The Continuity System

So, I dislike that I even need to propose this. As such, I will begin with a preface to this vile thought.

Genesis Project, in my mind, is a refuge for writers and creative minds to venture forth and build a story alongside other writers in an environment that is conducive to their state of mind. I really believe that, if our members are taught to be respectful of timelines, repercussions of other actions, and in general to be both responsible and respectful towards their fellows that we can build something great. To that end staff attempts to share its power and limit rules to only what is found in the Four Golden Rules and the Lore Sections for each dimension and the Omniverse at large. Genesis Project, because of this, is not a site for everyone. While we welcome novice writers, and we don't shun those who need help learning to write, there is a vast amount of information to consider and questions that need to be asked that make us by default a fairly advanced website.

But, it is more than apparent that people have not and quite possibly will not develop this respect for one another to ask about timelines or question the general progression of time. It has been put forward that time should advance at different paces for different dimensions, but all this would do is create confusion for the writers who travel back and forth from world to world and those that travel alongside them, especially as time is already relative to things such as gravity. Travelling from planet to planet dilates time as per physics, but travelling from one dimension to the next is reliable and constant. This means that you can be assured that by going from one Earth to its parallel and then returning, everyone you know hasn't aged to death by then or that they've scarcely noticed your absence. Travel through dimensions carries weight that we can all measure through this.

However, it is becoming more and more obvious that respect is not given. When GP resumed activity, in order to keep everything relative I decided that only a month had passed since the last post. This meant that people could resume their activities with an understandable amount of development or none at all. After all, single month after an extended period of inactivity proves welcoming to some who return and lets them continue to develop their story. But, that had changed. Another recent timeskip has propelled us a further five months forward. Part of me is tired. Relentless real life work compels me to give up and accept the change but the rest of me feels wicked and vengeful.

I have contained the wickedness, but not the vengeance it would seem. I have been observing other story sites for the past week in search of a solution, and have found one that is as effective as it is distasteful. It requires work to become more than what it is, which is currently an instrument of elitism and disrespect. However is all I have been able to locate seeing that common respect itself will fail without people willing to enforce it because they favor rule of law versus rule of respect.

This is the Continuity System. It's function is simple. All topics, save those related to personal plot that has been openly discussed in plot planning, related to site plot, or otherwise approved by staff are deemed non-canon. If a topic wishes to become canon, it must be approved by staff and council of active members. Members and staff involved in said topics or personal plots do not get a say whether that topic becomes canon or not.

I am offering this here as a first step to alert others that there is a problem. We are not as critical as we must be and I will go here if I have to. I would prefer not to. Let us attempt to find another solution that involves courtesy and respect.

...

welp

*plays Taps*

I really don't think it warrants taps- it's not that bad...question is where to we go from here?

That depends. I would prefer to not have anything to do with this, but I'm not one to brandish such a threat without the ability to make good on it. My suggestion would be that we all come together and afford ourselves the critical nature against the trespass for which we must subscribe. I have placed my reasoning as to why this is a negative thing within the post. We must counter it.

So, in a better summary of what I think of this without all of the jumbled nature of what I was about to write would be...I would be for it, but I do understand it would take a lot of work; and not many people would be very happy- and a lot of things that they felt would be true canon to them might not actually work anymore. In fact, it would be throwing away a lot of freedom, especially to other peoples stories. It would have a better, more solid sense of canon in my opinion; which appeals to me.

However. I do like freedom; which means we do have to have a little discussion about this.

Alex, I have told you before; especially to your attempts to have a community game or something or other, and nobody posted. Even the legendary weapons for that world that guy had made- I think only me and you did it. Non-Communication is a normal thing for a site, probably because nothing interesting is happening. Does it need to be fixed? Yes, most definitely. But restricting something in an attempt to bring more attention to it has a lot of downsides too. Obviously Mr. Therm had already shown you this, either by jest or being completely serious.

In fact, tis an unwise move you are making, even if you want a discussion on changing it.

So what are the things you think are wrong with the site- ICly and OOCly- besides non commitment and zis, eh...timeline...which i've always considered LIFE to be more important to an odd little site which appeals to my sense of hobby. It also remains one of the few things I have human interaction with- pathetic, WHATEVER (Twilight...I cannot spell w h a tever in lower case without having pop up...so I blame you for this... >.>)

I apologize if it seems like a kind of attack, Alex; I really do. But I am hopelessly confussled.

I will be flat out and say that as it exists right now, this is honestly a bad idea. Without more effort to make this system more palatable and applicable to the general function of our site it perturbs me to include it since it's currently clunky and frustrating.

I haven't actually restricted anything so much as gone as far as stating that I am willing to. This has obviously had some effect that may soon be repaired.

As for the website itself, you're right. Genesis Project is a site for writers. Real life has to matter more because, let's face it, people need to be able to take care of themselves. By that same token the website must be preserved too, not necessarily by the absent as we all have been at times but by the present who care enough to consider multiple angles when writers. As stated in the original post we are basically, by default, an advanced website because we have SO. MUCH. STUFF.

With members like Ray, you and I were able to guide him around and he was more than willing to learn the lore. Other members aren't, because they feel that they can move about in this system without restriction. This is untrue. There are limits that are clearly defined in the lore. The only exceptions to this are things that haven't been created yet, and that is meant for members to fill out. But then, how can they know what to fill out if they don't ask or read? This is a very common problem among some RP sites that newer members arrive and find out about some rules and limits during an approval process that we lack.

Our approval process is meant to be one another, but I think only you and I might frequently look at character sheets. Unfortunately, I might be the only one to look at a sheet and go "Oh, that's not meant to be there" (haven't had that problem yet) just because I'm more familiar with tenants of what has been created.

In Character and Out of Character, because of this, are intrinsically linked. In spite of this, I want to see people ask questions out of character. I want to see people willing to question me, and if they feel I'm incorrect, and the lore speaks nothing of it they can point at that blank spot and go "but it's not there". I want people to look at one another and go, "Oh snap, you can't do that" or something. It literally can't just be me doing it. It's more than doing it when it suits us, but doing it when it is needed. If it seems strange but has promise, then it can even become something new.

As for character interaction and in character business, it just comes down to being aware of other people and other things. Now, I do have an alternative solution that I want to Implement aside from the continuity system that checks the timeline that I've came up with over the past few days that should hopefully clear up any in character mishaps. It's much less restrictive in my mind, but that deserves an entirely different topic that succeeds this one. In character I want people to write more attentively to their surroundings. That's a difficult one to explain fully because it hasn't come up in a major way. It's essentially just subtle acknowledgements to background events which branches off from my main desire for people to write in conjunction with others, many of whom may not even be in that topic because it lets them help lend flavor to the world.

I'm noticing a problem where people are starting to have more and more private topics. While they lack the title "PRIVATE" or anything of the sort, informing them that you wish to join is often rebuffed sometimes desperately. They refuse collaborate beyond the one person- something very odd considering we are a collaborative site. This is fairly depressing to me to witness and indeed be prey off. It's difficult to roleplay for me because most of my characters are subtle or boring, and without interesting situations to insert them into I lack much to do. They live in areas where not much happens, content with doing nothing. And where they are, other people aren't. It appears we've encountered the problem that we've been warned about. Too many worlds. Too spread out.

Now, that itself isn't actually a problem. Kingdom Hearts Websites make it work just fine. The problem is that travel is difficult, and most people want to focus on only one character which I get, but it proves detrimental because they only play on the swings and never in the sandbox. Yet, other than giving them more "work" there is no incentive to getting them to make more characters.

And that's not true of everybody. You, Astral, and I are three individuals who do make a lot of characters. We do things. Or, we can. Even with my boring characters I have some characters who like to deliberately stir up trouble- hard to do when people won't join your topic. So of course, I still have to find somebody else's topic and join it which for me brings us right back to the Private Topics issue.

Of course there is plenty more, but I've rambled enough. I guess I want to address something that has been brought up with me before as well. In truth, I don't care very much about GP being super active. That's not the point for me. At least, not in terms of crowds of people. Topics, yes, we need more of those. But in general, ten dedicated writers on GP and we're set. Maybe not even ten. Like you said Artless, this is a hobby. And I've already seen that a lot of people seem to have this idea that everything has to be competitive. Genesis Project, a place of boundless adventure? There are no adventures to be had.

Now, that said, I'm getting to that "screw it" point that occurs right before writing a massive amount of one-offs.