How can we tell who is actively looking for rps now?

[Esoterica]

Thank you for taking the concerns expressed in this thread to heart. I would like to say that if the staff do decide on a shorter acceptable bump interval that it please kindly not be so short as Blue Moon Roleplaying's. Thank you kindly for your time and consideration.

I think everyone can agree that a 24 hour bump policy is not a good idea, at all.

[Blythe]

I think everyone can agree that a 24 hour bump policy is not a good idea, at all.

Oh, yeah. Definitely agreed. That would be WAY too frequent. <_<;

[Sara Nilsson]

I second the suggesting to change the bumping policy to two weeks(14 days). I am also in favor of a bumping policy that is three weeks(21 days). As for the number of threads allowed in each section, why not make it one? as opposed to two threads in each section. (One request thread per section as opposed to two. New ideas can simply be edited into the existing threads.

  I never fully understood the point of having two threads in each section. Two threads are easier to keep track of than four. If the bumping policy is changed to either three or four weeks. I hope the same policy will be applied to the ons and offs thread, which also acts as our request thread for some of us.  I continue to hope for a replacement for the ons and offs matrix that we all agreed to nuke. To me it acted as a third option to find writing partners.

Quoting this as I totally agree.

Honestly if you want to prevent the same people on the front page all the time, (I thiink that is the reasoning anyway) then yeah just having one thread already potentially doubles the amount of users on the front page. And yes I know not everyone has two posts on the front page, hence potentially.

I mean I havent bumped my own thread since June 09, 2021, so I seriously dont have a horse in this race. But I do remember (funnily enough) how hard it was as a newbie to be seen. And it is in those first few months that you decide if you are to stick around or not. So.. maybe make some form of.. something for new members? I dunno, anyone under 6 months or.. whatever number of posts or.. something if the current rules are to be around.

During my one month long depression I been browsing the request thread a bit, and yes a few names are always on the front page more or less. But it is probably a handful at best. So is it really a problem? I dunno. At the moment the front page is 10 days long. 30th today..ok so it just turned at the time of writing, and the last post is dated 20th. Second page goes all the way back to the 9th.

So I mean.. I can see and not see the problem here. I am just worried for the new people.

[Esoterica]

Quoting this as I totally agree.

Honestly if you want to prevent the same people on the front page all the time, (I thiink that is the reasoning anyway) then yeah just having one thread already potentially doubles the amount of users on the front page. And yes I know not everyone has two posts on the front page, hence potentially.

I mean I havent bumped my own thread since June 09, 2021, so I seriously dont have a horse in this race. But I do remember (funnily enough) how hard it was as a newbie to be seen. And it is in those first few months that you decide if you are to stick around or not. So.. maybe make some form of.. something for new members? I dunno, anyone under 6 months or.. whatever number of posts or.. something if the current rules are to be around.

During my one month long depression I been browsing the request thread a bit, and yes a few names are always on the front page more or less. But it is probably a handful at best. So is it really a problem? I dunno. At the moment the front page is 10 days long. 30th today..ok so it just turned at the time of writing, and the last post is dated 20th. Second page goes all the way back to the 9th.

So I mean.. I can see and not see the problem here. I am just worried for the new people.

You know that is a really good idea. I know its been ten years since I was new, but I have to say my biggest issue when first getting here, was being seen as a newbie. I actually got pretty lucky and it only took about a year before I caught on to the basic way Elliquiy worked, and started to get. (I hate to sound like some social media site) but followers, friends, partners and what have you.) The Welcome Mat was something I didn't even know existed until well after the time that I joined. That would have been great and a place just for people that have bene on the board six months or less. I also miss the Mentor thing being more official. Being welcomed here by a mentor when I first joined is part of why I stayed.

[Dahling]

Hi there. I know I don't chime in on these things much; re: never, but since it was mentioned that this was something that could be considered more based on community feedback...here I am. And honestly I feel like Blythe touched on everything with an eloquence that was succulent and on point. I've been around E for a while, at times more active than others and since I returned from my last hiatus when I saw the request threads, it looked at a glance like the forum had gone half dead. Of course, I dug in anyway, but not everyone's that determined.

I don't do the social games or any OOC sections of the site. In fact, I keep all the subforums but 3 minimized so they don't show at all. I tried them early on, but as I'm quiet by nature, it felt like participating in them was having to put on a performance. I come here to write, in a community that I enjoy because it's safe and because it's welcoming and because it does not expect me to pretend. I don't have to put on a social mask to try and find someone to write with, something that's hard for me as a neurodivergent user. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I can let my writing speak for me, displaying what I bring to the table in my request thread and in previous posts without having to get tangled in anxiety over whether or not I'll fit in.

It's been mentioned that we can look for signs in people's signatures to see if they're still looking for stories, but if you do not bounce through the social OOC portions of the community and you do not go about reading other people's stories IC, then it does narrow down the focus of the search to the request threads (One on One included) because you aren't seeing those signatures to begin with. This is further muddled by the fact that not everyone regularly changes or updates their signature.

I've tried two request threads here, when a second one was offered, but I feel like suggesting we split them up and then balancing them to a different bumping schedule is a bit like being told here's a rule, one bump per month. Now, here's a work around to circumvent that rule so you can effectively bump every two weeks, because that's essentially what it does. A user could simply copy the bulk of the ideas they want to advertise back and forth from one request thread to the other, as long as they leave one idea behind on the second thread that's different from those they just bumped.

Allowing a two week bumping policy shows both to new users and any who're old like myself and looking back in that there is still a very active, very rich pool of writers here to write with, because ultimately, that is what people come for. We come to write. That the community here is made up of amazing people with diverse and rich hobbies who are also willing to share and talk about them, to build friendships, that's a rich side bonus and a blessing for those who choose to partake in it, but it's not what first brings people to the door. What brings them to the door is the big ole font on the main page: Elliquiy Role Playing Forums.

And that's my experience and my thoughts, before I proceed to return to the quiet. You have my thanks with it, both for listening and for all of the time that's sacrificed by staff here to keep the community the safe and welcoming place it is. It takes special people willing to give up so much of themselves to keep a place running smoothly and it is appreciated, more than you know.

An afterthought, that may well be impossible because I am not tech savvy enough to know but, since reports on bumping make up the most of what it was mentioned staff has received would it be possible to put some piece of code in place on the backend that would simply disallow replies at all to threads that are less than 14 days old on the request thread forum? If it were possible it could eliminate the reports themselves and also enforce the bump policy. Although in hindsight, I suppose if it could be done it'd have been done already. Ignore me. <.<

[Sekah]

I don't write on this site anymore in part because the month-long bump wait has made finding new partners nearly impossible. I really hope that the bumping time is fixed.

[Oniya]

Just as a data-point:  The current 'lifespan' of a thread on the front page is nine days.  The bottom of page 2 is 19 days ago.

Someone taking full advantage of the 'two threads, each with a one-month bump' allowance, can have a post on the front page every two weeks.  Thread A bumped on the first day of the 'month', and Thread B bumped two weeks after that.

Food for thought.

[Revelation]

And to clarify from a staff point, the rate of which we're okay with allowing bumps is being discussed. I can't promise immediate change (Or change at all), but we are actively discussing it.

[Sara Nilsson]

thanks staff for being willing to discuss it :)

[Esoterica]

And to clarify from a staff point, the rate of which we're okay with allowing bumps is being discussed. I can't promise immediate change (Or change at all), but we are actively discussing it.

Thank you for actually taking a moment to discuss this. It does mean a lot having staff that is at least willing to listen and consider the community at large.

[Revelation]

Hello!

Staff have read and absorbed the feedback in regards to our recent bump policy update and the month long time between bumps in general. We have also taken to discussing the matter, and have come up with a soft announcement.

In short, we will be changing the wait between bumps from every 30 days/once a month, to every 14 days/2 weeks.

We have taken your issues here seriously, and weighed the pros, cons, and effects such a change necessitates. For matters of rules at the moment, this has not gone into effect yet, so please don't bump your threads if they are 2 weeks old just yet. We need a bit more time to word the rule change properly, edit our bumping policy, and set out a Rules and Announcements post in the relevant subforum so people know there has been a major rules change.

To put it simply, Elliquiy would not be where we are without our user base taking to the forum as something of an online home/third space. We want to make sure that your thoughts and concerns are heard, and that we as staff take them with sincerity. Staff at the end of the day are also human. We may make mistakes or stumble when it comes to rule changes and updates, but I do want to say we take the forum to heart as we have all volunteered to try and make our space a better place.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

[Blythe]

Just gonna post a thank you here because I really appreciate that y'all took the time out to discuss/make changes. Thank you, staff! :)

[RedPhoenix]

Thank you for listening! :)

[Rayne]

Thank you all so much for listening and being open to change. And thank you everyone for sharing your opinions. I know it can be hard to share feedback and I really love how cordial everybody was in discussing this. We do all just want the best for the site and to make it easy for folks to participate so fingers crossed this helps new folks get engaged easier etc. 

[Kensyn]

It's great to see how willing the staff is to listen to user discussion and input  - thank you!

[Al Terego]

The O&Os, A&As, and even forum signatures don't necessarily require socialization - and I believe signatures are on for the average user by default so people can readily see them just by looking in a request thread or one of the above threads (The O&O threads I imagine are visited by most people who do come here for RP - a lot of request threads point them out.)

I am mostly a desktop user, but when I occasionally browse E on my phone, I find signatures with images to take an inordinately large space, and would assume that people predominately using E on mobile will turn signature display off.

While I am not looking to shut down discussion or users bringing up the issue, but we also allow two request threads per user, and a user may bump both threads once per month. IE: You have two threads, you bump the first thread on the 1st of the month. two weeks pass and it's the 15th, you bump the second thread. This is not exactly equivalent to a two week cooldown on bumping, but it does allow users to have separate idea threads that have their own unique idea and a staggered bump time.  As long as each thread has unique and non repeating ideas, this is completely within the rules.

The problem with having two request threads is that, according to the rules, they must contain unique plots, and it is not always easy to neatly separate all the plots into just two buckets.

Technically it is possible to start both first posts with something like "This thread contains only half of my requested plots, for the rest see here", but it's an ugly kludge.

[Esoterica]

I am mostly a desktop user, but when I occasionally browse E on my phone, I find signatures with images to take an inordinately large space, and would assume that people predominately using E on mobile will turn signature display off.
The problem with having two request threads is that, according to the rules, they must contain unique plots, and it is not always easy to neatly separate all the plots into just two buckets.

Technically it is possible to start both first posts with something like "This thread contains only half of my requested plots, for the rest see here", but it's an ugly kludge.

Well if you read up a few messages, its stated the rules will soon be changing. Happy about that. Before that I was honestly considering some line like the rest of my ideas are here, and I want to play them too. lol

[Oniya]

Before that I was honestly considering some line like the rest of my ideas are here, and I want to play them too. lol

It is perfectly acceptable to crosslink your request threads.  'Check out my {darker/fandom/fantasy/historical} ideas [link]here![/link]'

[Revelation]

I'm hoping that staff can enact this change in the next week or two - it will depend on our availability online and how much time we can dedicate to changing the wording. But I definitely do not want this change being far away.

[Revelation]

I have to add one other thing. The group section used to allow as many group interest threads as a GM wanted to host groups. Now the limit is two. There was a time when I actually ran two small groups and one big group on here, and now if I wanted to do that I would have to be very creative about how I advertised for it. Or something because I could not advertise for all three under the rules. The change impacted me as a GM as it restricted my ability to do interest checks, multiple ones, to see what people might be interested in. Staff might want to rethink this policy to if they happen to be listening to community concerns about request threads.

My apologies for missing this, but there is no limit to the amount of interest or request threads that a GM can post in the GM seeking player subforum. There is a 2 thread limit to players seeking GMs, but I do feel that such a rule should be in place there as that particular board moves very slowly, to a point where threads from 2024 are still on the front page.

The two week cooldown between posts will affect that forum as well, so if things need to be tweaked for that forum, we can do so.

[Esoterica]

My apologies for missing this, but there is no limit to the amount of interest or request threads that a GM can post in the GM seeking player subforum. There is a 2 thread limit to players seeking GMs, but I do feel that such a rule should be in place there as that particular board moves very slowly, to a point where threads from 2024 are still on the front page.

The two week cooldown between posts will affect that forum as well, so if things need to be tweaked for that forum, we can do so.

Oh the staff member that told me that must have misunderstood which thread I was talking about. They must have thought I meant as a player seaking a GM not the other way around.

From the point of view of a player who would look for a GM, that board is very slow, has been for years. I cannot see many people wanting more than two threads there. So a two thread limit in that forum totally I get.

[Sara Nilsson]

I'm hoping that staff can enact this change in the next week or two - it will depend on our availability online and how much time we can dedicate to changing the wording. But I definitely do not want this change being far away.

still 2 requests threads or?

[Oniya]

New rules are live!

Please read, and ask any Staffer if you need clarification!

[Revelation]

still 2 requests threads or?

Correct. We have not changed the amount of threads allowed in the one x one and non forum roleplay requests, simply the amount of time between bumps being allowed.