berryfloss (
berryfloss) wrote2006-05-01 09:34 pm
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✗PROBLEMS
If you have a problem and you can't reach one of the mods, please comment here. Feel free to comment if you have a problem with an action that a mod has taken. Mods may be in a game to keep the players in line and make sure they follow the rules, but players should feel comfortable about pointing out if a mod has made a mistake. We keep you in line and you keep us in line, right?
The comments WILL be screened & will be deleted once the problem is dealt with. Anonymous comments are allowed, but we'll need to unscreen them for you to see our reply.
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Non-App Week: 11:59 p.m. April 6 - 11:59 p.m. April 13
App Week: 11:59 p.m. April 13 - 11:59 p.m. April 20
Non-App Week: 11:59 p.m. April 20 - 11:59 p.m. April 27
App Week: 11:59 p.m. April 27 - 11:59 p.m. May 4
etc.
During the app week of 4/13 - 4/20, we review app slot applications that came in from 4/6 - 4/13 and we review regular applications that come in from 4/13 - 4/20.
The next time we review applications will be beginning 4/27, when we will review app slot applications that came in from 4/20 - 4/27 and we will review regular applications that come in from 4/27 - 5/4.
You can put in an application in the app slot thread starting right after this application week closes. We will then review it when the next application week opens.
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(Anonymous) 2008-04-18 04:09 am (UTC)(link)no subject
Let me step out of the mod anonymity for a moment and say this is Jade. I understand that I am playing a character from a controversial movie that may offend some people. If, as an example, someone was offended by Dogma, I would appreciate knowing that they would rather not interact with the Metatron, as I would rather not impose an "offensive" character on theirs.
I would hope that other players could be as understanding if they were approached in a non-accusatory manner.
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Purposefully being attacked by a couple of other players here for no apparent reason? Honestly, I tried to be as polite as possible, but there's only so many re-lights a fuse can take, you know?
I have no access to AIM at the moment with which to contact the moderators.
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http://community.livejournal.com/polychromatic/191567.html?thread=9752399#t9752399
I don't mean to be rude, but I do think that as moderators, speaking of the whole moderation team, you should be responsible for moderating this HMD more carefully, least players find it necessary to send themselves to the Problems Thread?
It's unfair to tell players to take 'problems' to IM or e-mail when the problem clearly can't be solved through communication.
I'm just trying to be helpful by offering my opinions as a player, which were shared by a few other confused players. It feels like the mods WRT the HMD are saying 'here's this critique form, if you have a problem, put up, shut up or take it to IM.'
That sort of formal and detached response solves...nearly nothing. And in point of fact, I was once directed, by a moderator, to this thread in the case that I needed to report harassment from another player. To repeat, I'm being sent mixed messages. One moderator informs me to use this form to report abuse, another informs me not to report that abuse at all, but to solve the clearly irreconcilable through IM?
Please appropriately explain somewhere on the community for players the correct channels to take when harassment occurs?
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Though the comment that was replied to belonged to you, we hope you do not feel that it was merely directed at you personally. It was a reminder to all of those commenting in that thread.
While we encourage problems to be worked out in AIM or email, you're free not to if you chose, but in the case that you feel the problem being presented to you is baseless and further debate in the HMD is pointless, we encourage you to simply drop an IM or email to the other person expressing that you would like not to further debate the issue, and that should end that. If, in an unfortunate occurrence, the other player was not amenable to your polite decline of further communication, we would then have a talk with the other. Unless those steps are taken, however, we cannot take action on accused harassment, until we have proof that it is in fact harassment and not simply expressing opinions.
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I don't feel it was directed at me. Please don't patronize players by making assumptions, this is certainly not the first time you've made assumptions such as this, suggesting that players feel attacked by you. Just because a person has an issue, does not mean they aren't being civil about bringing that issue to you. There is further no reason why players can't offer constructive criticism concerning the moderation.
(As a side point, there is a lack of a suggestion or criticism thread concerning Polychromatic moderation, which might be a good idea to institute, so that players who are concerned can voice their opinions in an appropriate forum and not the 'Problems' thread?)
Merely consider: A lot of players lately are distressed by the informality of the mods concerning many subjects. It is the informality and the general uselessness of any mod interaction because of that informality that is the reason for the further complaints.
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We make clarifications such as “this was not directed simply to you” in issues like this just because it’s good to clarify such things in official fashion, whether we think you may have interpreted it that way, or not.
Regarding moderation.
Beyond your recent comments, we have had no complaints submitted regarding the current way of moderation, and we do not act based on what we do not receive from the majority of the community, for obvious reasons. Considering our current rate of activity, new members, and relative success, we cannot really feel a general unhappiness with the game among most people who play here.
We have received complaints in the past and we have addressed them with the community as a whole, as you have seen yourself with your own past-lodged complaints. We will continue to do so when we hear complaints either repeated, or which strike a clear chord. Your complaint is so far alone.
As it has been for some time now, complaints regarding moderation will still come to the Problems thread.
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It is presumptuous for the moderation to always affirm that players are acting like moderation is attacking them. To be honest, it's happened three times with me and more times with other people.
I believe that the reason you are not receiving suggestions is that this thread is not pointed out to players as a venue (I had to hunt to find it), and that the way the thread functions itself is an issue. Comments are unscreened after 'dealt' with? And screening all comments does not allow players to leave anonymous comments. I know players who have suggestions but would worry about mod animosity based on those suggestions or complaints.
Regardless of 'general' happiness (and I'm a bit taken aback that you would describe me as a player as generally unhappy, or I wouldn't be playing here) if even one comment, complaint and/or suggestion is made regarding a point of moderation, 'so far alone' comment in question should be seriously considered and regarded. Out of respect for the players, each individual voice should be considered equally, along with the assumption of the fact that an individual comment does not represent an individual sentiment. It has been recently brought up in discussions that there is no arbitrary magical number, besides '1', which delegates the idea of importance.
Please seriously consider the suggestion of an unscreened suggestion box with anonymous posting available. I am sure that the idea of a suggestion box in lieu of an intimidating 'Problems' form would not be frowned upon by any players.
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We're sorry for the recent misunderstanding about OOCly screened interaction, but the moderator who spoke to you was speaking for the whole moderator team and their decisions on this issue.
Of course, it's also all right to filter whatever other posts you'd like--posts for other games, for example, personal memos, con/crit responses, or things on your character journal that have nothing to do with POLYchromatic.
Likewise, it's all right to ICly filter or screen threads or interaction between characters with the usual "Filtered" and "Screened" notes.
However, any threads that are related to game canon should be kept OOCly visible for the sake of other players and the game as a whole.
We discourage OOC locking, screening, and customized filtering of material that you would like to use as part of POlychromatic's game canon. Certain events that happen behind an OOC filter may suddenly come to light outside of the filter, surprising your fellow crewmembers and confusing them as they have seen none of the events leading up to it. They may accuse you of being OOC or of not communicating with them. Hidden posts and threads create problems with understanding of characterization, crew organization, and can sometimes create unexpected OOC tension.
We will be reiterating and clarifying this point for the community as a whole very soon in case there are others who were also unaware of this rule. It did not occur to us that someone would choose to OOCly lock or filter interaction, so we haven't felt a need to state this rule outright before. We are sorry for not having realized this sooner and will be clarifying further soon.
Until then, and thereafter, we would like to reiterate the request that all POLYchromatic-related interaction be kept publicly visible for the sake of other players and crewmates as well as for the moderators.
Thank you,
POLYchromatic moderators
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The matter at hand, however, is that threads with bearing on characterization and game canon were hidden from most of the rest of the community. As we said, this kind of hiding, screening, locking, and filtering can lead to confusion within your crew and with the community as a whole, and unwanted OOC tension.
As Mary told you, we request that if a character interaction is to be considered part of "in-game canon," it must be left OOCly public.
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Perhaps the comm needs a gentle reminder that mun to mun communication is always preferred over making nasty secrets and anon statements? It's just something that's disturbing me more and more lately. I want poly to be a place of classy people, not bitchy anons.
Any ideas on what can be done?
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It has always been our policy that we cannot, and should not, try to police or monitor other communities because we are POLYchromatic's moderators, and not the moderators of any other communities.
However, we do stress player to player communication in our community rules and in what we advise players to read upon acceptance. Our acceptance stamp requests that players familiarize themselves with our infosite. There, we repeatedly encourage (http://polychromatic-rp.info/gameplay-communication.html) communication as the primary form of working things out, both IC and OOC. In all of our guides to complaint filing, (harassment (http://polychromatic-rp.info/complaints-harassment.html), godmodding (http://polychromatic-rp.info/complaints-godmodding.html), inactivity (http://polychromatic-rp.info/complaints-inactivity.html), godmodding/infomodding (http://polychromatic-rp.info/complaints-infomodding.html), OOC behavior (http://polychromatic-rp.info/complaints-oocness.html), and powergaming (http://polychromatic-rp.info/complaints-powergaming.html)) we both stress that players try communication among themselves first before going to moderators or other means, and also note that we do ask if you have communicated with other players when complaints are brought to our attention.
All in all, we do strongly encourage players to utilize direct communication, and that always will be our stance. However, we cannot force a player to do so, nor convince everyone that it's better for the game and all players to talk things out rather than employ RP!S or like communities as a venue for their opinions and frustrations. If we make a public post in the main community reiterating what has been our stance all along, we give more power to anon than anon already has.
part 1 of 2
I would then like to suggest that application reviews be dealt out in chronological order. I think that this would create an incentive for the moderators to actually review some apps which they're reluctant to review on a timely basis (because maybe someone has a stellar app later from a canon which, arbitrarily, the mods happen to know or play). I think that the reasons behind using the current system of rolling stamps doesn't actually serve a positive purpose, outlined as such:
part 2 of 2
Oftentimes, the extreme delay on a stamp conflicts with a player's schedule, given that recently there have been some applications which haven't even been addressed until well into the next slot week--can they app again? Technically, yes, but they lose a lot of time in an application process which I am fond of but does have a large time interval of two weeks per app, because many will be dissuaded to app a second app until they've at least heard back from the first one. Moreover, in the case of a rejection on the first go-around, this can further make things difficult in that they don't know whether or not they'll have to submit that same app again next period.
I think more importantly though, it creates unease. Even if, for instance, the applicant is friends with all the mods and trust in the objectivity of the mods in making a decision, this sort of delay creates doubt in many players despite the delayed rulings often being for reasons that aren't related to the player him/herself or the quality of the app--such as simply not knowing an arbitrary canon. At best, this leads to a temerity in play which I just find rather unfortunate. At worst, it can engender accusations of favoritism, which I just think hurts the view of the modship overall, engendering wank which I don't think any of us are fond of. And I think that this is most hurtful when it comes to new players, many of whom proclaim to have been nervous about applying in the first place when they introduce themselves on
So, yes. I understand if this is sort of a huge request/operation/idek what you'd call it, but these are just some of my observations and I really do think that this sort of change could be beneficial to the game. If there's something big that I've missed, since I'm obviously not a mod and my knowledge of mod mechanics in Poly is very tentative, please do let me know! Any sort of reply is appreciated. ♥
Re: part 2 of 2
We understand very well that applying can be stressful or frustrating to some applicants: writing the app up, waiting for a reply, and wondering about the outcome... But players are more than welcome to contact a mod to inquire about their app, if there's a problem, if more information is needed, if their app has been overlooked, or any other concern they have. We're prepared to answer those concerns.
If you're interested in seeing how we go through apps in our current system, take a look here (http://crone-mod.livejournal.com/4957.html) where we've set up a demonstration table so players can see how we operate. As you can see, it takes at least two moderators to make a decision on any one application, and it often speeds the process along if a tie-breaker can come in non-chronological order. Certain applications take more discussion than others, if there's some disagreement about characterization or the application itself, and if we devoted all that discussion time to that application only, it would slow the entire application reading process down. Likewise, when there's uncertainty or disagreement about an application, moderators will do research on the canon or series (so we always appreciate extensive history sections or good links in applications). Some moderators have gotten into fandoms they never expected to thanks to reading up on a character's canon. If other applications can be read while another is being researched, it makes things quicker for the players waiting for responses. And, when there are two applications for the same character in the same week, we will always read the application submitted earliest before the second or third application for the same character. Although we may not read the applications in the precise order in which they are received, we do follow the rule of "first come first served" in the case of duplicate applications.
All in all, we've tried to develop the quickest, fairest system for applications that we can. We read applications as quickly, but as thoroughly as we can, very much aware that players want to get a character into the game as soon as possible. The mods are players too and understand how difficult waiting can be.
Thank you again for your extensive message and discussion of our current application process, but at this point in time we don't feel the need to change it.
Thank you,
POLYchromatic Moderators
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While we appreciate the idea of a player-maintained spreadsheet, there are a few too many factors working against that possibility at this time. As it stands, people frequently forget to add or remove themselves to and from the Taken Characters list, and we fear that having to add themselves to the spreadsheet would just be one more step to tentatively miss and thereby offer up further confusion. In that same vein, since the spreadsheet would be player-maintained, avenues for abuse or just common mistakes are opened up, in that players might believe a character who has not been dropped actually has been dropped and delete them off the list in that confusion. Abuse is carried out much the same way, though one would have to worry about more than just deletions.
POLYchromatic has had something of this caliber in the past when it employed the use of a Wiki, but that plan unfortunately fell through due to a lack of time for upkeep and the notion that the Taken Characters list virtually supplies the same resource.
Again, thank you so much for your input! We will be keeping this idea in mind for the future, in case something like this does become an option.
Best,
POLYchromatic Mods
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I sent an email a while back to ask if it would be at all possible for Adam to have Dog arrive in the City, but I don't think I got a reply back. If you guys did, I'm really sorry for being like a broken record here. I'm really suspecting that my email is just devouring all emails from users it doesn't recognize.
Thanks,
Shikki.
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Thank you for your patience and we're sorry about the delay in getting back to you.
We talked about Adam having Dog in the City, and we decided that it would be all right.
Basically, Dog probably couldn't be applied for as a separate character and while he's not really a pet, he's similar to a pet. Our qualifications for whether a companion animal can come into the City with its keeper or whether it would have to be applied for separately as an individual character hinge on whether the animal is "pet-like" and has much individual characterization and personality.
So, given what Dog is and how he acts, we decided that it would be all right for Adam to have Dog in the City. If you haven't brought Adam into the City yet, Dog can simply come with him when he arrives. Otherwise, Dog would have to sort of turn up, the Deities being sneaky about bringing pets and things into the City.
We hope that answers your question and we're sorry for the delay. Thanks for your patience with us.
Thanks,
POLYchromatic mod team
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I was wondering if there was a suggestion thread that perhaps I should post in, if I have some sort of suggestion? I didn't think to exactly classify it as a 'problem', so I wasn't sure if this was the appropriate thread to do so.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Nikki
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I emailed a permission asking thing to mods @polychromatic-rp.info. on the 27th May and haven't gotten a reply yet? I don't know the usual wait time as I haven't emailed you before, and I think it's the right address as it's the only one I could find.
If you guys are busy then of course it's fine, I'm just hoping it hasn't gotten lost in spam somewhere, as it's been almost two weeks? I've checked my own spam to see if a reply went there too.
Sorry if this is the wrong place too, I'm not really sure where this should go.
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We're so sorry for the wait, we were pretty sure our reply had gotten to you!
We're perfectly fine with a small section of the Underground caving in on Ianto and Jack as a result of either one of their weapons or just sections of the Underground being somewhat unstable and uninhabitable. We only request, as you mentioned in your e-mail, that the area remain small. Other than that, we see no problems and hope that you have fun!
Sorry for the trouble this may have caused you. We noticed you guys hadn't followed through with the plot, but we didn't think some communication glitch was involved.
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I am absolutely understanding that all of you have lives outside the internet, but the taken characters list [not the spreadsheet] is severely outdated in some sections due to players not going back and deleting entries. I feel that, when advertising for Poly, it gets sticky when the players have to constantly remind potential castmates that "the taken characters list isn't updated." It also reflects badly on the game as a sign of disorganization.
Also, I ask that you clear up the rule - perhaps in the application notes? - that the third person sample should not be from other games. There are a number of multi-game players who may use third-person samples from actual logs in other games, and I feel it should be clear in the application notes for new applicants just in case.
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We will also be reminding players of our rule regarding log samples and using histories and backgrounds from other games, and will see what we can do about including it in our application guidelines so that players may better understand it.
Thank you again for you attention to detail!
- POLY Mods
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I have no idea what is causing this...if I've posted her info wrong somehow, please tell me and I'll redo it right, or maybe it's just a glitch, I don't know, but since this has happened every single month since I first joined, I'm really starting to worry...
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As it stands, the section has been added back, and the required information has been filled out just fine! We apologize if there has been any confusion and hope that this strange occurrence has had its run.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
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I'm wondering if it's at all possible to have a game-wide discussion post, probably after HMD. It's been a long time since the last player feedback post (http://community.livejournal.com/polychromatic/195644.html) (about nine months) and a lot's changed. There are so many new players now that tastes have probably changed since the last discussion and I think it'd be a good idea to get some kind of notion as to what everyone's moving to. I'd also like some heavy discussion on curses going on, personally: what kind would we like to see more of, what we'd like less of, how grabbags and other big curses could be organized and facilitated better. Not necessarily for specific curse suggestions, but a general idea of what players would like.
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Thank you for your question/suggestion (you called it that first, so we'll follow your lead). It has been a while since our last feedback post and general game-wide conversation. We got some excellent feedback from the earlier discussion and we were very glad to have it. We absolutely agree that that kind of gamewide conversation is very good to have periodically. We had our last gamewide discussion post last fall, and we have already decided that we'll likely post another one around that same time this year.
We are also considering an option that players can use year-round as a place for ongoing conversations discussing curses, organization, and the evolution of the game. If we follow through with this option, the annual discussion would be dropped.
Regardless of which idea we think would be most useful to the game, we will announce which will be happening and when. We will set up one or the other before the end of the calendar year, and we're looking forward to hearing ideas from all the players in
Thank you,
POLYchromatic mods
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The images at the Current City Map (http://community.livejournal.com/poly_extra/745734.html) thread seem to be down. It'd be nice to have them up again because I'm kinda working out where my character is going to live. The broken images say that it's due to account inactivity that the pictures aren't showing. I'm going off of the older map, but I'd like something more accurate. Thanks!
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/icarus_suraki/city_composite_view.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/icarus_suraki/city_composite_view.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/icarus_suraki/city_overground.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/icarus_suraki/city_overground.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/icarus_suraki/city_underground.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/icarus_suraki/city_underground.jpg)
Thanks again!
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We've given it some thought, and we'd still like to give people the opportunity to keep their phone posts in their current format. Banning or policing phone posts isn't sure to result in an increase in activity from the players involved; it might have the contrary effect of alienating those who rely on phone posts as a way to start or further plots. Since (from what we understand) phone posts are accessible to all players, we'd like to think they also don't necessarily lead to clique-breeding, either.
However, we do understand where you're coming from, in that phone posts lend themselves to over use: we'll try to put together a reminder that players should try to not defer regular activity in favour of phone posts. We're also working on figuring out a way to make these phone posts even more visible / accessible to the community at large, which will hopefully take care of your second concern.
Thank you for bringing this up!
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Since the character wasn't reclaimed in the most recent Activity Check (here (http://polychromatic.livejournal.com/225504.html)), we didn't know you had the intention to keep her (since sometimes people idle out, etc.). As such, the character was removed from gameplay. We're really sorry it caught you unaware, but we didn't know your situation.
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No need to apologize! Y'all were just doing your job! School was keeping me busy so I must have missed that post! so should I re-app or what can I do now?
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