No app - how does it work?

[Honorem 219]

Sorry if it's been discussed elsewhere, or if I sound ignorant asking this. But I always wondered how No App sites address issues of lore and setting integrity.

 

Like, if anyone can make an account and start RPing, what is the process when someone is clearly not following the lore or making up stuff that doesn't fit? Is it policed or not really in such an RP?

 

Not intending to make a No App site, but I was just curious how those issues are addressed if they arise.

[Dragon 673]

18 minutes ago, Honorem said:

what is the process when someone is clearly not following the lore or making up stuff that doesn't fit?

 

Exactly the same as with any other kind of site. 

 

A staff member contacts the player in question, and informs them of the problem - be that ignoring lore, unacceptable powers/species/etc. The player either chooses to adjust to the site standard, or they face disciplinary action. 

 

Literally the only difference in an No App and App sites is this:

 

• On a No App site, the staff team are placing a ground work of trust. The default assumption is that new members are intelligent enough to be capable of comprehending and following instruction. In the real world, they don't need mom or dad to walk them into the school first day of Freshman year. They're perfectly capable of entering the building, and then locating their home room by themself based on the natural information provided (signs and other posted instructions). 
• On an App Required site, the staff are declaring lack of trust. Their default assumption is that new members are not intelligent (or trusted) enough to comprehend or follow instruction. In the real world, they would treat their members like a child on their first day of K-5. The child can find their way into the building, but has no ability to use naturally provided information to find their classroom. They have to be hand held and guided through every step of the process. 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by Dragon

[Somniac 207]

With words. Once in a while we'll get people who port their characters from other sites and they'll have artifacts of other genres. We just let them know this or that will need to be tweaked to fit the world (IE fantasy names, elf ears, magic, steampunk etc. have to go). 

 

The intent is not to embarrass - just to get everyone on the same page.

 

Agreed that No App tends to default to trust, but I get that apps make sense for certain settings. Some games are more like board games, while others are more like pass-the-flashlight ghost stories around the camp fire.

[Arceus 1,082]

You just PM them with any problems.

 

Some of them can be addressed in character, actually. It depends on the sort of site you run and how deal-breaking whatever they're doing is. I've had a lot of luck just gently nudging people in the right direction through in-character means or with little ooc footers in posts, if it's minor enough, and honestly minor things aren't really worth giving people heart attacks over. Plus, it's a bit faster sometimes? Because depending on what it is I can often put it into perspective too, and make it make more sense than just explaining something does.

 

So, yeah. The usual procedures. c:

[StormWolfe 557]

@Honorem I am glad to hear that your site isn't going app-less since you have the most beautiful profile layouts I've ever seen! 

 

OK - so I was persuaded to consider going app-less, but for my own sake, I cannot give up having character profiles or character sheets, whichever term that you use. What we're taking out is waiting for approvals by staff, i.e. the application part. So, I guess that makes my site a hybrid.

 

My logic for keeping the character sheet is that I am now very old and have a memory like a steel sieve. I need a place to go with reference information on the character - even my own. Also, on occasion, people make minor changes between their character's IC face and the actual playby's face or stats - height and hair color are the most common. It also gives us a quick reference for age, hair color, etc. in the post itself.

 

So, our system, thank you for Vesta, @Arceus, lets the player fill out their character sheet. When they click ready for play, the system makes the character active (at least I think that is how it works) and sends a Welcome to the New Character message to one of our Discord channels. The rest is a matter of trust. If the new player is making tiny mistakes, we'll either ignore it or try to gently correct via IC writing. If it is a major issue, we will contact the player privately and ask for a fix.

 

However, my time isn't take up with dreading reviewing a bio and writing up notes and all of that. So far, so good!

[Huskerdust 625]

8 hours ago, StormWolfe said:

@Honorem I am glad to hear that your site isn't going app-less since you have the most beautiful profile layouts I've ever seen! 

 

 

I am confused by this statement. Their profiles could still be as they are and be app-less. My sites are both app-less but we still have profiles. There's a difference from a profile and an app. An application is what it sounds like: it's an application for a character, with required information that is mandatory to be filled out. A profile is what it sounds like, too. It's a profile of the character, but it doesn't require anything and you don't have to apply to join your character. You just make a profile and then post as that character whenever you feel like it, rather than waiting for the character to be applied for, looked at by staff, and approved. 

 

Anyway, most people have hit the nail on the head about the difference between sites with apps and sites without them. I do think SOME genres do require maybe a small application, depending on how they are run. But my sites have always been on "put whatever you want in the profile" system. I've personally never had any issues with this but I'm not super tight on lore. I'm the least micro-managing admin you'll ever meet. And trust me, I tried to be a part of sites with apps but they just feel too micromanagey to me, I can't get into my characters the way I want to and the acceptance process is super terrible for my anxiety. 

 

As Arceus pointed out, you can usually iron things out with either a quick PM correction or even an IC correction if it's IC for it to happen that way. 

[StormWolfe 557]

My bad and sorry for the confusion. Fingers and brain were not communicating clearly. I'm gonna blame it on the cold meds and stick to that story 😉

[Lunaala 18]

We've always just banned people that refuse to follow our established lore. After warnings, of course, but the few times this has ever been a problem it's always led to needing a ban.

 

Spoiler

 

Gonna disagree on the trust thing though. We're like a mix of no-app and app: we technically have an app, but it's like four things I need to know about your character, and that's because I was tired of people putting characters in threads and not having any idea what those characters were. We have more than just humans on our site, so I wanted to know right away if there was a Pokemon or a person on the other end of my thread. You fill out those four things (character name, age range, species, moves) and we're good-- unless you want to play something really weird by Pokemon standards, you can just RP without me saying anything. The site was True Appless before.

 

We've never had a problem with our current system though.

 

 

[Morrigan 1,826]

This thread is about how staff member's DO app-less sites. I have removed posts that do not contribute to the topic at all. Please stay on topic. If you want to do an app/appless battle there are other threads and/or you can create a new topic. Thanks!