The same old probems everywhere - get help
I have been an admin of various boards or groups for years now, most of them roleplaying boards. And I found out that the problems that come up tend to be the same over and over again with minor variations.
I also met a number of people who when starting their own boards ran into exact the same problems. Some asked me for advice, and I realized that life is much easier when working together. Member's rarely realize how much energy an admin needs to put into his 'job' and how mentally straining various things can be.
Members cannot do much to change that, since they are also human - but admins can work together, share advice and make the burden of decision easier.
That is what this forum is for. To ask questions, cry, rant, and listen to how others handled similar problems.
The most common problems that I found are:
Difficult members (diva syndromoe)
Difficult characters (mary sueism)
Griefers
Over-sensitive members
If there is some interest out there I might try to write a short summary essay on each of these problems and encourage other to share their experiences and ideas.
Quote:If there is some interest out there I might try to write a short summary essay on each of these problems
Please, do it!
I might add a few problems or issues:
The over-anxious player
The always busy player
The invisible owner (sometimes along with the rest of the Staff but one)
The "By-default" player
The OOC player (or admin)
The God Owner
And these came to my mind without to think hard, go figure...
Re: The same old probems everywhere - get help
Good points, Nolendur. I'll add them to my list (and hope that soon I'll find that time to actually write those essays.
I am just not fully sure what you mean with The "By-default" player? Could you elaborate on that a bit?
Re: The same old probems everywhere - get help
Oh, you know this type, but surely under a different name.
He or she always apply for the same char (usually, Arwen/Galadriel/Eowyn for girls, Aragorn/Faramir for boys -- but I have seen a few Madeups chars too, and then they apply the same to play in a TA board, of Fourth Age, even in Valinor***). 99% of the times s/he won't play him/her, but the thing is to block any attempt of someone else taking the char because they are that char.
Usually too they know nothing of the books (so, for example, Arwen is brown haired and has blue eyes -- don't dare to tell her to check the book!) but they have seen a thousand times the movies. You might recognize them too because their siggies -- the bigger the better (of course based on the movies, with flash, etc). If they stumble on a board where the char is already taken, they might do:
a - To ignore the board. To play another char is unthinkable (and besides, as I said, they wouldn't play it -- AND it would mean to write another apply, aww).
b - To ask for it (plainly and shamelessly).
c - To stay and to start to criticize the player who got the char, ICly and OOCly. By PM or openly posting (but usually they would look kind, as if trying to help).
You sure you never met one of these?
Nolen
***I swear I saw once a player that always played a TA easterling, a Madeup. When someone told him that there were easterlings too in FA, he applied to play the char in several boards, even in one where most of them were Book Chars. He learned of Ulfang & Sons (through Encyclopedia of Arda :P). And then, hold your pants, he applied to play him in a board set... in Valinor! (Before the rebellion of the Noldor, even). It was something like this:
He: May I play Ulfang?
Admin: I'm sorry but... well... we're in Valinor, and men have not waken up, even...
He: Ok. May I play him once they wake up?
Admin: But they won't for years and years!
He: Oh, I don't mind to wait for.
Re: The same old probems everywhere - get help
Oh yes, I have met that kind, although now with the movie hype over they are getting less common.
(And I feel obliged to add that it's not the "always (or mostly) playing the same character" that is the problem here - I myself know a number of people who basically play the same characters in several places, and they are a great asset. The problem is a certain kind of behavious that often comes with that. Yes, it's all a but complicated, and generally not easy for an admin to handle - thus this little help forum.
Now I only have to think of a good format for my essays, and how to order everyting (since some of these points are often intertwined), and then I can get to writing.
Quote:And I feel obliged to add that it's not the "always (or mostly) playing the same character" that is the problem here
Of course it isn't! I myself have an inclination to play the same Book Chars (why not if they are my favs and like to play them) and even the same Original Chars. But to start, I play them (while the "by default" type don't), and if I visit a board and my fav chars are taken (Maedhros? Faramir? :P) or I can't play one of my fav OCs it doesn't stop me to join that board and to play other chars.
Yes, it's all a but complicated, and generally not easy for an admin to handle - thus this little help forum.
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies