Posted by Lieutenant Andrea Stone (Chief of Security) in OOC: Please all read - a note on posting

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in OOC: Please all read - a note on posting
All,

you are the most amazing and enthusiastic crew EVER and I love you all for it! But I know a few people have been finding it a bit difficult when threads are constantly being split. So I’d just like to suggest the following guidelines:

For threads when there’s only 2 people - go for it and post to your heart’s content.

For threads when there’s 3 + people - try to stick, if you can, to the order in which people initially entered the thread. That way everyone gets a turn to respond and doesn’t end up being left out or overwhelmed by how much has happened since their last post.

Now as I say, this is definitely more of a guideline than a rule, and Jake and myself have no intentions of becoming post monitors, lol. Also, and this is really important to stress, if it is your turn then there is absolutely NO PRESSURE AT ALL to get your post in quickly. The whole purpose of implementing something like this is so that we can all take our time and enjoy crafting posts. So please, PLEASE, don’t ever feel panicked if your turn is coming up. We will all be happy to wait (unless for whatever reason you tell us not to wait, like you’re on LOA, or you’re sick of that thread).

Additionally, if a thread is already in progress but you still want in, then just go for it and we will re-jig the posting order after that. Again, this is absolutely just a guideline and not a hard and fast rule. And finally, if you’re unsure of, or can’t agree on, a posting order then just let me know and I’ll make one for you.

Now for those of you who enjoy the rapid-fire posting, I’m considering possibly making separate threads where we can just have at it and simply embrace the chaos, lol. But these would have to be non-main sim threads and would also be completely optional for all players. If anyone has any opinions on that (for or against) then just let Jake or myself know :)

Thanks all for reading and keep on being awesome :)

• Sharon

Nicely said. I’d just like to add, that there’s also time difference. I think a lot of people are USA based and not many of us from Europe or other continents…
My only suggestion would be… I don’t often read joined sims with only 2 people at most (+NPC’s) that were written ‘offline’ then posted when finished.
It’s easier to follow the story, when you get 1 big post with all interaction then 10 small one liners over 10 or even more days.

I’m not sure, why those are not that popular. Do people prefer not to interact ‘offsite’, or is it just easier like we usually do it.. again time difference comes to mind.
Even writing by email directly with 1 person, it could take a few days to write the whole interaction, and by then the situation might not be important any longer, or the main sim would progress…

By my experience, the enthusiasm always dies down after a while. But it’s sometimes months before it does. So I hope it lasts for a long time here at least.
(Been on many ships, where posting was great, got many rewards, but after a while posting slowed to a crawl and ship was just an empty hull of former self )

Miha

Thanks Miha.

I’ve actually been surprised at how many people on this ship fall into a European timezone. I think possibly more than any other ship I’ve been on. But you are correct that we all post at different times throughout the day (personally, I’m lucky right now that I’m working from home so have a certain amount of freedom to check the board all day long. That will change once I have to start going back into the office, boo!) so we do all need to take that into account.

In general, I don’t often tend to do huge threads where every single player is in the same place at the same time, for exactly this reason. But then sometimes they can be fun. And for the people who use the discord channel, I know last night they had a ‘tag’ system going that seemed to work quite well for the briefing thread. But I’m also aware that discord is NOT a mandatory part of this ship, or this club, so we do all need to keep in mind those players who don’t use the channel, that they are equally included in things.

I have to admit, for STF at least, I’ve never done any group writing off-site. For longer posts of my own I tend to write them in a word document first, but if it’s a thread where multiple people are involved then I just write straight into the post form. I have no issue with people agreeing to work on posts together offsite first, if that was something they wanted to do, but I honestly don’t see that working for more than 2, maybe 3 max players at a time? But again, if people want to try it this way then go ahead. I’d just need to check first whether there are any rules against posting other people’s work, like if two people wrote it but then only one person posted the entire thing. But I can definitely clarify that if people are interested.

Additionally, if people want some rapid-fire hijinks onboard then I am definitely open to creating a specific thread/side sim for this purpose (and tagging it in the thread header as ‘rapid fire’, ‘real-time’, whatever). This would then leave the main sim threads running at a more relaxed pace for those people who don’t, or can’t, post every day. After all, posting requirements are only once every 7 days for JO’s and once every 5 days for DH’s and, while I’m absolutely thrilled when people post more often than that, it is NOT in any way expected.

I think you’re right, Miha, that now we have the majority of our crew onboard, things will start to settle down a little. But as always, if anyone gets lost and needs a refresher or a summary of what they’ve missed, if anyone has any things they’d like to try out in terms of posting, or absolutely anything else at all, then you all know how to get hold of me so just drop me an email or grab me in discord at any time :)

• Sharon