New Activity Check Requirements

[mayfield_mods]

Activity Check!

No, just kidding. As we said, since the transfer happened so recently and caused so much upheaval, we’re skipping AC again this month. Our next check will begin on March 12.

This announcement is to let you know that after some discussion, the mods have decided that for the next Activity Check will be trying out a change to our activity requirements. We feel this change has been coming for a while; we have a far easier standard than both games our size, and we’ve been getting a lot more comments recently about character sitting. So beginning in March, rather than our previous requirement of a thread four of your comments long or a post seven sentences or longer, we will be requiring:

Threads

• 3 Threads four of your comments long
• Threads provided must involve at least three different characters
• IF you do not have 3 that meet this length, we’ll consider 5 threads that do not quite meet the requirement.

 

OR
 

Post

• Threads in the post approximate the 3 threads standard
• If threads do not meet that standard, we will examine the timestamps on comments to decide if you were making a reasonable effort.
• There is no longer a length requirement for the post itself.
   

This may be a little confusing because the standard is pretty subjective, but in practice it shouldn’t be. What we’re actually asking for is 3 Threads with 3 Different Characters where you have replied 4 times or a post with 3 Threads where you have replied about 4 times. If you have that, great, you’re done! You’ve passed Activity Check.

The subjectivity comes in if you don’t have that. We think this is a reasonable standard, but at the same time we don’t want to penalize people if their post doesn’t get many replies or if they have threads dropped on them. We really prefer you do the above (especially because checking 5 threads or timestamps is more work on our part), but if you haven’t been able to do that, we’re willing to give you a little leeway to show you’ve still been active.

With regards to checking timestamps on posts, what we mean is we’ll be seeing if the person who dropped the threads was you or the person you were threading with, and in deciding that we’ll be looking at both the last comment in the thread but also when that comment was posted to make sure no one is going back and tagging old threads just to slide through AC. We’ll also be keeping in mind whether your post which isn’t getting many tags was posted right in time for you to try to make AC with it; if we see you consistently doing this over a few checks, we’ll stop accepting it unless it meets the full thread requirement.

If your post or threads don’t meet our standard, we’ll reply to your comment saying what else we need to see from you (another thread, 2 more threads, etc.), and then you’ll go on the warned list until we see what’s needed. We won’t be giving you time to give us more links before the warned list goes up because it would double or triple our already considerable AC workload, but being on the warned list doesn’t have any negative consequences.

If you have any technical issues or questions about this, we’re happy to hear them. If you have general objections, such as not wanting us to increase AC standard at all, we’re going to ask you to wait until March. This isn’t necessarily going to be our new system, but we would like to try it out for a month before we make a permanent decision.

Thanks!

Comments

[battymadam]

I kind of agree that this new system depends on other people's behavior too much. I think it'd be better with the option to make a post remain the same as it ever was: Based on the post length itself, not the threads within. If someone put a lot of effort into a post and gets no tags, they shouldn't have to scramble.

But I agree that if you're ONLY submitting threads, more than just one with four comments is reasonable. That way people don't skate by on playing only with their friends.

[achromous]

I don't think scrambling would be necessary if, in addition to making a post, you were also regularly tagging out. Sure if that post was the only activity you had all month you'd be forced to do some last-minute activity grabs, but if you're regularly relying on posts with no replies to make AC wouldn't you want to tag out more so more people tagged you back anyway?

[roadroller]

Regardless, it's the principle of the thing. I feel like if posts are basically the exact same thing as threads in terms of AC, when normally you had a choice in how you made your AC, then well, it devalues posting a little. It's not so much about whether or not they actually have to scramble, and more about rewarding people for their posts.

[vytis]

I can see that sort of point of view. On the other hand, is it fair to allow someone to just post once a month right before AC to slide by?

[roadroller]

Just posting isn't the same as just threading, in my opinion. What posting does is give people a chance to approach you for CR. So if you do that every month, I don't really care about your reasons. Not everyone has a ton of spare time. Some characters aren't very social. You know?

Of course, someone who always posts and gets tagged and doesn't reply to ANYONE deserves to be complained about, but I honestly haven't seen anyone who does that on a regular basis. I think the act of posting itself should be motivation enough to tag back.

[corrodes]

I'll reply from as many journals as I want okay

Yeah, I think posting should be rewarded on the one hand, but I do think in general the AC should be a bit harder for Mayfield, given its size and speed, and just requiring a post could create even more posts that no one replies to because they're also all busy making posts.

[roadroller]

Maybe but I kinda doubt it... there are still going to be people who prefer tagging around. It's not like the new AC requirements for threading are so hard that posting would be the obvious choice. They're still pretty doable.

[corrodes]

Yeah, I think they're doable, it just seems like that's what everyone's worried about so I got the impression most people were planning on using posts for their AC.

[roadroller]

Haha, I've been getting the opposite impression. All I've been hearing about is "How am I gonna keep track of my threads so I can use them for AC?" so it seems they're planning to do it by threads. I think it would all balance out in the end.

[mayfield_mods]

See, we want to encourage people to tag rather than to make long posts. What we don't want to see is people throwing up a long post just to make AC but not really threading with the people who respond. But as I said to Brandon, if you post but don't get many replies, that's something we'll take into consideration. We just want to see effort to be active!