New Rules Re: Thread Tracking and Multiple Characters!
Hello my darlings!! Hope everyone is well this fine January weekend!!
Maddie and I have been in discussion about thread tracking as of late, and we’ve come to the decision that we will be instating a new rule for anyone with 3 or more characters.
As you may know, we have posted tips and reminders about tracking your own activity and threads in the past and have warned against relying solely on tumblr’s activity feature many-a-time [x]. This is because tumblr’s activity feature is extremely unreliable, and though it’s somewhat manageable when you only have one or two characters, it starts to become extremely easy to lose threads once you have any more than that.
Obviously, everyone loses threads sometimes, and it does still happen every once in a while, even if you have tracking systems in place, and that’s okay! These things happen to the best of us and so long as you’re attentive and communicating with your rp partner, it doesn’t have to be a big deal!
However, as losing and accidentally dropping threads isn’t just about you, but also your RP friends and fam, we’d like to enable everyone to be as effective with thread tracking as possible! There are already guidelines in place for taking on additional characters that require you to demonstrate you have the time management and organizational skills to juggle the responsibilities of multiple characters; so moving forward, any members with three or more characters will be required to have a tracking system in place.
Obviously, we will highly encourage the use of ThreadTracker, as it’s easy to use and set up, extremely user friendly, customizable and versatile, and all of our members who do use it say that it has transformed the way they RP and significantly minimized stress. Even I held off trying it for years, thinking it would be more work than it was worth or that it would stress me out even more. But now that I’ve tried it, not only do I regret all the time I spent not using it, I also don’t know if I could ever go back. It’s streamlined everything about RP for me, has made tracking multiple threads and characters so much less stressful, and has actually significantly helped my motivation when it comes to replies. If you have not tried it yet, Maddie and I cannot stress enough how worthwhile it is to give it a shot!
However, we acknowledge that everyone has their own tastes and preferences, and if you discover ThreadTracker is not for you and you would like to use a more basic (if less efficient) tracking system, then you can do so! Back before ThreadTracker days, many of us kept a post in our drafts (or on your phone or computer!) of all our ongoing threads on every character, which we would edit any time we got replies back, or posted replies, in order to keep track of who’s turn was up. Of course, this was less effective in that it requires you to edit and change the status of each thread manually every time, but so long as you keep it updated, even if you do miss a reply, it’s harder to forget about threads, and you’re more likely to notice when you haven’t seen a reply for it in a while and you can follow up by checking the character’s blog (tip: people use tags for a reason! Check them!) or by contacting your RP partner.
So, with the instatement of this new rule, anyone who will be starting a new ThreadTracker account, we will require them to send us a screenshot of their ThreadTracker dashboard once they have all their characters and threads set up! Anyone who uses their own manual tracking system will have to send us a screenshot of that, instead. Please note that sending these screenshots will be a one-time only thing. We will not be monitoring your systems or breathing down your neck after that. We just want to see that you have set yourself up with something and then it will be up to you to maintain it!
However, though it will not be mandatory to use ThreadTracker, Maddie and I request that you at least try it, as it’s much more effective and will track your threads for you, rather than relying on you to edit a post or note every time. For anyone new to ThreadTracker, it has a comprehensive tutorial video on how to set up and use your account built right into the help pages of ThreadTracker. You will also find a bit more information about it (and other helpful tumblr tools!) on the Colony’s resources page.
This rule will be effective immediately, and should be added to the rule page/multiple character guidelines page within the next couple days.
As always, if anyone has any questions or concerns at all, please don’t be afraid to contact us on the main about it! We will be glad to help out anybody who may need some assistance, guidance or advice on setting up a way to track their threads in a way that suits their needs!
Cheers all! Much love and hope you all have a fabulous, relaxing Sunday!
