First off, I wanted to add a little personal note. Work has been very challenging lately. When I first started my job we had about thirty employees on my shift. Now we have about six. We're functioning with more work and less people. That being said, I've been absolutely overwhelmed lately with the volume of work I've been doing. I'm also working weekends. Gillar, unfortunately, works at the same place, and is just as busy actively getting his rear handed to him in different but just as challenging ways as I am. We actually hired more help, but they did two days of ride-alongs and ended up quitting because the job seemed too 'challenging' and 'overwhelming' to them. Funny. I deal with it day in and day out. But that's neither here nor there. I just know that I'm a little sick of people complaining that there are no jobs when I work someplace we can't get people to come and work at. I think it has to do less with the economy these days and more with the wants and needs of people - ie... they want paid for NOT working and won't settle for any sort of job that actually resembles work. It makes me pretty disapointed in humanity as a whole.
This also means I'm behind on the HD and all sorts of Mizahar activities. I will get caught up, never fear, and I'm not about to be vanishing for good. I just wanted people to know that I'm still around, but that because I haven't logged on for part of last week - Weds, Thurs, Friday to be exact - doesn't mean I'm gone for good. It just means I'm horribly busy.
The event at work is over and we should have a slow down for the next three weeks before it gets busy again - should have - no guarantees. But that does mean some of you started playing in a Goss-free environment and then got a bit of a shock when I started relogging into chat and learning what Mizahar is like when I AM around. I don't appreciate the spam of tons of emotes, the tom-foolery, and the grab-assing that goes on in other chats. Chat on Mizahar is there for the sharing of ideas, the helping of new people, and not for your dose of socialization dragged down to the level of a playground. Be forewarned.
Also, I don't appriciate individuals who do not know me... casting judgement on why I rein chat in like I do and making statements like 'Oh, she's tired.. she's been working a great deal. Just ignore the bad mood." I haven't been in a bad mood at all, in fact. Tired? Yes. Grumpy? No. Intolerant of idiots? Yes... because there's nothing more frustrating to a Founder than logging into chat and having some newbie tell some other newbie all about say the kelvic race and have 99% of what they are saying be wrong. You'd be a little testy too with that individual and probably call them out on their misinformation as well. So, if you must announce to everyone that I'm out of sorts because I've been working a lot, you'd better be right on that account because what are you going to say when I'm still demanding the same sort of chat environment and I haven't been working a lot and am in a great mood?
You'll just look silly.
That, and lets face it... I had over a hundred PMs... seriously... to come back too. Some of the things that I read just made me shake my head. If you are a Storyteller, don't take things to Founders that you have already been entrusted to deal with. If someone has a bad character sheet in your Domain, deal with it... make them correct it. Don't grant them things like Isurian Steel Longswords for heirlooms and let them give themselves free money and call it inheritance so a back story they concocted makes sense. How fair is that? Not at all. But honestly, do you need to bug me to get it all straightened out? If your name is colored and the player isn't a difficult one, then you shouldn't need to call in a big gun or ask a second opinion on something that is a fairness or equality issue like a character sheet. And you shouldn't be grading threads that are posted by PC's with bad sheets. All sheets need to be corrected.
If you've noticed, we have virtually no Liaisons left. And I do know why. If they aren't active for thirty days, I retire them. If they have an excuse and don't come back after their time away, I retire them. This is the same I do to all ST's. It's not fair to have inactive staffers just hanging around, popping by when they feel like it, and or posting to one thread and doing nothing else. I can't do anything about it when Founders do it, but when ST's do it, I nip it in the bud hard. But I do understand why the Liaisons go inactive. I've corrected about two pages of CS's recently and on every one I've asked for a correction on - however nicely - I usually get a PM filled with WHY CANT I DO THIS ITS SO UNFAIR AND MY CONCEPT IS SO COOL. My favorite recent one was a CS sheet you probably read (or not) featuring a Konti raised as a Myrian slave who was bloodthirsty and stark raving crazy and a towering 6'2" tall well muscled with an ability to see the future of battles. When I nipped that one in the bud, I was told to go fuck a goat. Lovely. I posted the whole little PM exchange in the Staff Lounge for the Storyteller's amusement because we gotta have a laugh every once in a while... but that player is no longer here. Why? Well people who have problems with others asking them to conform nicely to established rules will have all sorts of other problems in a game like this as well. And besides, I'm always wary of a player that usually starts out an intro with "I got kicked from another site for the unfairest thing ever!" Yea. Okay. Great.
And truthfully, I agree we need to be nice to our newbies and be loving and open and friendly and welcoming. But when those newbies are just the opposite, or hugely annoying or needy in chat, I want NOTHING to do with them and won't give them the time of day. We've had some great people wander by, love the site, and stay. Frankly, the site is the way it is because of the people running it and the rules we all play by to keep everyone equal. You need approvals for NPCs or special powers or eyes that glow in the dark. You can't just look up some rare-ass disorder and claim your PC has it. Nor can we have a hundred albinos roaming around.... but you know, not true albinism, but the kind that doesn't' have sun sensitivity associated with it, nor poor eyesight, nor bad genetic predisposition because all their genes are double recessive with no dominant ones to mask the inferior recessives. Because as a player we just want to look cool, but not be sickly in the least. Duh. Remember most recessive genes are recessive and only survive hiding behind dominant genes that mask their phenotypes.
And while we are at it..... all unreasonable requests in the help desk may run the risk of being ignored for weeks on end or not answered at all. If you want to be a Zith with stubby wings because your daddy was a human, the answer is going to be no. It's in the lore that half-zith don't have wings. If its there, it means that the help desk is goign to say no too.
People, we only have so much time in a day and that time doesn't need to be spent holding hands, coddling, saying no a dozen ways after a player comes back on a no with a 'But why??????' etc. We want to say YES. We want to approve everything fast and easily and make it a smooth easy process for anyone. To do that we need reasonable requests. We need NPC requests that already conform to the NPC rules and are clearly outlined as stationary or traveling etc.
And for gods sake... signatures. I know I've already dealt with this in a scrap. But enough with the huge signatures already. It's annoying. It's even more annoying when you squeeze a few more pixils in just to be a wise guy. We see this... we know it... I often just shake my head and don't comment though. It's often no wonder to me why Tarot and myself are the only ones around with any frequency as Founders anymore. And we are certainly the only ones that deal with all the creepers and crazies on a daily basis.
Anyhow, enough of the rant. I'm going to post a sign next.
by Elaine Spade on April 10th, 2013, 7:06 pm 
