What's going on, guys? We've had more OOC drama in the past month and a half than we normally get over a few months. At least, it seems that way to me; probably because one happened while I was on vacation and they've generally been larger lately anyway.

I need to address a few issues that have been nagging at me, before things get worse- I founded DDD, after all, and if it were to implode on itself I'd feel guilty as hell.

Teal deer ahead. Plz to be reading anyway- that's why it's not LJ-cut.

1. I guess I'm at least a decent mod, or we'd never have come this far; but the thing is, I'd be better if I wasn't such a wimp. I'm afraid to tell people when they're bugging me because I'm unwilling to upset anyone I like. You might have noticed that in some of the mod decisions I've made, as well. I still labor under the delusion that I need to please everyone.
This might be rooted in my experience with the first RP I was in. It went great for about a year; then the founder and a couple other major players left. Next thing we knew, half the game left. It was never quite the same again, and ended up dying off over the next year. I'm downright paranoid about that happening here (even after watching Polychromatic survive a similar exodus, and knowing that I can't make someone stay if they don't want to.)
I'm pretty volatile emotionally, and easy to offend. It's taken a lot of effort, sometimes, not to flip out when things aren't going smoothly; the status of this place affects me more than it probably should.

DDD's been a learning experience for me- I'm not used to dealing with people this much. So I'm not saying everything I do is right. I just appreciate people giving me a chance. :)

2. Please, please speak up! Axel's the only one who does, and she catches shit for it, and then we might agree with her but have to worry we'll be accused of bowing to "a few oversensitive people". If you guys have issues with the way the game is run, we have to know in order to fix anything. Bring it to an IM or the suggestions post first if you can, though, instead of a giant rant...

3. I feel like I don't have much authority here sometimes. No, not because Riku's been doing a lot of the important stuff- it's more that I'm afraid to contradict Setine. She (and her friends) can be... awfully intimidating.

4. Speaking of Riku, he's brought up that after he was threatened with demodding, he was worried about doing more mod stuff. I'd just like to state now that making anyone feel like things are stacked against them is not cool.

5. I'm going to step in and say how I feel would work best for schedules and hiatuses, after reading your comments and listening to chat (and then insisting that chat put their thoughts in comments, now that that's the policy.)
Of course, these aren't set in stone unless the other mods agree with me.

Scheduling: I thought viruses had an "official" length of one week. Apparently it was two, but one sounds better to me, so they don't drag on; of course, you guys are free to have your characters affected for a shorter or longer time, or even not at all. A spacing of two to three weeks from the start (because ending times tend to vary and who really wants a five-week wait between them?) of one virus to the start of the next seems best. There will be a post to bring up your ideas, and where we will say what's set for when. Events- parties and the like- are separate from viruses. Large, community-wide parties don't happen often, so I will keep the old policy that they don't need scheduling. Smaller plot events don't need announcing unless you want to, and definitely don't need scheduling.

Hiatuses: I think the problem here was that we didn't put what we were thinking clearly enough. So I'll put it as clearly as I can, in boldface:
You do not have to announce short hiatuses on the OOC community. You can if you want to, but you don't have to. You don't have to announce when you're back, either. However, if it's going to be longer than a few days, we do need a comment on the hiatus post.

6. Everyone is welcome to bring up ideas to improve DDD, not just the mods.

7. We welcome discussion. However, for the love of kittens be civil about it.

8. Keep non-DDD drama out of the community. Okay, I may be a bit guilty of referencing posts from people's "real" journals in my previous attempts to run damage control- but they were posts that I thought were about the drama that was going on in the community. I've learned my lesson.

9. There will be a sticky suggestion post on the OOC community for you guys to bring up ideas. As well, the current policy about decision-making stands: we will not use chat alone unless it's practically an emergency. Discussion posts will be made. People need to use the discussion posts so we don't get attacked for taking opinions brought up in chat into account.


*phew* I don't want this place to collapse so soon after its first birthday.

♥♥♥ Here's to things calming down and a bright future for DDD, hey?

I've had a lot of fun and made some friends, and for me that makes it worth the effort (and occasionally the frustration.)

Quick thing. Normally, for huge events, we would make a new LJ account to host it in, or end up sticking it in our character's journals. An excellent example is how the Masquerade was set up.

Zack has proposed a third alternative: the creation of an events community. This would save people the trouble of creating new LJ accounts for each major (major meaning the whole community is invited) event they have. The events would still operate exactly the same as the Masquerade - this wouldn't be a log community or anything.

Using the events community would be optional and purely for your convenience - you can still make a new journal or have things in your character's journal. Smaller events, meaning the ones where the whole community is not invited, should remain in your character's journal.

( Examples of how it would be used to avoid misunderstandings )

All four mods have stated their support for Zack's idea, so, what do the rest of you guys think about this? Shall we go ahead and implement the feature?

Note: If you're put off by the idea of having another community to join and watch, don't worry, because when the DDD News thing comes out, it'll stalk what's happening everywhere, including the events. So you won't miss anything.

Swinging by the taken characters list, I noticed that the page is in dire need of an update. I'm not sure all of what needs to be updated, but in particular ladylightning and sterlingsylver's characters are still listed, as are some of Setine's that have been dropped. There may be other changes needed, but I just thought I'd let somebody know in case there are people who were stopping by the community and wanting to app a character that has been dropped or has already been taken when the list doesnt reflect that.

Also, I noticed the reserved characters page doesnt show the date for when the characters were reserved. I'm sure this is kept track of somewhere else, though.

Thanks.

... seeing as I got my arm twisted. I've picked up Seymour again. And Colbert. And Larsa.

... >_>;

Please welcome Luke Skywalker , Danny Ocean and General Futaba to the family. :D;;; I play him post series during the books.

Beach party's up. ♥ You guys can wander over to triple_d_events and get started whenever you want to.