Log of OOC Meeting - 3/9/19

[Starstarfish]

Kirill says, "I'm guessing this commemorates the magebane pub crawl? I'm sorry I missed it. I was up at 5-something yesterday and was too tuckered out for such a late event."

Temi declaims, "Thanks!"

Temi nods at Kirill.

Kitty says, "Yes. One of the games."


Temi states, "The snapdragon game played at it."


Kirill pontificates, "Never heard of it. Sounds like I missed some good fun though!"


Temi states, "I think everyone understands that not every event time works for everyone."


Kitty says, "There are always other opportunities and other events. Not all events fit everyone's schedule."


Temi questions, "So, we are without Kin today, at least to start. So I'll be running the meeting for her. Our agenda is thus: 1) Staff Updates, 2) Player Heartbeat, 3) Player Topics. Before we get into it, does anyone have topics to get on the list for today?"


Kirill claims, "I do, please."

Temi nods.


Temi muses, "Anyone else?"


Temi states, "Okay. I've got an anonymous topic too."


Temi claims, "If you come up with anything else while we go, feel free to just let me know and we will add it on."


Temi muses, "Staff updates, then. Az?"


Azarial claims, "Just more of the same; clearing out minor bugs and the like. With niamh unavailable, i've been working through the typos and requests that do not require in depth thematic knowledge or the like."


Azarial states, "I won;t touch anything with nice formatting, for example"



Starstarfish questions, "Oh, I hope Niamh is okay?"


Azarial states, "Afaik she is"


Temi states, "Without internet for the timebeing, I believe."

Azarial nods at Temi.


Temi claims, "But we haven't heard anything worse than that."


Temi claims, "Taking a look at the changes board... don't really see anything additional new. Mostly just bug report things."


Cheeky states, "Thank you for jumping on some extra things, Az. It helped me for sure."

Kirill nods.


Temi states, "For me... still not a lot of extra time, and I've got some possible family conflicts the next couple weeks, so I may be scanter, at least on the weekends."


Temi claims, "I have been working more on the safety and security spec - ie turf wars. Making a little progress, but I discovered some old notes have gone missing, so I'm trying to recreate those."


Kuzco claims, "Hii"


Temi pontificates, "Other than that... mostly just keeping on top of plots. You all are a busy lot! Good to see"


Temi claims, "Kin's been busy, and Niamh's been unavailable, and think Joske has also been pretty busy."


Temi asks, "So... I think that's staff updates. Player heartbeat! How's things going in RP this week?"


Kuzco states, "It's been intense."


Kuzco states, "And rewarding."


Kuzco states, "I feel like I got challlenged."

Starstarfish states, "It's uh ... going."


Elizabethany says, "The pub crawl was a lot of fun. Drunken RP is always enjoyable"


Kirill states, "Busy but good. Trying to match up with opposite timezones and busy schedules has not been easy, but I don't think too many people are waiting on me for anything at this point."


Kitty keeps doin' what she do, uh... does, uh... is fine. She is fine.


Temi claims, "Sounds pretty good in general. Maybe a few people less certain about that."


Temi asks, "Anything that staff ought to know about or be concerned about?"


Kuzco hmmmmms.


Kuzco says, "I keep having this notion that people don't care about magic."


Temi wonders, "Just reacting to it like it's nothing?"


Kuzco states, "Or rather, a token reaction."


Kuzco claims, "And I think it is because very bad, clever mages haven't abounded lately."


Kuzco states, "2017 we had Leofrick, Laxus, Mechislav, Nalien"

Temi claims, "I know I've seen some good reactions to magic stuff, but I'm sure there's plenty other reactions I've missed."


Cheeky says, "I don't think there's much to be done for it except to lead by example, personally."


Kuzco rubs his palms and grabs some chalk: "Can be fixed..."


Cheeky states, "People may not know HOW to react, or they may be IC/OOCly jaded, etc."


Kuzco claims, "That's why it's important to be in-theme with rumors too"


Temi claims, "People do tend to overcorrect whenever there's too much of something, so I think that's to be expected"


Cheeky claims, "I'd probably feel less embarrassed about shrieking and rending my clothes if I saw other people visibly spooked, though."

Cheeky grins.

Kuzco nods.


Starstarfish says, "Can I clarify something related to this? There's been IC and OOC debate to what degree should people 'believe' the Rhyme of Portents? As at one point it was argued to me that only 'peasants' believe in it."


Kuzco claims, "Also other people should consider suspecting those who don't seem fazed"


Kuzco states, "Because I will report you to the freaking =I="


Kirill claims, "I haven't seen anything worth shrieking and rending my clothes over lately, but maybe that's just me."


Temi says, "If we're in a lull now, that doesn't mean we'll stay there. And if you're feeling like there hasn't been anything lately.. maybe we're about ripe for another big crazy."


Cheeky quietly books a vacation package.


Temi says, "A number of the thing in the rhyme of portents are just true."


Kirill chuckles.


Elysaveta claims, "Doesn't seem too magical lately, except for, well, the tree."


Temi says, "You don't debate if rats are hurt by rhymes, because, well... they are."


Starstarfish says, "Except if you've never actually seen that happen as rats are only Southside"


Kuzco claims, "I spent years not knowing that rhymes killed rats for real"


Elysaveta says, "Or you go on one of Kirill's story events."


Kitty asks, "... seriously? Rhymes kill rats?"


Kuzco states, "When I found out I created the Vermin tide ST"


Temi says, "Rats are not only southside. ICly, they could be everywhere, and just be handled before people have to deal with them more."


Azarial states, "Help rhyme"


Kirill states, "You have to use a special rhyme command. I learned that the hard way, once upon a time."


Temi claims, "I think not seeing them is more of a player side problem than an in character one."

Elysaveta nods.


Temi says, "So... feel free to consider yourselves informed! Everybody should know it, ICly."


Kitty states, "Ha! Wow, that's fascinating."


Kirill states, "Maybe there could be a rat chute at the Miller Granary."


Elizabethany trails off, "I should publish my rat hunter's compendium, with all the rhymes..."


Cheeky claims to Elizabethany, "Please do! I love that idea."


Cheeky states, "Maybe add more rats to northside as a low health or low piety or even infrastructure issue."


Temi claims, "But yeah, peasants might have only the rhyme of portents as a source of truth, but upper class folks should still have it, just other info too."


Temi states, "There are rat restocks on health metrics"


Temi says, "Health has just been a stronger one for a while."


Kitty claims, "But health is good right now... like, really good. I'd have to look up piety and infrastructure. Too bad there's not one for just being dirty."


Temi wonders, "Okay, anything else shitting anyone before we move on to player topics?"


Kuzco declaims, "Nope! Just remember, there is a reason Knights do the things Knights do!"


Temi questions, "Okay then. Player topics: Kirill?"


Kirill says, "I would like to suggest reducing the mandatory 'wait time' for newly approved projects down to a one week maximum. It can take 2-4 days for a project to be approved. Add onto that 8 days for a 60 IP project, and you're looking at potentially 10 days before a project succeeds, which to me feels like a bit of a long time to wait, especially if you've managed to reach out to everyone and do all the necessary legwork in half of that time. It feels like the game is just continuing ahead without me while my project sits in a holding pattern for an extra X days."


Kirill states, "Also, when you're in the project POLCA, this mandatory warm-up number is provided in the "Deadline" field, which seems extremely misleading if the deadline for projects is still technically 14 days. I'd like to suggest rewording this field to say something like: Deadline: 14 days (X days minimum), where X is the mandatory wait time based on the IP Shift."


Temi claims, "60 IP is a ton of change. Even if you've gathered up all the IP in time, I expect there is still a lot of stuff that would have to happen, moving parts and all that"


Temi states, "And we did want to give people on the other side of the issues time to gather up subversion of it"


Kirill states, "I think one real life week is a good amount of time for people to do things."


Kitty wonders, "So the suggestion is going from 10 days to 7 days?"


Kirill says, "And that if they're not around to do them in one real life week, that shouldn't hold other people and their RP efforts up."


Temi states, "I can add it to the list to discuss, though the wording change sounds like a pretty likely thing to want to change."


Temi says, "Right now, the minimum time scales with the amount of IP put into it."


Temi questions, "I think the proposal is to cap that - or to replace it with a week?"

Kitty nods.


Kirill claims, "That seems fair, just suggesting a 7 day cap."


Temi muses, "Anyone have any thoughts from the other side?"


Kuzco says, "Nope"


Cheeky muses, "A subversive side?"


Temi states, "Theoretically. Or devil's advocates."

Cheeky grins.


Temi claims, "Okay. Well, I'll add it to the list for staff topics."


Kirill says, "Thank ya. That was it for me."


Temi exclaims, "Okay, next we have an anonymous topic!"


Temi says, "That is: I'd like to discuss how people who are Inactive should not be eligible for GL spots. IE if you are already Inactive when you are chosen that doesn't bode well."


Kuzco folds his arms and thinks of this.


Temi claims, "There have been times where we have asked people to get active again before giving them an application role, especially after a history of not staying active"

Cheeky nods.

Elysaveta nods.


Temi states, "And if there were two people in a guild interested in taking up the role, we would probably give preference to the active one, maybe over some seniority"

Kirill nods.


Kitty states, "I think the definition of 'active' is... deceiving, in a way. To be codely active, you only need to RP one hour a week. That's not a whole lot. So, it's very possible that someone is codely 'active' without many people knowing who they are."


Kitty states, "Depending on who they RP with, and their timezones."


Temi claims, "But.. sometimes we have a choice between someone who has been inactive but says they can do it and be active again, or leaving the role unfilled."


Kitty states, "To temi And that."


Kuzco claims, "Well, the 1st GL player should exercise caution too."


Temi claims, "And yeah... we're not the ones filling 2nd GL roles, generally."

Azarial has released Kinaed back to the Pattern.


Kuzco blinks.


Cheeky says, "I think there are enough IC options in place to remove a GL who isn't meeting their guild's needs,"


Azarial favors poison.


Temi says, "We've also had a fair number of people who weren't active before they took a GL role and rose to the occasion on taking it."

Temi nods in agreement with Azarial.


Kitty chuckles.

Cheeky nods at Temi.

Starstarfish says, "True, but there's arguably a point where "they aren't playing" is an OOC issue not an IC one."


Kuzco asks, "Ellaborate, please?"


Cheeky wonders, "I think there are options for that too, right?"


Kitty says, "There are always situations where people can be given a chance. It's always a possibility, too, that there are reasons that others are unaware of as to why one person was chosen over another."


Temi claims, "We never force anyone to take a role. If they know they cannot be active enough, they should say that and not take the role."


Temi states, "So, if they do fall inactive... they are making that OOC issue an IC issue."


Temi says, "And you can react to it ICly."


Cheeky claims, "All this said, I appreciate that being in that 'wait time' between can be frustrating."

Temi nods.


Temi questions, "Do people in general think there has been a frequent problem, that's worse than the benefits we get? We could probably correct to a more cautious approach, and more times where we want people more active, but how do people feel about the recent state of things?"


Kuzco says, "If my 2nd GL goes inactive for more than 2 weeks without a good explanation, I'm gonna remove them. Fortunately that has never been the case and my Poet Knights are awesome."

Temi nods.


Temi claims, "That is entirely your prerogative."


Kuzco says, "But I can't have the Order on hold for an unexplained leave."


Starstarfish claims, "I personally feel like 1 hour a week to be active as a GL is really low bar."


Cheeky claims, "I think the system as is works fine, but may some sort of option for staff help on bypasses or some way of granting the next in line temp GL powers or something."


Kirill says, "I thought GLs had a 2 hour week minimum or something slightly higher."


Kuzco claims, "Nope."


Temi says, "GLs used to have a higher minimum, but we removed it because it's not measuring the real work that goes into it, and can sometimes pull them away from that real work."

Kirill nods.


Kirill wonders, "But the penalty for going inactive is a pretty hard hit on the guildleader board, right?"


Azarial says, "It will drag you down into the gambit range"


Temi says, "If a GL was around and quickly answering mails, sending promotions and never RPing... their guild would probably do fine. But we do ask them to at least keep to that same IC presence for activity."


Cheeky states, "I don't disagree that my definition for an active GL would require more than 1 RL hour a week, but I don't mind leaving that minimum in place and leaving it to players to determine what's the true requirement via gameplay."

Temi nods in agreement with Kirill.

Cheeky nods at Temi.

Kuzco nods at Kirill.


Azarial states, "Especialyl when you are inactive enough your support is no longer calculated."


Kirill claims, "Seems like we're all doing the best we can with the resources available, then."


Kuzco says, "A GL going inactive drops all support/subvert, which can have a big impact"

Cheeky nods at Kirill.


Temi claims, "Anyone want make any other comments on this? Or I do have one other topic registered."


Kuzco says, "Just be responsible about becoming a GL, please."

Temi nods in agreement.


Kuzco states, "Other people's time and enjoyment depend on you."


Cheeky claims, "I'd just add a general encouragement to do what you (the general you) can, to build systems that don't rely one one or two specific people being available, so as to avoid bottlenecks."


Temi states, "We leave a lot of things to the honor system that people will do what they say they can. So.. works best for everyone if you do."

Temi nods at Cheeky.


Kirill asks, "Remember to recommend your GL if they're doing the things they need to do to move RP forward?"


Kuzco claims, "This is also a rather un-enforceable topic, unless you ban from GMhood someone who has continually failed to deliver."


Kuzco claims, "GLhood I mean"

Kuzco nods at Kirill.


Kitty claims, "Sometimes time zones do play a big role, too. Remember that, if you aren't in a guild, you may not see all a GL does for their guildies."


Kuzco states, "That's why mail is good."


Temi states, "Apprenticeships to specific people have been something which is an awesome idea for RP, but builds in reliance on a specific person's availability, for example, yeah, Cheeky."

Cheeky nods.


Temi queries, "Okay, let's move on. Kuzco, you had a topic?"


Kuzco exhales and says: "I've a topic from another player who couldn't come. They asked me to propose that we create a TI Patreon to fund the game. They didn't say fund exactly what, but I can imagine (as my own opinion) some online publicity in Facebook or Google wouldn't go amiss."

Temi nods.


Cheeky muses, "Isn't there a donate option on the webpage? Is that different?"


Temi claims, "We do accept donations now, which can help with advertising, server or such."


Kuzco claims, "Yeah, a Patreon is automatic."


Kuzco states, "It's just an automated way to collect donations, rather than an active effort from the player."


Cheeky states, "Oh, like a recurring option."


Temi states, "I don't know if a Patreon would be different as far as the license we have from ROM/MERC/DIKU... but this would be a Kin-call, regardless"


Kirill says, "The current donate page has a check box to make it recurring."

Cheeky nods at Temi.


Temi states, "We can mention it to her though"

Kuzco claims to Kirill, "I didn't know that"


Kuzco says, "But ok! That's all from me."


Temi states, "Okay. Any other topics from anyone? We do have about 8 minutes left."


Starstarfish muses, "The last major fundraiser was the website artwork, right?"


Kuzco clears his throat: "Don't forget we have a bardic event after OOC chat! And uh, celebrate is now a thing, right?"


Temi states, "I think so."

Temi nods at Starstarfish.


Cheeky asks, "What is the bardic event, is there a board post number to look at?"


Starstarfish asks, "What ended up happening to that?"


Temi states, "We did get a warning from the bardic event organizer that there may be some delay due to power outages."


Kuzco claims, "The event is a public, free Tubori dance lesson."

Kuzco nods at Temi.


Kirill claims, "It's on the calendar and on the IC Events board."


Kuzco says, "Thanks I didn't know that."


Kuzco declaims, "It's also advertised on Discord and Facebook!"

Temi says to Starstarfish, "I think you'd have to ask Niamh about that"


Kuzco states, "Gosh that Kuzco guy, so attentive."


Temi says, "Very humble, too."


Kuzco bows.


Kirill declaims, "Thank you, Kuzco. I am not a Facebooker, but I appreciate you!"

Kitty trails off to Temi, "You beat me to it..."

Kuzco claims to Kirill, "You mean you are smarter than me, and you are. I'm a caveman who still uses FB."


Kuzco muses, "Oh question, can I celebrate someone negatively?"


Cheeky claims, "No, that's the decimate POLCA."


Kirill chuckles.


Kuzco claims, "Wot"

Starstarfish asks, "Like a party that ruins someone's reputation?"

Cheeky grins.

Kuzco nods.


Temi muses, "Well, do you folks want to hang out, play with your snapdragon bowls and chat for the last 5 minutes, or send folks back?"


Kitty claims, "A party pooper."

Kuzco asks of Temi, "So the answer is no?"


Kirill claims, "It's the roast POLCA."


Kuzco declaims, "It was a serious question!"

Cheeky states to Kirill, "I like it."


Temi claims, "I think it's possible to do a smear campaign currently, but it's on the staff topics, because it wasn't a part of the spec"


Kuzco says, "Help diss"

Kuzco nods at Temi.


Kuzco declaims, "Just remember you can ask Troubs to boost your prestige, which among other perks gives you support slots!"


Cheeky wonders, "Does concept coverage feel gappy to anyone? As in, are there character types that feel underrepresented right now?"


Kuzco questions, "Criminals?"


Kuzco wonders, "Priests?"


Kuzco wonders, "Prostitutes?"


Kuzco asks, "Norrig fans?"


Kitty claims, "If there are good criminals, you wouldn't know they were criminals."


Kirill claims, "I am open to ideas on how to run a voting drive, to try and get some fresh meat into the game."


Kitty claims, "Priests/clergy, definitely needed"


Kirill says, "I am positively horrible about remembering to vote."


Temi says, "I think people want more criminal activity, more than knowing that people are individually a criminal"


Cheeky states, "Cool."
Temi nods at Kirill.


Temi asks, "Does the login reminder help folks?"


Kirill says, "But I suspect that staying in the top 20 on TMC is one of the biggest ways to show up on folks' radars."


Kuzco states, "Yeah, it's SUPER important for players to vote"


Kitty states, "I... think it depends? We have a unique niche of players that will stay and thrive here. But yeah, they won't find it if it isn't on the first page."


Starstarfish states, "Also commenting on Reddit pages"

Temi nods.


Temi states, "Most newbies won't stick."


Temi states, "Just a fact of the genre."

Kitty says to Temi, "Yes."


Kuzco says, "But that happens to all MUDs, yeah."


Starstarfish says, "But I mean anyone who joined was a newbie at one point or another"


Kuzco says, "I just don't feel we have that many newbies to begin with, to have player retention after the usual grinding"


Temi says, "But we want the right ones to have a chance to stick. And if you have hundreds, the few that stick is a lot more than the small percent of a couple."

Kuzco nods at Temi.


Kuzco states, "What I said, just more elegant."


Kitty claims, "I am a returning player from *cough* years ago. That, I think, is more likely who you should aim for. Those types are more likely to stick around - I was here for years before I poofed for IRL reasons."

Temi nods.


Temi asks, "Alright, well, we're out of time. Any more last comments?"


Kuzco says, "Tip your bards, make themely rumor/promotes"


Kirill claims, "Well, I am open to a 1 or 2 week voting drive or something, where people annoy me to vote daily and I feel obligated to make the effort. >_>"

Kitty claims to Kirill, "I can be REALLY annoying."

Kuzco nods.


Cheeky declaims, "Play with someone new or different this week!"

Temi nods at Kirill.


Temi trails off, "Sounds good! So, if anoyne would like to volunteer..."


Kitty claims, "I think you can actuallly vote every 12 hours."

Temi pontificates, "Okay, sending folks back. Have a great day!"


Azarial says, "There are rpxp bonuses to playing with poeple you don;t know"