A NEW RULE APPEARS

[these_balls]

Hey, Route!

Yes, more new stuff. Everything chaaanges, chaaaanges, it's evolutionary~

1) New apps rule!:
In the interest of clarity and app processing speed, we now ask that potential applicants post their application in comments rather than linking. If the app contains explicit references to 'hard' spoilers (think big reveals, like 'Dumbledore dies', I SEE DEAD PEOPLE, I am your father etc), players should put the application in their own journal or their character's journal and link it, making sure to mention the presence of spoilers within.

We've always gotten linked apps (goodness knows I'm guilty of linking an app or five that was spoiler-free!), but having them all on the page means the mods don't have to open a million tabs while processing, and spoiler links keep fellow players from stumbling onto things that might ruin a canon for them.

This is a rule; as of today (the 11th of October), if your app is linked but not marked for spoilers, it will not be processed that week. We trust all our players will read and abide by the rules list, which has not changed besides this.

2) Polling about the passwords:
RELAX, we're not changing anything concerning passwords...yet. But we're thinking it's about time this thing got an overhaul, don't you think?

Our proposed fix: What we'd like to do is remove the passwords altogether and replace them with something of a task system: on the rules and FAQ pages, tasks such as 'explain in one sentence how your character feels about strawberries in their personality section' or 'include a link to your favorite youtube video in the canon links section'.

The goal here is to make sure people have at least given a cursory visit to both pages. These tasks would change arbitrarily and be located arbitrarily within the FAQ and rules. Yes, these would be more work for you, and for us, but the current password system feels outdated and obvious.

Your turn: How do you feel, Route? Hate this idea? Love passwords? Have a better idea? Let us know!

[Poll #1785767]


If you have grievances, comments, suggestions or ideas concerning either the new app rule or the password system, you can: PM the mod account, PM any of us individually, catch us on AIM, or post (anonymously or not) to our (screened) Suggestions post.

Looking forward to hear from you!

Comments

i have to stop editing.

[phoenix-temple.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, do I ever stop asking questions.

On linking applications, I know comments were getting screened a lot around the time linking got super popular. I just wanted to make sure that this wouldn't happen again? It's the whole IF IT'S NOT A WHITE LISTED LINK, SCREW YOU 8DDD thing LJ started doing last spring. I think, for a while at least, wikia wasn't whitelisted and that's where a good portion of reference links come from.

Also, on passwords: I know you've heard this a thousand times from me, but if someone is already in the game, reading through the huge post that is the FAQ is a giant headache to find something that hasn't even necessarily changed. I don't think a system like that is going to work when you have fifteen and a half pages (on google docs) that a player is going to have to read through every single time they want to apply for a character.

I'm all for an arbitrary task being placed arbitrarily in the FAQ, but I think the arbitrary changes are a little unnecessary. The FAQ might change but unless you're going to overhaul it completely, it's overkill to ask someone to read fifteen pages that are mostly static to find a task.

Mind you when I mention this, I think of the Dollsy House, where there was a task stated in the rules, that never changed to my knowledge, but you'd have to read the FAQ to know.

Alternatively, I also think Mostly Harmless's system works pretty well? Where you have to answer a question with information from the FAQ. This actually seems like a pretty popular system, when it comes to making sure people read the FAQ.

Though I'd like to see the youtube thing, personally. It sounds fun.

[these_balls]

never stop asking question! i'll do my best.

If we have a linking problem (like, as you pointed out, comments getting screened) rescinding the rule may definitely become an option; but for now, we want to try this out in the name of making apps both A) easier and faster for us to get through, and B) keeping everything in place for our and for players' reference. We had some concerns, for instance, when someone erroneously thought we'd accepted a (linked) app with no samples, when the mun had actually simply removed them after being accepted.

Noted down your suggestion on giving a pass to curent members, which seems sound! I'm going to make a document with everybody's suggestions, for safekeeping. As for the tasks themselves--would something like, "which rule did you like best and why?" or "how many pokemon can one trainer keep?" be better? I'll have to look into the app system at both those games.

Thanks for the input!

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing is? There's an option to turn it off. It was kind of a roundabout, tired way of asking "Please tell me you guys have turned off link screening?"

Maybe I didn't phrase it right, but it's not so much of a pass as much as a one-time deal. I'm all for the task and all for the searching of the FAQ, I just think a repeated search for everything is excessive.

And, again imo, I think a question better suited would be something like "how does anonymous work on the gear?" or "What Pokemon types does rain affect?"

(Dollsy just asked you, somewhere in the FAQ to put "Welcome to the Dollsy House" at the bottom of the app, when I was there.)

/sneaks in liek ninja

[noodlegoggles]

Hi! I just wanted to clarify with you (since both Ara and Raile weren't mods back then) that the screening link problem should be settled. The only reason why it started screening apps was when LJ reset every privacy setting the mod/comm accounts had when it included the new "Spam Protection" bit. And screened "untrustworthy" links.

It was brought up to me via AIM (or private plurk, icr which it was now) and was fixed immediately.

/gasps!

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. I probably just wasn't phrasing it right |D I just know the problem persisted for a while, like with the harry potter wikia, and I had no way of knowing it was fixed |D Thank you.

>:3 fufufufu

[noodlegoggles]

It's okay! I had a feeling that was it~ And yeah, I remember that happening to Harry Potter and some of the Homestuck apps when they linked to the official MSPA site. I'm sorry for not being persistent enough about getting the word out that privacy settings were fixed, I think LJ was having one of it's... moments at the same time :|a but yes, sorry about that! They're all fixed now :'>

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

... When is LJ not having one of its moments >___>;;

[foreveraclone]

oh god that's a good question, I don't even.... >_>a

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

And for the record, while I will probably bitch and moan in the future about how ugly apps look on the comments page when they're all nice and pretty in my journals, I do think the linking thing is a good idea.

There's pros and cons for either side, as I said in another thread, but in the end I do think it's a lot easier for the mods and is less prone to misunderstanding. It'd be super easy for someone to edit a journal they linked to and go OH MAN THIS REJECTION WAS TOTALLY UNFAIR, or for misunderstandings on anoncomm like the recent one. At the same time, I've seen people get pending notices and rather than respond to it with the revisions, go back and change it, and I can understand that this makes it hell for the mods to judge when they can't see where the changes are--and I don't think it should be up to them to save copies.

I'm fairly against email applications, as well, as I've never had any really good experiences with the concept and more often than not I've spent a week going "holy shit what if I got the wrong email address." I also like to see what applications are judged on, prepare myself for possible castmates, and to watch the progression of applications on Saturday nights because I have nothing better to do. This is a bizarre hobby. I know. Don't judge me. The email thing i just my experience and opinion, but I figure I'll put it out there.

Like I said below, there's a bunch of pros and cons and while I prefer linking applications, I can see why you guys would put this policy into effect. It's a lot of hassle on your end and can catch other players up into misunderstandings and drama. It's ugly, sure, but we only have to do it once. There's character limits, also sure. But they can be avoided by breaking things down i nto smaller sections before posting the application. And there is app theft (and i know a stupid amount of people who've had their apps stolen for other games), but people can steal apps from our journals, too :\

My only complaint about it aside from LJ's stupid link policy is that maybe the date for the change should've been posted sometime before the change. Everyone should follow the policy immediately, yes, but some people might miss this post. It might've been better to start on the next app cycle, and post a warning on the page--"Applications after 12:00 AM, EST on October 16th must be posted in the comments. As of October 16th, any applications linked from journals without spoiler tags will not be processed until the following application cycle." It gives us time to adjust, and people who've read the post would be able to follow the policy.

... If that last part sounds busybodyish, I don't mean it to. I just have some trouble saying things right, and using examples tends to be how I roll.

This is all just my opinion and you don't have to take it into account, and I really have no clue why I spent so much tl;dr explaining support of something, but I figure if I'm going to disagree, I might as well explain why I agree with what I do?

[foreveraclone]

While it would take whoever is in charge of app chat that night the five or so seconds it would take to click on the application to get the character's name and their starter (and to make sure that the applicant has the right password/using the right application form) the applicant could also spend that time posting said application. It makes things run smoother for us, and helps get the acceptance/pending/rejection notices out somewhat on time. Five AM applications, never again. And it could also stop those kinds of misunderstandings from happening again. By the time I saw that thread the problem had already been solved. In fact I kind of head-titled at it a little because I knew their samples were in the post when we worked on applications.

And yes, there is always the fact that people will fix their revisions inside their entry, and to my knowledge the people who have linked their application and were pended for something in the past usually respond to the pending notice with said corrections. But, there could always be the case that they don't tell us. Pendings are always the first thing that gets done in application chats. If we don't see any response to the pending notification, then we move on.

I think you can rest easy on the email application bit? If route were smaller I could see it working, but as it isn't-- keeping up with email applications on top of every other comment the mods tend to get on a daily basis can be quite taxing. And as you've mentioned, there is always the off chance that it could be somehow sent to spam, or someone could have botched the mod email before sending it, or the applicant's acceptance/pending/rejection notification somehow ended up in their spam folder and so on and so forth.

And while I'm just a tech mod and can't really pass any rules/have my word be the word of a modly God, I can always bring your thoughts up to Ara or the others! Every opinion counts, after all~



oh gosh, I hope this was okay /)A(\ ara you can jump back in whenever you want-- I just wanted to let Hat know that the screening links problem was fixed since I knew about it ;^;

[usedrage.livejournal.com]

ffff i actually didn't know where to put this so i was kinda like "oh look. a... thread /puts at end."

I just kinda wanted to voice my opinion since I saw other people being against the choice and I had a lot of thoughts on it and i figured all the mod-san's would see it here so... haha, IM SORRY FOR TEXT WALLING AT YOU.