Post by Admin Sora on Jan 22, 2021 13:59:10 GMT -7
Hey lovely members! Welcome to 2021! 2020 was one hell of a year, wasn't it?! Obviously, a lot of crazy things happened last year, more then we can count. In response, Alohomora made a lot of changes in terms of activity rules. These rules helped relieve the stress of the entire year. Now, thankfully (keeping fingers crossed) things in the world have started to settle down. So, we feel that it's time to break some bad habits we've gotten on Alohomora from 2020. We want to strive to be an active, always moving forward, fun, site. Below are the changes that we will be implementing. These changes go into effect immediately (though we will give you time to adjust to them before cracking down on you for them).
ACTIVITY
(technically goes into effect now, but staff will not be checking for these until on/after February 1, so you have the rest of January to get in line with the rule changes!)
ACTIVITY CHECKS
(these go into effect with the next activity check on/after February 1)
Obviously, the changes above to activity do affect the activity checks. These are the changes specific to the activity checks. Please note: requirements to reactivate are NOT changing (as in, we will still message you how many posts you have to do to be made active again).
We will also be implementing a 3 strike rule for activity checks. This is a per character rule, and has a rollover of 12 months. Basically, a strike last 12 months, before rolling off.
STUDY ABROAD
(goes into effect now. Anyone already on study abroad is being messaged privately to discuss and make accommodations)
The biggest reason for the changes to study abroads is we don't want these to be seen as a "Get out of Jail Free" card for activity checks, which is unfortunately what they've become. Study abroading shouldn't be your "oh crap" option. These should be something that you put a lot of thought and consideration into. These are for characters you absolutely can't live without and need somewhere safe to store them for a few months while you sort things out. You have to understand, study abroads don't just affect you. They affect every single person connected to the character. You are freezing plots, ships, family for an extended period. These can be very hard on other members because, while your character is the one on study abroad, you are stopping other characters from advancing in certain areas.
To wrap up all these changes I want to make one thing clear. If you know your activity is going to be low for an extended period (long enough to potentially cause issues with the activity rules) we will work with you. If you let us know. Just tell us. We won't give you an activity check strike if you already told us that you'd be super MIA for 2 months. We are 100% willing to give exceptions and leeway if you talk to us. Now, one thing I want to make clear, this isn't me saying that we will always give you a free pass. It will be based on the circumstances. I will say right now before it's asked: We won't be giving any leeway for school (except potentially during the dreaded exam season, because those hit like a freaking truck and everyone is dying). This is something you should already be calculating into your activity. School isn't an out of the ordinary circumstance. Nor will anything that will persist more then 4 months, because 4 months is a major life change, and not a temporary adjustment. But again, this is 100% hanging on you telling us BEFORE it's an issue. We probably won't accept it if you tell us in the middle of an activity check.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out privately to any staff members or chatting in the #HELP chat in discord!
ACTIVITY
(technically goes into effect now, but staff will not be checking for these until on/after February 1, so you have the rest of January to get in line with the rule changes!)
- We are shortening the time it takes for a character to be marked as inactive. Characters will now be considered inactive if they go 60 DAYS without any IC posts.
- Brand new characters will be considered inactive if they go 30 days from their acceptance date without any IC posts.
- Threads will now go inactive and be archived if they go 3 months (90 days) with no posts.
- Staff will not be resurrecting archived threads (returning them from the archives) unless there were exceptional circumstances around it going dead (study abroads, someone had a major RL situation that caused a slow in activity, etc). If it's older then 6 months though, it won't be resurrected, whatsoever.
- If we see consistent activity rule skirting, we may rule differently on a case-by-case basis. What this means is if you are doing the absolute bare minimum (consistently) to remain active, we reserve the right to do something different for you. (example: If you only post once every 60 days we may decide to lower your requirement to stay active to 30 days, or maybe increase it to 10 posts every 60 days. Who knows!) Basically, no more consistently seeing how close you can get to the edge of the activity cliff without falling. Again, this only comes into play if staff feels it is repeated behavior.
ACTIVITY CHECKS
(these go into effect with the next activity check on/after February 1)
Obviously, the changes above to activity do affect the activity checks. These are the changes specific to the activity checks. Please note: requirements to reactivate are NOT changing (as in, we will still message you how many posts you have to do to be made active again).
- If your character goes inactive you will now only have 14 days (2 weeks) to complete your reactivation requirements before they are deleted from inactivty.
We will also be implementing a 3 strike rule for activity checks. This is a per character rule, and has a rollover of 12 months. Basically, a strike last 12 months, before rolling off.
- It happens. No worries, we understand. Just do your activity requirements to get active again.
- In addition to getting your requirements done to be active again, staff will make you take some action with the character. (this CAN, but isn't limited to, making you do a character redo or redoing your app/sorting process.) We won't require you do these changes during the activity check (as you still have to worry about your requirements to be reactivated), but we will give you a hard deadline of when they must be done.
- We will be deleting this character.
STUDY ABROAD
(goes into effect now. Anyone already on study abroad is being messaged privately to discuss and make accommodations)
The biggest reason for the changes to study abroads is we don't want these to be seen as a "Get out of Jail Free" card for activity checks, which is unfortunately what they've become. Study abroading shouldn't be your "oh crap" option. These should be something that you put a lot of thought and consideration into. These are for characters you absolutely can't live without and need somewhere safe to store them for a few months while you sort things out. You have to understand, study abroads don't just affect you. They affect every single person connected to the character. You are freezing plots, ships, family for an extended period. These can be very hard on other members because, while your character is the one on study abroad, you are stopping other characters from advancing in certain areas.
- Study abroads are being shortened to 60 days (2 months).
- The price of study abroads will be increasing to 150 galleons.
- You can only have up to 2 characters on study abroad at the same time. (We may up it in certain circumstances, but this would be case-by-case)
- Study abroads cannot be purchased during an activity check.
- The same character can only be study abroaded ONCE per year. (we will be doing calendar years for this. So once per 2021, etc.)
- Staff can (not saying we will, or won't, just that we have the right to) reject a study abroad for characters that have activity check strikes. This will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
To wrap up all these changes I want to make one thing clear. If you know your activity is going to be low for an extended period (long enough to potentially cause issues with the activity rules) we will work with you. If you let us know. Just tell us. We won't give you an activity check strike if you already told us that you'd be super MIA for 2 months. We are 100% willing to give exceptions and leeway if you talk to us. Now, one thing I want to make clear, this isn't me saying that we will always give you a free pass. It will be based on the circumstances. I will say right now before it's asked: We won't be giving any leeway for school (except potentially during the dreaded exam season, because those hit like a freaking truck and everyone is dying). This is something you should already be calculating into your activity. School isn't an out of the ordinary circumstance. Nor will anything that will persist more then 4 months, because 4 months is a major life change, and not a temporary adjustment. But again, this is 100% hanging on you telling us BEFORE it's an issue. We probably won't accept it if you tell us in the middle of an activity check.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out privately to any staff members or chatting in the #HELP chat in discord!
