About This Board

[Avalikia]

One thing I always like to say is, "RL before RP." After all, this is just a game, and while I appreciate everyone who decides to spend some of their precious free time here, it's certainly not the most important thing in the world so absences and such are to be expected. It is, however, a good idea to keep your fellow players aware of your situation so they're not left wondering where you've gone and if you're going to be back - that's what this board is for. So whether you're going to be gone for a bit, will experience a slowdown of some sort, or otherwise have a reason to explain your posting activity, post it up here.

Tips:

• Do list off your characters (or point out that they're in you're signature or something) if you have more than one in order to remind people which characters your notice applies to.


• Do try to be as specific as possible about exactly what timeframe your notice applies to. If you don't know for sure, give an estimate - perhaps a 'best case scenario' and a 'worst case scenario'. Be aware that if you don't reappear around the time you say you will, it will probably be assumed that you're not going to reappear at all.


• Do include the details if you can. While you don't have to include the full details in your post - the most important part is the timeframe and whether you'll be completely gone or just slow - providing the details can definitely help other players know what to expect.


• Do post updates to your notice if things change.


• Do have a friend post a notice or updates in your behalf if you're unable to do it yourself but are in contact with someone who can.


• Do feel free to post 'sorry I was gone' notices if you were unexpectedly absent and weren't able to give notice beforehand.


• Do delete your notice yourself if it no longer applies, so that Jon doesn't have to clean it up.


• Do talk to the staff directly in addition to posting your notice if your absence or slowdown will be lengthy - being completely gone for a couple of weeks or having to wait several days between posts on a regular basis is fine, but if you're going to get anywhere near not posting an IC post for a month during a total absence or you're going to slow down to the point where you can't catch up on all your replies once a week for an extended period, you definitely need to be communicating with the staff.


• Do not assume that a longer absence will be considered acceptable - situations like those are handled on a case by case basis, depending on how long it will last, just how inactive you'll be, which character(s) you play (OCs and obscure FCs aren't as big of a deal as others), etc. You may be granted a leave of absence, or you may be told that you should drop your characters and reapply when your situation changes - RL may come first, but it doesn't do anyone any good for you to hang onto characters that you're not able to play if your inactivity will harm the site.


• Do keep the staff updated if you've been granted a leave of absence - mostly we just need to be reassured that you're still going to come back when you said that you would be, and any updates on your situation.