Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

mombie · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **mombie** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 2:40 am

While most of us can understand personal choice regarding communication preferences, I believe that many of us can agree that there must be a way to get information about site downtimes. Many members express deep discontent and frustration because when the site is down, no one can answer why or when it will be back up.

I would suggest that Raemus revitalize the RPG Twitter account to keep his member base informed during times when RPG is down and he cannot be reached. It is a bit disheartening to have mods take the heat of member frustration when the Admin is not relaying information to them, and they also can't get a hold of him.

It's just bad customer service to keep people wondering, and it takes less than five minutes to send some information over Twitter. I believe that this lack of communication during these long downtimes only helps to further debilitate the site and drive members away.

These things need to be communicated. There has to be some way to contact Raemus and get information, and I am sure that the Mods would feel great about being able to inform members when RPG Chat is down with the site.

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ · **Tips:** 1.25 INK by **༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 4:48 am

I agree with this statement! There hasn't been a Twitter post since March and from what I can tell, Rem isn't in the official discord anymore either (correct me if I'm wrong ofc) so we don't have a way to contact him outside of this website.

I've learned that this website experiences down time late night/early morning (PST) but the past 24 hours aren't unprecedented either. I remember that maybe 4 or 5 years ago there was a ~2 day shut down with no word from anyone or anywhere about its future. As a returning user, I've learned to back up my writing/files and keep other avenues of contact open but that shouldn't be the standard. Users should be able to use RPG as a reliable place to roleplay and PM others.

If the staff doesn't want to stay on social media, then I don't think it's too much to ask for a page that contains the server status of the website. Many online games have that now and I wouldn't need to keep plugging RPG into down detector.

phosphene · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **phosphene** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 7:51 am

Frankly, I'm amazed this website can keep active members with the utter lack of communication that goes on. I understand having personal preferences for what avenues you use to communicate and stay connected, but when those preferences are keeping others in the dark, it becomes a problem.

Yesterday, I had just gotten my own computer back from being repaired, I was going to finally be able to work on some things I couldn't do at my wife's computer. I was excited to jump back into things, and then RPG was down for, what? 24 hours? More? With no communication with us, no communication with mods (the ones we could reach were really doing their best to help, but they were in the dark, too), nobody knew what was going on.

It's unprofessional. I only have so much free time, and I tend to choose to spend it here, writing. But the lack of communication is driving people away. It is killing this platform. Personally, if I didn't have stories and characters I was deeply invested in, I would be long gone. Every time the site goes down, I wonder if this is the time that it just doesn't come back up.

Nobody is asking for a play by play update, you know. But a little communication from the admin would go a long way in showing that you care about the site. People don't want to stay in a place where even the people in charge don't care.

I think you have both offered good solutions to the problem. I don't think either one is too much to ask for. All we want is to be kept in the loop.

partially-stars · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **partially-stars** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 8:06 am

I don’t have any new suggestions to add but I do want to express my frustration at this. I’ve been in this site for over 10 years and the lack of communication over the last few years has become increasingly frustrating. I understand that this is a small team and a small affair, but a simple “sorry, site’s down, we’re trying to work on it!” when things go down would be nice. The mods often have to deal with member’s frustration but it’s not their fault either. In our own discord servers last night, people had discussed leaving the site and looking for alternatives, and I can’t blame them. I understand and respect that people don’t want to use certain social media for their own reasons, but we need communication from the team. I vastly prefer this system to forum role playing which is the only real other option, and I want to stay, but I’ve considered leaving more than once.

mombie · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **mombie** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:25 pm

I behoove you to hear these members out because they make up almost all of the Indy-Roleplays. Partially-Stars has at least three, and WOlfsbane pretty much joins everything. Haha. If these members leave, then Indy-Universes are dead. That part of your site is dead, and you will be left with 1x1's and the MV only (if even the 1x1 Rps.)

I would be willing to share my e-mail with you, Raemus, or something - to help communicate when the site is down. I don't mind that task. The members just want a little bit of communication because they really do love this site, and they really don't want to leave. However, the behavior of the admin is going to force our hand sometime, and I don't think you want that for something you worked really hard to create.

dealing with it · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **dealing with it** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:42 pm

As a Moderator Team Lead, I should probably make myself more accessible. If you need to get ahold of a team member, my Discord is mookestink#6425

I can't promise to be able to always get in touch with Remaeus, unfortunately, but I can be a sympathetic ear.

LawOfTheLand · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **LawOfTheLand** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:49 pm

Seconded. Staff team members benefit from multiple lines of communication, both with the userbase and with each other.

QuestionaBull#7227 if you want to get in my DMs.

Absenthia · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Absenthia** on Wed Jun 10, 2020 10:18 pm

Thirded. I understand the frustrations that a lot of users are experiencing, especially given the pandemic and unrest here in the states. I know a lot of people use this site as another link to the world, and when it's down it really is distressing.

I'm my nickname is GigabyteCat on the official discord, feel free to add me. I've been a member of RPG for a long time and am more than happy to let you bounce ideas off or be someone you can talk to.

Remæus · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Remæus** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 7:10 am

Heard loud and clear — most of the time, we aren't aware of the outage until after it's over, making it difficult to communicate in general. Once we get rid of the remaining portions of old code (as per "Our Greatest Quest Yet"), the unexpected downtimes should be eliminated entirely.

phosphene · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **phosphene** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:51 am

Remæus wrote:Heard loud and clear — most of the time, we aren't aware of the outage until after it's over, making it difficult to communicate in general. Once we get rid of the remaining portions of old code (as per "Our Greatest Quest Yet"), the unexpected downtimes should be eliminated entirely.

So, in other words, you have no intention of changing the lack of communication despite the fact that we are literally begging you to communicate with us?

Great. Glad to know you just don’t care. I want you to understand that this exact attitude is the reason I will be leaving this site once the current rps I am invested in are wrapped up.

partially-stars · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **partially-stars** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:09 am

Remæus wrote:Heard loud and clear — most of the time, we aren't aware of the outage until after it's over, making it difficult to communicate in general. Once we get rid of the remaining portions of old code (as per "Our Greatest Quest Yet"), the unexpected downtimes should be eliminated entirely.

So can we get exact details of how you intend on improving the situation in the mean time? Will future communication be through the official RPG twitter account? The emails linked to our accounts? While I am pleased to hear that site outages should be reduced going forward, I’m also well aware that it’ll take time, and we want reassurance that things will improve in the meantime. If there’s anything I can do as a long-standing and highly active Indy RP-er to help or consult on, please feel free to contact me.

Kohananinja · **Tips:** 1.25 INK by **Kohananinja** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:48 am

Remæus wrote:Heard loud and clear — most of the time, we aren't aware of the outage until after it's over, making it difficult to communicate in general. Once we get rid of the remaining portions of old code (as per "Our Greatest Quest Yet"), the unexpected downtimes should be eliminated entirely.

Remaeus,

I have been a part of this site for a very long time, I’ve made friends here, and been a part of stories on this site that I cherish, and do not want to walk away from. That being said, while I appreciate your attempt to communicate now, it feels like your response here is missing the point of some of the main frustrations being expressed at the moment. If work on the site is going to happen, causing the site to be down, that’s a maintenance and upgrade situation we can understand. It is the lack of communication infrastructure that, if I may be so bold, is the root of the problem here.

Currently I am working together with a very dedicated group to try and launch a new Indy RP, which takes a lot of time, planning, and coding on site to coordinate well while doing the leg work before launch. Site outages that last for 24+ hours without warning are extremely disheartening during this process, as we all have limited free time we are choosing to spend here, and the unknown factor brought on by continued lack of communication compounds an understandable annoyance into something that is actively angering and driving people away. I have two questions I hope you can answer to try and address these concerns:

1. If you know you are planning on working on removing old coding from the site, is this an ongoing daily thing, or is this something scheduled, and therefore word can be put out ahead of time to expect potential outages? I don’t pretend to be an expert in the area of site coding, but if it is something we can prepare for ahead of time, that could possibly eliminate a lot of the unknown factor for us.

2. Is it possible to have a more reinforced communication chain put in place? I understand not everyone is comfortable using discord, but perhaps a couple forms of direct communication between you and the mods who do use those platforms can be organized?

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 10:03 am

Remæus wrote:Heard loud and clear — most of the time, we aren't aware of the outage until after it's over, making it difficult to communicate in general. Once we get rid of the remaining portions of old code (as per "Our Greatest Quest Yet"), the unexpected downtimes should be eliminated entirely.

Rem, you had a whole night to levy everyone's concerns and you produced a response that amounted to Soon™. I implore you to find a solution to the lack of communication, particularly since several have been offered up in this thread. There is no ETA on when all of that "old code" will be gone so we need something in the meantime or risk losing even more active players.

As an aside, I can't access the original "Our Greatest Quest Yet" post because it gives me a DNS error.

Wolf's Bane109 · **Tips:** 1.50 INK by **Wolf's Bane109** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 10:37 am

Remæus wrote:Heard loud and clear — most of the time, we aren't aware of the outage until after it's over, making it difficult to communicate in general. Once we get rid of the remaining portions of old code (as per "Our Greatest Quest Yet"), the unexpected downtimes should be eliminated entirely.

Remeaus,

Coming from a long time user (ten years now over three accounts) this is coming from a place that genuinely cares about this site and the potential for it to be something great again. So please, listen. Not just to me, but everyone. I get that it's a lot for one person to take on, and we're not asking it to just be on one person's shoulders, that's impossible. And we truly get that. We really do. But if you want any hope for this site to last long, seeing how many new people join and then leave because of how unwelcoming and none user-friendly this site has become, it's not much of a shock when people join for a few weeks and then disappear without a word.

From my years of experience on this site for the past ten years, I have seen it go from a lively and welcoming place, with continuously active people, to a barely functioning wasteland that it is slowly becoming. If you look at the recent roleplays made, what do you see? Closed group RP's, private/1x1's or just solo projects. Why? Because people not being able to stay dedicated or finding this site to be as active or even user friendly. Which is a big deterrent to a lot of new people.

From when I first joined, there were so many people happy to help me around the site, and now, there's almost no one. No one sticks around here between the site going down for hours on end with no communication, to a very slow and dying site. This doesn't come from a place of anger or anything, this comes from someone that has dedicated half of my life to something I love. I still love this site and always will. I spent ten years developing my craft, developing stories and worlds that have helped inspire me to work on my own projects. Role-Playing is something that I am super invested in and have loved ever since I was a kid. This place has been like a second home for me where I could escape reality and know that I could make up a world with like-minded people and enjoy the world we made and the story we were trying to tell.

But now, it's so rare to even get things started and going, nevermind keeping it last a few posts. I am dedicated to this site and seeing it improve, I am constantly trying to come up with ideas to help keep this afloat, to keep people invested in something and stick around because I honestly do believe that this site can still be something. But like many of us have said, this site is slowly going under. With little to no communication, about when mantainence or work is going to be done on this site, to having it go down for hours on end, to even a few days. (I remember when it was down for a whole week before) does that look good on anyone's end?

All we're asking, which seemed to not be fully understood, is that we want communication. Not just from the mods (who have been nothing but more than helpful and patient with us in Discord. Which, I am honestly thankful for their patience and understanding with our frustrations. I have all the time in the world now more than ever to work on characters and my own worlds that I am trying to build on (much like Kohan stated up above), and seeing the site down is disheartening to say the least. Especially with no word for how long it is going to be down for.

All we ask is that there is better communication from your side as well. it's very disheartening to wonder when the site will be back up, to be told no one knows because there is no way to get into proper contact with someone. I understand that not everyone uses social media or feels comfortable with it. But if you just need an email or whatever from someone to help keep others in the loop like, "Hey, gonna be testing some stuff out, don't know how long the site will be down for so just letting people know" would be highly appreciated. Because every time that work is being done on the site, it goes down. The site can't properly withstand being worked on and also having users be actively scrolling through characters sheets, rp's and other tabs on the site. It's too much for it to handle.

So, all we ask (new users and old a like) just for some small form of communication ahead of time. It would help a great deal for just a heads up so we can be aware to work on characters, rp's and posts elsewhere in the meantime.

That's all I have for now. If anything came across wrong or harsh, I am sorry. That was not my intention here. Just wishing for some healthy communication between us all, trying to help better this site one day at a time, ya know?

-Cheers, Wolf.

mombie · **Tips:** 0.50 INK by **mombie** on Thu Jun 11, 2020 11:50 am

All the members want is COMMUNICATION DURING DOWNTIMES. If it isn't possible to know before a downtime occurs, then you should be keeping members informed DURING. This can be done easily via Twitter! SO EASY! JUST FREAKIN' DO IT! Make someone in charge of it. I don't know.

All I know is that I don't think I will be completing my open-world RP until I see real change and a pair of listening ears. I want to support the community and support your ideas for making a better community, but I won't do it when you're not listening to a very simple request.

Breaks my heart, but...

... It's not a complex request. No one is asking you to get out a magic crystal ball and predict the next downtime. We are asking for the following:

---If you know that there will be a downtime, let us know so that we can plan ahead. Do it on the forum for everyone to see.

--If an UNEXPECTED downtime happens that you did not schedule, UPDATE TWITTER TO KEEP THE MEMBERS AWARE SO THAT THEY CAN PLAN AHEAD.

Literally the only two things people are asking for. Listen for once. None of that is too complicated. I have been a part of many forums with a larger member base and fewer mods, and I know this is possible.

If someone like noncomformingrole leaves, then you can likely kiss at least five to six other people good-bye. Even the MV is weak at the moment. Do you really want everything you worked hard for to crumble just because you can't agree to a simple request?

Maci-Care · **Tips:** 1.00 INK by **Maci-Care** on Tue Jun 16, 2020 7:10 am

I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't been already said by the others Rem so I'm not going to spend time re-saying what they just said. We are all passionate about this site and wanting to roleplay with each other and just want what's best for this, but I'm worried about this site. I'm in a couple of discords for RP's from this site and there is talk about people leaving the site once their RP ends. And yeah, someone might think that a someone leaving isn't bad because you have other customers, much like alot of time when I worked retail someone would say that and we would say have a nice day. But I am seeing this across numerous Discord channels and it's sad to see the numbers add up.

I have been part of this site for awhile, not as long as some of the others, but it's sad to see some people I considered friends not be online for years and I wish there was a way for me to reach back to them, but I can't. Hell, I even went MIA for awhile because of family issues coming up, moving countries, and even a little bit because of the site going down so often, it's been better since I came back about a year or two ago (sorry if I can;t pin point) but lately it's getting out of hand and especially since a lot of us are left sitting here without an answer.

We know you don't like discord, but as your mods and mombie and others have offered, even sending them an email so they can let us know on social medias.

I'm not sure what else to say here, but wanted to let my little message be read and hopefully something comes of this. I enjoy RPing on this site, great times over the years, but it's sad to see friends leave and the site slowly slowing down...

thenotsoinnocent · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **thenotsoinnocent** on Wed Sep 09, 2020 8:13 pm

Salutations,

I hope all is well. Is there any update on this? Are there any ways for Mods, Admin, etc. to contact Remæus when the site is down? Is there another online platform members can communicate on to let Remæus know the site is down? I know the site was recently down and there was no way to get in touch with anyone.

phosphene · **Tips:** 3.00 INK by **phosphene** on Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:04 am

It seems Rem has no desire to communicate with us in any way in case the site goes down, which is frustrating and disheartening.

mombie · **Tips:** 0.25 INK by **mombie** on Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:11 pm

Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

a topic in Help, a part of the RPG forum.

Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Re: Suggestion for Communication During Site Down Times

Post a reply

Make a Donation

Who is online