Well, I did say we were gonna party~
UPDATE: Since this post is now a part of our navigation space, think of it as the guideline on how group posts will work from now on. However, we would like to point out that group posts are for LARGE numbers of participants. Three or four people do not count as a group post, so you are free to thread if you feel like that would be easier.
How group posts work:For those of you with previous RPing experience (on journals that is), you know that group posts can be a huge pain in the ass at times, so Heej and I decided we would come up with a method of doing things that would apply to future group posts.
This is how it works, and pay close attention because cooperation, patience, and planning make a successful group post: you don't reply to comments. You simply comment to the entry. A new comment each time you post.
This prevents the comments from threading and thus branching off into separate activities, and in that way we can prevent people from being left out. Everyone participates. It is a bit confusing at first but trust me it is a lot harder to follow a post with threads everywhere and everyone doing their own thing.
If at any point your character leaves the "main" action of the scene, you may break off into a separate thread - do NOT create a new post, as the timeline will undoubtedly make little sense.A few helpful hints:
- Reload the page often to make sure you're viewing the most current, relevant comment. That way you don't end up blindly posting to see that so-and-so has already walked away or been hit with a pizza.
- Figure out a posting order. Get on instant messenger or send players you're directly participating with a message, that way no one is left hanging.
- This one is probably the most important and can be used in every scene - write your comment out in a word processor first! Notepad, Word, etc. anything will do. COPY/PASTA IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. So is spellcheck... Livejournal and your internet connection aren't always forgiving, and there is nothing more frustrating then having your post not go through or your comment gobbled up by the internets.
How to start a group post:First things first: is it really a group post? Is it a gathering, or a party, or some sort of event that would bring together a large group of people?
Some muns find it easier to use the "group post format" (i.e. posting a new comment each time) when they have more than two people in a scene, but this does not qualify as a group post so please do not use the group post tag in your post. If you're not at all sure what's going down, feel free to go bug one of us modlies to get a second opinion.
Now, if it is a group post, I recommend disabling comment notifications on that entry - there is going to be a massive amount of traffic on your post, and if you don't want to clear out all the irrelevant messages out of your inbox, you should do this.
Disabling Comment Notifications: Under Allow Comments? switch from Journal Defaults to Don't Email. That's it. At any time you can turn them back on if you want to get notifs of new comments again.
Somewhere in your headers ("when", "what", etc. it doesn't really matter where you link it, just as long as it's above the cut) stick the url to the group post guideline so that new players don't get confused about the formatting.
If people post OOC only comments, remind them that the group post isn't the place for discussion and delete the comments.
Remember to update your headers as new people join (or suggest that people add their nation tag as they join so you don't have to do all the work), or if the rating exceeds PG-13. If for whatever reason things get out of hand, please lock the post.