OKAY LAST MOD ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DAY I SWEAR

Two things! First of all, the Librarian has left the building.

Secondly, the new player plot post is up! Please use this post if you'd like to request a plot with mod involvement and NPC interaction. As a reminder, we will no longer be accepting player plots that are not related to Mayfield's overall story arc.

This is a notice to inform the community that the players of Fran Madaraki and Keiichi Maebara/Tokiomi Tohsaka have been officially banned from the game. We're aware that there's a lot of hearsay going around about the reason behind the former's ban, so we want to use this post to clarify our position.

While Mayfield itself deals occasionally with horrific themes, we have always and will always intend it to be a safe and secure community for our players; this is why we don't allow rape plots in-game, or excessively upsetting behavior in the OOC comms. As a general rule, we don't care to police our players' behavior outside of the community. Whatever drama is happening at acj or the various anon comms or your personal plurks is outside our jurisdiction.

Where we do grow concerned, however, is when the aforementioned safety and security of our playerbase is threatened, even if it's outside the community. This is not a recent addition to our policy; we have always listened to player complaints regarding OOC harassment and policed them accordingly. Suggesting a hypothetical desire to commit rape or making a threatening statement toward another player are both actions that we consider worthy of a ban regardless of where they take place, and the fact that we received complaints about both banned players only cemented our decision.

This does not mean that you can get anyone you don't like banned from the game simply by telling us about how they were mean to you this one time. This also does not mean that we will be monitoring your personal plurks and policing everything you say. What it does mean is that if you act in a way that threatens the safety of our playerbase, you will be banned, without exception. And if you feel that your safety and security have been threatened, we urge you to come to us with your complaints. We can't guarantee that we'll agree, but we will absolutely hear you out and judge the situation accordingly.

Thank you for reading, and we hope that you understand. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Beginning this month, there will be some major changes to how we do Applications and Activity Check. We will be moving to an every-other-month cycle, as has been suggested to us.

How Does It Work?

Both Activity Checks and Applications will occur every other month. So, AC will occur this month as scheduled on Monday, and in August apps will open as scheduled on Friday, August 3rd. However, in August, there will be no Activity Check. In September, there will be no Application cycle, and Activity Check will occur on the first Friday of the month, September 7. The full schedule of Activity Checks and Application Cycles will be updated here shortly. September AC will accept activity dating back from the scheduled processing of the July warned list (July 30). In the future, you will be able to determine in advance the cut off date for activity by looking at when the most recent scheduled processing date was.

There will be other AC and App changes as well!

Starting in August, applications will be capped at 50. This means that applications will be open for a week as usual, but if we receive 50 applications before the week ends, we will close apps early. We may reduce this number over the course of the coming months but you will have advance notice.

Starting this month, the requirements for AC will change. Instead of the previous confusing standard, we will now require:

- 15 comments from your character
- A post counts as 5 comments (not including comments you make on that post)
- Your 15 comments must involve threads with at least two different characters

Beyond that, what form your AC takes (two long threads, one post where you commented ten times, fifteen threads where you only commented once, etc.) is up to you.

However, for this month only, we will accept the previous AC standard (three threads where you commented four or more times with three different characters, or five threads getting close to four or more comments) if you would prefer, since this was short notice about the change.

Why all these sudden changes?

Well, this has been needed for a while. However, we also have a much bigger announcement to make. This is something we've been discussing for a while now, but we've decided that it's now the time to announce and get started.

MAYFIELD IS GOING INTO END GAME!

Mayfield is now entering the end of its plot. While we prefer to let things develop organically and therefore cannot give a completely firm end date, our plan is for Mayfield to wrap up early next year, most likely in late January. So there is quite a bit of Mayfield left to go, but we wanted to let you know our plans.

Why now?

The mods all came to Mayfield with a long term plot in mind, and that this would be a game where that plot would be resolved. We've always admired games where the mods knew it was the game's time, but made sure things went out on a bang rather than a whimper.

That's our feel too. Our ability to mod has been dwindling, but more importantly, we've noticed the size of the playerbase and overall activity has been dwindling. While we could replace ourselves as mods and keep the game going for a long time until it gradually winds down, we would much rather resolve hanging plot threads and give Mayfield an exciting "series finale". This isn't a case of no one else gets to play with our toys, but rather that all of us are very, very committed to seeing this game through because of how much we care about the game.

What's going to happen?

From now until endgame, we will be having quite a few big, plotty events that will have consequences that don't just vanish. Some things may change very suddenly! There will be down time to just RP as well, but it will be hard to ignore what's happening.

However, this also will make possible something players have wanted for a long time: the chance for characters to have a real impact on the plot. The decisions made, the clues found, the resistances formed and the player plots you run all may have a lasting impact on what happens in the game.

Why should I care?

This is the problem plagued by many games that are ending: people know it's ending so they don't invest in making CR, they find new games, they let their interest die. We know some of that is inevitable but we hope we can avoid it here.

We are committed to making endgame exciting and fun, with plots at the level you expect from Mayfield. But we can only give back what you put into it. If players remain engaged and have their characters engage in the plot going ons, it will be a better experience for everyone.

On that note, we will be making other changes.

We will be closing the Player Plot Page as is

Since the game will be very busy with mod plot, we aren't going to be allowing any more player plots in the vein of 'my regained flesh eating bacteria is on the loose!'

However, we will be reopening that page shortly in a different form; it will become a place to request NPC action and exploration. Organized resistance groups can give us their plans and we can comments and plot with them; anyone who wants to explore a particular area can request mod involvement. Please keep in mind that especially right before or during events, it may not be possible for us to respond quickly or do anything that requires heavy mod involvement because of time constraints.

We are putting out an immediate call for helpers!

We will need additional help to do everything needed to get us through end game. While we're calling this position helper, it will be a little different than previously. We'll see what you're interested in doing and what your time looks like, and then will give you responsibilities based on that. Helpers now, unlike previously, will be very involved in plot and NPCing. If you don't want endgame spoilers we'll keep that in mind with what we assign you to do.

This is a big commitment, but it is also one that will only last through January. If interested, please sign up here.


Thank you so much for being with us through the years, and we hope, even if you're sad to see us go, you're excited to see what's coming! Any comments or questions are very welcome.

hey guys, mekky here.

after a long while of thinking about it, i've decided to retire from the mayfield mod team. it's been a pretty great 2 years helping this game out, and i've had a lot of fun with it, but lately both my time and interest in rp have shrunk smaller and smaller. i haven't been giving this game the attention it deserves for a while now, and my ability to do that has lessened and lessened to the point of being nonexistent lately.

anyway, this'll be the last post i ever make on this account- it's been wonderful, mayfield. i'm staying around as a player, but thank you for all of the opportunities to throw plots and ideas at you guys. i'll really miss helping out with the plot- hopefully the remaining mods will overcome their powerful stenches and come together to continue horrifying your characters for forever and ever.

i hope that you will all remember me as 'the mod who made it necessary to put a no apping from 'the human centipede' rule in place'. that is all i could ever ask for.

-mekky

Hello, everyone! We hope you all enjoyed that little taste of what living in another household would be like. Naturally, Mayfield still doesn't allow divorces in this perfect town; however, for those of you who'd like to change addresses on a more permanent basis, we're pleased to announce a much easier way of doing so via our new Housing Changes post!

Basically, for anyone who would like to change housing without having to canon update or reapp, you may now use this post to do so. As with normal applications, if you're requesting a specific new house, you will need permission from all the players in that house. You may also use this post if your character is changing slots due to aging up in Mayfield. Characters whose housing changes are approved will wake up in bed at their new address the next morning. Additionally, this post is just for OOC purposes; there is still no IC way to switch houses, no matter how much your character may wish it.

Please do not abuse this new form! While there is currently no limit to the number of times you may apply for a housing change, we will be assuming that anyone who does so intends to remain at their new address for the forseeable future; in other words, no switching into a different house for a week and then switching back just to see what it's like. We will be keeping track of how often a character changes houses and will impose a limit if we feel it is necessary. Thanks for your time!

PLEASE BE MORE CAREFUL ABOUT YOUR TAGS. ESPECIALLY LOCATION TAGS.

The proper format is *location: place. And for characters it is c: character name.

Please check to make sure that a tag doesn't already exist for that location! We have had the issue of there being a *location: 555 Stone, a *location: 555 Stone Rd., and a *location: 555 Stone Road and etc.!

This sort of thing clogs up tags and gets us closer to the tag limit. Once you start typing see what appears for your location instead of writing a new one.

Our new policy for dealing with incorrect tags, such as a location tag lacking the *, is now to delete them instead of merging them with the correct tag. So you may be unable to find old posts if they are mistagged so please try to do it properly.

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:

• 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.

• 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!

We have finally gone through and removed all the characters who did not transfer to Dreamwidth. However, this is a complicated process, and we're aware that mistakes can be made. Our method for dropping characters involved removing everyone who was in a household but had not replied to their household's housing page. This list will also involve a lot of characters already dropped in January, because we stopped processing drops once the transfer began.

The following characters have been removed from the game:

Pedro - 1764 Beaver Street (The Lopez-Fernandezes)
Czerno - 593 Ricardo Street (The Bogs)
James (Liquid) - 505 Ricardo Street (The Snakes)
Pamela - 508 Ricardo Street (The Laufeviarsons)
Rudolf - 766 Bunker Street (The Ushiromiyas)
Reisuke - 768 Bunker Street (The Roses)
Hideyoshi - 771 Bunker Street (The Ushiromiyas)
Seto - 771 Bunker Street (The Ushiromiyas)
Remy - 772 Bunker Street (The Artoises)
Reisen - 1444 Mitchell Road (The Horses)
Rick - 1445 Mitchell Road (The Grimes)
Hershel - 1446 Mitchell Road (The Laytons)
Madeline - 1446 Mitchell Road (The Laytons)
Amelia - 1448 Mitchell Road (The Eviloverlords)
Krillin - 1448 Mitchell Road (The Eviloverlords)
Canaan - 1449 Mitchell Road (The Gumshoes)
Ness - 1449 Mitchell Road (The Gumshoes)
Odd - 1449 Mitchell Road (The Gumshoes)
Fai - 335 Brady Lane (The Flowrights)
Mamizou - 335 Brady Lane (The Flowrights)
Marisa - 338 Brady Lane (The Wests)
Lina - 341 Brady Lane (The Striders)
Leonardo - 342 Brady Lane (The da Vincis)
Mayoi - 342 Brady Lane (The da Vincis)
Soul - 342 Brady Lane (The da Vincis)
Twilight Sparkle - 1247 Williams Road (The Banes)
Emil - 1248 Williams Road (The Shamhats)
Aaron - 1251 Williams Road (The Wests)
Minori - 1252 Williams Road (The Tolstoys)
Alfred - 848 Goldberg Street (The Joneses)
Minatsuki - 848 Goldberg Street (The Joneses)
Jiraiya - 849 Goldberg Street (The Pervysages)
Naruto - 849 Goldberg Street (The Pervysages)
Arshes - 1485 Kramden Road (The Stacks)
Ami - 1486 Kramden Road (The Ponds)
chaos - 1487 Kramden Road (The Fells)
Lois - 1491 Kramden Road (The Jordans)
Mamushi - 946 Beulah Street (The Hojos)
Tatsuhiro - 949 Beulah Street (The Satous)
Ryoga - 949 (The Satous)
Kamui - 950 Beulah Street (The Matthews)
Fujino - 950 Beulah Street (The Matthews)
David - 951 Beulah Street (The Does)
Ran - 951 Beulah Street (The Does)
Harold - 952 Beulah Street (The Saxons)
Leias - 1664 Nelson Street (The Klines)
Renji - 1666 Nelson Street (The Abarais)
Ice - 1668 Nelson Street (The Kings)
Arthur - 1670 Nelson Street (The Kirklands)
Nicola - 1671 Nelson Street (The Buccaneers)
Adolf - 5718 Cunningham Lane (The Vettes)
Lumpy - 5722 Cunningham Lane (The Giimas)
Akihiko - 1331 Benny Road (The Sanadas)
Rose - 1333 Benny Road (The Laurinaitises)
Fluttershy - 1333 Benny Road (The Laurinaitises)
Starfire - 1335 Benny Road (The Chulainns)
Franklin - 1336 Benny Road (The Donuts)
Colette - 1336 Benny Road (The Donuts)
Mugino - 1336 Benny Road (The Donuts)
Miss Pauling - 1337 Benny Road (The Mundys)
Yonah - 459 Stone Street (The Stanfields)
Tsubaki - 460 Stone Street (The Parkers)
Yuno - 460 Stone Street (The Parkers)
Neal - 723 Anderson Lane (The Caffreys)
Kirie - 724 Anderson Lane (The Gileses)
Nanoha - 725 Anderson Lane (The Andersons)
Euphemia - 726 Anderson Lane (The Nigmas)
Randall - 730 Anderson Lane (The Skeffingtons)
Noriaki - 730 Anderson Lane (The Skeffingtons)
Wendy - 751 Partridge Drive (The Kokutous)
Black Mage - 753 Partridge Drive (The Evilwizardingtons)
Akise - 913 Bilko Boulevard (The Harmonias)
Handmaid - 916 Bilko Boulevard (The Scratches)
Takua - 917 Bilko Boulevard (The Shutens)
Bethany - 918 Bilko Boulevard (The Danariuses)
Diarmuid - 919 Bilko Boulevard (The Duibhnes)
Kaito - 1645 Albright Lane (The Deuces)
Heat - 1646 Albright Lane (The O'Briens)
Lily - 1646 Albright Lane (The O'Briens)
Astaroshe - 1648 Albright Lane (The Nightroads)
Alphonse - 1649 Albright Lane (The Figaros)
Keith - 1650 Albright Lane (The Goodmans)
Kurt - 1651 Albright Lane (The Frises)
Jin - 306 Miller Street (The Kisaragis)
Dave - 306 Miller Street (The Kisaragis)
Alice - 309 Miller Street (The Robotniks)
Archer - 310 Miller Street (The Bows)
Michael - 2239 Stevens Road (The Cabooses)
Logan - 2240 Stevens Road (The Blacks)
Kara - 2240 Stevens Road (The Blacks)
Max - 2241 Stevens Road (The Charleses)
Scott - 2242 Stevens Road (The Pilgrims)
Sam - 835 Hastings Boulevard (The Earthkings)
Rena - 837 Hastings Boulevard (The Kashiharas)
Marcell - 838 Hastings Boulevard (The Coles)
Wilhelm - 841 Hastings Boulevard (The Vectors)
Roderich - 1123 Taylor Road (The Edelsteins)
Thor - 1124 Taylor Road (The Odinssons)
Megurine - 1126 Taylor Road (The Sturnvorauses)
Ciel - 1127 Taylor Road (The Stanzes)
Clark - 1128 Taylor Road (The Kents)
Tim - 1128 Taylor Road (The Kents)
Dias - 1130 Taylor Road (The Flacs)
Tommy - 1130 Taylor Road (The Flacs)
Mason - 625 Topper Street (The Mundys)
Samuel - 626 Topper Street (The Algers)
Shoma - 627 Topper Street (The Johnsons)
Joshua - 628 Topper Street (The Tibbitses)
Kotetsu - 629 Topper Street (The Kaburagis)
Quote - 629 Topper Street (The Kaburagis)
Jake (English) - 629 Topper Street (The Kaburagis)
Jack - 7135 Brooks Street (The Napiers)
Murdoc - 7136 Brooks Street (The Niccols)
Yakko - 7136 Brooks Street (The Niccols)
Ludwig - 7139 Brooks Street (The Princes)
Orphaner - 434 Peepers Street (The Dualscar)
Kain - 435 Peepers Street (The Highwinds)

If your character is on this list and you feel a mistake has been made, please let us know ASAP. You will need to link to your character's transfer comment so we can make sure everything is in order. If you apped the character in the January application round here on Dreamwidth, we will accept a link to your housing and taken page comments in lieu of a transfer comment.

Potential reasons why you might be on here even if you did fill out a transfer comment is if you posted your housing page comment to the wrong place, if you forgot to post it and we didn't catch it, or if you're using a different name on the housing page than you are on the housing post. If any of these mistakes or other similar errors happened, then if you provide a transfer comment we will re-add you to the game as soon as you've reposted or edited your housing comment to prevent future errors. If it was just oversight on our part we will of course add you back as well.

You have until February 3 to reply; otherwise, you will be considered officially removed from the game.

You have until midnight EST tonight to fill out this post. If you have not filled out this post by midnight, you will be considered dropped from the game.

Characters accepted in the January application round are exempt. However, if you were recently accepted, please check and make sure you filled out your housing link on ourhappyhome. We will be going through tomorrow and removing anyone from the Housing page who has not filled this out.

If you haven't read our post about tags, please go here and read it.

There are a number of small issues:

1. Only the OP should be tagging a post. If you reply to a post, please do not add your character tag to the post. It will cause confusion and clutter.

2. When you tag a post, be careful that you are using the correct tag. All tags have a particular designation, i.e. character tags are c: character name, location tags are *location: address, etc. Since members can create tags, if you use the wrong tag you are creating extra work for the mods. Some people used location tags without the asterisk. I have deleted those tags, so you will have to retag your post.

3. If you do not remember your character tag, you can look it up on the side of the community. You may only use that tag for your character. If you want a different name used, contact the mods, but do not start using a different tag.

4. New characters, please use the !intro tag! This will make your intro easier to spot, so people will be more likely to reply.

Sorry to insist on all of this, but the community will not work if people do not follow the rules. We only have 1000 tags at a community and we're at 500 now, so we can't be making extra tags. If everyone doesn't use the correct tags, we'll have to make tag creation mod only, which will create a lot of extra work for us.

Thank you.

Tag creation for members is on. This is so you can create your own location tags! To do that, just tag an entry taking place at your house with *location: # street, i.e *location: 501 ricardo. We also suggest you track your house's tag so you won't miss posts by housemates.

It's very important that you only use tag creation for this purpose. We don't have unlimited tags, so please don't create any others! And make certain you're using the tag you were assigned for your posts rather than accidentally creating a new one through typos and using the wrong name.

Thank you!

EDIT Please keep in mind that the correct format is *location: address, not location: address. If you forgot the *, I've deleted your tag.

Mayfield Is Open!

Surprise!

We were tired of waiting, so we've now officially opened the comm with a brand new event post.

Please keep in mind that in game, no one will be back until the 16th, which is still our official opening date. But if you want to forward date tags and entries in the community before then, be our guests.

Don't worry, you will still have until January 23rd to fill out your form to remain in Mayfield before you are ejected.