What To Do If A Member Hasn't Posted

What To Do If A Member Hasn't Posted

Oh no! You and some other members have been roleplaying in a thread for the past 30 posts straight, but suddenly one of your fellow roleplayers has disappeared! What to do? Well, have a kind-of FAQ to answer that:

General Ruling
In general, if a member disappears from a thread and stalls the roleplay, the other members should wait 5 days before continuing without said player. If it is already common knowledge that the member has a busy life and is many times unable to participate in the site, then it is suggested to give them at least a week or more to respond. Likewise, if it is known that said member is a very frequent RPer and usually responds within a day or two, then the other members of the thread in question can give them a little less time, but at least 3 days are recommended.

Information On Member's Absences
Sometimes it is possible to immediately find out if a member will be unable to post for a while. Usually this knowledge will come from a post made by the member him/her/itself in the thread they are participating in. However, if the member does not announce their absence, then there are a few other ways to find out if something has happened to them that has made them unable to post. First off, it would be a good idea to check the "Member Announcements" forum under the same section that this post was made in: "Rules and Announcements." Sometimes you'll be able to find a post by the member in question in this forum, which might inform you of a future lack of activity they might be expecting, or even their withdrawal, temporary or permanent, from the forum (You might actually want to check the "Farewalls" forum in the case of extended absences). Lastly, if the member's presence is significantly important, then you can also message an administrator about the member, as the staff of the site might have banned or temporarily suspended their account for whatever reason.

Proceeding Without A Member
In case members are gone for extended periods of time or are banned/suspended from the site, then their fellow roleplayers (you) will obviously want to continue the thread they were in, instead of simply letting it fade away. However, you can't simply pretend that their character never existed and continue, so what do you do? Well, between all of the roleplayers in the thread, you may control the member's character fully, in order to progress the story line. You can either have them somehow leave the roleplay, or have them continue being part of the roleplay through your own actions. This is the only exception where "godmodding" will be allowed.


Note: For all members that might have experienced such absences as stated above: you'd better apologize to all your fellow members, because they waited for you and read through all of the above just for you, completely uninformed and trusting in your actions. Maybe even buy them a cookie, because they deserve it. And please be more careful next time; try to learn about absences before they happen.