Inactivity Penalties Refresher

Activity Rules Refresh

The Activity system is not exactly a new concept.  In fact, it probably suffers from being a bit out-dated and impractical for the way BG works today.  To that end, we've made some updates to the rule system to makes things both more clear and more practical.

Staying Active:

• In order to gain and claim GP, a character must be in 'Active' status.
• Each character must make 1 In Character post every 31 days in order to stay active. 
  • Off-topic and OOC posts do not influence this status.
  • To reassert, this is 31 days per character, not per player.
• You can post in the "Coming & Going" forum that you will be unavailable.
  • This will add one additional month (31 days) to your Activity timer
  • Posting on this forum covers all of your characters
  • Once you start posting again IC, this protection will lapse

Returning from Inactive:

• In order to request reactivation, simply reply to either your Application, or your Stats & Techs thread.
• When you are reactivated, a member of staff will check you existing IC threads and assess an Inactivity penalty.
  • If a thread was waiting on a player other than you for a post at the time you went inactive, there is no penalty.
  • If a thread was waiting on you for a reply at the time of your inactivity, a penalty of 50 GP will be applied for that thread.
    • This penalty cannot be waived by your thread partner(s)
    • This penalty is removed if the thread is completed, or those involved agree it is done.
    • This can be skipped if the thread partner(s) are also inactive.
• GP Cannot be spent without addressing Inactivity penalties.

So the major changes are;

-Vacations are capped at 2 months [This changed earlier but was poorly advertised]

-There is no penalty if you go inactive because other people are not posting for you

-Penalties are 50 GP and cannot be waived.

Why these changes?

Inactivity penalties represent a critical point of threading in the community - other people are relying on you to post, for their own enjoyment as well as the progression of their stories.  Don't leave folks hanging!  If you cannot post for whatever reason life throws at you, we understand and we're happy to accommodate but we need to know. 

Furthermore, we felt there was an unfair amount of social pressure for everyone to waive activity penalties, which essentially made them pointless.  It wasn't the other thread participant's decision to apply the penalty, so it was unfair to give them option to remove it and put them in that difficult situation.

Finally, if you have paid a 100 GP penalty at any point in your history which you had to pay off, please approach me personally - this change is retroactive and we can look at refunding GP.

As always, my door is open.  Happy Posting.