Reminder: AC starts TOMORROW, plus some other updates!

[ten_fwd_mods]

Greetings, Everyone! Happy 2015!

It's a bright new year with bright new things, and we're so happy to have you all here playing with us. We have a few quick updates, plus a reminder that AC begins tomorrow, January 11th (here in the US), and will be open for one FULL week.

• January Apps: To everyone who applied with us this month, we'll be going over apps starting this weekend and you should expect to hear from us throughout the coming week! We'll have a Welcome Post up as soon as apps are processed. We're really looking forward to playing with all the new characters!
  
• Activity Checks start TOMORROW: Just reminding everyone that AC begins tomorrow. Since some of you had some questions since our last AC announcement, we're going to take this opportunity to repost that announcement with some added info below the cut.
  
  + Activity Checks: January 11th - 24th: It's that time at last! If you've been keeping track, you know Ten Forward has officially been open for 6 months, which means it's time to run AC. Normally, we would have AC at the mid-point of the month and leave it open for about a week, but in deference to the holiday season and how busy most people will be this time of year, we want to be sure nobody is stressing out about their gaming life. An AC post will go up the second Sunday of January here in the OOC comm, and it will remain open for one full week. The mods will then check everything over and you will have about a week to reclaim any characters who didn't pass AC before they're removed from the taken list. We'll have our next AC on the second Sunday in July.
  
  Since this is our first Activity Check here at Ten Forward, we want to let you know in brief what you can expect. Our FAQ states we're looking for "substantial activity within a six-month period," so what we'll be looking for is:

  At least one (1) Log/EP in the main comm

  AND

  At least two (2) threads on another player's log/EP

  Personal logs that have been cross-linked to the main comm will also count toward your AC. Threads should be of a substantial length – no starting a thread and dropping it right away just to meet requirements. We prefer to see completed threads, but anything over 15 tags total (at least 7 or 8 tags per character) will suffice. If you have been a member of the community for less than 3 months, we'll accept one (1) log/EP and one (1) thread on someone else's post, OR two (2) threads on two individual posts. This is for each character you play, so if you have more than one character in the game they will all need to pass AC. December applicants are exempt from AC this round.
  
  Because Ten Forward just opened, if you do not have 3 qualifying proofs of activity we will still accept whatever activity you do have along with any notes (ie: if you were on an extended hiatus and could not play, we won't count that time against you), because we are taking into account that growth period where the game was slower and smaller and there was less activity all around. Therefore, our next AC in July may run differently because of the game's growing cast list and activity. Please note: we consider three proofs of activity over 6 months to be the bare minimum to pass, so if you can't meet the above requirements next time, the mods may not be as lenient. Plan ahead to be sure you have plenty of AC evenly played over your time in the game.
  
  Frequently Asked Questions:
  Have the AC requirements changed from what it says in the FAQ? We made two small adjustments from what it says in our FAQ. As everyone knows, when you apply to join the game we ask you to read our FAQ/Extended Rules on Apping first, where it says we require "at least one entrance post, personal log, and thread on someone else's post of a substantial length". This hasn't changed. The adjustments we made were a) to specify what we mean by "substantial length", namely adding in the 15-tag minimum on qualifying threads, and b) to add that one (1) log/EP and two (2) threads on someone else's post would pass AC. The reason we did this is because a) we knew we'd be getting questions about what qualifies as substantial, and we wanted to have a baseline in place after we had some time to observe the game's activity and what our average tag length ended up being, and b) only a few players have made personal logs, and we didn't want anyone to panic over not passing AC if they didn't have one. Since everyone tags around the main comm, we thought two threads and one post would be a much easier requirement (though we did add that personal logs would still qualify for one proof of AC for those who have them). If a player has one log/EP, one personal log, and one thread in someone else's post, this still meets our requirements! If a player does not, then the one log/EP and two threads in someone else's post is completely sufficient. We will add these details to the FAQ after this month's AC, since we are accepting any proofs of activity this round. That way, everyone should have 6 months to prepare to meet these requirements by June.
  
  JUST ADDED: What qualifies for passing AC? All character activity from the time they enter the game to the present qualifies for AC. For instance, a character's entrance post, a character's most recent thread, and a thread from some point in the middle will all qualify for AC. Please be sure you give us at least one recent proof of AC, but any log/EP, thread, or personal log will qualify. Your character's game tags, which should be added to any post they're in on the main comm, can be used to locate older proofs of AC.
  
  Who are exempt from AC this time? December and January applicants are exempt from AC, since they may not have time to meet the three proofs requirement. (Note: if anyone does and would like to submit their AC, they can feel free to do so!) Additionally, anyone who has filled out an official hiatus request will be exempt, but will have to pass AC when they return from their hiatus. Please note, this only applies to people who have submitted an official hiatus request here; unannounced hiatuses will not qualify for exemption, so if you have not filled out the form you will be expected to participate in AC.
  
  I have never done AC before, what if I don't pass? Many of you have never been in a game that requires AC before, so please don't be nervous. The process is very simple. Tomorrow's post will include a form you can C&P explaining exactly what we need. The post will remain open for a full week, so if you can't get to it right away do not panic! After AC closes, we will publish a list of everyone who did not participate or pass, so if there were any mistakes you will have an additional week to fix them, and us mods will be here every step of the way. Only after that point will anyone who did not make AC be removed from the game. If you are removed for not passing AC, you can re-apply with us at any time. Not passing AC will not be held against you if you do re-app, provided you continue to pass AC with us in the future. Repeated AC failure may result in your app being rejected. Please note: Anyone who has been playing with us for three months or less only needs one (1) log/EP and one (1) thread in another player's post to pass. If you do not meet any of these requirements, you may submit whatever proofs of activity you have along with a note (such as if you were on an extended hiatus, in hospital, or otherwise unable to play), and the mods will work with you.
  
  Additional Info:
  At this time we will also be checking in with everyone who has requested characters be placed on the Reserved list with a note to contact the cast before apping about potential triggers or previously built CR (as mentioned in our FAQ). Players will need to renew their request with us to keep it on the Reserves page. We will do this every AC period, as casts shift and change and a reserve request may not always be necessary. If you have such a request, you will be getting an e-mail with this info from the mods, and all you will need to do is reply with whether the reserve is still necessary or not. You will have until the end of AC (Jan 24th) to do this, at which point if we have not heard from you we will take the reserve request down.
  
  As always, if anyone has any other questions or concerns, you can get in touch with us anytime!
  
• Holiday Events: Just to officially answer any curiosity, all effects of our Holiday Events have been reversed and set back to factory settings. Ten Forward is back to normal, the mistletoe is gone, the holodecks are now functioning properly, and the pigs and snow are no more! The ship is still docked at Risa, of course, but passengers no longer have to worry about strange holiday effects. If anyone has holiday plots they would still like to play out, they may absolutely do so by backdating posts or hitting some of our older ones for tags.
  
• What Happened to Worf? Since the player of our DS9-era Worf had to leave the game, our TNG-era NPC Worf is back in action. IC, the Worf Switcheroo happened over the holiday season as one of Q's mischievous little games, after which he returned things to normal. Our Worf NPC will have no memory of anything DS9-era Worf did while he was on the ship. If anyone has any additional questions about this, just let us know in the comments below!
  
• When Will the Enterprise Leave Risa? The Enterprise will be leaving port at Risa in the near future so that it can pick up a few new characters in deep space from our current round of applicants. We will leave the ship at Risa for at least one more week to allow for more time exploring, plotting, and playing on the planet, at which point the Enterprise will return to sailing the stars on its way to its next destination. If any player needs more time than that to finish plots on the planet, please let us know in the comments below and we will adjust the IC departure date to help you out.
  
• Jobs - Whatever happened to Jobs? During our last big update we announced a jobs listing would be posted, and it somehow never made it to the comm. The mod in charge (~guilty waves from Gabby~) apologizes profusely for that, and has included the following message:
  
  "December got a little out of whack there, didn't it? No, just me? Oops. I wanted to say a big SORRY I FAIL to everyone who has been waiting on me for things. The end of the year exploded in a flurry of... well, it wasn't confetti, I can tell you that much. But I digress.
  
  We have a post for IC Jobs up over here, which is currently waiting to be filled in with all the details about businesses, postings, and characters who are or will be employed on the Enterprise. This is what I'm going to spend my weekend doing, so everyone who isn't familiar with the ship will know precisely what it means to be a maintenance worker or an arboretum gardener. However, there's also that friendly "Civilian" subheading sitting there. If you already have an inkling of what you want your character to do on the ship, say they want to open their own pottery store or host an art class for adults or something like that, drop a comment on this post and we can get started squaring you away! There will be an official sign-ups post in the ten_fwd_ooc comm as promised too, so if you're not sure or you'd like to wait you can hit me over there. It will probably go up on Monday (?), or whenever I'm done adding in current jobs and positions.
  
  Now, I'd also like to let you guys know that we here at Ten Forward are looking for some more mods and volunteers to help us OOCly with running things. A lot of you know we've been shorthanded since September, and with a few of us battling health problems and other RL things, we absolutely don't want the game to suffer. If you're interested in becoming a co-mod, please email us at tenforwardmods (at) gmail (dot) com, or send us a DM! If you're not sure but you'd like to volunteer for some small projects, here are some things we'd like to do:
  

  - Contribute to Info Pages (For our non-Trekie players, we want to add more pages with information about the ship, the technology, what things look like, how things work, etc. We've already started compiling maps and descriptions about rooms, replicators, and important areas, but we'd like to add more! With pictures!)
  - Run a game Wiki (Continuing from the above, we've been thinking about putting information like this in a wiki, and have even registered for one. But wiki pages will need to be edited, updated, and maintained, which could be a lot of fun! But we'll need some volunteers.)
  - HTML and Graphics (Coding is fun, but time-consuming. If you'd like to help us keep the game pretty by creating some game graphics or helping us code important pages, we certainly wouldn't say no!)
  - Meme Comms and Other Silliness (A lot of people have asked us whether we'll do a meme comm, or host certain popular memes in our OOC comm. We'd love to! But we would love to have an official meme poster, someone who can keep it updated and fresh and fun.) Ladies and gents, we'd like to inform you all that Lauren has decided to help us run a meme comm! We'll update you when there is more info, but for now if you would like to suggest a meme or ask Lauren about meme-related things, you can DM bestpal or hit her up on Plurk at artisans!
  - AND MORE?? (We have a suggestion box open over here so everyone can submit ideas for what would make the comm easier to navigate and more fun to play in. We've been working your suggestions in since we opened, but if there's something Ten Forward doesn't have, or isn't doing a lot of right now, and you'd like to volunteer to Make It So, we'd love to have you aboard!)

  
  
  You can drop us a comment here if you'd like to volunteer for any of these or other OOC jobs you might like to do, or use the above links to e-mail/DM us! Ten Forward has grown past all of our wildest dreams, and we'd like to thank you all for your support. We'll be doing our best to keep things fast, fun, and updated as the game continues, and we appreciate any and all volunteers!"

Anything we may have forgotten? Let us know in the comments below! Thanks, everyone.

Comments

[dresdensluck]

What is the difference between an entrance post/log and a personal log?

[ten_fwd_mods]

Excellent question! Simply put, an entrance post/log occurs in the main comm (ten_fwd), while a personal log occurs in a character's journal. The latter is used for private threads, scenes that happen off the ship, and things of that nature. We wrote a bit more about them in our FAQ.

[general_chang]

I'd be happy to help with info, if you like.

But my concern is with my CR with Worf, because Chang has been poking at the DS9 one. I've so far not really done anything, because ICly, Chang is somewhat disappointed with the switcheroo and so not done anything about it, but he'd probably like to pick it up again in due course. Equally, I don't want to put you under any more pressure than I have, so you see my quandary?

[ten_fwd_mods]

We would be delighted! If you're interested, we can send you some examples and a list of info we'd like, and you can pick what you feel comfortable doing.

Please, please don't worry about putting pressure on us! This is exactly the kind of situation we wanted to be there for! We'll be happy to arrange things for Chang to pick up, and chat out options with you. If there was CR you need to hammer out with our NPC, just let us know and we will whip something up as soon as possible. Or if you'd like to chat it out in a less public forum, use any of the means of contact we linked above or poke Gabby over on plurk at gabbynormal! :)

[general_chang]

That'd be fine!

All right, thank you.

[unkindness]

I could help with wiki stuff and code/graphics if you like! c:

[ten_fwd_mods]

Absolutely! We'll drop you an e-mail to let you know what we're still looking for. Thank you! :)