"Flakey" Members

The nature of RP is that people will come and go as their interest and time suits them. But sometimes, there are those members who will sign up, make a post, removed in an activity check, sign up again, rinse and repeat. For months at a time. I've had a few of these people on RoW over the three years and a half years that it's been open, and I'm curious to know how other administrators have dealt with them.

Have you continued to welcome them back even though its clear they don't have a genuine interest in playing there?

Have you finally said enough is enough and asked them to leave?

At least for now, I've more or less welcomed everyone back. If it's been a consistent problem, though, I do make a point of saying that the plot will have moved on without them, they'll need to rejoin their pack again, etc. In only one instance have I ever told somebody to not come back (but that had more to do with OOC drama than the fact that they were flakey). So what is it that you do?

 

Ugh this drives me up a wall. Risk already has had a few of them. We welcome them back, though behind the scenes we are more tentative about it. We keep an eye on how many characters they look to bring in, on how they plot with others and how much they want to participate in the board's main plot. We don't ask them to leave. Instead, we do not try to include them more than the first time or two. After that, it's their decision as to whether they stay or not. If they are gone for a while, we'll simply delete the account.

But ugh ugh ugh. DRIVES ME CRAZY.

 

It's really unfortunate, but it's part of the nature of the beast, I think. At least with the way RoW is set up, if a member isn't active, they tend to weed themselves out (people know who the flakes are and will simply choose to not RP with them out of risk of having their threads die). The awkward part is dealing with those people as staff.

 

If someone kept flaking on me, I'd probably welcome them back at least a few times. But each time after that I'd be less and less likely to bother spending the effort to welcome them. Simply because I wouldn't for a second believe that they're actually back or will actually change their behaviour. (At least not until they prove they can change and not flake...)

Though even if I let someone who'd flaked multiple times return, I wouldn't let them return to assume a position of control or importance. I'd let them return and play other, less important characters (maybe their original characters only?) sure. (At least for a few times... but even then I admit I'd be tempted to just ask them that the next time they leave to make it permanent since the constant vanish/return is harder than them just staying gone.)

Nothing personal against them, maybe they're a nice person. But I just couldn't trust them to stick around. And I think that, at times, having someone who keeps flaking is harder on the community than simply leaving a position vacant. Flakers tend to tie up plots and make it so people lose interest in the plot at hand and just overall bring the site down. They also possibly end up fostering distrust in other players (creating a worry about more flakers) and less willingness to take chances with new/other players.

With the position vacant, at the very least, it can be left open to be NPC'd. But if someone's controlling the character it's generally frowned on to do that. (At least until the character has been left alone for a pre-established period of time and is thusly declared free/inactive.)

 

I have one! I have one!

Pretty sure I activated the account twice now, after they claimed they wanted to write again. I will not reactivate them a third time. Been with us for a year, co-wrote 1 (one) post with me and then... nothing. They're not taking up a valuable or important part, but it as such a promising character that I do feel it is a shame they can't find time to participate.

But if they are not going to write, they don't need to be a member. Any guest can read. So after they go inactive again (i.e. no post in the next 2 weeks) they will be deactivated again and will not have their account revived. :(

 

Do you feel as those is an appropriate response to consistent flakiness? I would love to be able to say "No, I'm sorry, but you're just not welcome here anymore. Better luck somewhere else," but I'm a bit worried it would come off as harsh and unwelcoming to new members who don't know the history of this other member.

 

If I did not feel it was an appropriate response, I would not do it.

This member is not so much 'flakey' as more 'not participating beyond one post'. There is no reason for them to be a member, unless they write. Our site is set up so that non-members can follow the entire story easily. The ONLY reason to have an account is to be able to write posts as part of the collaborative story. There is no ooc area or fun and games area where members can let their hair down. It's all about writing.

As a reader, not a writer, people can interact with the writers and readers on our OOC forum, which is not where we wrote out story. I am not removing their account on the OOC forum, as they are welcome to post there as they like.

Bottom line is: we like our members to be writing. Having an inactive writer is not a huge problem, of course. We just like to be clear to our other members about who is active and who is not.

 

I agree with all of your post but this part especially. I personally just cannot deal with these flakes. Most of my members are flakes. I can count on only TWO of my players for any plots/threads to get finished. Everybody else either takes too long to reply and I end up losing all interest (and they tie up important plot lines, as you mentioned, stalling not just me but other people I planned the plot with) OR they reply once and never bother replying again.

Because of this, I recently added a note to my OOC signature telling people if they're slow posters that I don't want to plot with them. Does it make me look unfriendly? Probably. But this is my hobby and I'm pretty sick of plotting out fun and important ideas and then having people just disappear for weeks before they show up again. I don't care if they're plotting and posting with other people who are slow but please, don't tie me up. I'm a very fast poster, often posting multiple times per each thread I'm in daily (and I do post daily, so I'm always around). I know not everybody has the ability to post daily but if it takes more than a week--consistently--for somebody to get back to me, it's not fun for me. In fact, it's boring and torturous. I hate replying to slow threads like that. Considering the average thread size is about 50 or so posts on my board (if not a lot more in some), it takes MONTHS to finish ONE thread with these people.

So I'm not a fan of slow posters or people who disappear for a month without a word and come back, wanting to thread again. It's nothing against the people. I like them just fine. But I just don't have the patience to RP with them.

As for letting them back, I'm not very strict, so people can come and go as they please. I don't delete accounts unless specifically asked to, so they can come back in a year if they feel like it. Just... I won't be threading with them.

 

I always welcome them back, but they need to show some serious dedication before getting any important position.

 

So far, we've always welcomed them back. But if they're "repeat offenders", then they are limited on the # of characters they can have, as well as ranking in play and what not. Once they've reached a certain threshold that shows they are genuinely interested in sticking it out this time, then they're privileges in that regard are reinstated.

 

I think this is a fairly common problem. I've run into it a LOT.

Basically, we do activity checks once or twice a year. If someone doesn't check their characters in (and it's not that hard; one post with all active characters named) then they're moved to the 'Inactive' group and their profiles are moved to the inactive profiles section. If they want to return, all they have to do is announce it in the Comings and Goings OR PM an admin.

The only time this really annoys me is when someone gets upset about being moved to Inactive, demands to be reactivated, begs for threads, then doesn't post in threads they begged for.

Otherwise, if our inactive list is longer than our active list, so be it. We don't delete accounts unless asked specifically unless they've been around for a long time with no posts when the activity checks roll around. We have NEVER deleted profiles. Those just get moved to a sub-forum only seen by the main admin account. That way, if asked about one from a deleted account or an incomplete profile months old, we can return it.

 

I have had members like this.

The first few I kept welcoming back, and I used to go to the effort of sending them a bullet-point list of everything new/different/or moved on. Then I realised how crazy that was, because some of them did it on an almost three months basis, and others did it for even longer. It was possible for members to jump back in but be unaware of events since then, as they would pick them up IC from other characters (especially mine who always ended up involved in the main site happenings), but they got used to those bullet-by-bullet help threads. Most of thses catch-up threads took me over two hours to type!

At one point I had an activity policy and in it it was stated that on your third bounce into inactivity, you would have your account deleted. It didn't stop the main one we had at that point lol.

I think it's ok to tell somebody they aren't active enough for your site, and to ask them to leave for it. I haven't actually done it yet, but as I have a new board, I'll be making sure to do that this time round. Two times bouncing back is fine, but if somebody does it consistantly, I'm definitely going to say something. Some roleplayers have a lot of difficulty continuing threads when one participant has gone inactive, and sometimes those threads were the active members' favourites. Why allow our members to be let down, disappointed, unable to continue a plot they found really fun, because somebody keeps popping by.

It's like borrowing somebody's milk and then bringing it back once it has gone all clumpy and gone off. It's not nice to the community to be flaky XD

 

Yes, it happens everywhere. And I told a few members that they are welcome if they keep active... then they promised they would be... and rinse and repeat. It's one thing taking an announced hiatus (and be debriefed when back as @Draegon said) and something else vanishing mid-story in the mist...

 

Yup, very common.

From an administrating perspective, we'll always welcome returning members back to the game regardless of the circumstances under which they left (this includes previously banned members). However, flaky members will need to make a significant effort to establish themselves as reliable before seeking out leader positions, and we definitely look for membership longevity and reliability when considering players for staff.

Flaky members used to annoy me a lot, but I don't think I care as much anymore. It's not hard work to re-accept them into the game, and they're only hurting themselves by being unreliable.

As a player though, I'm way less tolerant of flaky people, and honestly, the high probability of newer members or people I don't know being flakes is one of the reasons I've pretty much only RP'd with like...five people in the last several years. Even with them, I don't always finish threads, but I at least know they're stable enough to be contacted for OOC conclusions or whatever else. They won't go AWOL on me, even if stuff happens and we end up dropping some plots.

 

I have had this issue in the past, and it is never an easy thing to deal with. I generally give them another chance, but I'm not going to lie. On the first time they return, and of course this depends entirely on why and how they left the first time, I tell them straight up that I'm not comfortable with allowing them to take any canon characters and I will ask them not to starting plotting heavily with other characters unless they feel they are back to stay because of how many plots they broke the first time they left. A lot of people don't seem to realize the impact them leaving can have on a site, and those that do understand and continue to do it get a satisfaction out of knowing that they were important and that things broke without them. If they continue to plot like crazy and ditch, then I tell them straight up that unfortunately we will not be able to welcome them back again. I understand not wanting to hurt someone's feelings, but my site isn't about one sort-of member's feelings, it is about the community as a whole. Allowing people to explode plots time after time will likely harm the good members you do have and cause them to feel insecure with their own characters. It is better to just take the guilt punch to the gut and turn away one player than watch their actions spread like a cancer through the whole community.

 

The more they flake the less help they get. Not ignored, we just don't have time for yo-yoers. :P

 

I relate to this, but more accurately I would say that they build a reputation and in the long run have trouble getting threads.

Yoyo roleplayers may make the best characters in the world, but people will only be burned so many times before they find themselves in an environment where nobody wants to connect. I don't mind welcoming them back, but I certainly wouldn't invest myself in them. I leave it to the community to act (or not) as they see fit. In the end they are still a member, they are still giving their time to the community, and they are inadvertently helping the board to grow.

What would irritate me more than them bouncing back and forth is if they start taking people with them. We used to have a girl who hated message board roleplay. She would join a site, find some roleplay partners, talk them into roleplaying with her on aim, and then once they were connected she would cut free of the forum entirely. Sometimes the roleplayers would go with her.

THAT is not okay. At that point it isn't a community issue. It is an Administrative one

 

I try not to treat a flaky member any different, especially if they've been nothing but kind in any interactions with me. However, I am less inclined to want to role play with them or get any of my characters involved in any plots due to the realization that I'll just start and never hear from them again.

 

Thats why we have a hiatus and departure thread it helps us alot :)

 

We have a hiatus and departure forum too so we know if people are gone/slow... but there are those who still can't be fussed to communicate. And just those who flake... Honestly? We will welcome them back as long as there's no OOC drama AND they're not taking a canon/central role. If they've been flaking a couple times, we'll just inform them they can't apply for (or reapply for, whichever) for any canons. Not a big deal, since there are about a squillion noncanon roles they can take. OR make.