Activity related questions

I aim at teamwork without preassure. Interactive writing is a hobby, so it should be relaxed. But it is a hobby that requires well functioning teamwork in order to flow and be fun for everyone. You can be away for four weeks without notice, after which I will send a friendly e-mail asking what's your situation and then after a week or two if there's no sign of interest I will delete your account and archive your character and game threads. I don't think it's tol much to ask for a notice of long absence or for a minimum of one in-game post per month. If it turned out you can't do that you can always re-join later when you can and I'll unarchive your characters.

However, none of this is set in stone but that's more of a guideline as to the minimum expected / hoped for. I consider the overall situation of the site and its players, and of the characters the person has. My sites never even have any overarching huge plot that could get frozen due to someone's inactivity but just personal character-driven plots between players so there's usually not much trouble from that. Like, if someone disappeared they can just choose to write off those games from their timeline and focus on their games with other players. And I'd rather try and find ways to inspire inactive players to come back than to remove them for inactivity. If it's just me and one or two other players it has been a full year before I've given up on a player and removed them. And indeed that is when they have shown no interest whatsoever in returning. I'm very flexible but I do my best to keep playing fun for everyone.

 

I stand by number four. If a character isn't active, they shouldn't be holding a face claim that someone else could use. I have had to do this on a number of occasions, normally when someone who is overly enthusiastic about making more and more characters but doesn't give each the time they require to be active.

 

I'm definitely #2! My site consists of extremely active, driven roleplayers who are committed to seeing the story play out. Site-wide plots are all big things, like battles and thrones being taken and whatnot, so people disappearing pretty much have to be wiped away like a food stain. I've run sites some of the other ways, but in the end it's impractical to good story telling. We don't read books where characters are just never mentioned again (not without holes). That's my take on it, anyway!

 

I'm not the kind of person to enforce an activity check, per se; however, I will enforce a specified timeline to wait for posts in the case of most roleplays. For this reason, I actually have created the option for a thread owner to mark a thread as abandoned if their partner vanishes without any reason. If it's a group thread, I typically give people three days to respond. Yes, it might slow the RP down, but ultimately, even if you're sick, three days is more than enough time to respond to a post. Of course, that is simply my threads: others may require quicker posting, and that is up to them to outline in the thread they've started/with their partners.

 

I agree with all four of the stances, tbh. Certain sites have different requirements. Lately, I'm more a fan of sites that require one post a week from all characters (sometimes more with canon characters, if their role is super important). It's laid back enough that it's fun and not a job, but has an urgency that keeps it active.

 

I'm now at 5. If you do not respond during an activity check, you're inactive and lose everything. My site does twice-annual activity checks, one every six months. Roleplaying is a hobby, and I definitely understand people wanting to move along plots, but I don't think anyone should have to stress about replying at all. When I was part of a site with ACs every 3 months, often someone would resurface a month or two later and then have to go through bringing everything out. Being every 6 months means that there's far less work for staff (so we can write too!) and people don't have to stress as much. I absolutely understand why that might not be ideal for everybody!

 

Second is usually what I go with but fourth is another valid response. If they're not using the character there's no reason for them to keep the character. That being said more lax styles of RP are still pretty damn fun.

 

None of the above, really, but mostly option 1. No one should be able to tell anyone else when to post or how frequently because yes this is a hobby. The remedy for people dropping out of plot related threads that I use it to just treat them as text adventures. There's a story with several possible outcomes that groups can embark on, and if someone or all drops out, either the remaining characters can finish it or the thread just gets archived and another group can try. The thought of forcing someone to post at the risk of literally losing their own character seems ridiculous to me. I have a job and a life and can't be active every day 365 days a year. Partly why I just made my own site. I can't deal with people trying to make rp a job and I'd never ask strangers on the internet to post or else in an environment meant to be for fun.

 

On my sim I take a relatively relaxed approach. Inactivity is okay as long as their is some form of open communication as to why! Players join on the understanding that if their character is vital we may use NPC's to play around them during sustained period of inactivity. Removal happens when there is no communication from the player or activity for over 3 weeks.

I take this approach because posting can be hard if your upset, stressed or pushed for time. But it only takes a minute to drop a Discord and let the group know how you're doing. I will do everything I can to support my players as long as they stay in touch.