ACTIVITY CHECK DISCUSSION

[paradisamods]

Hey guys!

So there's been some confusion and disagreement about what should/should not count for activity check, what is counted where, etc. So this is a post where we'd like to discuss revamping the activity check system with you! Once we can get a clear idea of what everyone feels is fair, it will make it easier for us to have a clear system where everyone understands the activity requirements desired of each character in Paradisa.


SECTIONS:

What do you think should count for a post?
What should constitute thread "size"?
What should constitute comment "quality"?
How much should the mods be responsible for? The players?
How should a thread on a log be judged?

Comments

WHAT SHOULD CONSTITUTE THREAD QUALITY?

[paradisamods]

Should any single comment of greater length be considered equivalent to several shorter tags? Should all comments be counted as the same regardless of length of comment, or time spent authoring said comment? In passing a generally agreed upon thread length, should any consideration be shown toward comment depth and breadth if a thread isn't hitting length, but is hitting material played? The mods recognize that a series of short responses, such as "yes, no, maybe, shut up, go away I hate you, oh my god where is the cake" can stack into a thread twenty comments long fairly quickly, where more intense, introspective, or dialog/emotion heavy comments can get up to ten over a longer period of time. Should there be any consideration granted to the difference between these types of comments when looking at the length of a thread being used for proof of activity?

[encourage]

I'm not terribly big on having a quality/quantity argument, because I think the quality argument would need to apply to both the journal and log communities equally. The big concern I have and can see at this juncture is -- you have short threads. Short logs. Short things!

Yet when looked at, those short things have a heck of a lot of detail, thought, emotion. To me, those are more than enough.

And at the same time, what of characters who have little to say, or are being IC in breaking off conversations early? They'd need a lot more of them to be equivalent -- and players maybe should step up the introspection and look to do more [action threading] and logging since journaling isn't a good fit for their character.

I don't think there's a good way of having a set standard. People should use their best judgment, but depth of a thread, quality of a thread is often too subjective to have a standard application. Consideration should be granted by moderators and players when viewing length of a thread.

[ardens-musebox.livejournal.com]

Measuring thread quality seems to be one hundred percent stepping over a line to me. I have never seen a game try doing that before, and I hope to never have to. Especially a game I love.

I'd prefer a system that just says here are the things that count for AC: whether that be a post, log, thread of x-number of comments (JUST PICK A NUMBER and leave it at that), and you need so many of these things COMBINED a month to pass. Don't say 'on a case by case basis' we may change this. Don't judge the quality of any of those things.

If someone's really abusing a system like THAT? Talk to them privately.

It's easy. It works for lots of other games. It could work here too.

[matchmaker.livejournal.com]

Plus one forever.

[noworldleft.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[save-the-souls.livejournal.com]

+1

What is one man's Shakespeare is another man's Stephenie Meyer.

[ardens-musebox.livejournal.com]

l o l

+10000

[hard-talker.livejournal.com]

I love you so much right now for that. Also +1 to the topic in general, but yes, that.

[saccharosium.livejournal.com]

+1

[painhumbles.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It's actually kind of offensive, to be honest, because not every character is going to respond with lengths of dialogue and not every thread can stretch on for infinity. There's a difference between three tags and then dropping the thread completely and seven tags and dropping the thread completely and they shouldn't be judged the same way and it's really awkward to be made to feel like your thread quality is lacking because you don't always thread something to the moment the characters hang up or part ways, but rather cut the thread off when you feel nothing more can be said.

And if that is a problem? Talk to the player. Most would be more than willing to continue a thread the other party wanted to see continue.

[tomatoandbasil.livejournal.com]

+1 here as well

Quality is entirely subjective and entirely immeasurable in a way that's fair to everyone, especially in a game this large. So long as people are active enough, that's what matters to me.

After all, not everyone's a master writer. This is a perfectly okay thing to be. There are people who have English as a second (or third or fourth) language and I don't want anything like that counted against them ever, amongst other things. If they're tagging me, then it's all gravy.

What should matter is activity. You'll be able to tell if people are having fun easily enough and to me that's all that matters at the end of the day.

[compels]

Yeah, when I got home and saw this was even up for debate I wasn't just baffled, I was offended. I play in damned, which is prose-based with a lot of emphasis put on tag quality because of how few tags actually happen due to the slow pace, and even there we would NEVER even consider tag "quality" requirements. It's absurd.

+10000

[molecules]

Marrying this comment brb.

This kind of AC check is the kind I like. Combo links - two of the following, etc. Quality shouldn't even be a part of this. And that's when you're taking it way too far. I'd feel incredibly uncomfortable if a game's AC was judged by quality. What you say is quality may not be to another. It just sounds like more work than what is necessary.