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Should a staff member be able to reserve playbys/faceclaims and other content?


Morrigan
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@Somniac First, your av is awesome! Love that music video!

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As far as reservations in general, I definitely believe they're a benefit to both staff and members. It provides a clear concise way for both current and potential players to see what is available when it comes to canons, faces and wanteds. Of course, in my experience, they are never absolute. On sites that I staff, reserves are valid for seven days. One re-reserve is allowed if progress has been made. But after that the reserve in question becomes void and the reserver must wait, I believe it's fourteen days on one site and then maybe one month on another to reserve the position again if they so choose.

 

Face claim and canon, if applicable, reservations are something that I will always post as soon as I'm prepared to start an application. Despite the fact that I tend to complete applications all in one go, it still prevents someone else from trying app the same character or swipe a face. Of course, I believe that this is generally the purpose for reservations and that the function can definitely be abused. If it's a staff member that's abusing it, then it's probably not a site I wish to join.

 

When it comes to one person, staff or otherwise snapping up all the wanteds, I believe there's a delicate balance. You obviously don't want people playing their own close family members. Or really any other character they're going to have a lot of opportunities to plot with. If you want to roleplay by yourself, then go write fanfiction. But while variety is great, there can be exceptions. Like @The Rebel mentioned, there are times when you may wish to prioritize plot progression. In my opinion a great way to do this is with staff NPCs. This way the character can still be in play for site plot but they are also still open to being applied for by potential or existing members.

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I try to never do WiPs for the expression reason that I've had PBs on my applications that have actually been swiped by others. Does it suck? Yeah. I get comfortable with a particular face when I'm writing up an app. It makes me feel more connected and secure. How do I know the face has been reserved? Because 9/10 times, as soon as my WiP went up, so did the face claim reserve and it was hella annoying. As someone who is pretty OCD about things like faces, it sucks to have to go looking for another face that gives you that feeling of rightness. Like a shoe fitting or whatever.

 

 For me, a staff member was the one trolling for more faces to add to their growing collection of Pokemon people. It wasn't fair but I was just a member and when it looked like a serial case that was enough to really get under my skin, I packed up my shit and left for other climes. If a face claim bothers you, you're probably having other issues with a site. Leave before you get to the point where you feel trapped there. 

 

To date, I've done my best to get out of that kind of jam by never, ever putting anything up in the WiP section and making my face claims less famous people.  If I go the second route, I'm far less likely to have to go through things that will bunch up my day. 

 

I have never minded staff reserving because players do it as well and if they're actively putting a character together, it gives members and other staff a warning shot that a face is being used. People who whine about not having a specific face to use are extremely obnoxious and need to grow up. Look at face claims and adapt. We've all had to do it at some point.

 

Honestly, I don't know why it's so damn difficult to talk to each other and just figure things out. I get people are scared of confrontation but c'mon these are text based hobbies and we're all old enough to not need to cause a fuss over stupid shit. We have Discord, we have PMs, we have brains.  Anyway ^^^^ is another topic entirely.

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I understand where you're coming from. I don't expressly have any issue with staff taking on lots of wanteds, but wanted characters are a great hook for new players. If you take them all as an admin, or an existing player, you are removing an opportunity to bait new members with them.  It wouldn't stop me from joining a site I was interested in, not unless it went hand in hand with those wanted hungry admins or players have a huge roster of characters they only post with rarely - that's just not my sort of game. 

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  • 2 months later...

We allow everyone to reserve up to two face claims as want ads on the site; including staff.  We try to have staff have all of the same privileges as members and that all are equal on that front as we've noticed that giving staff 'perks' is a good way to breed unnecessary resentment.  

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I've not yet had the problem (knock on wood) about someone wants X person but Y is already using it. We're pretty good about that. Really diverse and don't have reservations on faces. I don't see a reason to reserve something. Even the wanteds I encourage the members/staff to give multiple face choices. I leave it open to the person taking the wanted (personal choice) so they have the ability to make the wanted more their own. I give basics unless I have a specific face in mind, then it's a suggestion. 

 

We don't mention reservations because we try to discourage it. Faction positions are held by staff but are happily given to members that wish to take them. Staff and members are equal. Staff just occasionally has to make the really hard decisions. We try really hard to discourage reservations. It works for us. 

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Reserving prevents someone taking the FC/canon out from under you and it lets players know right off the bat if something is being applied for without needing to check. As someone who plays on canon sites, it's a blessing to be able to say "hey I want to apply for X" and know that so long as I finish the app in a week, it's mine. I don't think I'd ever play on a canon site where I can't reserve my canon before applying. I like having a few days to breathe, especially if I get interrupted mid-app. I don't think it's a hassle, or cliquey. It's just a way of saying "this is what I want" and ensuring that people know.

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Yes. Absolutely. What, just because you're staff, you're not allowed to reserve shit? That doesn't fly with me. My sites are all first come, first served in regards to claims/canon spots but that doesn't mean I don't believe in other admins' rights to reserve shit on their own sites. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So... personally I think wanted ads getting picked up is the opposite of a problem? I’ve been on sites where there were tons and tons of wanteds and nobody wanted to touch them. I’ve been on sites where there were only a handful of wanted ads and people were disappointed in the selection. The wanteds I’ve written in the past and current were never that important to my plot. And if they are important, I tend to offer or plug them to my main writing partners before writing up some long detailed ad. I guess people might think that is unfair, but I like reliable people to take my ads, you know? I also don’t exactly care if people think that’s unfair because I could also tell people I don’t want them to take my ad if I think they aren’t a right fit for it. 

 

Anyways. Off topic. 

 

If admins on a site are taking up a bunch of ads, it might also to help keep peoples plots going. I don’t know what kind of ads these are so I can’t say for sure. I also feel like if people aren’t complaining about admins taking up ads then it might not be a huge problem. Idk. Like I said, wanted ads being picked up are the opposite of a problem in my eyes. It’s also a way for admins to engage with their members which is also the opposite of a problem. 

 

On the reserved FC front, I prefer to have them. I’m on two sites at the moment; one with reserves (my site) and one without. On the one without, I had a similar situation you were in. I was going to app a character with an FC in mind. I’m not a fast app writer. I was going to sit down over the weekend and write the app. When I went to write the app, I noticed there was already a WIP up with the FC. After that I had no interest in the character so I moved on. I didn’t really make a big deal about it because I wasn’t very invested in the character. I didn’t even tell anybody I was going to use the FC. So I just silently moved on. But this is why I like reserves and I think admins should be able to reserve FCs just like a member. 

 

I’m just rambling at this point so I’m going to wrap up this post by saying I don’t have a problem with the things you are having a problem with. I also understand how it feels to be attached to a character and a specific FC which I understand everybody has a different outlook on that kind of thing and that’s fine. Some people can get over it, some can’t. I just happen to be the kind of person that can’t. Lol. 

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  • 2 months later...

I don't know what you mean by "a little incestuous," but I'll move on from that. Personally, I try not to take on all the want-ads. If I find one I really like, I wait 1-3 months to see if anyone else takes it and so long as the other person is OK with me taking it. Then I make and play the character in question within 1-3 days.

 

As for claims...

 

I think it's perfectly valid for an admin to reserve a very small amount of FCs indefinitely. They spent an accumulative many hours making, running, and revamping the site throughout its duration. I think it's basically a reward to oneself. I have had two FCs reserved for "staff" since I opened my site, and it's because those two FCs are the faces my friend and my characters have used for the past 6 or so years. I actually made the site for these two characters because they haven't had anywhere to play in four years. But because we haven't finished our one-on-one with them yet, my partner doesn't want to bring them onto the site just yet hence indefinite reserve.

 

Since those two chars are my babies and I literally made my site to have those chars at (one day), yes I'm going to reserve them for as long as necessary. xD It is payment to myself. It would really bother me to see someone else use those two FCs at my own site which is why I don't chance it.

 

I do think that such a thing shouldn't be abused, though, because nothing is more offputting than seeing 4,5,6,10+ FCs (or other claims) reserved for staff, and personally would never reserve more than the two I have indefinitely. In fact, I don't even reserve the faces on apps I'm working on, and I don't allow NPCs to reserve faces either (they can use them, just not reserve them).

 

As a member, I also think it's fine so long as it's kept to a bare minimum. Once joined a site where STAFF was littered all over the FC claims, the role claims, the occupational claims, with "NPCs" taking up all those claims, and it was... a bit overmuch.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I guess I don't see the issue as long as they're obeying all the same rules as a player should. Yes, it's annoying when an admin is taking up ten times the space they should (FCs, important roles, too many characters, etc . . .) but it's just as annoying when a random member does it. The problem isn't staff reserving FCs. The problem is people hogging a bunch of space in an RP and not doing shit with it. This is usually addressed by broader limits on characters/reserves. I don't know how many characters are allowed on this site, but I have to say I think a week-long reserve isn't unreasonable. 

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  • 1 month later...

It's a hard question really. I think everyone should be able to reserve faces for a certain time, no matter who they are, I do however, think that there should be a limit on how many faces anyone can reserve at one time and how long the reserve lasts. I like three days as a limit myself. I recently had a member reserve four faces on one day... that I was not especially comfortable with. So I agree that there needs to be rules around claims and reserves at the very least.

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  • 1 month later...

We don't do any reservations on my site and we prefer it this way. Staff are no exception (and in general I don't think staff should ever be an exception to any rule). 

 

Reserving a face claim and not doing something with it immediately is a bummer for everyone. As a player, I have to remember that I don't "own" any face claim, even my favorites. If they're not inspiring me enough to make a character with them right now, there's no need for me to claim them.

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I think reserving face claims are fine so long as everyone's following the same rules. When I was running active sites I had reserves as a option, with a week (two week?) limit for them to get their character done. We had an application process that could be quite involved, so it was important people had time to write it out and not feel like they might risk losing the face they were attached to. The claiming thread was paired with the full FC list, which meant it was advertised as an option and people could quickly see the reserved faces. To be honest, I saw the feature used maybe a total of five times in a nine year run.

 

I get why face claims might be important for people. I have had entire character concepts just die immediately if I find out the face I imagined for them was taken. But I also have plenty of other character concepts I can turn to if one I had in mind fails because of this.

 

But, with the topic of this thread in mind, staff using the feature to hog their fave faces feels like a total misuse of a reserving system. It isn't a good sign if you look at a reserved list and it's five faces reserved by the same person (and that person being staff on top of it, yikes). You can't hope to do all those plus post actively with all of them, can you? So the reserving itself isn't inherently bad or good to me, it's just a thing that some sites might need if it could take time to make a character. But if it gets misused it's not fun for anyone.

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