Deep Sea 326 Share Posted December 28, 2017 HAH! If you think that's controlling/anal-retentive, you ain't seen shit from me! I love organization! My system worked pretty well for our group, especially since I use post counts to calculate how many characters each player is allowed to have. The RP was one thread on a general RP site - I don't own the site, so all this crazy shit I do manually is stuff that's automated easy-peasy by forum plugins that most game masters install on their own site. It was pretty simple to do. I already check all my threads real fast as part of my morning routine. All I had to do was make a note of who happened to post in-character that day. I have a giant spreadsheet with every character's information in it (age, gender, combat stats, etc). One of the sheets is Username | Character Name | Last Post. The hard part is counting how many posts a user has in only one thread. THAT is tedious. But, I have one or two other players who enjoy that kind of stuff, so I let them go hog wild with that. Anyways, it's more important what you do after the interest check, no? The only penalty for not posting in my RPs is that you get skipped over after a certain amount of time. The sheet is more helpful for figuring out the best time of year to start new arcs, and detect trends in activity. Less people posting means the story is either stuck somewhere, or everyone is busy IRL. If the story is stuck somewhere, that means I need to use my godly GM powers and unstick it. My long-term goal is to set up my own site with some sort of tracking tool embedded in it. I'm really interested in seeing where players spend most of their time on a site, which threads are the most popular, when people are usually online, etc. I work in data analysis, and I just think combining it with my hobby would be the coolest shit ever. And all of that because my players tend to forget it's their turn to post! 4 1 Glub glub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenneral_jennson 154 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Whatever rocks your world I guess. It would never be my cup of tea or entice me to play. http://www.witchlightrp.com/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uaithne 543 Share Posted December 28, 2017 @Deep Sea, I am intrigued. Analyzing posting patterns sounds fascinating - and being able to see when to introduce new plots is great. I think jcink has something similar, though not so detailed. (Though admittedly your tracking tool freaks me out a bit.) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rune 1,099 Share Posted December 28, 2017 The side of me that likes to see stats and things is intrigued. The side of me that enjoys a hands off approach and hates restrictions recoils in fear. 3 1 Heart of the Community 2018 Cry Wolf - 18+ AU Mercy Thompson (Urban Fantasy) RP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deep Sea 326 Share Posted December 30, 2017 I work in marketing. That's all you need to know about my idea of "interest checks" and "RP organization". 1 Glub glub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax 12 Share Posted January 6, 2018 I am massively in favor of passive check. In the rules, we have it that on the first of the month, we check to see if someone has posted for the previous month. If a character has been inactive for a month, we have an "inactive" member group that they get put in and a message that goes out to them. If they do not reply or post in a few days, the character and/or face claim is made available. It gives people a chance to reach out to staff and communicate to you, but if they just ghosted it keeps the guess work out 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus 14 Share Posted January 12, 2018 In my brief recent experience as a member and as a staffer I definitely lean towards passive activity checks. I've been on sites where they have prescribed to a system of posting to a physical Activity Check with a recent post requirement and it usually just brings out people who want to keep a canon/face claim and will post once in that period to meet a quota, or a newer member/less active member often overlooks or is unaware of an AC in progress and is unnecessarily archived because they weren't aware. How a site chooses to perform it's AC isn't going to be a deal breaker for joining regardless. However, I have this preference for passive/private activity checks having staffed on small-mid range boards where there have been at most, twenty members and maybe double that for characters. My present site I don't perform activity checks as we're a small group of five, but on my last site I just went with a google doc and do it month to month/bi monthly and take into consideration many factors such as IC posting, community contribution, absences, and general activity on site (be it ooc games, or chatting with members). This usually takes me an hour, but I didn't mind picking up that task and I PM any failing members to check in and if in a week or two they don't log in or respond, it's a good sign they've flaked. Additionally, I find that it keeps your pulse on the board, if you see someone struggling for threads or slipping through the cracks, you can potentially intervene and facilitate plotting and engagement for a member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dusk 106 Share Posted January 12, 2018 We have a three month rule. If you are MIA for three months with no LOA, everything you have gets archived. You can have it all back later if you return (sans FC if those get taken). What I have been doing is PMing members who have been missing. So far everyone has replied! One came back. One let me know they wouldn't be coming back due to life things, but would maybe later. I just pop off a quick PM to see what's up and then act accordingly. Sometimes people get a little shamefaced if they have been MIA for a while, and feel bad. So they have trouble coming back even if they want to (I have this same problem). You also end up unsure of how to reintegrate since things have happened while you are away. If you make that process easier for them, you are more likely to get a return on members. Or you just archive as needed. I hate the sort of checks you have to reply to, because sometimes I miss them because I'm looking at RP bookmarks and not the actual board :x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts