Posted by Aardbei May 20th 2022, 5:47pm
I'm sure getting an update for what has become a fairly inactive group will be a surprise to the people still following it, but as I still occasionally get requests to join, I think I should post some kind of update, and this one's a bit long in coming at this point.
I'll make this as concise as I can.
Is the group dead?
The short answer is "No."
The long answer is, "That depends on what you mean by 'dead.'"
I continue to approve join requests whenever I get them, as aside from most of January this year, I've checked my inbox consistently every few days. The group is also not going anywhere. I put a lot of my heart into its creation and doubt I could stand to erase it unless compelled by some greater force. For the foreseeable future though, it'll remain up along with all our brief contributions.
Will there be new events/updates?
My honest answer is, "I don't know."
When I first created the group, it was a sort-of passion project that I was really excited about. I think, all-told, it took me about 2 weeks to set up, including notes I've had on the backend for revisions and future content. I treated it the same as I would treat a campaign for a TTRPG.
Then some unrelated things happened around October and I was having trouble keeping my previous commitments for RPs and campaigns I was a player in already. To be clear: I wanted to do both the events that I ran. The first was spontaneous and unplanned, but the second was an iteration off those initial notes I took. However, due to some strain and mental health problems, I was too exhausted to fully realize them the way I wanted.
With the second one, that especially stings, especially since it did very quickly garner interest.
If I pick up doing things with the group again, it'll likely be when I have the physical energy to devote to it. However, in the time since November and now, a lot of things have happened and I've got a few other things going on that take priority, so I wouldn't expect anything to change on the forums.
So, what have you been doing?
Lately, I've been picking up playing in tabletop RPGs again. My group has started to play a TTRPG called Wanderhome. It feels like everything I wanted this group to be, and its setting matches my own very closely.
Aside from that, mostly art. Back in November, I was working on some art for this group, but I never managed to get it to a point that felt post-worthy. At the time, I was also trying to GM a tabletop system that fell apart for its own reasons. The last time I worked on art intended for this group was in late January, and now most of my output is for daily challenges just to keep myself motivated.
Do you wish you did anything differently with the group?
A few things, and it's not far-fetched to assume mistakes I've made with the group's design contributed to my own burnout. I think the one I regret the most was not having enough faith in my concept to enforce things about the world. I gave people the option to not alter their characters, and to the surprise of literally no one, some people took that option. I didn't realize how unhappy with that I would be, but it felt like ignoring part of the premise I'd set up. This is entirely my mistake, since nobody is at fault for taking an option offered to them. However, in the case of a "2.0" reboot, so to speak, it would be the first thing I changed.
The second thing would probably be age-restricting the group to 18+. None of the content would change, and the group would maintain its small-stakes, relaxed atmosphere. The age restriction would mostly be because of how awkward it's become for adults and kids to mix spaces online in the modern age. I've never been a fan of gatekeeping spaces from kids, especially because kids don't learn to grow up by being restricted to child-friendly parts of the internet, but I've become very keenly aware in recent months how much of the new-age internet disagrees with me here and it's left me feeling very unequipped to adequately manage a space with minors about.
Further complicating that is that I did want to make a Discord server eventually, probably even turning the group into a Discord group just because it's been easier for me to maintain RP partners on Discord than the forums as of late, and I really don't feel able to deal with kids in a live-chat setting which is harder on average to moderate without adding a bunch of restrictions to speech and expression which I am not comfortable with.
But these things are, again, not things I'm currently working towards. They're things I would probably do in the future if I have the energy and felt like making the group the priority it was before, but as it stands right now, like I said before, it'll remain as it always has.
The one change it might see is unrestricting invites so people can join as they like, but I prefer the thin layer of security that approving invites gives my group. It lets me track who joins, and I do still care about whether or not the space is safe and healthy.
What about recruiting staff?
Honestly, if someone I both know and trust were interested in doing small changes as needed and keeping the place active and safe, yeah, I'd give them a mod role. However, since this project is still my baby, I don't really want major changes made without my knowledge or consent, and don't really know that anyone who I'd also trust with that responsibility would be interested. Aside from occasional joins, the group is inactive enough that peeking in on it every so often isn't that major a burden on me right now.
Can we DM you if we have other questions?
Generally yeah, I'm a pretty approachable person in PMs, though I might respond late. I don't mind people asking me questions about this group or anything else, really. I might not always be able to answer but there's no harm in asking.
That's about everything. Apologies that this comes completely out of nowhere, but even if everyone else has forgotten my small project, I haven't, and I take what I start seriously enough to own up when I haven't been able to do it justice.
I'll make this as concise as I can.
Is the group dead?
The short answer is "No."
The long answer is, "That depends on what you mean by 'dead.'"
I continue to approve join requests whenever I get them, as aside from most of January this year, I've checked my inbox consistently every few days. The group is also not going anywhere. I put a lot of my heart into its creation and doubt I could stand to erase it unless compelled by some greater force. For the foreseeable future though, it'll remain up along with all our brief contributions.
Will there be new events/updates?
My honest answer is, "I don't know."
When I first created the group, it was a sort-of passion project that I was really excited about. I think, all-told, it took me about 2 weeks to set up, including notes I've had on the backend for revisions and future content. I treated it the same as I would treat a campaign for a TTRPG.
Then some unrelated things happened around October and I was having trouble keeping my previous commitments for RPs and campaigns I was a player in already. To be clear: I wanted to do both the events that I ran. The first was spontaneous and unplanned, but the second was an iteration off those initial notes I took. However, due to some strain and mental health problems, I was too exhausted to fully realize them the way I wanted.
With the second one, that especially stings, especially since it did very quickly garner interest.
If I pick up doing things with the group again, it'll likely be when I have the physical energy to devote to it. However, in the time since November and now, a lot of things have happened and I've got a few other things going on that take priority, so I wouldn't expect anything to change on the forums.
So, what have you been doing?
Lately, I've been picking up playing in tabletop RPGs again. My group has started to play a TTRPG called Wanderhome. It feels like everything I wanted this group to be, and its setting matches my own very closely.
Aside from that, mostly art. Back in November, I was working on some art for this group, but I never managed to get it to a point that felt post-worthy. At the time, I was also trying to GM a tabletop system that fell apart for its own reasons. The last time I worked on art intended for this group was in late January, and now most of my output is for daily challenges just to keep myself motivated.
Do you wish you did anything differently with the group?
A few things, and it's not far-fetched to assume mistakes I've made with the group's design contributed to my own burnout. I think the one I regret the most was not having enough faith in my concept to enforce things about the world. I gave people the option to not alter their characters, and to the surprise of literally no one, some people took that option. I didn't realize how unhappy with that I would be, but it felt like ignoring part of the premise I'd set up. This is entirely my mistake, since nobody is at fault for taking an option offered to them. However, in the case of a "2.0" reboot, so to speak, it would be the first thing I changed.
The second thing would probably be age-restricting the group to 18+. None of the content would change, and the group would maintain its small-stakes, relaxed atmosphere. The age restriction would mostly be because of how awkward it's become for adults and kids to mix spaces online in the modern age. I've never been a fan of gatekeeping spaces from kids, especially because kids don't learn to grow up by being restricted to child-friendly parts of the internet, but I've become very keenly aware in recent months how much of the new-age internet disagrees with me here and it's left me feeling very unequipped to adequately manage a space with minors about.
Further complicating that is that I did want to make a Discord server eventually, probably even turning the group into a Discord group just because it's been easier for me to maintain RP partners on Discord than the forums as of late, and I really don't feel able to deal with kids in a live-chat setting which is harder on average to moderate without adding a bunch of restrictions to speech and expression which I am not comfortable with.
But these things are, again, not things I'm currently working towards. They're things I would probably do in the future if I have the energy and felt like making the group the priority it was before, but as it stands right now, like I said before, it'll remain as it always has.
The one change it might see is unrestricting invites so people can join as they like, but I prefer the thin layer of security that approving invites gives my group. It lets me track who joins, and I do still care about whether or not the space is safe and healthy.
What about recruiting staff?
Honestly, if someone I both know and trust were interested in doing small changes as needed and keeping the place active and safe, yeah, I'd give them a mod role. However, since this project is still my baby, I don't really want major changes made without my knowledge or consent, and don't really know that anyone who I'd also trust with that responsibility would be interested. Aside from occasional joins, the group is inactive enough that peeking in on it every so often isn't that major a burden on me right now.
Can we DM you if we have other questions?
Generally yeah, I'm a pretty approachable person in PMs, though I might respond late. I don't mind people asking me questions about this group or anything else, really. I might not always be able to answer but there's no harm in asking.
That's about everything. Apologies that this comes completely out of nowhere, but even if everyone else has forgotten my small project, I haven't, and I take what I start seriously enough to own up when I haven't been able to do it justice.
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