Rune 1,099 Share Posted August 3, 2018 How do you feel about people sitting in your cbox (or whatever) and chatting before they have a character? Not asking questions, just participating in the ooc communication. Heart of the Community 2018 Cry Wolf - 18+ AU Mercy Thompson (Urban Fantasy) RP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shades 676 Share Posted August 3, 2018 I'm personally super cool with that, as long as the person is nice and respectful. On a site I used to run that is still open, but not run by me anymore, we have a member who's been there for about 3 years. She chats, participates in the OOC stuff, etc, but has never created a character. She just enjoys being there, and since she's super nice to everyone, we're cool with her presence. It's all about how the person interacts, I guess. If she had been there and never talked to anyone or been rude, she'd have been booted long ago. 1 3 Shady McShaderson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bezyle 31 Share Posted August 3, 2018 I have a group on my discord server dedicated to people like this. Any and all feedback is appreciated. Great minds are not always easy to come by, and as a developer of a to community and story new viewpoints are super important to honing and perfecting my craft. 2 [ HOME // FORUM // NEWSLETTER // DISCORD ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Morrigan 1,826 Admin Share Posted August 3, 2018 I'm a discord lurker. A community can actually be the number one reason I join a site and it can be months but I have to be permitted to lurk for forever. Really I don't see how a general chat lurker can be bad. It's the same thing as a guest lurking in a cBox for months. 1 1 Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhindeer 217 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I welcome it! Even if they never join a character, that's okay! They can still participate and be an audience member. And maybe one day, they'll find the courage/time/inspiration to join us in threading, too! ❤️ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clipsed 231 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I'm cool with (and encourage!) it, up to a point. If it's been 3+ weeks and you're no closer to having a character than when you first appeared, but are in the cbox daily, that starts to weird me out a bit >.> 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxx 317 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I'm fine with people just hanging around for a bit, because I don't expect anyone to join a site with zero OOC communication. For me, community is as important as activity, and if I get a weird or off sense about anyone OOC, I'll probably just slip away instead of joining, because of the chance of that turning into drama down the road. But if someone is lurking around for weeks at a time with no indication that they're interested in doing anything but talking, I'll DM them with something like "Hey [name]! I've noticed you've been hanging around in [site's] server for [time] and I wanted to know if there was anything I could help you with. Is there something about the site or character creation process that's got you hung up?" Of course, that's only if I'm an admin, I don't bother with anything if I'm a member. The Discord is there for the sole purpose of letting site members communicate, and I don't understand why you'd just sit there and talk if you know nothing about the site. You'd find a lot wider range of topics, and a bigger number of people, if you just lurked around a directory site. And you'd probably run into all the members at some point too, since I advertise on those sites, and forums in those sites' directories. If someone had to drop the site, I'd be okay with them hanging around the Discord without having a character in play, because they've got history there and they're not very likely to cause trouble. Sometimes they even answer questions or field ideas if staff are not around, because they've been present for months or years and they've got a pretty good idea of how things work around the site. But random people lurking... nah that's creepy imo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormWolfe 557 Share Posted August 4, 2018 Lurk away! After all, while we all RP and write for ourselves, our inner author wants feedback, good critique, and readers! Some of our lurkers contribute to our plots in a great way although they have not officially joined the site. Also, I love when people join our Discord to chat with us prior to joining. Nothing with checking a site's temperature before getting one's feet wet or plunging into the deep end! If they begin causing issues, there's always kicking and banning them. It's not like once they are there, they can never be removed! 😉 2 Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive. Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive. We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear. And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here. ~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~ *your one-stop RPG resource site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prophetess 137 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I'm on the fence with this one. I am not always in the Discord and I know people can't always be on 24/7. I don't mind lurkers hanging out, but there is that somewhat expectation of eventual joining or not. If they sit there and don't interact for about 2 weeks then I usually will kick them. If they interact, I leave things be. I don't always enforce it as I'm usually not always on either. I try to be fair though. So I'm middle of the road with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena 546 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I like having fans too, and those who are reading our stories have the right to talk with us too from time to time. @Zozma, @Gothic and a few others from here (because some names changed and I am not sure anymore) know about being fans (or me being a fan of their site) and talking in the c-box from time to time about the site and its stories and chronicles. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisOwl 59 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I have a fandom site so I'm totally fine with people who want to just come in and talk Tolkien! And it has happened, though they seem to eventually fade away. If anyone stayed I really wouldn't mind unless someone is causing discord (lol... I need to find a new word for that I guess.... disharmony) in the chat I'm happy to have them as part of the "community". If I heard they were making someone uncomfortable in DM or something they'd be off in an instant. I have been sort of removing people from the discord who haven't made a peep in a few months though, seems like they have vanished, they can always join again if they want to chat again. 1 {{Million Dollar Trail :: Colorado Territory, 1876 :: An Old West Tale}} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Operations Mod Dragon 673 Operations Mod Share Posted August 5, 2018 I don't think I'd be comfortable joining a site that wasn't welcoming to chat from visitors. I'm a little picky about the sites I join because once I join I stick around to the death, so sometimes it takes me a few days of gauging the community before I invest and start making accounts and characters. That said I do find it mildly annoying when someone joins the discord server and you literally never hear a single peep out of them - but I figure as long as there's no trouble being caused there's no reason to make an issue of it. Icon & Profile set by The Inquisitor of Dragon Age: Absolution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quell 249 Share Posted August 5, 2018 (edited) I guess I'm the odd man out here. I enjoy lurkers and fans, but I prefer them more in passing. I don't like when someone hangs out in the cbox or discord for more than a month without at least working on a character, brainstorming, asking questions, etc. I think I've said it before, but I usually don't get sucked in by community atmosphere so much as by roleplay chemistry, characters, and writing. So it is probably just a difference in focus of importance. Edit: To be clear, preference aside. I've never asked someone to leave or kicked someone out for hanging around without rping. Edited August 5, 2018 by Thyme 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huskerdust 625 Share Posted August 5, 2018 I didn’t used to mind it. Now I’m kinda closed off because our chat was so abused by racist interlopers or people who felt the need to say something rude. Since hiding the chat from guests, things have been much smoother and all my members feel much safer chatting freely. We have guest forums for the guest comments and I figure they’re not gonna be so ballsy if they have to post it in the forum rather than chat. So far, so right. Reality is an illusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjSage 81 Share Posted August 5, 2018 As a site member, I -need- to lurk and communicate OOCly before joining a site. It lets me know what I'm in for, community-wise. I'm rather shy when first popping onto a site, so I usually won't join until I've seen the admins and mods interact with people, see how they and their members treat guests in their cbox, etc. As an admin, I definitely don't mind it at all, up to a point. If it's been a couple months and you haven't even created an ooc account, it's time to put up or shut up, imo. Accessibility and Skinning - Resource Compilation [Updated 3/14] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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