Remember that Tumblr has "we're going to shut down any minute!" panics pretty often and obviously we've made it this far. If the corpse of Twitter can still be dragged behind that guy's cybertruck for as long as it has there's a chance it won't just disappear that quickly. That said, it's always good to backup your writing somewhere. It's your hard work, you deserve to not lose it.
Look into alternative roleplay sites if that's something that comforts you, things like forums (yes those still exist) or Discord, but don't assume that means those won't disappear either. In a lot of ways the internet isn't as forever as you may think, it takes massive amounts of capital to run these sites and it's capital that websites very rarely make back in their profits. These are not perfect solutions.
Recently I accidentally deleted a single Discord channel that had 3 years of work on it. I mistook it for another channel while doing some spring cleaning, mistakes happen. People get mad and delete Discord servers while everyone's asleep. You should not put all your eggs in one basket regardless of what platform it is.
If possible put your files on physical flash drives or external hard drives! Get your fics and artworks printed and bound as little paperback books to keep in your house. Whatever makes you personally happy and feel secure that your creative works will be there when you want to revisit them!
I tend to avoid the fear mongering "this website is going to go under any minute now!!" sentiments by simply not talking about it publicly at all, but if you are stressed about the possibility of Tumblr shutting the lights off randomly, I recommend exporting a backup of your roleplay blogs. It's at the bottom of the setting's page (be careful to avoid the delete blog button!) and can take a couple days to actually initialize. Be patient, as a lot of people are likely doing the same thing right now.
Creating a backup can offer you some peace of mind that if anything does happen, you don't lose potentially months or years of writing. Just keep in mind that once it is done processing you need to come back to this setting and actually obtain the export.
Disclaimer: This post is mostly a ramble in regards to prose/longform roleplay. It isn't as applicable to shorter social media tyoe interactions, though I'm of the opinion that this mindset benefits both.
If you want to hone your roleplay then the best way to do it in my opinion is to read more! Read the threads and writings of your fellow roleplayers to get an idea of their stories and their muses' voices. Read books that inspire you in your own works. Writing is important to roleplaying, but so is reading.
Roleplay is a conversation, and while an important part of it is communicating information in a way that is engaging and well understood, another huge part of it is listening. And your fellow writers have put a lot of work into what they've made. They deserve to be listened to just as much.
And I think that's a lesson a lot of people learn the hard way. You cannot be solitary and get the full experience out of roleplaying. You cannot expect people to go out of their way to interact with you if you give nothing back. If you give short replies that people cannot build off of, if you do not show interest in your fellows' work, if you do not initiate and instead sit around and wait for your audience to come to you before you've even started, then why would others do any different?
This, in my opinion, is where a lot of that feeling that there's a shortage on interactions comes from. If you've been in this community or indeed any writing community long enough you've heard people talk about it. You've probably heard people say in the past, earlier on in the community, people were better about it. I've been here for over 2 full years now and I can tell you there were certainly less of us, but that's not the same thing.
If talking with other roleplayers sounds too daunting for you, start small. If these things sound like absolute torture to you and you don't want to do them? I mean this in the most polite way possible, maybe consider writing on your own, because roleplay might not be the best fit. If you're here because you think it's less writing for you and therefore easier you might find yourself stuck when you are forced to realize coordinating with other people means it's just as much effort as writing alone. Both can be fun, but make sure you have a realistic expectation of what you're doing.
An updated tagging guide for the pkmnirl community.
TL;DR
If you like using the stakes tag system and already know how they work, consider adding #heightened emotional state pokereality and #altered perception pokereality to your repertoire. A brief explanation of each below. Full explanation below the read more.
#heightened emotional state pokereality can be used with topics pertaining (but not limited) to: suicide ideation, discussions of self harm, psychosis, limerence, depressive spirals, paranoia, or high levels of anxiety.
#heightened emotional state pokereality does not necessarily include low level anxiety or depression that does not cause major disruption to everyday life. It does not include just being very angry or upset. This is for heightened emotional states often brought about by mental health crises of some kind.
#altered perception pokereality can be used with topics pertaining (but not limited) to: delusions, hallucinations, traumatic flashbacks, brainwashing, or instances of a character being gaslit.
#altered perception pokereality does not necessarily include things like unreality or benign religious beliefs. This is for aspects of a character's reality that does not reflect material reality in a way that may be distressing for the character or potential readers.
These are not meant to replace content warnings, but might allow people to filter them more quickly.
If you do not know what stakes tags is referring to, please refer to the full post below the read more for a quick explanation of these tags and how they can be used. We hope you find this guide helpful!
The Tagging Guide
Over a year and a half ago this community introduced the stakes tag system. Originally proposed by prof-hemp420, the stakes tag system gave us the navigation tags we have today. It is the system we still use here on our blog, mind you with some simplifications. It came to my attention that these tags may not be as widely known by newcomers and that the introduction of other tags could prove helpful for tagging major events, posts, and even blogs.
First off, let's go back over the previous system, then we will propose some new additions. It should be stated preemptively none of these tags are meant to replace individual warning tags (your content warnings and trigger warnings) but instead to give people less individual tags they may want to block or search through on a moment’s notice. For when you aren’t quite sure what to tag something, this can help you.
The Stakes Tags
#no stakes pokereality - As the name implies this is for zero stakes situations. These are your everyday posts. There is no expectation to tag your casual posts with this, it more so comes in handy for distinguishing that a larger event will have no major stakes involved.
#low stakes pokereality - A step up from nostakes, some mundane conflict may happen, but everything is going to turn out okay.
#drama stakes pokereality - This is the tag for drama and disturbances. The kind of tag you use when your character is getting in a screaming match with someone at a public restaurant. A plotline utilizing drama stakes may be high emotion, but no one is going to end up badly harmed. This tag may be tacked onto another tag to provide further context. i.e. these characters will argue but the conflict itself is kept relatively low stakes
#high stakes pokereality - In short, people will be hurt but everyone will survive more or less in one piece. This is for your canon compliant evil team plotlines where the protagonists lives and maybe even the entire region is at stake.
#ultra stakes pokereality - Same as high stakes, but with the acknowledgement that death or serious lasting consequences are now on the table. A Pokemon or person may die or end up in critical condition. Proceed with caution.
#dark fate pokereality - A rarely used tag that was proposed for Bad Ending scenarios. Extreme amounts of death or injury will be present, and people are not expected to come out of this okay in the end. This tag would most likely be tacked onto ultra stakes if it was used, though examples of this are limited.
These tags can be used for events, individual posts, or even in more current iterations blogs themselves! It is common to label a blog your high stakes or low stakes blog to give people a general indication of what to expect.
Now! Onto the two new tags we want to propose. With the focus on interpersonal conflicts and discussions of mental illness on a lot of blogs lately (including our own!), it felt appropriate to give general tags to use for these plotlines as well. Again, these would not replace content warnings or trigger warnings, but may offer the ability for people to filter as needed. Sometimes a person might be in a less stable place than typical, and sometimes individual content warnings can slip through the cracks due to how many variations there can be between blogs. These subjects can be triggering for individuals caught unaware.
The New Tags
#heightened emotional state pokereality - A mouthful, we know. This tag would be useful for posts or plotlines that involve characters experiencing emotional instability. It’s for things like depressive spirals, psychosis, or suicide ideation. If it is enough to impede their every day function or seems like a heavy topic to discuss, this may be applicable.
This does not necessarily include low level anxiety or depression that does not cause major disruption to everyday life. It does not include just being very angry or upset. This is for heightened emotional states often brought about by mental health crises of some kind.
#altered perception pokereality - Not to be confused with unreality, which you can find a helpful explanation of here. Altered perception can be for when your character’s beliefs do not reflect their material reality. An example of this would be your character experiencing delusions, hallucinations, or traumatic flashbacks. In a fictionalized world, it can be hard to distinguish when a character is perceiving something not truly there.
This does not necessarily include things like unreality or benign religious beliefs.
FAQ
Why do these tags all say pokereality?
This is to distinguish them as part of the pkmnirl community and to prevent them from being construed as real life events.
Do I stop using individual content warnings or trigger warning tags?
As previously mentioned please do not stop using individual warning tags! These are merely shorthand to allow people to filter things quickly. The unfortunate fact of the matter is individuals tag these things differently, meaning that if someone wants to effectively remove that content from their dash they must account for every possible variation. While well meaning, this means things inevitably slip through the cracks, we hope this may offer additional help in lessening the frequency of that.
Removing these warnings completely though would run the risk of people still being exposed to sensitive topics. In some instances an individual might be unaffected by discussions of paranoia but they are negatively affected by discussions of self harm. It's important that these tags and warnings be used in combination for them to be effective.
How do I know if my blog is high stakes or low stakes?
You do not have to label your blog as any particular stakes level. If you feel like you may dabble in higher stakes occasionally, but want to stay relatively low stakes, that is absolutely fine! Do not feel like you have to box yourself into something. You can always change your mind later.
I have a low stakes blog. Can I interact with high stakes ones?
That is down to the individual blog, but generally speaking yes! Blogs of varying stakes can interact with one another. This does not mean your blog has to become high stakes or that their blog has to become low stakes.
Should I tag all of my posts as unreality? I don’t want to upset anyone!
Tagging mundane pkmnirl posts as unreality unfortunately creates the opposite problem. People who need that tag blocked but still want to interact with the pkmnirl community then have to essentially gamble on whether or not a flagged post will contain something that will actually trigger a negative response or a regular old post about a character catching a pidgey outside the pokemart. Using a pkmnirl tag is fine. Consider pkmnirl, pkmn irl, rotomblr, rotumblr, pokeblogging, real pokemon, pokereality or some other variation to distinguish these from everyday posts on someone's dash.
Do I use #heightened emotional state pokereality or #altered perception pokereality for [X]?
If you aren’t sure it might be both! The stakes tags are mutually exclusive in most cases, but these are not. A psychosis episode will often have someone believing things that are not true about their material reality while also causing them to be in an unstable emotional state. In cases like these both tags apply.
Are heightened emotional states always bad?
We are not licensed professions to speak on the topic but to put things generally using these tags does not have to come with any moral judgment. That goes for the writer(s) and the character(s) involved.
Why did you repeat stuff so much in this guide?
People might not read all of it. We wanted to make sure that even people who might skim parts of this guide still understand the most important aspects of it.
I don’t want to use these tags!/This seems like too much effort! Or some variation thereof.
Okay. These are merely suggestions.
Original Stakes Tag Explanation | Unreality Explanation | Questions/Comments/Concerns
