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Do you have rules in place to take turns posting in group threads?


Foxypaws
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Let's say that you have a group thread, meeting, etc. that has multiple users posting in it. Do you have rules set to make everyone post in proper order? 1,2,3,4, rather than 1,2, user 4 speaks 'out of turn' 3, etc. Personally I feel like it would be a little more realistic in terms of conversation and such and would help keep things running if one user lapsed. However, it seems like most sites (and users, at least that I've seen!) are pretty set on posting order.
Does it matter to you and yours?

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Most of the time, I think it's just generally assumed that there is a posting order (to keep everyone sane), but sometimes when I make an open thread or moderate an event, I'll say, "Hey, everyone post as they want in any order, but only once before I do." and most of the time folks find that fun.

 

I don't have any rules explicitly saying every group thread has to be replied to in order, and I generally leave that up to the players to discuss amongst themselves. The vast majority of threads on my forum are between two people, but sometimes three or four will write together and then it's really up to them to work it out.

I'm not picky unless it's a high risk situation, and ... even then ... I think I've just sort of let go and let live these days, letting my characters just fly by the seat of their pants. Heehee.

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I never have any concrete rules in place about post order, and I've had both good and bad experiences with this. There were a couple times when I was in a group thread and when I couldn't post for a couple of hours, there were literal pages that I had missed. In a couple of hours of me not posting. It takes a lot to make me feel left out, but that sure does the trick. 

 

Otherwise, that's the only bad experience I've really had with no post order rules. I feel like it's generally understood with the people that I write with that it's okay to post out of turn sometimes, but to not leave another person completely in the dust (unless they give the okay to, or we've not heard from them in a while, and by a while I mean days or weeks). 

 

So I do think there's a certain point when people should be able to stop and think... "Wait. Maybe we should wait?" But generally speaking, so long as everyone has a reasonable opportunity to respond I don't have an issue with no posting order.

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When there are group threads of more than 3-4 characters and NPCs, the only turn rule which applies is that if your character is in discussion with somebody (or another exchange than discussion, given that we have battles too) you can't post him until the interlocutor/ partner replies. The other characters can post around, their own interactions (mindfully though, in case of a battle - you don't want the battle ended while those two are still fighting).

 

We have had battles and parties with 25+ characters and NPCs, and it would have turned insane and never ending if waiting for a turn-based, one-by-one character posts. But giving up post order is better in these cases, the conversation or interaction flows better. The one who can post less often than others can catch up in a bigger post once they get to actually write.

Edited by Elena
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I'm not fond of posting orders cause they feel unrealistic to me. I've been in threads with people who just won't move the thread forward without me even if I tell them to, and those same people got upset when I posted out of order. In group threads I reply when I have something to add and that's not always every rotation, and sometimes more than once a cycle.   If I can't post for a while and the thread runs on without me, I can always read back or ask for a recap.

 

I believe in running threads more on common courtesy than on strict orders too.  You keep the thread moving, but if someone hasn't posted for a few rotations, you slow down a bit, tag them and wait so they can catch up or let you know what's up. If the group agrees that the thread's stalling to the point where muse is being lost, the rest of the group can decide when to move forward together, it keeps the thread from getting stale.

Edited by Kazetatsu
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I've always let my players do their thing, and honestly have never seen sites that have strict rules in place like that? Sometimes I even don't have anything to add so ask that people skip my turn. I also feel like if I felt the strong need/want to "disrupt" the order, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable asking my fellow rpers if I could go next.

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In most cases, there are no rules for posting orders. In scenes where we need an orderly procession of posts, we "direct tag" the character we need to post next. Otherwise, the tags are open and any of the characters in the scene can respond. PS: We also try to guide things a tag via our characters with things like, "X turned to XX and said.." indicating that the next tag should be from XX.

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We don't have a hard and fast rule for the board, but I generally do either "free for all" (no set order; you do you) or "2/2" -- the later being wait either two posts or two days before posting again. Could also be 3/3, if you have a larger group! That way, things are kept moving but people don't feel like they're left in the dust if they can't get on for an afternoon.

 

If a thread is intended to be a group thread, I will usually post a disclaimer about post order when I start it, just to avoid any confusion!

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I feel like the default setting for a group thread is following informal posting order, but I'm not the best at that. Within site rules, anytime I make a group adventure thread I try to encourage shorter posts to keep things moving and let people post when their character has something to do or say. Sometimes I'll even throw in extra posts of just settings or plot movers. As a general rule though, especially when joining someone else's thread, I stick to the informal posting order and ask the others if they mind if I post again before I do it, just so someone doesn't waste what could be days of effort to crank a post and it is useless because I just had to jump in there.

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I don't have a rule about posting order. I always tend to err on the side of trusting members to be courteous. If it got out of hand, like, every thread everywhere was a postapalooza by a certain member or member, I might talk to them about it. But generally my member base is pretty cool. I wouldn't feel a need to implement a posting turn rule unless things got really out of hand all over the website. 

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Nope, no rules. I leave it up to the players to decide if they want their threads to have a posting order or not, and to hash that out among themselves.

 

In my own case, I don't usually care for posting orders. Sometimes, a character is addressing mine directly and I don't want to have to wait for the other 5 people to reply before my character gets to answer...by which time the conversation has already moved on, and I'd have to do awkward post splicing and disrespect the space-time continuum to reply at that point. So I don't mind stuff like that--reply when it makes sense for your character to respond. That feels way more natural to me. I only ask that I don't get left behind in the dust. xD

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We don't do posting orders, and generally have a GM in group threads, so everyone posts once in whatever order they want before the GM posts, and the cycle begins again. That being said, members who can't post within a day or two probably will not find group threads very fulfilling on our board because the GM sets the pace and anyone who doesn't get in before the deadline will end up being left behind.

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