Frequently Asked Questions
Good evening, RPS! Or... morning, to those of you on the other side of the globe, and afternoon to the one-quarters away, you get the idea. Today this modpost is brought to you by a series of questions that were asked repeatedly in secret posts and the suggestion post alike. We figured an official FAQ would be extremely helpful and convenient for both parties, you and us.
Under the cut, we have compiled a few questions and answers that address our definition of secrets and not!secrets, along with other rules, inquiries, and other details that we would like to remind the general public. Hopefully this will clarify things better. You can refer to this entry for your answer if your question falls under one of these.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
01. What's the lag rate?
Unless there are complications, botling posts the lag rate once a week on Friday nights. This reflects the submissions of the past week, so jumps in secret submission will skew this slightly. Please don't use it to mark your calendars by.
02. Why was this secret classified as an N!S/N!RPS/PSA/etc?
RPS is not a public service announcement venue or a help forum. N!S are for secrets that either don't generate commentary or use the board for purposes that aren't what it was intended to be. Secrets that fall under this category are "I ship it"s, "I want to make this game," "I want to app _____," and other such generic secrets that don't have much content.
However, you will notice that this rule isn't absolute. A lot of secrets are vague, despite the makers' intentions. Moderators cannot read minds, nor do we know every game's inside joke and banner. Please keep this in mind when you make a secret as to avoid it being put into these categories. We would also appreciate it if you do not compare secrets to secrets to see if they are secrets or N!S.
03. When's the next anon meme?
You'll have better luck checking the memes themselves. RP!S is not officially related to the anon memes.
04. What's your definition of a personal attack?
Something entirely un-related to RP that mentions incidents that occurred outside of RP -usually RL or otherwise.
05. Is it a blurfail if I can see the community name?
No, it is not.
06. Why wasn't my secret posted?
If your secret wasn't posted (and we're assuming you've checked the N!Ss), it could be because of a few reasons:
a. Your secret is a blurfail.
b. Your secret is a personal attack.
c. Your secret was posted to the wrong entry. We do occasionally get secrets submitted to the suggestions post instead of the submissions post, so please double check before posting.
d. We simply have not gotten to your secret yet. Lag rate fluctuates frequently, so please be patient and not gauge your time by the lag rate that is posted every Friday.
If your secret does not fall into these categories and you do not see your secret after a week, feel free to contact the mods and repost it to the submissions post. Moderators are not perfect and there is always the possibility that we overlooked your secret. We apologize if this is the case.
07. Why isn't calling someone by their handle in a secret or comments a namedrop?
Name-dropping is something we use to prevent secrets from being easily traced back to journals or real-life circumstances. However, handles are vague enough that tracing them back to the owners is harder (while there can only be one username, there is a possibility that many people's handles could be Sparkles) and facilitates less confusing discussion.
What about journal ID numbers? Why don't you have people blur those?
Honestly, journal ID numbers are less easy to track down than usernames. Not only this, though, they're also a lot harder for secret members and the mod team to catch when blurred and the banning of unblurred journal ID numbers would cause more blurfails and not much difference in the majority's ability to find those mentioned in the secret.
What about namedropping when the secret is positive? I notice you guys let those slide. What is your policy on this?
We generally allow this when the secret and its reception are generally positive. The namedropping comments that are deleted are those that perpetuate wank.
08. WHO IS ____??? WHAT IS CR???? WHO WAS PHONE???
http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/
09. Can you guys change to F!S comment style?
We feel that with just 15 secrets a day, there is not much point changing the comment style as there is not much to wade through, as opposed to the situation in F!S. Furthermore, we feel that a lot of natural discussion and random socialization would fade under the stricter setup F!S uses.
10. Will you delete this secret about me? I'm going through a rough time right now. I don't need this.
Unfortunately, outside of blurfails that we've missed, we don't remove secrets upon request. Once they are posted, they will remain posted.
We do not make exceptions to this.
11. At what point do you guys see fit to freeze threads? I requested a thread frozen but it wasn't frozen, what happened?
We act fast when things such as real life information is brought up in a negative manner, like as heavily abusive comments about a person's financial status, sexual orientation, or physical health. However, beyond this, freezing threads becomes subjective, mostly decided upon by how far the thread has negatively moved from the original topic. We try to avoid censoring members' opinions and dialogue as best we can.
We do not make a habit of freezing threads simply because others have disagreed with your opinion. This is a group forum and others are allowed to express their sentiments just as you are yours.
12. What are some guidelines for posting ads?
_ Reply to the comment entitled RP Ads, not the Previously on RP!S comment that lists all the other comms and journals.
_ Don't include images, whether header, table background, or accent.
_ Wait for the first page to go into collapsed threads before posting any tables.
_ Please don't forget to list your game's main comm somewhere in the ad. Link directly to the main comm (not the mod journal, not the OOC comm, not info pages) using either < a href="..." > or < lj user="..." >. Stating the name of your game, even if it has the same name as the comm itself, in the title or anywhere in the ad doesn't count.
_ We don't allow reverse ads. By this we mean posts by players in the form of "(character name here) looking for a game" -- instead, please take it to app_this_plz and other similar comms.
13. Are you guys looking for help?
No, not really. We've got a great team and aren't looking for more.
We welcome your feedback and questions! Feel free to place more questions here if you find our explanations unclear and/or if you have more questions. We will get back to you ASAP.
Otherwise, thank you for taking a look ♥
Under the cut, we have compiled a few questions and answers that address our definition of secrets and not!secrets, along with other rules, inquiries, and other details that we would like to remind the general public. Hopefully this will clarify things better. You can refer to this entry for your answer if your question falls under one of these.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
01. What's the lag rate?
Unless there are complications, botling posts the lag rate once a week on Friday nights. This reflects the submissions of the past week, so jumps in secret submission will skew this slightly. Please don't use it to mark your calendars by.
02. Why was this secret classified as an N!S/N!RPS/PSA/etc?
RPS is not a public service announcement venue or a help forum. N!S are for secrets that either don't generate commentary or use the board for purposes that aren't what it was intended to be. Secrets that fall under this category are "I ship it"s, "I want to make this game," "I want to app _____," and other such generic secrets that don't have much content.
However, you will notice that this rule isn't absolute. A lot of secrets are vague, despite the makers' intentions. Moderators cannot read minds, nor do we know every game's inside joke and banner. Please keep this in mind when you make a secret as to avoid it being put into these categories. We would also appreciate it if you do not compare secrets to secrets to see if they are secrets or N!S.
03. When's the next anon meme?
You'll have better luck checking the memes themselves. RP!S is not officially related to the anon memes.
04. What's your definition of a personal attack?
Something entirely un-related to RP that mentions incidents that occurred outside of RP -usually RL or otherwise.
05. Is it a blurfail if I can see the community name?
No, it is not.
06. Why wasn't my secret posted?
If your secret wasn't posted (and we're assuming you've checked the N!Ss), it could be because of a few reasons:
a. Your secret is a blurfail.
b. Your secret is a personal attack.
c. Your secret was posted to the wrong entry. We do occasionally get secrets submitted to the suggestions post instead of the submissions post, so please double check before posting.
d. We simply have not gotten to your secret yet. Lag rate fluctuates frequently, so please be patient and not gauge your time by the lag rate that is posted every Friday.
If your secret does not fall into these categories and you do not see your secret after a week, feel free to contact the mods and repost it to the submissions post. Moderators are not perfect and there is always the possibility that we overlooked your secret. We apologize if this is the case.
07. Why isn't calling someone by their handle in a secret or comments a namedrop?
Name-dropping is something we use to prevent secrets from being easily traced back to journals or real-life circumstances. However, handles are vague enough that tracing them back to the owners is harder (while there can only be one username, there is a possibility that many people's handles could be Sparkles) and facilitates less confusing discussion.
What about journal ID numbers? Why don't you have people blur those?
Honestly, journal ID numbers are less easy to track down than usernames. Not only this, though, they're also a lot harder for secret members and the mod team to catch when blurred and the banning of unblurred journal ID numbers would cause more blurfails and not much difference in the majority's ability to find those mentioned in the secret.
What about namedropping when the secret is positive? I notice you guys let those slide. What is your policy on this?
We generally allow this when the secret and its reception are generally positive. The namedropping comments that are deleted are those that perpetuate wank.
08. WHO IS ____??? WHAT IS CR???? WHO WAS PHONE???
http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/
09. Can you guys change to F!S comment style?
We feel that with just 15 secrets a day, there is not much point changing the comment style as there is not much to wade through, as opposed to the situation in F!S. Furthermore, we feel that a lot of natural discussion and random socialization would fade under the stricter setup F!S uses.
10. Will you delete this secret about me? I'm going through a rough time right now. I don't need this.
Unfortunately, outside of blurfails that we've missed, we don't remove secrets upon request. Once they are posted, they will remain posted.
We do not make exceptions to this.
11. At what point do you guys see fit to freeze threads? I requested a thread frozen but it wasn't frozen, what happened?
We act fast when things such as real life information is brought up in a negative manner, like as heavily abusive comments about a person's financial status, sexual orientation, or physical health. However, beyond this, freezing threads becomes subjective, mostly decided upon by how far the thread has negatively moved from the original topic. We try to avoid censoring members' opinions and dialogue as best we can.
We do not make a habit of freezing threads simply because others have disagreed with your opinion. This is a group forum and others are allowed to express their sentiments just as you are yours.
12. What are some guidelines for posting ads?
_ Reply to the comment entitled RP Ads, not the Previously on RP!S comment that lists all the other comms and journals.
_ Don't include images, whether header, table background, or accent.
_ Wait for the first page to go into collapsed threads before posting any tables.
_ Please don't forget to list your game's main comm somewhere in the ad. Link directly to the main comm (not the mod journal, not the OOC comm, not info pages) using either < a href="..." > or < lj user="..." >. Stating the name of your game, even if it has the same name as the comm itself, in the title or anywhere in the ad doesn't count.
_ We don't allow reverse ads. By this we mean posts by players in the form of "(character name here) looking for a game" -- instead, please take it to app_this_plz and other similar comms.
13. Are you guys looking for help?
No, not really. We've got a great team and aren't looking for more.
We welcome your feedback and questions! Feel free to place more questions here if you find our explanations unclear and/or if you have more questions. We will get back to you ASAP.
Otherwise, thank you for taking a look ♥