Staffing Activity Requirements

[Dawn 1]

Hello! So on my site, we have a one-month posting requirement. All normal characters must post at least once a month or their account will be labeled as inactive. All high position characters have to post at least once every two weeks or their character will lose their rank. I knew that these requirements were loose when I made them. I've been on sites that you pretty much have to post every single day, and you get pressured into having to force out posts to keep your account active. So I wanted to make sure my site wasn't that. But now my staff are talking about raising the activity requirement to at least one post every two weeks for all characters. In some ways, I think this will help, and in other ways I'm afraid that it will put too much pressure on my members, and they will get upset that I'm putting pressure on them to post. 

 

So what do you think? Is one month too long? Is two weeks just right? Or is it too short or even too long? What do you use on your site? 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Dawn

[Dusty 55]

Hey @Dawn

 

I guess the first question to ask yourselves is what is the time availability of your members? Are they at school, college, working?

Other questions would be:

What are the times when people post the most? During the week or on weekends?

Is your site reliant on a lot of group posts or are they more one on one threads?

Is asking everyone to post IC for every character that often going to burn them out if they have a lot of characters?

Are there reasons why some members might need to 'disappear' for a week or two from time to time? (e.g mental health, general health, exams etc)

 

I dislike flakes as much as anyone, but somewhere there needs to be a little leaven in the lump so members that fall into the above aren't chased away and you miss out on some very good players that could potentially become part of the foundation of your site.

 

Our group went from predominantly students and casual workers to a few students and full-time workers. We still have activity rules but we have found that asking for a minimum of one IC post per member per month is working well in our particular circumstances. We as admins try not to practice this minimum requirement as the norm though and try to post more often than that. That way, those that are actually dedicated don't feel the stress of having to force their muse but it's enough to know who are the real flakes.  

 

We don't do many activity checks in the usual sense. We have one running right now but it is mainly for members to reassess their characters and take the opportunity to either keep or archive them. Most checks are done behind the scenes so AC's aren't just a way for flakes to slip through the cracks and stay 'active'.

I keep a list in the Admin area of all newbies and how long they have to start/complete their apps and accounts nearing the 30-day inactive mark. We will also make contact with a player that is usually active that has suddenly gone quiet, to see if everything is okay with them. There is also an 'Away note' section in the OOC forum (with the alternative being to PM and admin if they don't want to post why they are absent on the board).

If there is no active away note and no activity (posts) after 30 days, then they are made inactive and their apps are archived and all claims are reopened.

 

I hope that helps

Edited January 19, 2017 by Dusty

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

your requirements are fine! If people can't post even once a month, then they're in the wrong community, imho. It's all good in a private community, but a public game needs a reasonable and consistently active pace. To keep the plot flowing, to avoid becoming stagnant, and thus from losing players. People in general don't  like being kept waiting; interests fade when players wait weeks for a single reply. It's also a problem when staff have to regularly pause and resume plots or to fill in gaps, because one or more players aren't around. is it a collaborative story, or  a fanfic with commentary by readers?

 

If activity requirements are too strict, then you risk scaring people away. Too lax, and you'll get complaints, and a stale rpg. Every community is different, and you just need to figure out how fast a ace you need for the main plot; if there's no one around to keep things moving, then that's an issue much like a plot that is updated daily!

[Kit the Human 758]

So what do you think? Is one month too long?

 

Nah. Unless you want your site to have a faster pace.

 

Is two weeks just right?

 

Two weeks is also fine in my book...unless you want your site to be more relaxed. Basically you should be asking yourself if you want the pace of your site to change. If you want it to speed up, two weeks may help. (Of course, it shouldn't be the only way you try and speed up your site.)

 

Or is it too short or even too long? What do you use on your site? 

 

I don't have activity checks because I think it's easy to tell if someone is no longer interested. If they're not floating around, there's a good chance that they're not interested. BUT I also don't have claims and have a system in place to help weed out inactive captains. 

[Death Kitten 200]

Activity requirements exist to set an expectation for incoming players on the pace of the game. So there is no one right answer for everyone, just what's right for your site.

 

When I started my game, the activity requirement was one finished log a week (I run on a Nova, so my activity checks are a bit different than you forum people). We also had a minimum word count of 250 for the finished log. Over time, I changed my mind on the word count, and removed it (if someone could advance the plot or do character development in less than 250 words, I'm okay with that). I also had a couple players who didn't have the time to keep up with a finished log a week, but they were quality writers than I wanted to keep around, so I relaxed the guideline.

 

All that to say: what pace do you want on your site? And do the players who make up the foundation of your community agree with that pace? If you're concerned about putting too much pressure on your existing players (don't even worry about your hypothetical players, the rules exist to attract like minded people), then ask them what they think.

 

The only people who matter when deciding on an activity check standard are the staff who set the tone for the site, and your players who are already in good standing. Everyone else's idea of too fast or slow can go hang. They don't matter.

[jenneral_jennson 154]

I think you need an opinion from someone who doesn't admin a site on this. I don't admin sites, I don't want the pressure, the stress nor do I have the time, however I love to write so here's my take on activity requirements and checks. I honestly think once a month is fine, whether it be with all characters (though this can lead to stress and a pressured feeling for me) or just per member.

 

I am a full time student in a master's program and I work full time, my days start at 4 in the morning and end at 9 at night. Sometimes I am exhausted. Sometimes after writing pages and pages of psyche babble I don't have the drive to write a post. Sometimes my brain shuts down and I have no drive but I love to visit. I'm not going to feel great about a setting that forces me to write during those times and I'm not going to want to stick around no matter how much I enjoy the game or atmosphere.

 

Like Dusty said, you need to find a happy medium. An activity check every couple of months and a minimum posting requirement is one of those things that will keep me some where. I like to be able to have fun and relax, I don't like feeling like I have to post or get kicked, rping is my hobby it is not my job. This is a deal breaker for me. However I do agree with Kitten on a few things. If your plot revolves around a certain few characters than there has to be something stricter in place for them and you have this. If activity is tightly linked with game plot movement than yes a little tighter requirement is necessary. I feel like you are already addressing these things from a potential member view point. I really wouldn't sweat having a monthly activity requirement and an activity check once in awhile. 

Edited January 20, 2017 by jenneral_jennson

[Josie 198]

I think you will get the most helpful response from yourself on this. Answer the following questions for yourself:

 

Question 1: Is the current pace of your site enough to keep you- as an admin and as a player- interested?

 

If the answer is yes, then don't change anything. If the answer is no, the site's pace is not enough to keep you interested, then...

 

Question 2: Does your desire for activity outweigh your concern of potentially alienating players more comfortable with the slower pace?

 

If the answer to this question is no, then you have your answer: don't change the activity requirement. Find some other way to generate more activity. If the answer is yes, you want more activity at all costs, then...

 

Question 3: Can you personally keep all of your characters active if the standard is set to 1 post every 2 weeks for all characters?

 

If the answer is yes, then change the activity requirements. If the answer is no, then change them to something you can keep up with.

[Morrigan 1,826]

I want to say I first off agree with @Gothams Reckoning for you to make this decision.

 

Next up, as a character-a-holic I think it's important to determine when you say they are auto-marked as inactive that means if that character is having a slow month (meaning I couldn't find someone to thread with my eccentric psychopath) then she is marked as inactive even if many if not all of the rest of my characters were active?

 

On the site I'm currently on they have a 2 per month for regular characters and 4 per month for leader characters (not done on a weekly basis in case you are having a bad week etc) and that works find for me. However, even if I don't meet the minimum with a character (which is rare) they are left alone. With my 19 characters I can keep up with the minimum just fine. That's 42 (I have 1 leader character) posts per month minimum. I normally surpass that pretty easily. I have a character that is at 350-ish posts and she was created last June. That's an average of 44 posts per month for that character alone.

 

I'm personally a fast paced roleplayer though so unless people are breathing down my neck for posts I can keep up with minimal stuff like what you are looking for. I'm often considered the exception, not the rule. You just have to know what you want out of yourself or your players.

[Dawn 1]

On 1/23/2017 at 8:32 AM, Morrigan said:

I want to say I first off agree with @Gothams Reckoning for you to make this decision.

 

Next up, as a character-a-holic I think it's important to determine when you say they are auto-marked as inactive that means if that character is having a slow month (meaning I couldn't find someone to thread with my eccentric psychopath) then she is marked as inactive even if many if not all of the rest of my characters were active?

 

On the site I'm currently on they have a 2 per month for regular characters and 4 per month for leader characters (not done on a weekly basis in case you are having a bad week etc) and that works find for me. However, even if I don't meet the minimum with a character (which is rare) they are left alone. With my 19 characters I can keep up with the minimum just fine. That's 42 (I have 1 leader character) posts per month minimum. I normally surpass that pretty easily. I have a character that is at 350-ish posts and she was created last June. That's an average of 44 posts per month for that character alone.

 

I'm personally a fast paced roleplayer though so unless people are breathing down my neck for posts I can keep up with minimal stuff like what you are looking for. I'm often considered the exception, not the rule. You just have to know what you want out of yourself or your players.

 

 

First of all thanks to everyone who responded. It means a lot. (:

 

Also second, I really have to agree with what you said in the first paragraph. This was always my argument to making the activity rules stricter. Why should a person have their character labeled inactive just because they can't find anyone to roleplay with that character? It is not always their fault that they can't get any threads or posts with that character. Sometimes they just can't find anyone to plot with that certain character or respond to their threads. This happens to me all the time on my site.  

 

 

Furthermore, I found out recently that the reason my staff wanted to change the activity requirements is because people have been making more characters than they can handle. (This has happened to only one member on our site.) Which doesn't really have anything to do with activity requirements in my opinion. People have to learn their own character limits, which usually involves making some mistakes first. I think raising the activity requirements would just make everything worse for that member and all of our other members since so many of them work full-time jobs or are in school. I'm going to stick with my current activity requirements, even if my staff disagree. 

[Dusty 55]

5 hours ago, Dawn said:

I found out recently that the reason my staff wanted to change the activity requirements is because people have been making more characters than they can handle. (This has happened to only one member on our site.) Which doesn't really have anything to do with activity requirements in my opinion.

 

 

Regarding this issue mentioned, what are your site's current rules about character creation?

I have come across players that make characters because either they haven't been able to get enough interest in the one/s they have already made, or they are bored  (school is out, and they have time on their hands) and decide to make a new one. They get PB dazzled and made a new character because they are in love with the PB or they are trying to snag someone else's PB. Or a combo of these things.. lol Then when life gets busy, these characters and the threads they may slow to a crawl or come to a complete halt.

 

I don't know if this would help on your site, but having the player either wait a set amount of time or until they are in an active thread with the previous character created before they can make a new one might help. No guarantees but it should stop multiple characters being made all at once and swamping the admins with app approvals (which are more time consuming than people think) only to have these characters then go dormant. 

[Death Kitten 200]

I don't get requiring all characters to be active for all activity checks. If the character holds a key position in the game, like canons and key players in a plot, sure but otherwise? As others point out, sometimes they can't find anyone else to write with.

 

If your staff (and you) are concerned about players having too many characters, then implement rules about how many active characters a player can have. I don't recommend a flat number, but a variable that can be influenced by activity, character type, etc.

 

In my game, all players start with just one character, and if they regularly post more than standard activity, they're welcome to make more.

[Indio 11]

So what do you think? Is one month too long?

A month is okay and a nice round time period, but if someone is struggling to post once a month then I think they may be too busy to role play. I know if any of my partners left me hanging for a month I'd lose interest in the thread pretty quick and likely not plot with them in the future. 

 

Is two weeks just right? Or is it too short or even too long?

Two weeks sounds fine to me.

 

What do you use on your site?

My site is pretty relaxed with normal members. Post once a month at least, more if possible. Don't leave your partners hanging if you can help it. But we have an older player base, so people get busy with their own lives so I feel strict posting requirements are pretty harsh. Personally, me posting more than once a week is a huge accomplishment. 

Group leaders, however, are held to a higher standard. Since they play critical roles on the site and are often involved in threads that move the plot along, we require a post once a week at least, relative to thread replies.

[Icewolf 258]

I find the time I have available to rp varies greatly - as a carer I find there are times when my concentration is so bad, I cannot get myself to sit down and write anything - at that stage, I do other things which don't require as much concentration. Other times, there is my own health and mood to deal with which stops me from posting so as a result, I may have long periods of time when I'm super active and periods of time when I barely do anything. One other thing to point out, when it comes to serious rp, I would much rather spend some time over it rather than rush it and the post being awful. 

 

The only things that bother me is when someone starts making a character sheet and leaves most of it unfinished or leaving story-lines hanging for ages. If people don't finish the character sheet, then I don't think they will stay on the site.

[AmberE 2]

We don't have an activity requirement. We do a check twice a year, and if someone claims to be active, they stay on the active list. Outside of newbies with zero posts, an account is never deleted, unless asked to do so. They're just inactive (after one check) or deactivated (after two checks). If they want to come back, that's no problem. Profile gets moved back to active status. Things like plotter have to be reposted though. Beyond that, I honestly don't worry about it.