A sudden change of species 2.0?

[Anagnos]

Alright, people. I lied about writing my post during the weekend. I'll try to concentrate on my post this week, but like always, I can't promise anything because I have zero motivation to do any writing right now. Bear with me here, guys.

[Sneak]

I have to say I am sad to see how slow this roleplay and LBT in style of LBT1 goes. 42 and 74 posts for last 1,5 years, and stories are far from being over, considering plot progress... 

I would like to see progress a little faster.

[Anagnos]

^Easier said than done. All of us have our own private lives to live and as much as I would like to see this roleplay roll again at a fast pace, we have to take everyone's free time into account. I might be on a winter break right now, but that doesn't mean I wish to spend all of my time writing. Patience is the key here.

[ImpracticalDino]

I have to say I am sad to see how slow this roleplay and LBT in style of LBT1 goes. 42 and 74 posts for last 1,5 years, and stories are far from being over, considering plot progress... 

I would like to see progress a little faster.

I sympathize with you, Sneak. For me personally, it’s a little disheartening to see the crack RP with the Yellowbellies laying dormant for almost 3 months now (not including the more recent January 12th post I made). It is, after all the first RP I ever joined and participated in, so seeing it collecting dust doesn’t fare well with me.

^Easier said than done. All of us have our own private lives to live and as much as I would like to see this roleplay roll again at a fast pace, we have to take everyone's free time into account. I might be on a winter break right now, but that doesn't mean I wish to spend all of my time writing. Patience is the key here.

I do notice a drastic difference between past and current role plays. For one, the older ones seem more casual with the short replies, which means that it would take very little time to conjure up the next line or scene for a role play. Despite the lack of description or formality, it was still enough to drive the story forward and encourage others to keep posting even if their free time is limited. It was fun reading those older RP’s. As with these more recent RP’s, like I already said, each post strives for a set standard of quality, and thus it takes much longer and more thought to produce. Perhaps, sometimes it may be the lack of achieving that standard of writing that discourages one from making that next RP post. Other times, the lack of free time plagues you. A quickly made up paragraph or sentence may not satisfy in your opinion, so you hold off again. Or perhaps, you just forgot the RP entirely...which is something that happens to us once in awhile.

But yeah, this comparison of the past and present wasn’t necessarily made to critique the lack of RP activity, but rather to explore more scenarios and reasonings as to why the RP section may seem dead at times.

[OwlsCantRead]

Alright, my two cents on this. You are right to some extent, but the nature of those older RPs is more akin to a DnD game. It's not necessarily as story-driven, which is what aggrevates us more as we have to wait on people before continuing. If we just type a single sentence, it often isn't enough. There was this exact debate over what one wants to see out of a RP, and many people agreed that the converse would be more arduous, because you have to sift through numerous disorganized messages.

But in both cases there are extenuating circumstances beyond our control. We have had to replace our Littlefoot rper, for one, I think one of the rpers had to exit the other RP, and Chicken Run's host is a bit distracted. Now I'm not saying you guys are wrong. No, you actually have a point - the nature of these rps tends towards longer posts, and we have other priorities. Still, I know it's annoying and easy to get frustrated by lack of progress, but think of it in the shoes of the people actually role-playing, we feel that, but twenty times more.

[ImpracticalDino]

Alright, my two cents on this. You are right to some extent, but the nature of those older RPs is more akin to a DnD game. It's not necessarily as story-driven, which is what aggrevates us more as we have to wait on people before continuing. If we just type a single sentence, it often isn't enough. There was this exact debate over what one wants to see out of a RP, and many people agreed that the converse would be more arduous, because you have to sift through numerous disorganized messages.

But in both cases there are extenuating circumstances beyond our control. We have had to replace our Littlefoot rper, for one, I think one of the rpers had to exit the other RP, and Chicken Run's host is a bit distracted. Now I'm not saying you guys are wrong. No, you actually have a point - the nature of these rps tends towards longer posts, and we have other priorities. Still, I know it's annoying and easy to get frustrated by lack of progress, but think of it in the shoes of the people actually role-playing, we feel that, but twenty times more.

While I see your exact reasoning for why these bigger and more elaborative RP posts took precedent over quick and easy single sentences, I slightly disagree with you on one aspect. Sure, single sentence/short posting may cause the reader confusion in terms of which character is following which, but in my opinion they shouldn’t have any problems following along with a story’s progression overall. And while less content is processed for each post, it would eventually accumulate to the same amount of text one would write in a longer RP post of today. At least with that method, you would see a steady flow of activity, which arguably keeps a RP more alive with more garnered attention from the outlying community and the actual thread itself appearing in the recent posts list. For both sides of the spectrum to be satisfied, perhaps a thin but delicate balance must be reached here; one that where a post is fulfilling enough, while at the same time not so cramped like an essay that it might take a huge chunk out of one’s free time to produce.

As for your second paragraph, I totally agree that external factors may play a role in a RP’s lack of activity. Nuff’ said. And yes, in order to truly understand the certain extent of a situation, more often than not the bystander will have to view it in the perspective of the participant.

It makes even harder on the role player to know that there’s desperate people out there who really love your RP, only to realize that you just can’t make another new post, whether because of real life turmoils or due to other factors.

[rhombus]

@ImpracticalDino @OwlsCantRead @Anagnos @Sneak @jassy @vonboy

I empathize with people who are lacking in time as I have had issues in completing some of my desired personal projects on the forum (namely my fanfic prompt responses) but I do think there is a bit of a difference there.  If I fail to make a fanfic in a month, I am not personally inconveniencing others by preventing them from participating in the fanfic prompt challenge.  If, however, I am neglectful in making a post in a roleplay then I could be preventing others from posting if their character's next post is dependent on mine.  As such, I do think that if a person knows that they will be unable to post in the RP for an extended period of time (say, more than one week) then they should temporarily pass the character to someone else, just so that the roleplay itself can continue.  In such a case they can reclaim the character at any time in the future if they get the time to participate again.  I think that would strike the balance between accommodating a person's busy schedule while also being considerate of the other people participating in the RP.

With that in mind, it looks like Darkwolf is waiting on Anagnos before she can post, whereas I am waiting on vonboy before I can post. Jassy might have an opening to post, but it is not required at this moment to move the flyer part of the scene forward.  So, Anagnos and vonboy, if you could post in the next week (or grant temporary authority for someone to post in your place) I would greatly appreciate it. 

[StardustSoldier]

^With that said, is there currently anyone who's waiting for me to post before they can do anything?

[rhombus]

^With that said, is there currently anyone who's waiting for me to post before they can do anything?

It looks like either you or jassy could post at this point to move the flyer segment of the RP forward.

[Sneak]

I empathize with people who are lacking in time as I have had issues in completing some of my desired personal projects on the forum (namely my fanfic prompt responses) but I do think there is a bit of a difference there.  If I fail to make a fanfic in a month, I am not personally inconveniencing others by preventing them from participating in the fanfic prompt challenge.  If, however, I am neglectful in making a post in a roleplay then I could be preventing others from posting if their character's next post is dependent on mine.  As such, I do think that if a person knows that they will be unable to post in the RP for an extended period of time (say, more than one week) then they should temporarily pass the character to someone else, just so that the roleplay itself can continue.  In such a case they can reclaim the character at any time in the future if they get the time to participate again.  I think that would strike the balance between accommodating a person's busy schedule while also being considerate of the other people participating in the RP.

Sounds as good solution.
Well, maybe, time borders can be determined not so precisely (7 days), but yeah, if you know you can't post for valuable amount of time, then passing control over character to someone other seems fair.

[Anagnos]

Good news, I did indeed manage to finally accomplish my strenuous task of writing the next set of the roleplay post on time. Now, everyone can continue with their posts and we'll hopefully get this roleplay rolling again at a decent pace. I'm sorry for the long wait, guys. I've been dealing with a major procrastination period in my life lately due to exhausting myself with the fanfic prompts. I wish I could say that this downtime is now over, but we'll see whether that will continue to burden me.

[ImpracticalDino]

@rhombus: While an alternate solution to the one I proposed, that should definitely help move any RP along when one is unable to post for whatever reason for an extended period of time. It's a fair compromise that benefits both parties, where the person who's busy will not have to worry about the burden of making their next post, while at the same time the RP can continue at at a reasonable pace.

I think this discussion is as good as closed for me now.

[DarkWolf91]

Sounds fair to me! Working on a reply now.

[StardustSoldier]

I mulled things over for a bit, and I'm going to withdraw from the roleplays for now. I have too many ongoing projects at the moment, including a couple of paid projects, and things have gotten overwhelming and stressful on my end. I need to clear some other things off my schedule first. Maybe in mid-March, if my schedule is more relaxed by then, I may return to the roleplays, but for now I just need a break.

However, as discussed above, I don't want to stall things. So if anyone wants to take over for any of my characters in the interim, feel free. But if so, please just send me a message first to let me know.

[rhombus]

I mulled things over for a bit, and I'm going to withdraw from the roleplays for now. I have too many ongoing projects at the moment, including a couple of paid projects, and things have gotten overwhelming and stressful on my end. I need to clear some other things off my schedule first. Maybe in mid-March, if my schedule is more relaxed by then, I may return to the roleplays, but for now I just need a break.

However, as discussed above, I don't want to stall things. So if anyone wants to take over for any of my characters in the interim, feel free. But if so, please just send me a message first to let me know.

I just wanted to let everyone know that until Stardustsoldier can re-enter the roleplay I will be, with her consent, taking over Mama Flyer on a temporary basis. I hope that you can return to the RP soon! 

[StardustSoldier]

We'll see how the rest of the month plays out. My main thing right now is that I just want to get my darned prompt stories finished. I also have a couple other paid projects currently ongoing.

But thank you, Rhombus.

[rhombus]

@ImpracticalDino @OwlsCantRead @Anagnos @Sneak @jassy @vonboy

I can post for Mama Flyer if you think it is her turn to engage in the flyer part of the story. However, I am wondering if any of the other groups should get more interaction before Mama Flyer begins to track them down?  What do all of you think?

[Anagnos]

I'd probably have to write another sequence for Littlefoot when he eventually encounters Cera. I can't make any promises when it will be out, but I can certainly try my best to ensure it doesn't stretch into weeks or months. If anyone else wishes to go first, be my guest.

[OwlsCantRead]

Ducky is rather busy atm, and I kinda wrote myself into a corner by letting Petrie's shriek (as he tumbles to his DOOOOOOMMMMM) interrupt our conversation as it necessitates either a response from either the swimmer-turned-flyer or from anther party, so I might just wait on Mama Flyer to discover us.

[rhombus]

@ImpracticalDino @OwlsCantRead @Anagnos @Sneak @jassy @vonboy @DarkWolf91

Okay, Ducky has announced in After Midnight that he will be busy preparing for his exam for the next three months, and as a result he will not be available for the roleplay.  He has also announced that he does not intend to resume his role once he has more time again.  With all of that in mind, does anyone wish to take over Ducky for the roleplay? I am willing to do so, but right now I already have Ruby and (temporarily) Mama Flyer, so I want to give everyone else a chance if they want the character.