SUGGESTION!!!

[dr-sexy.livejournal.com]

Okay, so, I'm the biggest retard in the WORLD right now.............ugh
Anyway, I have an idea to keep the morons like me out of trouble in the bar! All these "RULES" that apply to the bar and such, how about someone type them up, and post them somewhere so EVERYONE knows what they are, AND so new people who come in will know as well. That way, no one has to go and try to read through every single post in the Back room to find these "rules." What do you say? Well, that's all i have!

Comments

[milliways-mods.livejournal.com]

We'll work on that!

[miraielle.livejournal.com]

I was actually going to say something about that, too - a friend of mine is joining, and sat me down last night and grilled me, because she had no idea what the general rule of thumb in the bar was. So, yes, something including info about violence in the bar, canon-puncturing, and posting in the bartender's thread would be good - those were the three that came up last night.

Also possibly a link to Sam's picture of the bar? She wanted to know what it looked like inside.

I'd be willing to help out with this, if you want a hand at all.

*lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[saddle_tramp]

Speaking as someone who helped run a mostly-AIM RP full of Mary-Sues and popstars played by people who were almost all new to RPing, you might want to be sure to include all the "common courtesy" bits of RPing, too. Newbies can then be pointed to a post that spells out that it's wrong to god-mod, sexually harrass, push people into acting OOC, posting things that belong in the Back Room to the RP boards, etc, etc, and you'll not have to spell it out individually for them. Saves a lot of time and hassle for the mods.

You might also want to do what I wanted to do when I was modding, and just put the web addy for the rules in the sign-up form and have them put a statement in there that they have read and understand the rules. That makes disputes much easier on you, the mods -- people can't say "I didn't know" or "Nobody told me it wasn't allowed" -- and makes it easier for other members to help you keep an eye on things when you can't be there. Concrete rules are a must in a big group, I think, because they give all of the characters protection from mistakes or willfull chaos-mongering by folks who just join to cause trouble... All RPs get that sort eventually.

Of course, persona sheets and writing samples might be a way you'll want to go, too. The best-run RP I was ever in required persona sheets with timelines, origins, and both physical and psychological character descriptions, but a lot of RPs these days aren't serious enough to use them. *wry grin* Folks like to grab a cool character and hop right in with both feet, then make it up as they go along, forgetting all about canon and/or what they said the character would be like when they joined.

*goes back to my corner and hopes I didn't annoy you or step on any toes, 'cause I just want to help*

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[i_vanquish_evil]

Just as an additional bit of 'input' - if the 'rules' include definitions of things like 'god-modding' and 'canon puncturing' - b/c ppl may have different ideas of what they mean and sometimes 'context' doesn't always clearly denote the intended definition...

b/c I was talking to dr.troy-mun last night and what I thought was canon puncturing was different from miraielle's ooc comment to dr.troy-mun - partly b/c of character's like Andrew, whose personality is strongly based on his 'sci fi heritage', so to speak - in his world he's pretty much the definition of a SF geek, so him recognizing characters he's familiar with is part of who he is, which is where I was confused w/ miraielle's definition... Andrew may be a 'special case' as far as other character recognition goes, but it may be difficult to keep similar things from happening with other characters.

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[milliways-mods.livejournal.com]

Thanks, we'll be sure to include such definitions.

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[saddle_tramp]

I think, with Andrew anyway, that you might be confusing recognizing people with canon-puncturing them. If I remember the conversation in the back room a while back correctly, it was decided that recognizing people was alright, chars just have to be sure not to canon-puncture and tell them they know who they are and that they're fictional and such.

*looks around at everyone else* Is that right?

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[i_vanquish_evil]

It's possible - but miraielle told Dr.Troy-mun that even recognizing Dr. Lecter was not allowed w/o permission - thus *my* confusion. B/c I was under the impression that puncturing meant that a character ran up to another character - Andrew running up to, say, Connor MacLeod, and screaming "Dude! You're that guy in that movie!" -- thus indicating to the 2nd character that s/he is fictional in the 1st character's world. Which, I agree w/ - the fictionality of a character shouldn't be pointed out to someone if it's not cool w/ the mun. However, it seems like it would be rather difficult for characters to not recognize pop-culture figures from their own time. IE: Superman - if Superman came in, it would be OOC for a large # of characters in the bar to *not* recognize him.

Hence my suggestion for a definition.

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[dr-sexy.livejournal.com]

Actualy, i totaly agree with that! It's probably a good idea to do something of that sort. I ended up having to IM back and forth with Van Helsing-mun to get my shit straight!! Anyway, the biggest step right now, though, is to get the rules posted somewhere so everyone, ESPECIALY us newbies, knows EXACTLY what is and is not allowed in the bar!

Don't worry, my toes are just fine!

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[saddle_tramp]

I'm glad. :-) My last ambition is to cause trouble... I remember my early days in an RP, and the early days of several people I've helped learn to RP, and I know that having concrete rules to fall back on helps a lot.

I myself lurked for a long time in my first RP to be sure I knew exactly what was expected of everyone before I started to play, and I wound up staying with that one group for five years or so. I doubt I'll ever join another RP unless I lurk about the same way, which is probably part of why I'm here. *grins* I have so many ideas for folks to bring in here, if I ever get the time to do them justice.

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[milliways-mods.livejournal.com]

'Course you're not stepping on toes! We appreciate the advice. We've already started asking for a character sketch with the applications, but we'll definitely think about what you've suggested, too. Cheers!

Re: *lurker popping up with unsolicited advice*

[saddle_tramp]

*beams* I'm so happy you didn't mind. Character sketches are always a great idea, I should have known you lot would have been asking for them already. ;-}

And while I'm here, I just have to toss out modly kudos, too. You both rock, truly. *grins* I've wandered around more RPs than I care to count, lurking a bit before moving on, and I've never seen another group that was so very big and run with so few problems. Once you get the rules into shape and get them up Milliways will be the perfect RP, or as close to it as I've ever found, at least. You should be very proud of yourselves!