rpanons | if ur breath were baited, it would smell fishy

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op here: you're right, the math is definitely not to the tune of 30 players, 10 active, so on. i feel as if people got a bit stuck on that part because i was asked how someone consistently only doing minimum ac can make it hard on mods to plot, and i explained how that can happen. but people only making minimum ac regularly, for months and months, is definitely not only likely to affect the plot. it leads to tension in casts, where players become exasperated with missing castmates and need mediation, or it becomes a problem if you have a game cap and there are internal frustrations among players that a slot is taken up by someone who is not really engaged. it also lowers the overall momentum of the game.

i've seen some urging to just raise activity requirements, but the problem with that is really that high ac is no longer the dwrp norm outside of murder games, even if actually most players comfortably tag more than the 5-15 monthly comments that most games implement. raising activity requirements beyond the commonly accepted levels can make it harder to get new players. to me, it's also not ideal to slap a rule on everyone instead of letting mods have the option to apply rules that if you consistently only do minimum activity, they can step in. if the problem is actually one player, you fix that, not create a new game-wide rule and hope it also addresses the problem player.

but responses to this thread are really driving home that activity conversations remain very charged. i admit it baffles me. no one would bat an eye if a game has a rule saying don't be an asshole, then a mod warned someone for being an asshole by harrassing or powergaming or whatever. yet it somehow seems unthinkable for mods to be allowed to use their discretion in the case of people staying routinely unengaged with a game. i don't get why that is.

But the problem here is that you AREN'T warning anyone. I think a lot of people are missing the point and getting stuck on the nitty gritty of this being about AC when the actual issue here is that players in your game are toeing the lines of one of your rules and you need to consider whether the rule is unclear enough that they're doing this without realizing or if they don't even understand that it's an actual hard rule instead of a broadly stated expectation because you don't seem to be enforcing it.

If all these problems are being caused then you need to actually put your foot down and start having these discussions with your players instead of on rpanons.

i get that we need to do that. i do actually take the cowardice part of the feedback to heart. i mentioned what's been holding us off, or at the very least me: the environment to enforce this kind of rule doesn't seem supportive, even if the rule is there. that matters. again, the nightfell backlash was recent, in november or december. this thread alone is filled with anons chiming in how it's not okay to implement a rule like this because it's too subjective, and you should instead raise activity. even worse is this subtext i see in some of the comments whereby automatically the problem must be with the mods or the plotting or the game, it surely cannot be an issue of some people, as you say, toeing the line on a rule.

this is where i disagree with you, however: you are articulating it, and i don't think you are doing it maliciously, as a problem of the mods not warning anyone. to be clear, the problem is the people who do this kind of thing. our lack of response does not fix the problem, absolutely and 100%, and maybe it increases the risk of this problem recuring. but it does not create the bad habit of the players who consistently only make minimum activity, and putting burden on mods in this way isn't really great. i'm sure a lot of anons will say i'm oversensitive and it's only semantics, until you realize it's happening all over this thread and i have 'nerve' for daring to vent anonymously about it.

This IS a problem of the mods not warning anyone, though.

Please understand that I'm speaking to you right now as a mod who has dealt with this exact same issue: no, you can't prevent this bad habit from forming or keep players from lapsing into it but if you have a rule in place specifically addressing this kind of behaviour and you don't enforce it? That IS on you. Nothing gets resolved unless you actually take steps to resolve it.

i'm just trying to underline that there's a difference between not immediately applying negative consequences to a problem and creating the problem.

as for the rest, i hear you and this thread has given me something to think about. maybe i need to step back from modding, because i feel stuck between what i'd like to do (see start of thread) and what i feel i can do, and it's not a positive feeling, so either find a proactive solution or pull out.

(deleted comment)

da

you are assuming they are one of the games that gets brought up here. there are many, many games that aren't talked about here, but people still come here to chat about RP in general. backlash to mods making decisions also happens without ever reaching anon comms.

we should let people use this as a forum to anonymously vent and troubleshoot without going "it's your feelings that are the issue, git gud" as if mods are the genesis of every problem a game might have.

ayrt

god forbid anyone disagree with dogpiling this mod but ok

"raising activity requirements beyond the commonly accepted levels can make it harder to get new players."

see, ime it's the exact opposite. i'm a fast tagger who usually does 100+ comments per month. i won't even look at a game that only has a 5-15 comment ac because i know that it's going to be way too slow and inactive for my tastes, and i know the same holds true for most of the other people i know who are also fast taggers.

if you raised the ac to 30 comments then all of us who tag fast might actually take a look at the game.

I think what isn't clear is what constitutes "being unenaged" and how you know that as a mod. if your AC includes a summary of what the character is doing, that's one thing, but if you're just doing comment counts, well. idk about you but I have literally never posted all the activity I've been doing, I only post proof that I've made AC. so I think there's reason for a lot of pedantic anons to legitimately have reason to wonder how you're measuring engagement and keeping track of just how active your players are.

I'm sure you can find a viable solution but I think some of the fluttering in this thread is concern about how you prove conclusively that your players aren't "engaging."

if ur breath were baited, it would smell fishy

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