Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » Absence topics

I'd also like to point out that the prevalence of these topics make the forums seem dead, and by association the rest of the site, which is a common turn-off for potential users

Oooo, Copper is definitely onto something! I don't know how hard the code would be for that, but that would be pretty helpful!

You describe precisely what I was thinking, Copper. For the anon characters, you could just type in the character name.

Edit: THE DICE SPOKEN. I AM THE OFF TOPIC SECTIONS CHOSEN ONE.

Sorry for massive super huge barrage of text! I just want to walk everyone through my thought processes so you can see that I'm considering what's being said, and why I'm coming up with the opinions that I'm coming up with

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I realize you guys don't mean to be inconveniencing anyone by posting these kinds of topics, and in fact the reasoning is much more like "I want to make sure no one feels bad because I accidentally left them out, so I'll just make a post to everyone."

But I do want to point out that by trying to spare the feelings of a handful of people, you're subjecting several hundred to a topic that is completely irrelevant to them. Most of them won't care, it's true. But the people most likely to care are the most fragile amont us: new players joining or considering joining the community, and it really looks like the community is a graveyard if it's almost 20% "AFK" topics on the first page of our main discussion forum!

So many AFK topics almost certainly has a chilling effect on wonderful new people choosing to interact with us. I'm certain some are taking a peek at the forums, thinking "No one sticks around here!" and leaving, never to return, a potential new friend lost forever. This was the main concern that started the mods discussing adding a rule banning AFK topics for absences shorter than a week.

Celestina, since you offered up a solid number (Quote: "I RP with over 7 people on a daily basis, so to send a PM to that big a group is really hard."), I'm just going to use you as an example for my reasoning in considering something like a new AFK feature. I'm not singling you out! Just using you as a demo.

So, relevant stats for Celestina?

• Been on the site for roughly 3 years.
• In that time, has posted roughly a dozen AFK topics. A little bit more if you count topics where you've talked about other events in your life, and mentioned that you'll be posting less as a result (such as only in the evenings -- but not announcing even a full day's complete absence).
• Interestingly, this puts Celestina roughly in the lead for most number of AFK topics by a single person, depending on how you count them!
• Maintains roughly 7 RP partners at a time who would need notification of her absences.
• This averages to about 1 AFK topic every 3 months that she's been on the site.

So, based on real user data of the site, the most use this feature is likely to see is once every 3 months on average. Much lower or not at all for most other users.

Anything involving notifications usually takes several weeks to construct, optimize and test, and always, always results in weird bugs that need addressing even years after the fact. It's a crazy complex system, for serious.

Given this, I'm really bawking at this idea that sending a message to the people for which it is intended is an unreasonable request, especially when it tends to happen every few months or so.

Writing seven names in a row, or even a dozen names, is unlikely to take more than a few minutes even at the slowest of typing speeds, even for the most forgetful person who has to look up a lot of people. I'm not just saying this. I know from experience! Running the RPR requires me to send PMs to groups of people pretty much every week, and for me it usually takes ~3 seconds to address the PM. I admit, I type fast, but let's say I typed crazy slow; is my shaving 60 seconds off writing the letter really worth the inconvenience and potential damage it does to the hundreds of others trying to use the site every day if I chose to just post "AFK" on the main forums?

To me, it seems obvious that the solution is to take the extra 60 seconds. OR, if you have to do this all the time, perhaps even gather up all your RP partners, copy/paste their names into a notepad file, and save it so you have it on hand for easy updating and sending the next time you're headed out of town?

I feel like we're trying to automate addressing letters, which just seems like a step too far for me when there are so many other great features I'm already struggling to get off my to-do list.

I hear you saying, "Okay, but what about a forum just for AFK topics and nothing else?"

No to that too, for these reasons:

• There are only a handful of people actually making these topics, most people wouldn't use it. Those that do use it are unlikely to use it more than an average of once every three months, making it a slow moving and rarely-useful-to-check board.
• Having such a forum would encourage more people to start creating topics merely for AFKing, topics that are, as discussed above, basically irrelevant to more than 99% of the people likely to see it, and pushing out actual discussions on the "recent topics" sidebars.
• It creates another forum for people to get lost in. Our forum drop down is already pretty darn long
• In the case of people who don't play on the RPR (which is the main argument for why PMs won't work, for those that don't mind taking the time) what are the odds that a non RPR member would bother visiting the site and looking through an entire AFK forum for possible news of someone who disappeared? Aren't they more likely to go directly to the player's profile to see if they put anything on there about being away?

To be clear, no one is in trouble for posting these topics, we've not yet added any policies banning them, and we're still considering all the options. However, I am so far just puzzled by the idea that PMs/posting directly in the relevant RP thread, plus writing on user profiles fall that short of adequate.

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And while I was typing all that, I see that there were more responses, so let me just say:

EXACTLY this feature is on its way, probably to be released in January.

(I'msuchalameperson for so many afks but given the fact that in the three years I've been here, I have switched from full-time occupant to part-time, I may or may not justify my posting. )

I also thought of this as something that might work if we don't have any features to implement. It would be a lot easier for me at least, so I'm certainly considering doing this.


Also YAY for the feature coming in January!!!

further proof that kim is a wizard

There is a way to pm more than a person at once?
How do you do this? Commas and spaces? I'd really like to know this as it would probably prevent me from
making any more topics about being gone for awhile or writers block, whatever.
Doing it one at a time is really hard, and I keep thinking I've missed people

I think it is with commas and spaces, like you said. Something like this:

user 1, user 2, user 3, and so on.

Just be aware that when you or someone you pm replies, they will reply to everyone addressed in the message.

Why DOES rpr only have a "reply to all" feature? That's pretty silly

It's actually pretty helpful for a lot of group PMs, because often the group wants to communicate with each other, not just the one person.


@Amirrora: There is, as Bones said, a way to message multiple people. I have found it really tricky though. Sometimes I do it the correct way with commas, but it'll give me an error message that something was wrong and I have to do the whole thing over again.
Hence why I don't like sending group PMs. I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes it's tricky in getting those names just right so that the system recognizes it.

It's of course useful in the situation you describe. I was asking why it is the only option, not why it's available at all.

I apologize if I overlooked anything relating to this so far, but is it hard to code a contacts list sort of system? Similar to email and stuff, where it's there for you to see, possibly add to/select from? (I honestly can't believe I never thought to copy/paste my partners' names into a note/list, and will probably just do that from now on.) Even if we could click the box next to a message from everyone in our inbox and hit reply, some of us have pages upon pages to sift through, though that could be a simpler add-on than some suggestions since that dropdown is already there. Could it be feasible to sort our inboxes by users, or have a recently contacted button?

I do like the idea of having an AFK toggle on profiles, but for those who worry about the length of time maybe it could have color designations. i.e. yellow = AFK for now, orange = AFK for a couple days, red = AFK until further notice.

I hope some of this helps, and sorry to have added to the clutter. I kind of saw someone else do it and assumed that's how it was done here. On another site I used to be on, they have a status option and a bunch of other things you've pointed out having issues with, but they are down frequently for maintenance...which is pretty much why I'm here and no longer there. I really appreciate the work you all do to keep things fun yet simple and still accommodating.

Fiaryn, pretty much all of those PM features you're talking about are slated for arrival in January, or February at the latest.

@Ross: "Reply all" was just easier at first, and then I stopped adding anything to the current system when I realized some time ago that I was going to have to replace the whole thing to get at the real meaty features the thing needed to be truly great.

Also...
It's okay! I think that's how most people got started. No one is mad at you or thinks less of you, and you aren't in any trouble, we're just having a boisterous debate on what the best way of taking time away is.

I hope the New Year brings success in this endeavor!

This is still the number 1 feature I'm eagerly looking forward to!

Just bumping this thread because the AFK topics are on the rise again. Since this topic was started we've been given an upgraded PM system that allows you to easily maintain group conversations without creating excess clutter.

Is there any news on the proposed policy to keep AFK topics off the boards unless someone will be gone for much longer than just a few days? Does this include posting schedules of availability?

There's currently no news on this topic.