May Activity Check (1st-8th)

[Mathias Kolher]

Mathias is here and raring to go.

[Deleted]

So... this is a hard thing for me to say, but on second thought I've decided to drop my character. Thank you for being so sweet Lilz, and Iso you're hilarious! But a number of things have kind of piled up on me to make it so that I have very little motivation to keep up with my character here.

This isn't the only forum I'm on, and in one I'm the head admin and the other has been both really active and really fun, so the former site is very non-optional to me and the latter has been taking up more and more of my time, so I need to cut back somewhere. And while I did intend to be here for a lot longer than I have been, I've found myself put into a spot where it would frankly take more work to get myself into a situation where I'd be happy here than I want to actually expend here as opposed to elsewhere.

When I originally joined, it was because a friend joined and sang this site's praises and got not just me but others to join. And I was excited because this friend has excellent taste in this sort of thing and when I started chatting with a few of you in chatango you all seemed so friendly and nice... at least until I was reprimanded by a member and then indirectly by a staff member for breaking rules that didn't exist at the time, and then suddenly new rules appeared.

And this was frankly a bit off-putting - the rules themselves are perfectly fine, but the timing of their implementation gave me the distinct impression that some of the people here are easily offended - which is something that I can work with - but that they'd rather bring what has offended them to the staff and convince them to legislate against it rather than seeing if simply talking to me works. And this is, again being quite frank, not something that I can work with very easily - it makes me afraid to say much of anything in chatango for fear of upsetting someone, and especially since it says right in the rules that you can be a bit more liberal there than you can in posts, it also makes me afraid of doing anything that might possibly be offensive in my posts, even if I knew for sure that the particular person I was writing with would have been fine with it. To say that this has stifled my creativity would be putting it mildly.

In spite of all of this, I did want to stay here and see whether or not those feelings were justified. Like I said, I have my own site, and I've had members leave because they got offended by simple misunderstandings - I don't want to be that person for anyone else. However, the friends that I joined with - who were all so super excited to join before, aren't so much and probably for similar reasons to myself. A part of me does want to stay here, but without them I don't have much of a reason to - since I joined only one member besides my friends has shown the even slightest interest in actually roleplaying with me. And for me, this is not enough - it's fine that everyone was friendly in chatango (back when I felt like I was free to talk there, anyway), but the point of this place is to roleplay, right?

And I know that there's things that I could do about this - reach out more, etc. - but like I said, the work that would be involved is more than I want to expend, especially when I don't feel comfortable about just going into chatango and such. Perhaps if this was my only forum I would stay just for Derp, and I would have loved to get to know you better so I feel kind of badly about leaving you, but my freetime is limited so I have to prioritize and such.

And I'm also sorry for rambling all of this out, but I also hate to be that person who just leaves and you never know why - so now you know.

[Isoitsu]

I’m sure we can all understand a shifting of priorities—especially since you are the owner of and are active on other sites and we wish you the best. However, with your parting statement, you brought up some points, I (and the other admins) feel the need to address and clarify.

While it is true that we did implement a few new rules at the time of yours and a few others’ joining, several of these had been in the making before you guys joined. Others, however, were addressed due to events that occurred afterward and was NOT the fault of any ONE party, but was a reaction to several things that myself and others noticed that we had not truly thought about but needed to be addressed regardless and ASAP. Also, it does happen on occasion that some rules may be overlooked, I am not saying that it happened in your case, but it is always a possibility.

While it is true that we are tend to be more lenient in the cbox, there are still some issues that are touchy and should best be kept to one-on-one threads and the like (and some topics that should never be explored period. If anyone has questions about this sort of thing at ANY time, please contact myself or another admin and we can and will talk it out properly). Unfortunately, this is the internet (and by default, certainly not part of a perfect world), and not everyone is as sensitive/insensitive as everyone else. What may be fine and acceptable with me, may be uncomfortable or shocking for someone else. It’s something that we ALL have to tread around with caution. Personally, I’m the sort of person that is more likely to be the one to say “Get over it and move on; it’s the internet.”, but in all honesty, I’ve learned that isn’t the best route to go with people—especially on forums. We have to be understanding of others and if something is severely bothersome to another, we take action to make them a bit more comfortable WITHOUT being too assertive to the other party.

That said, if and when you were confronted in the past, if it was done rudely or aggressively, we admins apologize as a collective. However, we normally confront ‘transgressors’ in as much as a non-confrontational way/tone as possible. You and a few others may also note that not EVERYONE is very comfortable confronting other members when they have problems—sometimes they are scared too, sometimes they are just terrible at getting their point across, or what have you. This normally leads to inter-member conflict or hostility, and is why we recommend contacting an Admin with the situation so that we can act as a sort of mediator at the very least and if things go sour, it will be on OUR heads rather than those of our members. Again, if you had any issues with that yourself, or wanted to talk it out more, thinking that such an action was unjust, etc. you and any other member was and is free to contact, again, myself, Lilz, or Boss.

While we are sorry that you feel this way, and that you feel that your creativity has been stifled, we/I would also like to quickly discuss the situation revolving around forum activity/interaction/posting. As you and some others may have noticed, a lot of our members—and some of our staff included—has been on Hiatus due to intense university schedules and unforeseen personal issues, etc. This does not mean that no one had interest in you, but that a lot of people (myself included!) were too busy with real life issues to bother with role-play. Also, along the lines of RPing with others, you can’t always expect others to take the initiative. I CANNOT STRESS THAT POINT ENOUGH and it’s a recurring issue that I’ve seen among some members, not only here, but on many other forums as well. If you want to try to play with someone, talk with them, send them a message or post in their plotter. Chances are, they are just as nervous to ask you to RP as you are to ask them, but you cannot always wait for another person to make the first move or you will always feel as if no one is interested in playing with your character. We also have a LIST of open threads that people can just grab and start writing in if they truly want to interact with a variety of others.—and it’s hardly any effort at all to do that sort of thing, but I digress.

That said, please ANYONE AND EVERYONE FROM NOW ON, if you have any issues on or with the forum or its members (staff included) please contact one of the Admins so we can try and come to an understanding. I guarantee you that we can find some sort of compromise without a surplus of hurt feelings or unnecessary drama. I just ask that EVERYONE take things with a grain of salt and try to be reasonable, understanding adults here.

[Isoitsu]

THE AC IS NOW PAST ITS THREE DAY GRACE PERIOD AND IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED.

The following characters will be made available for reservation unless the members contact an admin within TWO WEEKS to discuss their inactivity/not checking in.

Dropped
Russia
Vietnam
England

Not Checked in
Netherlands
Japan
Belarus
Sealand
China

____

Switzerland is being excused due to graduation and other school-related and RL stress they are facing at this time. They have stated that they are still interested in RPing and will be returning once everything settles down.

Belarus has contacted me and is excused. She said she will be posting soon.