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

[hisnameisthecaptain]

If a technical error occurs (bad link on our part or a mod accidentally missing someone's AC check because it's a big game) do we still have time to fix the issue or are we stuck on warned list until next check?

Just wondering. I know I'd stress it if I had to wait until the next AC to see if the fix was taken care of or if I am now dropped.

[likes2havesex]

For the check on the 12th, how far back are posts eligible?
I guess I mean, do our eligible threads start on the 1st of March or do they go back into Feb some?

[struckbylightning]

Regarding newer characters that have been recently accepted: are they still exempt from AC for the first month?

[echoing_sutras]

Working with this new AC would be sincerely easier if we had tags on the log comm.

[suchaprettybear]

For the post to count, you need 3 different people to comment on it? Does it count if you have longer threads with one or two people?

Or can you have more than one post if you can't get people to tag the first one?

[moemoetentacles]

This requirement seems to lean pretty heavily on the tagging behavior of other people in order to make AC. I'm kind of concerned about the many posts I see in the course of a standard month that get either no responses at all or very few responses. That's not really the fault of the poster. I know you didn't want general objections yet, but this is something that should probably be taken into consideration.

[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.

[thegreatsaiyaman]

The AC requirements mention both Threads and Posts, but how do Log posts deal with this? Do they count in the same ways? Sorry if this is something that's known, but I'm kinda new here still. :)