I am the one who has complained the most about that in particular.

I have a serious difficulty in multitasking. It's not me being stupid or anything but I actually can't do any major multitasking. I can't focus on any one thing when I have four to five convos going on on gmail and I am trying to scene. Again, it's not for lack of trying - I am simply incapable of doing it.

I agree with Gen that Global Banter does have it's uses. It's incredibly useful to be able to communicate and organize scenes. But I can see it being abused and that's what bothers me.

I mean this with no offense, but I hate reading about people kissing and cuddling, snuggling and groping, and some of the less than mature puns and jokes. Like hurr-de-hurr, fart jokes. **Titter**

And I don't like admitting it either because alot of people seem to have this idea that I don't want to talk or I want to be treated different. I don't. I like when Arodang comes along and gives me an e-hug. I like when Leporidae Menk sits on my head. I like being silly! Hell I love being silly.

But now I feel like I'll just be drowned out by the norm of... uhm... There's a way to put it.



When it comes down to it now, I feel that it doesn't really matter what I say anymore. If it sticks, it sticks. I'll check occasionally to see what's going on, but more than likely, I'll just hide it.

And at this point, I probably won't talk to alot of people OoC because my silly attitude online has been compromised by how serious/ adamant I have been concerning the subject.


Edit: I want to make it very clear, I am not trying to guilt anyone here. Seriously.

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"Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness." -Mark Twain.

I already mentioned that things will slow as the novelty wears off, but if people keep complaining every thirty seconds, it's not going to help. Same with the ever present cuddling.

I'll give a hug in greeting and all that, but in some cases it just goes on and on and clogs up banter as much as it does Story when that crap happens in Outposts! (Sorry, but there are far too often a slew of one line posts about cuddling and snuggling and licking and nipping, but that's another rant entirely.)

Short story is, if we cut out all the BS, Banter isn't any faster than it is normally when the BS is added in.

That's my problem Quinn. It won't stop. It's just that it is always in Kittania and sometimes New Home so people like me, who avoid those two outposts, don't usually notice it/ have to deal with it.

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"Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness." -Mark Twain.

AAAAAA

I can't post my ideas and feedback because it's already been said or quoted by Genevieve and Harris.
... No, fuck it. I'll do it anyway because it hasn't been said my way.

Yes, it's long been my opinion that Banter detracts from the Roleplay experience and edges II towards being a social networking site, with how it's being abused used by the populace. I've had conversations with many people about this, many long conversations where lots of good stuff was said.

Now, I recognized then the obvious problem with removing Banter entirely from the site, and besides, it still could be a useful tool despite the (in my eyes) misuse of it in the past. When I was asked what the best alternative was, I suggested that Global Banter be left to appease the most people while solving the most problems. I was then told that this was a popular sentiment among other roleplayers in a like mind to mine, and that made me happy.

Right now, all we need is some time for people to get used to the fact that Banter is a supplement to Story and not an alternative to it. We have lots of posting, yes, but if you weren't aware we'd sometimes had days in NewHome and Kittania Banter where they'd move at nearly a page a minute.
So the negative effects we're seeing and hearing about aren't all that new, and if you ask me the positive potential that the Global Banter offers far outweighs any negatives that I see.

Honestly I don't care if the new changes are so heinous that it forced you to quit using Banter. If you leaned on Banter that much then it's a good thing that you're learning to not use it as a crutch. As Harris said earlier, plenty of players made do without Banter years ago, and in my opinion, Genevieve's explanation was my idea of how Banter would work when it launched. A lot of people got used to Banter being an OOC roleplay channel, and it soon ground downhill into a place for people to avoid contributing to Story. I don't give a shit if you had a terrible day. I'm not on II to hear about your life, I'm here to play a game.

Change happens, people. And in my experience the positive changes aren't immediate. Right now Banter isn't the ideal thing, it's not the 'perfect' vision I have in my mind, but it now has the potential to be like that.

So, thank you CMJ, for getting to this.
Thank you mods and friends who listened to my rants and tooth-gnashing about every petty little problem I have with the site's userbase and picking out the relevant bits in between all my short-tempered rancor.

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They all think I'm crazy, but I know better. It is not I who are crazy. It is I who am MAD!

I've already seen some of the more prolific ones cutting back a bit. It's not perfect, but it's not exactly slow right now and I'm seeing posts lasting three minutes. Already an improvement over yesterday!

First, Cherri, anyone's voice matters and I'm sure it's listened to, so long as they're trying to give feedback and be helpful. Any new project/thing needs its negative feedback as well as the positives. As a Marlybaa, I feel very safe around you and bridges.

Second, Banter will be, I predict, a lot like some of the outposts, but a lot easier to dilute. The people in NewHome and Kittania who squeamish-out the rest of us with their Sickly Sweet Sappy Sticky (S4 for short, also known as the Smile Support Society in some frequently beleaguered towns) will easily be drowned out if we just keep doing what we already do: be awesome in the same space. Think of it. Marly and Cherri with a conversation in lace. Instant Pirates.Those are only two examples of a MILLION I could think of. Not in-character, per se, but as us. Because there are so many awesome people on the island, and we don't need to be in-character to do it. Some call it setting a good example, some call it having fun despite others, I call it having fun and paying no never mind to anything otherwise that don't have anything to do wit me.

Third, multitasking is something we all have problems with to some extent. I have to limit what I'm doing where, sometimes, too. There are times I can't do a scene on the Island because that would mean ignoring all those chat windows. There are times I don't have gchat up because it means the island would time out on me. You're definitely not alone in that. Gchat has its functions and purposes, banter has its own, and they're by no means the same thing. Just drawing the line there, because Colin Vee pointed out that he believes a lot of people are going to gchat because Banter isn't private. Which... is what we've always been doing. Banter was never private. It was just a bit more contained. To say it's not private is like saying that screens aren't walls. We had screens before. Now we don't. Distractions aren't private, Banter isn't private. You want personal chatting, you go outside. If it's not what you want, that's your choice, and sometimes it's just what you have to do. No one should judge that. There are some people who don't communicate except through Distractions. All the same, how you talk to people is your choice.

Touche. /sheepish ( )

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"Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness." -Mark Twain.

You... you mean I'm not the only baa in the world? O.O At last, I'm a member of a SPECIES!

Seems like the global stuff has calmed down already, and I hope it's a trend that continues. It's an experiment worth trying and I am wanting to see how it is in a week or so after everyone's gotten a chance to calm down about it.

Initial impressions were pretty poor, I have to say, but hey.

My two cents:

I think it's nice. I think it will work well if the place options are implemented.

Other than that, it's kinda neat.

---

What do you get when a dragon sneezes? Out of the way.

Initial impressions of Outpost invasions, Autoupdate, and Banter itself were poor! Change takes time! Constructive feedback is what helps, so Dan can adjust the current features to better help people's needs.

As has been said, though, whining about page speed is a little petty, especially as at peak times, the separated Banters would run a page every two minutes as well.

If it bothers you, post slower! Consider what you're about to say! Less glomping and tacklehugging and cuddles and other inane posts would cut the clutter too. Maybe not roleplaying in Banter and instead in Story would be a bit of help as well!

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They all think I'm crazy, but I know better. It is not I who are crazy. It is I who am MAD!

I have come to pitch in my two cents

This new banter is chaotic. Yesterday at the busy times the oldest post was 57 seconds old.
I came to the Island well after Banter was introduced and it was one of the things that sold me on staying on the island seeing it in it's current state sickens me.
I watched a Rookie's questions go unanswered because her post was gone buried beneathe everyone else's conversation
Don't glomp/huggle/pounce people in Banter you say? No I won't stop that. You know why? because it is fun to have Banter shenagins.
Banter allowed me to talk to people ooc and story at the same time. Now I must chose which one I want to do.
Hide it you say? Why should I now have to hide Banter because I don't want to have a headache from 60+ people posting at the same time.

The old Banter worked much better and I await its hopeful return.

I apologize if I have upset anyone for repeated what someone else said.

There are several solutions in front of you! If you can't change the situation, change yourself! If you won't do that, don't complain!

All you can govern is yourself, and if you refuse to do that you can't hold other people to your expectations.

Banter has changed. Feedback is important, yes, but as Harris' first post says, calm down a little. If you're sickened by the current state of things, then you need to step back and cool your toes. So what, Banter was going fast at one point in time? At my time of posting Banter's oldest post is roughly at the same time as NewHome's oldest post. Guess what? Posting times fluctuate. I've had private parties in my own Dwelling run at a minute and a half per page. There were ten people there, not sixty.

There's a lot of things I've seen in my years on the Island that I didn't agree with. But I can't change what people do! I can't fix stupid! I can't dictate the appropriate level of silliness! I would like to, and in fact if there were less silliness my problems and yours too would be solved, but as you refuse to be less silly with your cuddling and glomps, Banter will be flooded with scenes like:
Player A glomps player B!
Player B is glomped!
Player C watches Player A glomp B
Player D walks in and sees glomps! He decides to join in and glomps A and B!
Player C cuddles player A, B and C, brain melted from the inane fuzzy cute shit around him
Player A squarks as she is glomped by Player D. Oh noes!
Player F, sickened by all the seriousness, clicks the safety off on hir Glomp 21, then charges the slide. Shi leaps past the pile, drive-by glomping the others and filling them with .45ACP (Automatic Cuddle Pile) rounds. Oh, the humanity~
Player E witnesses the drive-by and frantically phones the cuddle police. Zomg onoes!

A little exaggerated, perhaps, but I've seen scenes like this in Banter. Now, when you have this and then five other people trying to do something consstructive and RP related, Banter will get crowded. This can happen anywhere, if the right ten people are present in an Outpost. This sort of thing has happened with the old system. Inane scenes which you refuse to ease up on are posts, too, and they contribute to the timer as well. Sure it's fun but it's not necessary, and it takes up space.

As I said before, this Banter has the potential to be a truly useful tool to Story. It just needs some faith and a little bit of change from the players. I have the courage to change! I would like to believe that you lot have it too! I'm optimistic that there's yet people who can impress me and meet my absurd standards. This can help!

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They all think I'm crazy, but I know better. It is not I who are crazy. It is I who am MAD!

No one said anything about stopping anything. i just mentioned that it's a bit overwhelming in some areas and frankly un-needed.

As for the 57 seconds thing? Today posts have consistently been on the first page for 5 minutes. Also, if a new person's question went unanswered, why the heck didn't you answer it? Or at least ask it again if you didn't know. Or distract them and point them to Location Four which is often checked by veterans for the simple desire to help... There are a lot of options. I personally send a distract to any new person I see with a slew of helpful information rather than putting it in Banter, because banter has always moved fast and I've seen people ignored before this Global system came into being.

It's already been stated that someone else saw a question disappear off the page 'unanswered', until the posts people had been typing were finally finished and added and answered everything it a big rush of helpfulness.

You yourself were there when Scott wanted someone to RP with and his mention of it in Banter brought not 1, but 4 others in to RP with him. When he'd done the same in two separate Outposts in the past. Why is this a bad thing?

This. This right here. Yes.

Honestly, if your only complaint is that you can't be in a horrible, orgy-esque scene without burying a rookie's question, then maybe you need to pull back a bit anyway. Hell, the outposts are not private in any way, so doing that kind of stuff is a little risky in any case.

And if you really need that on both sides, places are going to have their own banters. Take people there.

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What do you get when a dragon sneezes? Out of the way.

You're misunderstanding the complaint. It's not difficult to use Google Talk or email people. It's inconvenient. Fundamental difference. It's out of the way. It's not part of the usual process. It's outside the scope of the game. It's external. I don't ask random people I've just met in a game for their personal email account, but it feels much more appropriate for me to talk to them in-game. Using a fire-and-forget system like Distractions doesn't feel like back-and-forth interaction between people, it's like playing phone tag if they're online and writing letters if they're not. In-game chat with a partner is an active, participatory experience that doesn't require a personal relationship with the two parties.

This is sort of drifting off into a discussion on the merits and demerits of glomping. (Is that what it's called nowadays? I'm new to the term.) This seems to raise strong feelings.

For what it's worth, it's not really my cup of tea either. But if that's how other people enjoy themselves, then good for them. That's just as valid as anything that I choose to do.

So is this going to lead to banter fights? Different people all trying to twist banter into their own personal vision? Whether it should be for glomping, for chit chat or exclusively for serious role play discussion or whatever? I sort of hope not.

For what it's worth, my own initial reaction was mild disappointment as we no longer have that space for giving thumbs up to scenes that we particularly like. Well how about that? Most things have some pros and some cons. We notice what we've lost straight away, and take a little while longer to realise what we've gained. It didn't take long to realise that there were now interesting things that we could do with it. I'm still waiting to see how it pans out.

Behaviour will change to adapt over the next week or so, I'll be in a better position to make judgements then.

Is global banter going to cut back on inter-player communication or facilitate it? Probably a bit of both, in different ways.

I'm starting to ramble now. I'll shut up.

As a semi-related aside: please don't bring back cheers/jeers.

Distractions still exist! Okay, I know people like to leave banter messages but... unless you're in SquatHole or NP, there are no guarantees whatsoever the person doing the scene will ever ever be able to see it. To anyone reading this: you like a scene, distract the people in it and tell them! You make new friends! They get all warm inside! Everyone is happy.

Oh my god it is the fuzziest feeling getting a Distraction like that. This is unrelated to the discussion at hand but I'm a firm believer in sending positive feedback to people if I've observerd/participated in a scene with them. Especially if they're new!

And I've just read everything else that's been posted here so far and Hair did mention this whole.. morality of glomping dealie.

We don't control anyone but ourselves, it's true. But I think that time may teach a new Banter Etiquette.

For now I am, personally, at the stage where I'm content to see where things develop from here, and, as Marly said. Instant Pirates. Just add rum.