#fableadmin

Hey everyone!

A few quick things. Activity checks have been passed with flying colors two weeks in a row. We're happy to see the dash so active! You all are awesome!

Morticia Addams will now be faced by Kate Siegel, and all her materials will be updated shortly.

Just a reminder that acceptances are later today, so there's still time to get apps in if you have them!

Loves!

Hey everyone!

We don't have to post an activity check because, once again, everyone (except those on hiatus) has been active this week! We're so happy to see you all on the dash!

However, this is a quick reminder that with the more lenient activity rules, we also ask that you're policing yourselves and staying active on every character. If we see characters gathering dust for more than a month (not counting hiatuses), we'll probably be in contact. If it's a muse problem, we're always happy to help with plotting.

We'd also like to encourage everyone to use the Tumblr OOC for plotting if you're looking to branch out from the people you usually talk to. If you have plot ideas but don't know where to go with them, please feel free to use it as a resource! In addition, our starter tag has been temperamental lately, so if you don’t see your starter in the tag, you’re welcome to post a link to it in the OOC so other players can find it.

Loves!

Our dear Fabletonians, 

It’s almost our three-year anniversary, which is so insane (in a good way.)  This feels like as good of a time as any to streamline our activity requirements and rules.  We hope this will help things run a little more smoothly.  It will be easier on all of us, because we’re all so busy.  So, without upping the word count any more, here’s the plan: 

Saturdays are ‘admin day.’  On Saturdays, we’ll do an activity check, update hiatuses, do acceptances if we have anything pending, and otherwise clean out the inbox.  We may answer questions or hold acceptances on other days depending on our three-way availability, but Saturday is the guarantee.  If we need to change this from time to time, we’ll let you know.   

Activity checks will be by roleplayer rather than character. Not all characters have plots going.  Not all characters are ‘post every four days’ sorts of characters.  We get it and, let’s be real, we’re in the same boat as everyone else with that at this point. 

There are still three strikes.  Three strikes means three weeks without contact and that’s a lot.  After three strikes, we’ll start looking at dropping characters and other things we can help with to keep our writers around or make things easier on them, but after you’ve been on three activity checks, it’s clear we’ll have to work out something.  Three strikes may mean we open all your characters.  It’ll just depend on the situation. 

We’re still always here if you need to chat about things.  The reply may not be immediate, but we check Skype and the IM on the main page frequently.  Speaking for myself, I’m always logged into both things and will reply as soon as I can.  I’ve never had trouble getting replies for Admin C or Admin T, personally, but I’m not going to force them to say they’re always around.

That’s about it.  Told you it would be simple.  Please like this post when you’ve read it, and that will count for last weekend’s activity check.  I’ll have the rules page updated by Saturday! 

Hey everyone!

Hey all!

~HELLO ALL~

It’s time for another note from your admin team. This one isn’t as lengthy as the previous, but there are a few things we would like to address. Please make sure you read this through to the end, because there’s some important information being dropped.

We have updated the rules (...again). Our previous note focused on the rules and the need to review them a great deal. There are very specific reasons for that, but we have not seen responses we expected to see. So please, ALL PLAYERS REVIEW THE RULES once more.

The update today focused on one primary aspect: ACTIVITY. Specifically, activity regarding players with multiple characters. If a player has multiple characters appear on an activity check, we are going to have to ask that the player choose a character (or characters) to drop, based on the amount of characters that appeared on the check. Roleplaying should never be stressful and we don’t want any of our players to feel stretched thin or unable to handle their chosen character roster. 

If you’ve noticed, the previous admin note has been linked repeatedly. Please, go read it and make sure you’re current on the admin team’s most recent activities and decisions. 

As always, we are available to you. If you are having problems, have questions or concerns, we are here to help you. We love you all and want to provide you with a wonderful place to roleplay.

Hello all ~ 

This is the first joint note from your admin team, so we thought we’d make it a doozy.  (Just kidding.  Kinda.)  Please read this through to the end.  It’s important.  If we could pin it to the top of the main page for two weeks, we would.  That’s how much we want you to read all of this and do what we’re asking. 

In any long-running roleplay, there’s a sense of complacency that happens over time.  We become a little more like a family, infighting and nagging injuries included.  We’ve tried to come up with ways to allow expression of these minor issues in a way to resolve them and are of the opinion that it’s worked for the most part.  Things are goo and we’ve all relaxed into the roles we’ve selected and cultivated and that comfort is overall a good thing. Really.  

There are a couple of specific place, though, where it’s not so great.  We would like to direct your attention to those for a moment. 

There are two admins.  Please direct all questions regarding open characters, faceclaims, and plot questions to both of us.  You can do this through Skype by creating a group or through Tumblr in two ways: the in-Tumblr chat with the main or the main inbox.  This is a big change, but please don’t be offended if one or the other of us redirects your attention to it.  

It’s time to review the rules.  We feel their simplicity is one of the secrets to our long success.  But a few of them are being overlooked.  We’ll include a couple here, but please review them in their entirety here.

GET YOUR PLOTS APPROVED BEFORE THEY PLAY OUT.  Essentially, if it’s something that will last longer than a few days, it’s something that could feasibly send your character to jail, it could conflict with the overall plot or violate town intrinsic laws, or it’s a trigger-heavy plot in any way - you need to approach us beforehand.  It’s a huge problem when even one plot isn’t cleared first.  We’re doing our best to accommodate everyone and it’s spectacularly unfair to push any plots meeting the criteria above through without clearing them first.  Failure to do this may result in us asking you to step down from the role involved.  It’s not something we want to do, but it’s something we have to consider when our trust is abused.   

It’s time to review the structure of Fableton. A few things have slipped through that are inconsistent with the way things are actually run here.  For example, no one is allowed to leave the town limits.  Period.  There are no vacations, there are no ‘oops I accidentally crossed the border and that’s why I’ve been gone for two weeks.’  There are specific consequences to this.  Please review our ‘intrinsic laws’.  Keep them in mind and don’t play out your character violating one of them with no problems.  See above for plots that require approval beforehand.

Most of the characters don’t know why they know this, it’s just knowledge they have.  Characters without personal experience with the portal shouldn’t be talking about it.

The town is governed by the Town Council.  These are the most influential people in town.  No major changes to the overall structure of the town can be made without their approval and/or help.  New buildings or businesses, new laws, things like curfews -- those require council involvement.  We have enough of these characters in-play at this point that plotting should not be hindered by open roles. 

Any roles that involve a town council member may include additional responsibilities because of this.  Consider that before applying for one.  

We have a map.  We have certain businesses.  While yes, there may be others, it’s safe to assume the go-to are the existing businesses over actual “brand name” stores.

Last but not least, review the bios for characters you have in play.  While character development is great and especially the characters who have been in play for a long time will have built beyond what’s written, connections should not be ignored.  Basic background should not be overlooked for newer headcanons.  All the bios were written a specific way for a reason, and certain connections were included.  Those are not suggestions to help, those are cornerstones for you as a roleplayer that you need to be exploiting or resolving.  Submit an update (one or two paragraphs, max) for any characters who have developed beyond their bio.  

For those who are deviating, consider what you’re doing and why you took that role in the first place.  Get them back on track or consider dropping the character so someone else can play it in compliance with the biography.  There are plenty of roleplays where you can go find the faceclaim you want and make the character’s personality fit.  As you hopefully just read in the rules, that isn’t how we do things.  We plan it the other way around and expect everyone to stay in-character.  THIS IS NOT A REQUEST, IT IS A REQUIREMENT.

This seems strongly worded and we know how it may be received.  Please don’t take any of this personally.  If we have any issues, we will follow the same rules as we expect anyone else to by contacting you directly.  You can come to us any time in those same ways as stated above.  We really do love it here and want to keep everything flowing smoothly, while keeping true to what this has always been intended to be -- but we definitely need your help to do that.

I think the time has come to post something like this as a reminder about how to deal with people.  It’s no great secret I’m a little older than most people involved in roleplay, and with that advanced age comes a slightly different perspective on how to interact with others.  Before I really begin, I would like to stress that I have a lot of work experience interacting with people, face-to-face and over the phone/internet, who are happy, who are angry, and who are experiencing profound tragedy.  I’m not a social worker, I’m not particularly warm and fuzzy by nature, and I’m only minimally trained in a formal way.  My interactions are governed by experience, common sense, and a desire to ultimately be effective over being nice.  

However, this doesn’t mean I take free reign to be rude.  That also applies here.  I’m not trying to be rude. I also loathe passive-aggression to a pathological degree.  I’m just trying to share my own experiences in a context and provide a guideline for interacting with other people in a specific place -- in this case, a roleplay. I’m trying to outline what I look for in managing this group and how it informs the things I say to roleplay members who come to me for whatever reason they choose.  As you all know, my metaphorical door is always open.  I’ve happily worked through a number of interaction issues and I have no problem working through more when the need arises.  I also have no problem cheering people on, in their lives or in character. That’s the kind of stuff I’m here to do and I know that.  I’m not posting this to say I’m better than anyone else.  It’s just a way for me to share what I’m looking at when I’m dealing with complaints about how interactions happen, and a place to outline how I do it so you can hold me accountable for it.    

With that introduction and explanation out of the way, I’d like to start with explaining my perspective on an important difference.  This article, by a school counselor with extensive training on the topic and a lot of written force behind that, is my basis for it.  

When I guarantee a ‘safe’ environment here, what does that mean to you?  

To me, it means I won’t tolerate my members being spammed with inappropriate, frequent, or aggressive messages, whether in character or out of character.  This constitutes harassment.  

To be harassment, it has to be systematic. The only thing I can recommend to stop anonymous harassing messages is limiting the avenues they’re received.  For off-anon messages, if I look into it and agree that it’s bullying or harassing, the guilty person gets one conversation in which they are most likely removed from the group.  

What it doesn’t mean is writers will be comfortable all the time.  Especially in a roleplay like this with darker themes, there may be content that is objectionable to some.  That’s why we trigger tag.  Blacklisting is always an option, too.  Characters may not be liked or loved.  Someone else’s perception of your character may not be a positive one. 

It doesn’t mean disagreements won’t happen.  It doesn’t mean you won’t hear the word ‘no.’  It also doesn’t mean assumed priority or rank.  Every character and every plot has a sliding degree of importance based on scale.  In the end, we do not have a main character.  The biggest plot points are outlined on the main roleplay page.  With over a hundred characters, there will be different plots overlapping one another all the time.  With around 20 roleplayers at any given time, there will be different opinions, backgrounds, and needs to balance out.  

A safe environment doesn’t mean we all agree all the time or feelings won’t be hurt.  It just means a respectful place to work through and resolve differences.  It means no one is ignored if they make the effort to be heard.

I have a zero tolerance policy for hate-filled speech regardless of the avenue someone is being attacked (shape, size, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc - my ideas generally follow legal language because of my professional background.)  If someone receives this kind of a message from another member of the group, it is cause for immediate removal and I won’t provide the courtesy of a conversation. 

Gross instances of godmodding or metagaming will not be tolerated.  Smaller and possibly unintentional ones will be discussed.     

If the behavior doesn’t meet the legal and/or widely-accepted definition of these things, the guilty person gets a conversation that I consider a warning they need to consider how they’re treating others.  If the behavior doesn’t stop, they’re removed and blocked.  I don’t have a set timeframe for compliance here because it depends on the circumstance and its severity.

In the article I provided above, though, it splits out the difference between being rude, being mean, and being a bully.  That’s what I’d like to focus on next.  I notice the word ‘bullied’ or ‘bullying’ being tossed around a lot, both in the roleplay context and outside it, so I want to clearly outline what it is here, at least in my mind and in my operation as an admin. I agree with the article in that providing misnomers or using the buzzwords involved, at times, does a disservice to some grave issues.  This is the guideline I’m using now, and will continue to use, so please read through. 

Being rude is inadvertently saying or doing something that hurts someone else.  Not everyone is comfortable, if they feel someone is rude, saying ‘Hey, stop it.’  But the key difference between being rude and being a bully is the intent behind it. 

Example in a roleplay context: “I don’t think that’s how your character would react to that.”  Whether this type of statement, which I’ve seen more than once with different phrasing, is said in an effort to mold the speaker’s in-character interaction a certain way or for another reason, it’s rude.  It’s hurtful because of its implication that you know someone’s character better than they do.  A better, more collaborative approach might be “Tell me what your character was thinking when they said/did that.”   This automatically puts someone into a more creative place, rather than a defensive one. 

As a note, rudeness is something I will generally stay out of as an admin because we’re all adults here.  I’ll rely on you guys to work that out amongst yourselves for the most part. 

Disagreeing with someone is different from being rude.  How it’s managed is the difference.  The Golden Rule totally applies - stop and think about your own feelings or response if you were approached with a certain comment before you make it.

Being mean is a contained instance designed to hurt someone else.  Most of the time, this is inspired by anger and often it can be misdirected anger.  A lot of it is passive-aggressive.  All of it could be controlled or avoided but the person has a clear and willful disregard for the other’s feelings.

Example in a roleplay context:  “Character A hasn’t been around because they don’t care about me.”  This is a mean, planned out, and a passive-aggressive bid for attention if spoken in-character.  It casts your own character in the role of victim to someone else’s actions and casts the other character in a negative light in a way that is easily preventable.  It’s designed to get another roleplayer’s attention in a second-hand way (no direct OOC contact).  It’s also godmodding.  A better example is to place constraints and limit it to your own character’s perception.  “I don’t feel like Character A cares about me.”  This is open-ended enough to allow the other roleplayer to respond without trapping them and dictating where they’ve been or what they’ve done (or where they haven’t been/what they haven’t done.)  

As a note with this specific example, we don’t follow a day-to-day format here.  There are some roleplays that do, so an extended absence on someone’s part is a little more noticeable.  Because of the loose timeframe here, only really defined as ‘present-day’, it’s very easy to headcanon out day-to-day interaction.  

One example I feel comfortable giving is, as Marian’s roleplayer, I’ve discussed with Robin’s roleplayer that, in spite of our insane schedules, the relationship between Robin and Marian is stabilizing over time.  They see each other at home and nothing is remiss.  We’ll write out some of the bigger plot points we had discussed for them and we started a para.  This two-minute conversation literally eliminated the awkwardness and need for in-character meanness and passive aggression.  The important thing is having the two-minute conversation before we post and, trust me, with the two of us, the two minutes was spread out over about 6 hours. 

This is mostly about perception, because being rude and being mean both cause hurt in the receiving party.  The difference is really the degree of intent.  I’m more than willing as an admin to look at comments, posts, or messages and determine a degree of intent or look for patterns.  However, please realize this is a subjective science and it’s based on my own knowledge and friendships with each of you in the roleplay.  I try to talk to everyone and get to know them well, so I do consider each writer here a friend.  

If your feelings are hurt by what someone has said or done, please don’t think I’m defending them if I encourage you to consider that it may have been done from a different perspective.  

As much as I say I’m not a nice person, I don’t think that makes me a mean one either.  I don’t think anyone here is legitimately a mean person -- and the intention to degrade someone else is what makes the difference between being mean and being rude.  I know it can be hard to sort out when you’re the one hurting, but when you approach me I will try to decide if I think there’s a difference.  And I won’t be shy about expressing my opinion.  Even if I think the person is just being rude, not mean, it’s entirely possible I will go kindly ask them to knock it off.

Bullying involves three elements no matter where you look:  intent to harm, a perceived/emphasized power imbalance, and aggressive acts/threats against the weaker party.   It’s a big step up from being mean and, obviously, not all aspects apply to roleplay.  Physical bullying isn’t something we can do. I think the most pervasive kind in a roleplay is relational aggression. It’s kind of tied in with cyberbullying, considering the format, but in a long-running group roleplay, the friendships and connections you build (IC and OOC) are the key to having fun, and relational aggression undermines those.

Example in roleplay context:  “I’m just going to ignore your posts and hope you go away.”  This is an example of shunning or socially isolating someone, which is probably the most hurtful form of bullying in a roleplay because it’s insidious.  Obviously people just do this rather than saying it most of the time.  It goes without saying that not all characters will reply to all starters.  However, it becomes apparent over time when all of one roleplayer’s characters are ignored by another’s.  Things like a refusal to plot, ignoring messages without a clearly stated reason why beforehand, and spamming the dash to push someone else’s thread out of sight all fall into this category.

One example I don’t think people traditionally think of as bullying is bubble roleplaying.  We all have our ships and our favorites -- but please expect me to contact you if I notice you’re only writing with certain roleplayers or characters all the time.  It’s very much relational aggression to ignore plots with connected characters without a respectful explanation.  If you have connected characters in the roleplay, I expect you to have some form of interaction with them.  If you don’t like the connected character, you need to reconsider the role you’re taking on.  It seriously screws other people over and it’s a noticeable, glaring lack of development.  Plus it’s hurtful in an OOC way and makes others/newcomers feel unwelcome.  

I know this is long and detailed.  I had hoped it wouldn’t need to be said, but at this point I think it’s good to have a general reminder so we can avoid the casual indifference that happens once we’ve been established this long.  This isn’t me being passive aggressive and I’m not posting this because of any one thing in particular.  As I said earlier, it’s here so it’s all spelled out and, if you come to me with an issue, you can understand a little better what I’m looking at or how I think about these kinds of things.  It lays out a guideline for what I will do and makes me responsible to do it evenly and fairly.  Please click the heart if you’ve gotten this far so I know you have. It will hopefully also avoid me giving you a shut-down response if I think you’re using buzzwords in an attempt to get my attention (it won’t work.  I’ve seen that tree before.)  My ultimate goal is to keep this a safe place, to keep growing as a family, for as long as we can. I have all the trust in the world that you guys are on the same page as I am with that goal.  I love writing with each of you, even if time doesn’t allow me to do it as often as I would like.  

Thank you for being members here, for giving me your time and attention and turning this into something with a life of its own.  

Thank you for being great.