Forums » Smalltalk » Radio Silence; how to go about it?

Howdy! Howdy!

I'm unsure if I or anyone else have asked this, so if they have then I do apologize for taking up a slot and it may be deleted. ;_;

Anyway, how long do ya'll keep a RolePlay open before deeming it 'dead' and closing it? Like, how long do you go with no OOC chat or IC responses to determine the appropriate amount of time is?

I personally try to keep an open mind that not everyone has an excessive amount of free time like I do (Unemployed atm and not going to school.) But it's hard to gauge, usually it's pretty easy when someone consistently replies every three days or something; but when someone goes from replying everyday -multiple times a day consistently- to just radio silence for the last 4-5 days. It's hard to tell whether or not a RP has gotten ghosted. Especially when the other Character is Anonymous; (which I totally get now from reading all the responses from my Anonymous character post.).

Like, I don't want to be rude and assume they'll never respond again; but do you guy's/gal's/non-binary pals get this feeling in your gut when this actually happens? And if you do get it, do you act on it? And if you don't get it...uh...how do you go about finding the allowed time of radio silence?

Uh..I'm not sure if this made sense at all or if it's just a bunch of word vomit. ._.

Hi ChaoticHazard

I believe a similar topic was discussed on this thread.

'Just Checking In' Messages

For myself it really depends. I have friends I've made here and we talk nearly everyday even if it's just to banter or say 'hi'. So if a week went by with no word, I would worry and reach out to know how they are doing.

RP with people I have very little OOC contact with tends to fizzle out, perhaps part of the fault is on my end, but I don't like to hassle or feel as though I'm hassling people for replies. After two weeks to a month, if I have no IC or OOC contact with the other person, then for me the RP is done and closed unless I really enjoyed it, then I just consider it dormant and will continue it if/when my partner for that RP replies.

Oh alright! I didn't see that thread

But that's a pretty solid way of thinking about it; I do OOC talking a lot of the time. Even if it's just a 'We were gonna have this happen when again?' Sorta thing, it keeps my interest up; if there's not OOC chat it usually fizzles out. It's usually on my end cause I'm a social butterfly and my ADHD brain makes it difficult to keep track of what's going on, or my interest for the RP kinda fades. Especially if its like a super vague topic, and/or the responses stopped in the middle of some Adult things; it kinda gets awkward when its close to a week or so. I just imagine a freeze frame sorta thing.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm not exactly a social butterfly, more of a social introvert, especially at first, but I will go out of my way to suggest ideas and ask that my partners let me know if they want or need me to edit anything or what they would like for the RP and when I feel the effort is mostly on my end and then they go completely silent on theirs, it really doesn't make me feel like spending anymore energy to reach out to them.

I've made and will make a few exceptions, but as I mentioned above it has to be a RP I really enjoy to want to reply if the other person has gone silent IC and OOC for over a month.

I generally don't have an end point, as such. Whether they reply in a day, a week, a month or hell, a year, I'm happy to wait. Generally if someone goes from activity to no activity, I assume the ol' Life Happens reason.

I've been on both sides of this. I've anxiously anticipated getting a reply from someone, and I have been the one stalling on a reply and had a hard time trying to figure out how to inform my writing partner, so I was silent.

I find that overthinking it only leads to more stress. I picked up a system from someone here when I read it in a thread similar to this, and that is I 'archive' my roleplay after I reply. If it gets replied to, it reappears. If it don't, it's out of sight and I don't think about it. If one I'm really into goes dark for more than 2 or 3 week, then I may OOC them. I don't really have an 'end point' for waiting for replies. I also try and keep my status updated to let my co-writers know that I'll be a while in replying.