Hi, hi, hi. Me again. This is a very special episode¹ of the Growing Pains edition of poly mod posts.

As you know, we have over 200 players (211 as of most recent count) with 611 characters in play (unless someone drops before I get this thing up in the comm). That means we have a whole lot of new people and a whole lot of people who have been around for a long time and may need to adjust some of their play realities based on the fact that we've gotten freaking bigger than the originators of the game could have expected.

Thus, I get to bring you a list of things that don't really need a separate post, but which do need to be addressed. Let's start small and work our way through the list in no particular order:

• ( Affiliating with polychromatic )
  
  
• ( The Hiatus Post )
  
  
• ( Journal Deletions )
  
  
• ( Curse Leftovers )
  
  
• ( Resident Critters )
  
  
• ( Little Courtesies That Mean a Lot )
  
  
• ( Player Communication )
  
  
• ( Deleting Other Players' Posts in Your Character's Journal )
  
  
• ( It's OOC for him/her not to... )

That concludes our Very Special Episode. We can all give thanks that the bicycle repairman isn't going to do anything naughty to us in the back room.

¹Yes, that really is the Growing Pains Very Special Episode™
² Context for the kool-aid

The rules are still the same as always! A chance to reclaim your character exists, if you promise your fellow Polyites three posts in July. Seven days to confirm whether you want to claim the character again before they end up on the drop list. Some of you may get messaged by me about your re-pick for one of a few reasons, such as being the second time one has made inactivity, etcetera, but don't worry, I'm sure we can talk it out.

If one of the characters on the list has been dropped, don't worry about it, they'll end up on the drop list in the end anyway.

And, mistakes, well, they happen. We're going off the Hiatus Notice Page for exempting, so if you forgot to post your hiatus there, link me up to your poly_tldr post and we'll fix it right up.

Go forth.

( JUNE INACTIVITY LIST HERE )

I, for one, am breathing a sigh of relief and taking a break from CSS and Dreamweaver for the next month. For poly, though, let me give you the formal introduction to our new website.

First off, all polychromatic rules and guidelines should be listed on the website. If you find something missing from the site, please inform us. Otherwise, in all respects, any conflicting information in any old posts here on LJ is superseded by what’s on the website (and you can tell how fresh the rules are there by looking in the lower right hand corner of the page.)

Things of Interest:

• Applications
  The How to fill one out section may be useful to you when you're looking at a blank app template going “What now?”
  
• There is a new policy that everyone should be aware of regarding the Taken List.
  Long story short on the policy, we require that you get your character onto the Taken List within one month of acceptance. If, after that month, it comes to our attention that your character is not on the Taken List, you will receive a notification and one week’s grace. After that, a character still not on the Taken List will be placed on the drop list.
  
  
• The Gameplay section has a number of useful additions for player reference including information on the deities, clarification on zoning rules, the ticking, city death, and property damage.
  
• Also in the gameplay section is our housing section, where I would like to point out a codification of a long-term courtesy. You do not need to speak to mods about most housing choices you make for your character, but for residences like the Opera House and the Cathedral, we do request that before assuming that your character moves in there, you either contact one of the residents directly through IM or email or to put a post in poly_tldr directed to all of the residents. A character needs an IC reason to be in either of those residences, and it will need to be cleared OOCly with occupants.
  
  
• Particularly useful in the Destinations section is the index of destinations, laying out the destinations by category. Use it. Have fun with getting around in the City. The players have done a fantastic job of giving the City flavor
  
  
• On to Complaints. We’ve tried to lay everything out for you as clearly as possible regarding actionable problems and what we will do about them.
  Of note in that section is the new OOC policy based on the poll we recently had. In the end, it was the “neutral, will explain in comments” votes who swung the vote against making mandatory crit posts a replacement for complaints to moderators. (We went through the entire post and recorded the comment of every person who voted neutral and elaborated in comments, both for and against.)

To summarize our OOC policy:

• We will not weight in-crew complaints more heavily than those of someone playing outside the crew.
  
• We strongly encourage having personal concrit posts and the use thereof before going the official complaint route.
  
• We will send a letter to a player regarding their play after receiving three official complaints regarding their characterization.
  
• We will tell the player the nature of the complaints and the number of complaints, but we will maintain the anonymity of the complainant as much as is possible.
  
• We offer the recipient of the email the opportunity to respond to the complaints, which we will then pass on to the complainants. We will not act as middlemen to an ongoing dialog.
  
• We will consider further complaints only when two weeks have passed from the time of issuance of the complaint letter.
  
• Should it come to the point that we must issue a third complaint letter, we will include a request to the player to arrange a time to have an IM conversation with the two mods of their choice. This will be to discuss the nature of the complaints issued, the player's concerns on the matter, and whether or not the mods will consider suspension or removal of the problematic character.
  
  Any mod action regarding suspension or removal will be on a case by case basis.
  
  
• We will not suspend or remove a character for differences of characterization interpretation when either interpretation is logical in canon. In fandom, there will always be differing, but logical interpretations that do not agree.
  
• We will consider suspension or removal if the player in question is engaged in clearly OOC play and is intransigent about the matter of correction after three official letters and a discussion with the mods.

There's more to find on the site. There are 110 pages (not all rules, I swear; the destinations section is massive) of information, references, and hopefully helpful links.

If there's something you've always wondered and aren't seeing there, please let us know. If you've wondered and ask, there are probably a half dozen other people going "Yeah, I always wanted to know but never asked."

It's that time of the month again.

Remember, you have a chance to reclaim your character, if you can follow up with three posts in June. Seven days for you to confirm whether you want to claim the character again before they end up on the drop list.

For that matter, if one of the characters on the list has been dropped, don't worry about it, they'll end up on the drop list in the end anyway.

And, mistakes, well, they happen. We're going off the Hiatus Notice Page for exempting, so if you forgot to post your hiatus there, link me up to your poly_tldr post and we'll be all good, and get you off there. I may have even just missed your posts or hiatus notice, so please correct me if you shouldn't be here. It may be worth noting that hiatus' are not to exceed one month. If it did, you've ended up here.

( MAY INACTIVITY LIST )

... Right, wrong comm. On to business:

130 muns and over 4800 posts later, we would like to thank you for making this the most successful, least bloody HMD ever.

Now that everyone has had a chance to see this alternate version of HMD in play, we'd like your opinions on it. Did it work for you? Was it too nice? Were you able to get your crit across through questions? Do you want it changed back, other changes, whatever?

Poll #1195389 HMD yay or nay?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you want to keep this version of HMD?

What changes would you like to suggest?

Please give us your thoughts in comments if you find that the suggestion box isn't enough for you. If you don't give us your suggestions, your response will default to a straight yes or straight no when we consolidate the results.

So, hey! How's My Driving.

Love it. Hate it. Avoid it. Date it.

Whatever your stance on the issue, How's My Driving is coming up in about three days (give or take a timezone, please don't make me do the math), and we've made some slight changes that you should all obviously be privy to prior to posting. Keep in mind that this is the first time that we've done this sort of thing, and it's mainly a trial run after listening to and reading through your concerns. If this system does not work this time around, if people find conflict with it, if people plain just think it's a stupid idea, we'll of course take it into consideration and so alter our plans next time.

( Cut to Save Your Flist )

The Mirror City plot is off to a racing start, but we've gotten some notes that people are confused.

Just to clarify:

• If your character is affected and in Mirror City, your character acts, in some way, the opposite of his or her normal self--so a vampire who likes only the blood of virgins suddenly likes only the blood of vegans, or a famous ham gets bad stage fright, or the character's whole personality could be inverted.

• To get out of Mirror City, a character has to perform an act of one of the Seven Virtues or Seven Contrary Virtues.

→So the Virtues and Contrary Virtues are not the effects of being in Mirror City--they're your character's ticket out.←

→Mirror City makes your character act somehow opposite himself or herself.←

→Your character's opposite-ness doesn't have to correspond to any of the Virtues or Contrary Virtues.←

• An unaffected character who voluntarily enters Mirror City gives up a power/ability or one of the five senses to the Deities (mocklogged--we trust you to give up an appropriate one) in order to get in.

• For a volunteer character to get out, he or she must help an affected character commit their act of Virtue or Contrary Virtue.

The original and slightly tl;dr post is here.

Questions? Confusions? Moar cake?
Please leave a comment!

As mentioned on the Calendar…

( Mirror City Mayhem )

The event will start this May 11. Yes it will be triggered by poor deity management of all the cakes they received for the May 8 cake curse! Ferocia may be behind this, or maybe Ferocia isn't. That's a deity secret. Regardless this event is their plan to rectify the situation. Where is the Mirror City you might ask? That's a deity secret too, but it certainly exists within the universe of the City as a whole. Citizens just can't see it. As for the rest of those details…!

( The Low Down Report )

If there are any questions about this plot please ask them here! This entry will be listed under the Calendar as well. Thanks again and we hope this event is of some use to everyone, whether it's to participate or just to relax on a 7-day no curse stretch!

-----

And if you haven't done it yet, please vote here concerning poly's system for handling OOC and other player concerns!

¤ CHARACTERIZATION POLL ¤

I'm sure some of you remember the OOC discussion thread posted about a week ago. We'd like to thank you for your input. The various opinions and ideas offered were eye opening, and we're glad that the discussion went over so well. However, while it's clear that we can't make every single person in a community of 200+ members perfectly happy, we fully understand that it's the players that make the community as fabulous as it is, and so we value your input. We do what we do because we have the community's best interests at heart.

We've all read what you've had to say, and now we'd like a poll to better organize certain ideas. Additionally, we know there are members of the community who weren't able to participate in the previous debate, so this is your chance to offer up your opinion without feeling the need to tl;dr your brain out.

Bear with me, because this post will be hosting some tl;dr in the form of a poll. If you care about how this community is moderated in terms of characterization and inactivity, even just a little, then please fill out the poll. It will only take a minute of your time. ♥

( ][ WHAT SAY YOU, TEAL DEAR? ][ )

We encourage comments as well because we realize opinions can vary beyond checking boxes. Please feel free to express your opinion, but don't forget to be polite. We won't tolerate flaming of any kind towards other players.

[EDIT] Please, only one vote per person.

That's right, we did just have an open app week, but since we're closing apps for three weeks from May 12 to June 1 (plotty and reorg time), we're giving you an extra week now to get your apps in. That means that if you submitted an application in the app slot or a regular application between April 20 and May 4, you may now submit another application during the period between May 5 and May 12. (Technically 11:59 p.m., May 4, to 11:59 p.m., May 11, for anyone hanging on their clocks.)

2; Media Meme

It's FST time so get your music collection ready. We'll be posting an entry on one of the comms for you to list your ten songs that fit your characters. Due to policies we don't want to touch with a ten foot pole, we'll be requesting that music shared be in the form of a youtube link only. You don't need a link for every song on the list but if you have them, then by all means link ten songs. We would appreciate that mp3s be exchanged only through email or IM, thank you!

You heard it here first! So, let's get this party started.

We all know there are times we hear something and go, "you know, I think this could work for so-and-so!", or you even have FST things, maybe character songs, themes from a movie or anime, or even just background pieces you think fit!

Well, now's your chance to show them off. Post links to places like youtube where your fellow players can listen and appreciate, and if you'd like, even offer to share the wealth if you have it. Though, for legal purposes, (we love you LJ, really, ♥), we'll have to ask any sharing goes on outside this post, through IM or email, alright?

Some semantics. If the links you're posting contains material not safe for work, please label them as such, we don't need anyone getting in trouble~ Feel free to post songs with each character journal, or all of them in one. But let's try and limit it to ten listed links at most per character, alright? You have more to share, awesome, but let's link that elsewhere or some such.

With that said, have at it, players! Celebrate our 200 count, and let loose.

Following up our YAY, 200 MEMBERS POST!, would you look at that, I'm on the ball and bright and early with your activity list. Possibly because I was stalling on studying for that ANTH final I have in... eight hours, anywho!

The rules are still the same! You have a chance to reclaim your character, if you promise us your firstborn three posts in May. And you have seven days to confirm whether you want to claim the character again before they end up on the drop list. Some of you I may need to speak with if you wish to reclaim, just to clear up things.

For that matter, if one of the characters on the list has been dropped, don't worry about it, they'll end up on the drop list in the end anyway.

And, mistakes, well, they happen. We're going off the Hiatus Notice Page for exempting, so if you forgot to post your hiatus there, link me up to your poly_tldr post and we'll be all good.

Have at it.

( APRIL INACTIVITY LIST )

"Never let it be said that your anal retentive attention to detail never yielded positive results."

ATTENTION POLYCHROMATIC:

We have reached

200 P L A Y E R S!

Congratulations on this milestone, poly. Give yourselves a collective round of applause for making this place so much fun and so damned addictive.

To carry the celebration into the game, starting at midnight, we have an unscheduled event. For the 24 hours of Thursday, May 1st, Virginia, in her quest for a good drink, will be demonstrating for the citizens of the City what a proper drink should taste like.

The City fountain will run pink with cosmos for the day. No special power or curse will attend the alcoholic excess, just the curse that can be a hangover for those who enjoy the best damn cosmo ever.


♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Hear me, hear ye~!!
(Sparklies. Check it.)

We've been getting some questions about how the app week/slot week alternation will work as we get closer to Big Events, Site Rollout, and Temporary App Suspension Of Dewm.

So, to clarify and for the record:

✗This week, April 27^th → May 4^th, is an app week.
&
✗Next week, May 5^th → May 12^th, is also an app week.

Therefore, the slot thread will be closed until the 13^th. (I think I got all those dates right...) Please post your apps in the regular applications threads--

→ canon here
→ OCs here

--until the Big Events start going down.

Thereafter, the regular apps will be closed for three weeks while everyone plots themselves to pieces, and we get the new info site settled.

So! In short and to repeat:
This week and next week are REGULAR APPLICATION WEEKS. So submit--those apps, I mean.

Questions? Comments? Sandwiches? Party over here?
Annoying HTMl is go~!

With the upcoming rollout of the new polychromatic-rp.info website which will codify our rules for easy player access, there are some issues that we think should be revisited before we finalize the site.

We'd like to talk about how complaints are handled. As you know, there are many ways to go about making an official complaint on somebody's characterization, activity, and all those other things that come up when you get nearly 200 people together for collaborative storytelling (RP).

• Complaint Central for all your complaint shopping needs ruleswise
  
• Character Concrit Post which we highly encourage all players to contribute their characters to, and to use when you have concerns
  
• The seasonal How's My Driving Post which, as we mentioned, we are planning to restructure somewhat lol styptic pencil anyone but will be keeping

We want your input on any of the issues listed in the main complaints section of the website, but one of the places where we get some conflicting feedback is on the matter of OOC complaints.

You've all seen how we've tried to handle the issue of perceived OOC characterization. No system is perfect and we try our best, we always encourage communication between our players. Those three venues are what we have to offer, and as always IMs and emails are encouraged too. We'd like to open this thread to any suggestions or criticisms you might have about the processes.

Too few complaints needed?
Too many?
Too long between complaint letter issuance and when more complaints will be considered?
Not long enough?
Is anonymity bad? Is it good?*
Should we take action other than a letter for the first instance?
The second?
What about the third? Removal? Suspension?
At this time, by our own choice to avoid appearance of bias, mods do not lodge complaints. Do you prefer it that way?

Everything is on the table.

To date, we have never chosen to remove a character from a player entirely due to perceived OOCness. At the same time, because we have never faced that situation period, it may seem like we refuse to do anything about the situation at all, beyond sending notices to players. Removing characters from players over how they play them is a delicate issue and feelings are easily hurt along the way. We'd also like to hear the community's opinion on this issue.

While we encourage everybody's opinion, please remember to stay courteous while expressing yourself. This is a community matter. We will gladly accept community member input, but we have turned off anonymous responses at this time to keep the discussion civil.

Also, please understand that what we are doing now is soliciting community opinion. It will take a while to filter through what majority community opinion is and implement it. For instance, if we distill this down to two majority themes, we may open the matter to a community vote as to which method we will adopt. This will take time. We won't be making changes overnight, and any major changes would require overall community approval.

Also, while we're at it, a reminder that apps will be closed from May 12 to June 1 as part of our work on the website rollout. We have a lot of work to do to unify the message and posts and links and will need the clear space to get it done in. Thanks for your patience and your input.

*Anonymity is defined, for this purpose, as player anonymity in delivery of the OOC complaint email. We do not accept anonymous complaints to the OOC complaint thread. This is only in terms of keeping complainants' identities anonymous from the email recipient.

Mod announcement time! Keeping it simple and in style.

The polychromatic website is still in the works. We have a lot of cross-referencing information to do to make sure both our livejournal pages and our site pages reflect the same content. We would definitely appreciate it if you guys took a look through our livejournal pages and add/delete information accordingly (Taken Characters I see you there). There are also some locations on the Destinations page that were managed by characters who are no longer in the City. These establishments are open for new management (ie. current characters) to take over. First come first serve, just comment to the proper thread! The new locations will be updated today as well.

There's another Citywide event in the works for May but we can't give you all the details just yet beyond it starting with cake. Yes, cake. It is poly's Two year Anniversary after all. The plot will run for one week from May 11 to May 18. Don't worry about hiatuses (we know it's finals season for some of you), the plot is flexible and open to being used at anytime between May 11 and May 18. Backdating logs are always welcome!

At the end of May, ye auld How's My Driving? thread will rear its head. We're planning to restructure how this seasonal thread works but explanations, genuine compliment, and constructive criticism will still be the core foundations of the thread. We will post about the HMD, how it's run, and what's its purpose, as well as some minor changes to it the closer we get to the end of May. We highly encourage suggestions on the HMD, please feel free to make them here.

So... it looks like May is going to be a busy month right? There is one more thing to add... and that's the fact that
Applications will be closed from May 12 to June 1

We need to pause applications for all the things mentioned above, from website overhaul to plots to How's My Driving? We apologize if this disappoints people, we know it probably does. However, this also means that the Application Slot Week prior to the event (May 5 to May 11) will be a regular Application Week. Repeat!
May 5 to May 11 will be a regular Application Week

We understand that three weeks sounds like a long time, but we really need it to accomplish our other poly-related tasks smoothly. We hope that this notice hasn't come too late for your character needs. We'll definitely remind the community again to get all those applications submitted as we approach the closure date!

Hi guys. It's time for a friendly reminder.

If your character is not on the Taken List GET THEM THERE. If your character is not on the Add/Remove List GET THEM THERE.

I go through and give people friendly (and they are wholly friendly, not just mostly friendly) reminders to put their characters on the Taken List, but ultimately, it is your responsibility as a player to add your character to both lists.

The Taken List is important not just for contact reasons, but because if you aren't on there, someone may app your character. Then things get complicated, people feel dense, we mods feel like meanieheads, and it's generally just not an ideal situation all around.

The Add/Remove list is important because you want all your poly buddies to know you exist, to see your posts, to add to your enjoyment. That's a whole lot harder if they don't know to add you. It's all well and good to put up an "add me!" post in tldr, and we highly recommend that you do so, but as we all know, with poly's post volume, that post may be missed and your shiny new character won't get added.

Posting there with your remove is just as important to help us know to remove characters from the Taken List (you can always be a darling and delete your taken list post yourself.)

Additionally, we have this lovely resource here - the master list spreadsheet. I keep that updated, but I update based on the emails I receive when additions are made to the taken list, and the emails I receive when you post your removes on the add/drop list. I do not hunt down your information based solely on "friend add ljnamegoeshere". I ain't got that much OCD, try though I might.

If you see anything in any of our resources that isn't correct, please let us know. We want to keep everything as clear as possible. It's a bigass game, as you might have noticed, so we do have a lot on our hands.

Haku was a wonderful help recently and went through all the lists making comparisons and trying to get everything that may have fallen through the cracks. I have her list in my possession and will be updating the spreadsheet based on her OMG I bow to her OCD invaluable assistance.

One last thing, and it is important. If you haven't already had a look over here at the post and information for the BETA VERSION OF OUR INFOSITE, please do. If you have any questions or suggestions or little things that you were never able to find around here, please let me know, so I can get it incorporated into the next iteration of the site. The site will be a dynamic document after it goes live in May, but the more comprehensive we can have it before then, the better, of course.

Well, people, brace yourself. This is my first time on the inactivity list, so, be gentle?~ ♥

As is, the rules are still the same. You have a chance to reclaim your character, if you promise us your soul three posts in April. And you have seven days to confirm whether you want to claim the character again before they end up on the drop list.

For that matter, if one of the characters on the list has been dropped, don't worry about it, they'll end up on the drop list in the end anyway.

And, mistakes, well, happen, and this is my first time, so if you were on hiatus, point me to your hiatus post, if you made two posts in March and I missed it, point me there, and we'll get it all fixed, alright?

Have at it.

( Inactivity for March )

Hi guys. I'm back from my mod hiatus with a bang and I neeeeeeed you.

March was spent getting our frustratingly, can I get an amen? scattered game information gathered into a single location. Now we have a beta version of that single location for you all to review.

IS THAT A WEBSITE I SEE THERE?

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
Look around.
Tell us here if there's anything missing.
Feel free to tell us if something's always been worded a bit confusingly so we can get it clarified.
Point out typos, or bad links or missing footers.
Anything else you need to see updated/changed/fixed/added/etc.


There are no new rules here. These are all rules that have been in existence for some time in poly, but have not been easily accessible or linked or buried amidst other rules and posts.

Again, let me reiterate, this is the beta version not the final release. Judge this for content, not visuals. The final version will live on polychromatic-rp.info (yes, we now have a domain) but not until our content has been reviewed. My goal at this time is to have the final version ready to go live in time for our second anniversary in May.