New Ranks!

Perhaps place the posts at 3000+ and add the 15 participated role-plays?

I'm just trying to come up with some other option if people think it needs changing.

You're going about it strangely... Fifteen completed role plays is damn near impossible to achieve.

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with the way it's set now. If anything, I prefer Weiss' idea of three completed role plays as an alternative to the 3,500+ posts and one completed role play. Users could achieve one or the other to get the Caligoan rank.

She said participated, not completed.

An interesting idea, considering that one cannot complete a role play alone but must rely on others...which doesn't work out well, it seems.

I think the post count is do able. Activity = post count, on forums at least.

Oh. My brain occasionally skips over things like that.

The problem I see with the fifteen role play participations is that people may take advantage of it. What if someone joins a ton of role plays just so they can get that rank, and they end up posting only a couple of times before stopping and killing the role play?

I'm afraid that people would end up overdoing it, too. There are only so many role plays a person can join before getting in way over their head.

Besides, it's a lot of work for the moderators to keep track of the number of role plays in which each individual member plays.

Eh. It was just a suggestion. Something to add to the requirement to make it more role-play oriented.

If someone had that many posts, they should have tried a number of role-plays and not just played the forum games. Thought, I must admit, I am getting a bit addicted to the forum games. Probably because only a few of the role-plays I am in have really started in full swing.

Well, I've participated in at least nine role plays on this website so far. I don't just stick to the gaming forum. I've actually contributed a lot toward discussions and greetings, and I've even contributed toward the feedback and such. I'm all over this site, so I think I've earned my post count.

I actually think that the majority of people with high post counts have gotten that far because of their usual posting and not just through the gaming forum. That's one of the great things about this place. People don't just seclude themselves to the games to boost their posts.

I agree that if people have huge post counts, they should also have contributed to several role plays, but I'm still a bit wary of role play participation being one of the goals toward the Caligoan rank. I can see it getting abused really easily. =\

Then again, almost anything can become abused, so who knows? I guess we'll just have to wait until Fate returns to discuss it with her.

I don't think anyone would abuse the system in such a way. Besides, that kind of person isn't the kind that the rank would mean a lot to. The rank only means something if it is a reflection of love towards the community here at FOG.

You forget that there are people who do things just to prove that they can. =\

It's just a "hope" that users here would be good about it.

The idea for roleplay participation to be a requirement for the Caligoan rank is, in my mind, absolutely ridiculous. I didn't mean for this to turn into a long-winded discussion about different ideas for how to change things, but I also won't rule out reasonable suggestions that are made as points that I should bring up to Fate when she does return and I bring forth my misgivings about the current method of attaining the Caligoan rank (which will be only after she's had time to settle in and get herself straightened out, mind you).

I don't think anything less than completed roleplays should be counted toward the rank if roleplaying is to be included at all. As Kathryn has stated, merely participating in a roleplay means very little. It requires no great contribution and only the slightest hint of effort. Making the rank easier to obtain was not my intent by altering the requirements and creating a new path. I wished only to provide a method for those who contribute most to the site by taking part in the site's central feature: roleplay.

Getting a post count of 3500+ is not hard. If you have the time, you can post in every single introduction topic, participate in all the forum games, etc. I'm not saying it isn't a contribution to the site, and I know for a fact that Kathryn's posts are never spam or anything even remotely close to it; I'm only saying that it's a very simple thing to achieve. However, it is a milestone as far as one's presence on the site is concerned. It shows that you have been around long enough to attain that post count and/or that you're an active member.

I think that's why the completed roleplay requirement was added. Originally, yes, it was three. It isn't three any longer, as someone earlier made the mistake of neglecting. The current requirement is only one completed roleplay. So, please don't think I'm only trying to strip away the post count requirement while keeping the completed RP requirement.

My actual intent is only to find a solution for those of us who are not as sociable in the forums, but who have an active interest in pursuing a long-lasting and fruitful roleplay. After all, this site isn't a social club. It's a forum for users to share their love of literature. Thus, the trait of being highly gregarious shouldn't be a necessity for obtaining the site's most prestigious rank, in my opinion.

So, my thoughts were that an alternate route should be available. Given that the requirements were shortened to 3500+ posts and a single completed roleplay, I thought it would be equally challenging, or perhaps more so, to complete three roleplays. Three completed roleplays - games that can be sealed and posted within The Archives - would be a massive contribution to FOG's history, since we've already stated that completing even a single roleplay is quite difficult. To accomplish this feat would show no less dedication to the site than posting in every topic of every forum that you can, and I believe it deserves equal esteem.

That's my two cents, and the reason for my intent to suggest an alternate path to Fate.

I don't think anything less than completed roleplays should be counted toward the rank if roleplaying is to be included at all. As Kathryn has stated, merely participating in a roleplay means very little. It requires no great contribution and only the slightest hint of effort.

I will have to disagree. You say that participating in a role-play only requires a slightest hint of effort. Not one role-play has been completed at this time. So, are you meaning to say that every person on this site that has participated in a role-play has put in only a little effort? So, if the role-play dies, not to their fault, it means that they didn't put forth any work worth noting. That is ridiculous.

I understand your want to keep the requirement as is. That is fine by me. I was just throwing out suggestions for you since you had wanted the gaining of the rank to be more role-play centered. I mean no disrespect. These were just ideas that I was suggesting since I thought an alternative was wanted.

I agree with Bird of Hermes. I've put a lot of work into some role plays which are no longer active not because of me, but because of other users. Five role plays that I spent endless hours working on ended because other people dropped out, and I was left with nothing but an abandoned role play and frustration. Because of this, all of my hard work is suddenly, according to Weiss post, worth "very little".

I don't care about getting the rank and I don't care if the requirement doesn't change. (Especially the post count! Activity on a forum is measured by post count, and that doesn't change!) I know that participation doesn't have to mean hard work, but here at FOG, I'd say that most of the time it does mean a lot of hard work.

I'm actually inclined to agree with Weiss. I don't think he meant that participating involves very little effort the way that you both took it. I think he only meant it to mean that it takes very little effort to make one post in a role play before said role play meets it's death. However, one post in a role play would still count toward participation. With that in mind, it wouldn't be difficult at all to achieve participation in fifteen different role plays, you know?

Plus, you can't forget that this forum hasn't even been around for a year. It began in May of 2008 2009 or something like that. It takes time for a role play to be completed, and I'm honestly not surprised that in less than a year, there still aren't any completed role plays.

Yes, Kathryn is correct, and I'm a bit disappointed that the two of you, Hermes and Ryona, took my statements to such a negative extreme.

I did not state that participating in a roleplay is something that no one puts any effort into. I stated that participating in a roleplay requires very little effort. You can make one post of questionable quality and claim that you have participated in a roleplay.

Because of that, changing the requirements to include only roleplays in which the player has participated is, in my opinion, ridiculous.

I'm only assuming similar negative extremes that you are assuming, so you can't be disappointed in me for it. You are assuming that members here will abuse the system by posting once in an RP and count that post towards their "participation"; but the rank isn't automatic, and members aren't going to automatically get the rank after reaching said amount of participated role plays. The rank has to be given, and if the participation wasn't worthy, then the rank shouldn't be given.

Again, I don't care if the requirements change. I just don't agree with your argument.

Sorry for taking it so far, but it had seemed to be that was what you meant.

Anyway, what I believe you wanted was an alternative for the less-social role-player. Perhaps something like 1000+ posts and 3 completed role-play.