Many issues

Currently, Desert Warriors is having many issues that are driving some members, like me, away from the site we used to love. There's more than just one reason, more than just one issue that we need to fix to get that old DW back, I think it was like what we liked about a year ago. We didn't have all this useless action, plots were planned out way before, no sudden predator and rover appearances, and our groups weren't all at super group status.

First issue-
Pretty much all of our groups have reached super group (forty or above members) and that is not just unrealistic, but would most likely result in group splits and uncomfortable living for out characters if this was the real world. What should we do?

Disperse all characters that are not actively played, their owner is not active, or their owner wants them gone.

No importing pregnant females.

Maybe we should make a rule so there is no litter above 5 pups unless a staff member grants permission for 6 or seven pups.

Get rid of all inactive member's characters, and inactive characters.

Now for the second issue-
We have too much unneeded and useless drama in the groups now. In meerkat life in the real world, groups will only encounter another group maybe once or twice a month, but not more, and possibly less. We don't really have a lot of battles, so we're okay here. But rovers here appear so freaking often it's not even funny. The appearance of rovers often results in pregnant subordinates on this site, which contributes to the super group issue. In the real world, rover encounters are no uncommon, but not anything close to as frequent and successful as they are here. Then there's too many unneeded predator attacks. It seems like almost ever day there's some sort of bird of prey trying to attack more than one group. That's just annoying. Then there's snakes and all that good stuff. Once again, real world, it happens, but here it happens almost every day, which it certainly doesn't in the real world. All this useless drama is absolutely annoying and takes away what DW used to be- a good, solid meerkat roleplay, where you actually felt like a meerkat. Now they just feel like characters to me, not meerkats. What should we do?

Cut the drama. It makes the page number go way too fast and get all of us lost, so cut the drama crap. just STOP IT.

Most of the newer members, not all, there are some who don't, but most of them are heavy drama queens in the roleplay. I'd say anyone who makes useless drama and is told to stop over and over should be given a warning. I am very close to quitting DW because of this.

Law down the law. I love our staff, everyone here on DW is an amazing moderator and admin, but they don't lay down the law very hard. In a way, DW is taking a heavy spiral out of control. We need a staff member that doesn't hesitate to lay down the rules on people.

Make rules to prevent useless drama. I know it could make things more interesting, but on a daily basis it gets annoying.

Maybe, in order to space out the drama that we don't need, make a rule that predators can only appear every three or four RP days, and rovers could only appear every two RP days. Or maybe we could just get rid of all inactive members rovers. I actually am working on something called an internet dice that we might be able to use for a rover to roll- there would be two sides, success and chased away. Give me ides.

This issue has already been brought, but no offense, you're guilty of soe of the things you've listed just as I. I don't think resorting to a game of chance will do much help. That will basically stomp out all rights of creativity and forming plots of people;s own.

Thank you for raising this again Stormy, I will post my comments in a similar order to your questions or suggestions so we don’t get to lost.

First Issue:
Group numbers are certainly high at the moment and we have over 450 character names on the role call list not including some that haven’t been brought in yet.

It’s a loose rule that after 2-3 RP days if a member has been inactive their character gets temporary dispersed until they return. I have also raised the issue about absent member’s dominants being switch out for new ones but Dipsy wasn’t fully in favour of doing this. So for the meantime they will still need to be covered by someone else. Pretty much all inactive members’ characters have already been temporarily dispersed and Dipsy’s are likely to be next.

All members who have characters in the Blizzards, Devils and now under investigation the two Reaper groups need to decide what they want to do with them. The first two groups have seen limited RP action over the last several RP days and the Reapers/John Does have suddenly seen a decline on this RP day compared to the other groups.
Does everyone want the Blizzards and the Devils to become lost mobs?
Is there still a plot reason for the John Does to be away from the Reapers?
Are the John Does looking likely to become a lost mob in the approaching future?
Do John Does current dominant character members need a dominant position elsewhere?
So many questions that need to be thought about before things are put into action.

Importing pregnant characters does pose a pressure on the numbers in the groups anyway and maybe this could be an amendment to the rules already in place until group numbers start plummeting.

Since our site gestation time is reduced maybe the number of pups in a litter could also be reduced to counter balance that our female characters have more litters in a year than they do realistically or should the gestation period be increased from 53 back up to 72?

Second Issue:
I have to agree there is a lot of dramatic activity happing that I know myself I struggle to get involved with anything that happens especially in an active group such as Jumaa.
The main dramatic events that should occur more often than in reality is new members joining the group and the rule is already in place that any character after the first meerkat that joined a group doesn’t have to be accepted by the dominant.
We thought about putting a limit on the number of characters a member could have in each group or the total number of characters for the site but neither was put in place at the time due to it affecting current standing members over that figure or some who like and can handle being more active and thus wanting more characters.
Importation and character creation bans can be put in place if members want to be in favour of them.

There is currently a decline in the amount of communication between moderators on the mods board, we should utilise this more if issues are occurring. We can then raise the question if we need more staff members on there; I know my hands are full keeping together the ID inventory and Role call list.

Site wide RP events could be brought into consideration, such as the wildfire, drought, plague etc (open to realistic suggestions) that may help to create a different kind of drama. We currently should have in place weather patterns eg, storms that should affect all the groups across the site as technically they are in the same area of the desert.

Maybe the number of rovers a member has can be reviewed or if any have any that they don’t need to RP anymore they can be dispersed. But at the end of the day we can’t make members get rid of characters if they want to get them involved in a plot of some kind.

I will have a 2nd look at this later and have a think about anything else that can be added.

I admit I'm guilty of some this too but I agree it's getting out of control. Pretty much on every RP day there's some kind of drama occuring and it's becoming absurd. I think we should consider imposing some of these new rules to help gain control of DW. But if controlling the drama fails perhaps a posting order should be put in place to cut down the hyper posting and amount of times people become lost. I strongly agree that we should limit how many characters get introduced into a mob and how many females become pregnant. The group numbers are becoming unrealistic and are about to swell passed super group status. Which ever characters aren't being played or are inactive I agree that they should be dispersed.

Agreed. A majority of the dominants aren't active anymore. Maybe for the ones belonging to people who haven't been on in months and we don't have contact with, like atb2700, we should dispese them entirely and have them replaced.

I know I've been guilty of these, I'm aware. I know, I know. I just tend to be too hard on my self when it comes to things like this... last time I tried to rant about something that I did, I ended up quitting the site because I felt like I was the instigator. Anyways, I know I've done it. But I've tried to fix up what I can. And I promise to be active when a new day starts.

I agree! I get really lost in the roleplay - and I only have one character! I think that something about the inactive characters should be done really soon, actually. I know I haven't been here a long time and my opinion doesn't count as much as yall veterans, but getting rid of the inactive characters definitely brings a lot more room to the groups, and combined with a character limit (I'm not sure if I read that yall didn't want to do this or not) could keep group numbers realistic. But, I know it's a roleplay, and people naturally want to make a lot of characters because, well, it's just more fun. But yeah. I just wanted to agree. LOL.

I know I've done this a few times myself, but I've been restricting myself after my last assault Ghost did on the Zippers. Yes, it is growing a bit annoying there's drama constantly, despite the fact I'm actually used to it and I can adapt to it rather fast. But yes, we should try to limit the drama that happens. Yes, predators do attack, but not everyday. I know it only happens once in a while. And mob raids aren't too common either. I know I have some plots in mind for some of my characters that'll cause some drama (Due to two of them will be killed off), but at least I'm planning those plots in the FAR future. Possibly will be months before I actually put those plots into play.

And seeing how Ghost causes a lot of drama whenever he appears, I'll start planning things out with everyone else before I bring him in from now on. I do not want to be the cause of unneeded drama, especially if someone else had something else in mind before I bring Ghost in. He'll only appear if I got the okay from everyone else, such as he'll be appearing to the Willows the next RP day to kill Triscuit. After that, he won't be appearing until I get everyone's okay to have him appear or until my plot with him and John get into play, but that won't happen for a very, very long time.

Yeah I have a bunch of dramatic plots coming up for my characters, some of which will occur on the next RP day, but most of them will occur RP weeks, months and years in between. Most of the drama I've been planning I'm writing down and not having them occur randomly. I think it's better to discuss dramatic events in advance so as to avoid confusion and so that everyone can get involved if they wish. When they commence we REALLY need to work on cutting down the hypser posting. That's what leads to confusion and people getting lost in the first place.

I have to agree, even if in certain areas I have also contributed to uneeded drama.

As I've said before nearly all the characters of members who are away HAVE already been temporarily dispersed except Dipsy's and the domiant characters that are being covered my other members.
Some members who have a fair few characters that are seen to be innactive for this current RP day aren't going to be temporariliy dispersed until several RP days yet and only if they continue to show little signs of activty.
We will see how things develop at the start of the next RP day, if members want to suggest new ideas or plots to replace domiant characters then a new thread can be opened for disscussion.