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I've been on a lot of RP forums, and I'm sort of tired of something in particular that I want to rant about for a quick minute. Generally I actually like being staff because it gives me an excuse to really contribute to getting the posting pace moving quickly and doing the fun community building stuff. Ordinarily this is super rewarding and I love it, but obviously with any project there are going to be people who slow the project down while bitching that it isn't moving fast enough to suit them.
I dislike this.
Let's say that you're staff on a board that's just starting up. As a staffer at a place where the ball's just getting rolling, there's more pressure on you to create a lot of activity because--as I've found--a board has to look active before it can be active. This means that a few people need to put in a lot of extra effort at the start to make sure that any newbies are both adequately entertained, and get into the habit of posting at a reasonable pace themselves. This creates a good inertia that eventually allows the people who started it to relax a bit and take a rest while everyone does their thing.
Here's something that doesn't help me do that job: Members bitching about how there isn't enough activity to satisfy them when they're not doing anything to help. I am going to be annoyed if I hear this from a member who A) Doesn't start threads, B) Posts really slowly to the threads they are in (like, slowly enough that they'd complain to me about someone else if they had to wait on him/her as long as they themselves make people wait), or C) requires someone else to carry the plot and the pace in every single thread they're in.
In essence, I don't want to hear that a board is too slow from the people who are directly slowing down the pace. If you need people to reply to you faster in order to please you, then maybe you should do the same for them. If you need people to generate plot scenarios to entertain you, maybe you should provide them occasionally for others. If you need someone to remind you to post, maybe in a slow thread you should start sending IMs to the other people in it.
Odds are if the board is actually slow, I already know that. Odds are in the board is actually slow, I'm doing what I can to speed things up for everybody. Are you? No? Then seriously, stfu and let me do my job while you coast on the pace I set instead of depending on me to make everything fast enough for you while you whine and flail helplessly about how shit isn't how you want it. If you want something you don't actually have to wait for someone to do it for you. Revolutionary, I know. Feel free to take a minute to recover after the shock.
Okay, I'm done. Now I wait for the inevitable hand-wringing and bruised egos and insecurity from people who're certain this is about them and now are going to need me to spend huge amounts of time and energy reassuring them that no I don't hate them I just want help sometimes from the people who complain to me.
I dislike this.
Let's say that you're staff on a board that's just starting up. As a staffer at a place where the ball's just getting rolling, there's more pressure on you to create a lot of activity because--as I've found--a board has to look active before it can be active. This means that a few people need to put in a lot of extra effort at the start to make sure that any newbies are both adequately entertained, and get into the habit of posting at a reasonable pace themselves. This creates a good inertia that eventually allows the people who started it to relax a bit and take a rest while everyone does their thing.
Here's something that doesn't help me do that job: Members bitching about how there isn't enough activity to satisfy them when they're not doing anything to help. I am going to be annoyed if I hear this from a member who A) Doesn't start threads, B) Posts really slowly to the threads they are in (like, slowly enough that they'd complain to me about someone else if they had to wait on him/her as long as they themselves make people wait), or C) requires someone else to carry the plot and the pace in every single thread they're in.
In essence, I don't want to hear that a board is too slow from the people who are directly slowing down the pace. If you need people to reply to you faster in order to please you, then maybe you should do the same for them. If you need people to generate plot scenarios to entertain you, maybe you should provide them occasionally for others. If you need someone to remind you to post, maybe in a slow thread you should start sending IMs to the other people in it.
Odds are if the board is actually slow, I already know that. Odds are in the board is actually slow, I'm doing what I can to speed things up for everybody. Are you? No? Then seriously, stfu and let me do my job while you coast on the pace I set instead of depending on me to make everything fast enough for you while you whine and flail helplessly about how shit isn't how you want it. If you want something you don't actually have to wait for someone to do it for you. Revolutionary, I know. Feel free to take a minute to recover after the shock.
Okay, I'm done. Now I wait for the inevitable hand-wringing and bruised egos and insecurity from people who're certain this is about them and now are going to need me to spend huge amounts of time and energy reassuring them that no I don't hate them I just want help sometimes from the people who complain to me.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-02 12:21 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-12-01 02:18 am (UTC)From:(On the other hand, a complete cold start on a creative thingy can be very hard to do. It's not really clear what the method or criteria should be, I guess.)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-01 07:23 am (UTC)From:Just point 'em out, boss... e_e
no subject
Date: 2010-12-01 11:04 pm (UTC)From:Btw, I'm still watching wolfie RP and tempting my friend with it. I'm really impressed with the writing there, and yet it doesn't feel pretentious or difficult to get into. Does one just post an application on there or is it sent via email?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-02 01:18 am (UTC)From:We like people to post a bio before they start RPing, but it's more a sort of informal peer-review thing than a real application process. Our main concern is generally power balance, since the more abilities characters are given, the harder we have to work to make sure people aren't grossly overpowered (or underpowered) and that the abilities they've chosen are going to actually realize the character concept the player is putting down. The usual stuff, you know how it is.