I normally don't trawl through the OOC sections, but I have some issues here and there. I'm guilty of some bad habits.
I joined the Guild at a time when I had a lot going on in my life, and more than one RP board i was a part of. It was kind of an escape from reality. However, I had a lot of irons in the fire, and fell behind in RP's and/or had to drop them. Since then, things have normalized, but I found that I wind up dropping or fading out because of some issues.
Rapid posting - I work in the evenings, but I'm usually off by 9 or so, Central time. When I come home and find five new pages of IC posting and 3 new pages of OOC posts in a thread. Sorry, I will drop that RP like a hot rock, especially if by the time I've read those posts, there's another page of IC posts up. I didn't join the RP to play speed racer against other people banging out (usually very crappy) single paragraph posts ever thirty seconds. I need the time to catch up and digest.
Absent GM's - If you're going to start a game or interest check, I would expect a GM to have enough time to devote at least one or two check-ins per day, or at least every other day. If you set something up and then can't be bothered to check back for five days or a week (Barring some great emergency) ... Why bother at all? And if you're going to be semi-absent, or bail on it.. don't set yourself up in such a way as the players don't have the freedom to make decisions, or can't more forward without your direct feedback.
In 1x1's, if your interest is waning, I want to know. Either, so we can fix it, move on to something more interesting, or call a stop, and maybe do something else. Re-evaluating the RP and the story is not a problem, and I don't see why people can't do this. Also along these lines - Diminishing returns. If a person is posting less and less and slower and slower, it makes me not want to work as hard to make something work. It also is usually a sign that the person I'm RP'ing with is loosing interest. I tend to give as good as I get, sometimes more.
Format-picky people: I've had an issue from someone simply from the way I write dialogue. I told them I disagree on the matter. I did not tell them this in a mean, disrespectful, or derogatory manner. I did decide to do a little research and look into their suggestion, and I found what htey had to say had merit. With that set of information in mind, I sent them a message in that I had reconsidered, conceded that they did have a point and they were right. I was more than willing to continue the RP with them with formatting changes. I never heard back from this person again.Just because there's a small disagreement over something as simple as formatting is not a reason to throw away a good RP, or RP partner, nor is it a good reason to ignore someone, especially if they're sincerely apologizing. Maybe they'll read this, maybe the won't.
Mixed messages - Don't start an RP, especially a 1x1 with seemingly the idea of primarily putting two characters together in a situation, if you're really wanting to throw many people out there. Don't tell me you're having fun if you're not, and if you're thinking about quitting, or want to do something else, let me know. Kinda goes with what I said earlier.
Railroad Express - If you, the GM, have something in mind for the plot, let me/us others in on it. I may be more than willing to help you get us there. Don't force everything to try to go a certain direction if you're not expecting your players to work directly in conjunction with you. That just makes your attempt to guide the plot seem hollow, forced, and very shoddy. If a player comes up with a good, logical counter-argument as to the direction of things, and can back it up, boxing them in just makes it worse. I've had this done to me in at least one sandbox type of environment, in a zombie apocalypse. The GMing as far as rules and mechanics was great, but for guiding the story and plot he was poor. He denied that he was trying to force the group where he wanted, but when you look at how he had arranged things, it was pretty clear. Now, if he had said "I would like for you to go this way," we could have found a way that would have worked better, or if he had gone with a counter-presentation, especially since the players had something different in mind, he could have made that campaign so much better.
Insulted Intelligence - I'm a pretty intelligent person. I grasp things quickly and intuitively compared to a lot of people. I favor logic and reason over emotions and feels. (I have them, don't worry). Do -not- treat me like I'm stupid. Do not be condescending. I had a lot of people beat into my head that I was stupid, retarded, useless, for years. At one point, I believed them, but it took some time and i broke myself free of that. I'm not good looking, I'm not infinitely charming, I'm not the healthiest person, but my mind is very sharp, and it's probably what I value the most.
These are a few of the issues I've had in recent memory, and I thought here might be an appropriate outlet.
My being offended is no reason or justification for censoring you or ignoring your points in the same way that I would expect the opposite to be true.
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