Mod Post: Where do we go from here?

[milliways_mods]

Hiya Folks!

Another Status update for you. Ready?
Three.
Two.
One.

Let's jam.

Now:

The Great Milli-Census 2015 is over and Cast List is nigh-on complete.

If your character isn't on the Cast List, you have until Midnight EDT tonight to fix that.

Exceptions to this include people with outstanding Retirement Confirmation Requests, or people who have Retirements confirmed but haven't rejoined the Main Comm with those characters.

Soon:

Barring some last-minute-in-the-clutch additions, the Great Milli-Purge of 2015 will begin around midnight tonight (EDT).

This means that any character not on the Cast List will be open for application come the opening of the App cycle tomorrow. It's been our policy that the First To App has first claim over a character, but for this month only we're giving priority to any players wishing to reclaim characters washed out by the Milli-Purge.

To help with this we won't be processing any Apps until the close of this App Cycle on the 10th of September.

Also, our Cast List wasn't the only thing that got rebuilt during the last month. There are subtle tweaks to our How To App guide, as well as a Great Big Gigantic Overhaul of our FAQ.

Please give them a careful read at your first earliest convenience.

Later:

The Contact List is in a Shambles, and will likely remain that way for a little while longer. But it is on the To Do list of impending Game Related Administrationy Things right next to updating our Plotting/RP Comm registry and finding/creating a new "How To Play" image for the Main Comm profile.
(The little broken img link tasks me. IT TASKS ME!)

I think that might be everything.
Please leave questions in the comments below.

Thank you again for all of your patience!

ETA:
I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR!

Comments

[dejah_thoris]

Thank you so much for all your hardwork, Bing. We really appreciate it.

[bjornwilde]

Seconding this. I'm also impressed with the new organization, not that old was bad mind you.

[bcgphoenix]

So...there's an idea I'd like to float, and I'm fully prepared to get a resounding chorus of JFC PHOENIX NO, but.

With the new retirement rules (i.e. that you have to renew your retirement every year), could we start something similar for "active" characters that never get played?

Look, I hate activity checks as much as the next person -- part of the reason I stay at Milliways is because it doesn't have any -- and I'm as guilty of not EPing characters as the next mun. But there are characters on the cast list, still listed as active, that haven't been in the bar in literal years. It seems like this could be a loophole to get around the new retirement rules -- don't formally retire, but don't ever EP your character again, either. Boom, you get to hang onto them forever without that pesky renewal business.

I don't think one EP or thread a year is an unreasonable requirement. Pruning the dead wood as we go, instead of having to do a gigantic purge every few years, might keep the community more healthy. ETA: And obviously there could be exceptions to this if someone has limited/no internet for a long while or something! Like how Veronica's overseas in a rural area for the next two years, for instance.

Also, I love you guys and I love all the work you do okay bye <333

[inlovewithwords]

Speaking as someone who finds Activity Checks stressful and has been guilty of Never Posting?

I am very strongly in support of this thought.

Phoenix, please have a cookie for being brave enough to suggest what I have been thinking for a while.

[bjornwilde]

The only hesitation I have with supporting this is the labor involved in determining who hasn't posted. It seems to me we have a pretty large cast list.

That aside, how about also throwing in a warning email to the mun when a pup is slated for removal, assuming this is added to the comm protocols.

*Takes off Mod hat*

[mnt_raph]

I agree with everything you've just said. From the lack of AC, to the very real possibility of people abusing loopholes in new procedures.

What I'm kind of stuck on is how to make the logistics of something like that work with a game of 400+ characters.

One of the things I love about Milliways is how free-form it is, and how hands-off the mods are 99% of the time. (Except for that damn Bing. She's ALWAYS dogging me. ALWAYS!)

So I'm totally open to ideas of how to make something like this work as effortlessly as possible.

[milliways_mods]

SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND GET TO WORK!

Re: *Takes off Mod hat*

[bjornwilde]

I was just posting this very thought. = ]

Perhaps there is a review period and you get volunteers? For example, every Sept the past year is reviewed and volunteers are tapped. They report any findings and send the results to mods and the mods make the call for the culling.

Re: *Takes off Mod hat*

[wedic]

While I do see where people are coming from here, I kind of love the fact that we don't have activity checks, because it means that the muns who have confidence issues/mental health problems/major RL events etc (of which we have many) don't feel that pressure to come back in a set time frame. They know we'll all be right here when we get back.

May I suggest an alternative: that in the event that a character hasn't been played in a set time e.g. a year, AND there is a second mun wanting to play that character, that that second mun submits a request through the mods for a gentle enquiry as to whether the first mun would pass the pup on? That way you don't have to do anything like as much legwork checking every single pup for activity which will a. stress you out and b. stress a lot of other people out, and it's probably unnecessary unless it's a particularly big name pup or canon.

I believe there has been some OOC precedent for this sort of approach in the past though usually between individual players.

Re: *Takes off Mod hat*

[bcgphoenix]

That Bing. So meddlesome. *solemn*

Yeah, that's why I was a little nervous about suggesting it: it's more work, I don't want to make the mods do more work, and I'm also a fan of the largely hands-off approach. I like the volunteer idea, though! An additional possibility -- codify tag requests as part of the application procedure, make a link to the character's tag a necessary part of their profile (like the disclaimer) before they get accepted, and set a universal date for the yearly activity check (like the September 1st date for retirements). Then, the mods/volunteers could run down the cast list, click the tag link in everyone's profile, make a note on activity, and be done.

Players would have to be diligent about tagging their posts and threads, but I think a lot of us are pretty diligent already just as a personal way of keeping track of CR. We'd just have to triple-check that stuff ourselves.

[inanhour]

I've held off talking last night because I didn't want to sound dramatic, but if there was an activity check I literally think I couldn't play - any amount of pressure in creative endeavors turns off my ability to do stuff.

An interest check every year would be fine. And if the overwhelming desire is for an activity check, it probably wouldn't hurt anyone much for me to leave the game.

TL

[bjornwilde]

I think interest check is a great way of wording this, if it happens.

I also like Hotspur mun's suggestion above.

[wedic]

Maybe we should have a hug check where if we don't hear anything from anyone for a year we send hope that they're well and an invitation back for virtual tea and a catch up.

Seriously though, this is exactly why I would be opposed to mandatory ACs, because I can think of a significant number of people who I suspect would feel as alarmed about it as you have just expressed.

[mnt_raph]

What about the possibility of lowering the number of characters a person is allowed to have on their roster?

At the moment our ceiling is 10.

[wedic]

This will make me sad but if you need to do it I won't make a fuss.

[bcgphoenix]

I wouldn't be too fussed if that happened! Ten has always felt a little high to me, but that's as someone who has trouble juggling as few as three characters sometimes.

[cutting_edgex23]

I will say I like having space to keep on the ones I play most often, and then having some room to try new people and see if they take off, and being able to keep them around long enough to give them a chance.

*hands*

[tu_vas_triompher]

You are amaaaaazing!

In the department of making life marginally easier for y'all--do you mind if people send in new apps now, or should we wait...?

[milliways_mods]

Yeeeaaaah hold off until the Back Room post officially opening Apps goes up.
Expect it later this afternoon.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Aw jeez, I meant, you know, not just till this afternoon, like if you want to delay the apps and stuff...

[merryeccentricities]

Wow, I can't even guess how much work all that took (which is why I leave site-running to other people). Thank you for getting everything up and running again on such a tight schedule!

[yakalskovich]

Question: I just talked to somebody via Twitter who wasn't watching the comm and who went 'AWCRAP' when I asked them what I should assume about their charries. They want to re-app at least most of them, which would be seven, and don't return from D*C until the 8th.

So, that is the situation. Now for the practical questions:

1. Does the character limit per apping period apply to those re-apped characters, or can they re-app all seven at one go?
   
2. Will they have to write a full app for each character, or is reference to the character having been in the game (link to their tag, for example?) enough?
   
3. If it has to be a full app, might I ask for an extension for them?

I feel the situation is partially my fault as I have been watching the cast list reboot from one step to the next, done my thing, and never said a word to my friend as I was sure they had to have seen it, and I didn't want to add pressure during con costume making season, and only now asked them what I should assume about their charries. I should have said something to them much earlier.-

[mnt_mike]

People who find themselves in this situation should email Milliways dot apps.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Thank you!! I've seen that you've been in contact with the friend in question already.-

[thewidewideworld]

You're amazing and we love you.