt about my feelings. Many of my friends like to avoid this confrontation, and that's fine. But many of us have come so close to saying bye to this site. Until, of course, we found or RP partners and our small groups. That's what keeps us here. We really do LOVE RPG because it offers us things that other forum sites do not, but that does not mean we have to be treated with disrespect and as a cause of low site activity.

We do DESPERATELY want to keep RPG alive. That's why I can be so aggressive. We DO want to be inclusive. We DO want new members that we can write with. We DO want to create great Universes for everyone. However, as you can see from the many Universes we have tried to create, there are so many failures that we are impossibly jaded. I and Mjolnir have created many Universes, as well as so many other GMs here. Unfortunately, no matter what we did, new players and older members that always like to vanish really trashed my desire to be more involved and welcoming.

We are a GENUINELY nice and welcoming group. We want to give everyone a chance to write with us, but the system needs reworking. The site needs to make it so that we don't have to jump through hoops to delete CS. We need to realize that 1x1 and small group RPs are a SYMPTOM of the system, not a cause of new players coming and going. We have given new players so many opportunities. We have supported so many new player Universes that have failed or ghosted. We have really, really, really tried our best. We really have.

That's all, because at this point - I am just a broken record. I am just going to stay in my corner and roleplay with my friends, and if things don't change - then they don't. If they do, great. At this point, I am just getting angrier the more these thinks pop up, and I don't want to make myself and my friends look like jerks when we are not.

[Connected]

We need a system, right now, that puts those of us that are still here first. ... We can't do anything about players, but we can change the system that causes us older and active players so much wasted time and effort.

That's a great point, and basically the whole idea of this thread! Thank you for the suggestions!

... Fixing the unfindable stuff. For instance, what mjolnir posted was unknown to all the rest of us. Do you see how many steps that took for them to complete?

It's a super useful feature, and I agree, it needs to be more apparent.

We don't like the RPG chat. ... Most of us are on Discord.

This is fair - the discussion and planning for the ongoing RP that I'm in takes place on Discord, not in RPG chat. As much as it's a nice idea in theory to keep everything in one place, it's inconvenient to have to pick up another chat client just to converse with other members. If Discord ceased to exist, RPG Chat would be a much more obvious choice, but while it's around, it's so much more convenient to just use Discord.

We need to stop allowing new writers to create universes without a certain number of posts in an existing universe.

This is a big change that I think would require a lot of support before it's considered for implementation, but I see where you're coming from. In fact, I like the idea and think it would improve integration of new players.

I am just going to stay in my corner and roleplay with my friends, and if things don't change - then they don't. If they do, great.

I'm sorry things have gotten to this point. For what it's worth, I really value your input and I look forward to the opportunity to play with you in the future. Thank you for participating. ♥

[Sepokku]

I know we all hate to hear it, but being inherently toxic to new people on the site (Cause we cant TRUST em) is part of the reason this site is dying. (We literally just had a super active new member. They left not long after their thread on how to attract new players got derailed by someone's personal vendetta.)

And as far as GMs not voicing their grudge for me dropping out due to the universe being inactive; that is a HUGE part of the issue. If you're going to start a universe, you cant be allowed to disappear for huge periods of time without notice and still hold some imaginary grudge. It's almost laughable to think you're not held responsible for being active just because you spent 15 minutes creating a universe. THAT is part of the problem. We all complain when new members do it, but veterans do it just as much...

To that end, you lot are not nice. I tried to dip my toe into ya'lls private universe and here I am, mother after month being attacked by because I was unable to continue Rping with you guys after you all went silent...

I am personally hurt to say it, but if you find yourself "Not willing to tell it like it is," but you are still salty about it, and talk amongst a select group of people about it, that's a clique. Don't say you arent part of a clique... If you are going to describe being in one...

[mombie]

Okay, man. Whatever you say. :)

Glad you could get that off your chest.

[Sepokku]

Thanks, I know following my threads so you could voice the same complaints you always have, couldn't have been easy<3 Derailing this thread and Pastel's so you can speak your truth, couldn't have been easy<3 We just wish you'd do it in your own lane lol XD

[mombie]

Thanks, I know following my threads so you could voice the same complaints you always have, couldn't have been easy<3 Derailing this thread and Pastel's so you can speak your truth, couldn't have been easy<3 We just wish you'd do it in your own lane lol XD

Yes, okay. Thanks for your criticism.

[Sepokku]

Sorry but activity in OOC isnt going to bring me back,,,

[partially-stars]

Hi folks, I'm going to lock this thread. There's been some great discussions here but I feel it's been derailed. I would encourage users involved to attempt to resolve any conflict they may have had with other members over DM and to discuss these issues in a constructive manner. Any discussions on how to improve the site and the community are always welcome as long as they remain constructive and on topic.