Absences

This policy is specifically for Feature Characters and prop owners.

We're all adults with lives. From time to time, we go offline for an extended periods of time, or significantly cut back the amount that we play. Our policies are designed to reflect that reality, which we're strongly sympathetic to. However, extended absences also need to be accomodated from the game side, and this policy defines what we expect from players of Features, and prop owners (i.e., key players).

Broadly, if you are going to be absent for more than a few days, please do the following:

  • If you won't be answering +mail on a regular basis, set a MAIL-VACATION message.
  • If you are a propco, appoint, at least temporarily, a co-propco who can make decisions in your absence.

We define two broad categories of absences:

  • Cutback - Significant reduction of online activity, for a month or more in duration
  • Vacation - Effectively offline entirely, for more than a week

Here's how we would suggest that you handle each of these scenarios.

Cutting Back

If you're going to be cutting back your online activity significantly — to the point where it will be difficult to get scenes with you, and you might not answer +mail in a timely manner — and it's going to be for more than a couple of weeks (i.e., long enough to feel the impact), we suggest that you do a couple of things:

  • If you're a Feature, let the staff know of your upcoming absence.
  • If you're a prop owner, let those involved with your prop know about your upcoming absence.

This will let people work around your absence. It's just a polite heads-up.

Vacation

If you're going to be effectively entirely offline for more than a week, you need to do the following things:

  • If you're a Feature, let the staff know how long you'll be gone for.
  • If you're a prop owner, let the staff and your co-propcos know how long you'll be gone for. (Please make sure that you appoint a co-propco. We don't want to hold up new characters waiting for an absent propco's approval.)

If you're going to be gone for more than two weeks, we suggest that you come up with an IC excuse to be off-stage, as well.

Inactivity Policy

The staff keeps fairly close tabs on the activity levels of the Features and prop owners. If you're unavailable for a more than a month, and we have no idea why, chances are that the staff is going to nudge you to ask what's up. ("Unavailable" doesn't mean "not logging in", necessarily; it can also mean "not available for roleplay" and/or "not replying to +mail".)

If we nudge you, our primary interest is in understanding when you'll have time and energy again. We are willing to be reasonable about long absences if there's a well-defined timeframe for when you expect to be back. Features who are absent repeatedly and/or over highly extended timeframes with no end in sight, are likely to be asked to resign. Prop owners will generally be encouraged to turn over more of their responsibilities to a co-propco.

If you do not log in at all for 90 days, and you own a major public prop (like a Golden Circle shadow), your prop ownership will automatically revert back to the staff. Similarly, co-propcos who haven't logged in within the last 90 days are removed.

The staff is not in the habit of disclosing why people who have pre-arranged absences are offline. As far as we're concerned, this is private information, and if the people involved wanted the wider world to know it, they would have made an announcement. We may, if asked, be willing to disclose when we expect particular individuals to return.

If you are concerned about a particular Feature or propco's activity level, please speak to Helix about it, in order to get a sense of timeframe and possible solutions to difficulties caused by their absence. If you are specific interested in committing to taking on the responsibilities left by someone else's activity, we'd like to know about it.

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