Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen! Nearly everyone made the cut! I'm very impressed. And on our first two weeks back, too! Unfortunately, we're going to have to say goodbye to Jeia and her Rogue, as she did not manage to make the activity cut.
After this activity check, I'm going to be implementing a few new rules going into effect immediately. These concern activity and characters. Like I said, nearly everyone got their posts in on time - in fact, our last post came in with a rather decent amount of time to spare. But still, I'm pushing these new rules.
[01.] Beginning this week, on Friday March 13th, activity requirements are as follows: one thread, narrative, or mostly complete AIM log per check, or continued participation in two different journal posts. This means you must have written something solid (thread/narrative) as a starter, or nearly finished an AIM log, if you are to count it for activity. Continued participation in two different journal posts means you don't stick your nose in for 1-2 comments, you stick around for several (5+ per post is the requirement for journals that you did not write for your character, and the starter and 3+ comments for those journals that you did write). Over the course of each activity check, the number of threads will continue to rise until it peaks out at 5, and the reason is as follows: journal entries require very little in the way of activity and effort. You can write one up within the space of about 5 minutes. Threads, narratives, and AIM logs take considerably longer.
[02.] If you miss an activity check, you will be removed. A reapplication will be necessary. Upon reapplication, you will now be more limited than other players: although you will be encouraged to branch out into journal entries, they will not count. You must write threads, narratives, or AIM logs each week to be counted. You will also have a lower character cap. Two is now your limit until you prove you're ready to be very, very active again. If you have more than two, you will not be allowed to pick up any more for the duration of your time at the game, even if you have room to do so. If you miss a consecutive activity check, you will be removed from game without a chance to come back in. If you miss another nonconsecutive activity check, there are several alternatives. You may come back after another reapplication, but bear in mind that this is the last activity check you will be allowed to miss. Your activity requirements will be doubled, however, and you will now have to post two narratives, threads, or AIM logs per character per two week period. You may also be asked to drop one or more characters, especially if you have canons.
[03.] If you drop an original character from game, you have exactly one week to decide you want them back before we let someone kill them off. Now, obviously, there isn't a serious need for characters to die off when they're dropped, but we have several characters whose jobs are to kill off others, and when presented with the opportunity, we really need to allow them to do it. A large part of what they do involves killing, and we need to allow them to be able to produce plots for the game in general and do what they're there for. The only characters exempt from this are characters whose muns have temporarily left, but have stated clear intentions of returning within a three month period. If they do not make it back after three months, however, their characters WILL be killed off.
[04.] You must wait two weeks at least between putting in an application for a new character. I will allow putting in two characters at the same time, but after that, you must wait a period of SIX WEEKS before you put in your next application after that. If you were not very active in the activity period before you put in your new application, chances are you will be asked to wait.
Not in this activity period (3-13-09 to 3-26-09) but in the next (3-27-09 to 4-9-09), we will be having challenge pairings. They will be announced in the latter part of this period, probably around the 22nd or so, so that you guys can start planning early. You MUST DO something for the challenge pairing in that activity period to be counted. That said, if you absolutely cannot get your challenge pair to work, you are more than welcome to come to me and we'll see about fixing it.
In the ways of over-arching plot, in the next activity check, we have several things coming up for students and faculty at Xavier's school. We have a PAINTBALLING TRIP, with current accompanying teachers being Alex Warwick and Patrick Linden. We also have Claire Windsor opening up her rink for students at Xavier's. It is equipped for recreational skating and figure skating, but not for hockey. Dane Provenzano and his figure-skating coach are also going to be providing lessons. We will also have sign-ups for a ZOO TRIP with Darach MacEwan coming up. This may also include a trip to the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE. As for independents, a plot may also be opening up for you folks fairly soon here. I will need to speak to Amber and Irish about the Brotherhood, but that... doesn't concern most of you right now, unfortunately. >.> You know, since our Brotherhood is really skimpy right now.
Time for an appearance by bitchy!mod, though. There's one thing I need to remind you all of (though most of you actually did this!), and three things I need to have you do.
MAKE SURE YOU TAG YOUR ENTRIES. Now, preferably, this will include your character's codename and their faction. So say I'm tagging a thread for Pyro: "pyro" and "§ xaviers". That symbol can be achieved by hitting "ALT" and then the number combination 21 on your numberpad of your keyboard, or you can just select it and your character's tag from the menu by holding "CTRL" down and clicking on the tags you need.
Thing Number One: I need to hear from you about this thread to be sure you actually paid attention and understand. You can hit me up on AIM, poke my email, or comment here, I don't care which you do, just... do one of them. NOT doing so will lead to me chasing you down. Please don't make me do that. :(
Thing Number Two: If you do not have your character's appearance written up, and this applies to nearly all of us, including me, you need to have it put up sometime this activity check. It's a part of the application these days. It's really not that hard, and takes like five minutes. IT IS NOW REQUIRED TO HAVE THIS INFORMATION POSTED.
Thing Number Three: If your character is a student or teacher and is gonna be involved in any of the events listed above, please let me know so I know to get you all together and coordinate details. If your character is NOT involved in the above events, I would like to hear from you about some ideas. I don't want us all to be aimlessly threading in hopes that somehow plot will come to us. We have to be active and pick this up ourselves. Plot bunnies, unfortunately, do not come into existence on their own. Adult plot rabbits or players must create them. There is a certain amount of you needing to have me give you guys some overarching plots, but there is a point at which you must also start providing something. Player/mod interaction is important in keeping things going.