The post counter is up and working. It was run this morning for the first time, and will continue to be run on Sunday mornings.

A quote direct from the post counter itself: "Of 296 players, 76 met the posting requirement, while 220 did not."

That speaks for itself, I think. Questions? Ask them here.

Since I think everyone in my guild got it.. and I got it..

What does it -do-? I'm curious more than anything.

Ah-ha. A fair question. I'll quote again, just because Magus' explanation serves more than adequately.

"Basically, people who didn't post enough in the previous seven days will have their turn rate lowered by 2 for a week (until the post counter is run again). If they did post enough, their turn rate goes up by one (unless they're already at the maximum turn rate). They can't get more turns per hour than the base rate (currently 4), and they can't get less than 0 turns per hour. Yes, if they consistantly refuse to post, they will stagnate their kingdom completely."

Each Sunday morning, either Horace or myself will enable the counter, which will then shuffle through all the threads in Maxim (excluding OOC threads; those are not added to a person's post count) and link those posts to kingdom/main name/alts. Those who didn't post twice in the past week (a week backwards from the that Sunday) will receive a penalty; those who did will see their turn rate recover (as above).

So, from the time the counter assesses the damage from the past week (which was after 8:30 am EST this morning approximately), everyone in Maxim will have a week to post twice (in this case, until next Sunday morning) until the counter is run again.

Will there be a way for GMs to know which of there members have been penalised for not posting?

If a person wants to play maxim and decides to build a kingdom on Saturday, then they should realize that the post counter will run on Sunday and they are required to meet the stipulations.

That is just how it is. This is Maxim - its an advanced game. It says so before you create a kingdom.


--

Yes ,in the future there will be an option for GM's or AGMs to get a list of who posteda nd who didn't. Give Magus and I time to develop it.

Karhedron - This is an issue I considered, and it comes down to a trade off. New kingdoms are counted as live kingdoms and expected to meet the posting requirements. This is a bit harsh for new players just joining the game late in the week. My advice is, Don't make a new kingdom till Mondays. The other side of the coin is, players who die/delete are still expected to be posting twice a week. If you haven't posted twice, and decide your kingdom is pretty weak anyways, and delete, then create a new kingdom, that new kingdom will still be penalized for not posting.

Kaz - Eventually. At the moment we just wanted to get the post counting portion up and running. We're looking into having the post counter either send a scribe to GM's, or PM one person from each guild after it runs with a summary of who posted and who didn't. Don't ask for much more detail than that right now, the idea stage is as far as we've gotten on it.

Currently the working idea is to have such a message list the number of posts each player made in the last week, and what their current penalty is. I'll be more than happy to entertain suggestions about what other sort of information it should include. I won't have it track posting activity farther back than the current week. You all know how to copy/paste, you can keep your own long term records.

{Edit: We're also working on a system to figure out who is and who isn't answering questions, so we don't waste time on redundant posts. ;p}

Well, the post counter isn't -that- sophistocated. Realistically, being able to determine who's had to have a little chat with Evangeline or Horace, and who's been edited for real offenses as opposed to being edited because your bad spelling really bugged Evangeline approaches impossible.

I don't think Evangeline actually edits people for bad spelling, but the point is, why a post gets edited simply doesn't get stored anywhere. I would hope that people who seem to be breaking rules here with any frequency would be talking to GM's, or guild members who've been appointed to help the guild with RP issues.

If someone in your guild is keeping a fairly close eye on your guild's RP threads, I believe Evangeline and Horace are pretty good about leaving some sort of notice whenever they have to edit a post. That should give a pretty fair indication of who in your guild is having the most problems.

I seem to recall reading a post somewhere stating that the guilds screen would list your current turn modifier. Can that please be added soon? It would ensure that people know that the counter is ACTUALLY running, and that there are reprecussions to not posting.

Despite the fact that most of my guild got hit by the punishment and I myself got hit by it, I am glad that this has finally been turned into a working system. Maybe it will finally serve as a wakeup call to the players of Maxim about their responsibilities.

So let me get this straight.

You think that people need a written notice that a post counter is running on a weeky basis. Even though it says so when you sign up for the game. Its listed in the rules thread. There is a OOC thread dedicated to the topic in the forum that they are told they have to read and post in on a weekly basis.

Oh - and let us not forget the decrease in turnrate on a weekly basis if they managed to some how skip past all of that.

Is that what you are saying?

I may be a little off here, but I'm going to make a very wide assumption and say that every person who is currently playing Maxim is doing so because they realize it is a ROLEPLAY game; and the way that roleplay is regulated is via posts in non-OOC or official threads. I think a post in the Admin News section, which is the place where you turn for game-wide announcements and enchancements, is more then sufficient in warning those who may not understand what Maxim is about. That thread already exists - in fact it has existed for several weeks spanning back to before the reset where I explicitly warned those who play Maxim that it was coming.

I can understand the benefits of knowing where you stand as far as your weekly posts. But I don't think we are going to be listing your current turn modifier in the game anytime soon. Its not a tool with which to measure your ability to play -- its a tool to punish those who are taking advantage of the game and not playing it in the spirit that it is meant to be played.

GM's or perhaps someone designated by the GM may gain the ability to either have a scribe sent to them via the game, or a private message to a specific account detailing those within the guild which are not meeting the requirements in order to play the game. But beyond that, it is the players responsibility to post twice a week and keep track of it.

Magus has stated that he is open to suggestions on additions to the post counter. This openess only goes so far, and only encompasses certain aspects of the game. It still falls within the guidelines we have set down as far as game enhancements go. You can find those guidelines in Admin News. Please consider your suggestions and opinions before you post them here. Some of you have very active imaginations and want tools that are beyond our ability to incorporate into the current game model. If you have a rather complex enhancement - post it in Game News. That is the forum that we are using to add content into Canon 3.0.

Thanks ;>

Post counter was a great idea, but it still has some minor flaws. I have noticed, especially today, the day of the check, that the quality of RP took a massive nose dive.

It should be all to possible to include scripting for the post counter to allow for post lengths - not, obviously, in terms of number of sentances/paragraphs, but in terms of number of characters( A-Z, 1-0). It shouldn't be difficult to determine the minimum number of characters required to meet the posting requirements of maxim.

By doing that, you can get the people who -do- post twice, but did quick last second jobs that are worthless in terms of RP value.

I'm not entirely certain this is the correct place for it - but it would also be cool if the minimum post requs' were raised again, as..well, look around Maxim right now. You'll see what I mean.

First - The current posting requirements, according to the rules thread, is 4 sentances per post, 2 posts a week. You notice no part of this requirement is a character count. That's because it's unrealistic to make people count the number of characters they type in to this little text box.

Second - The post counter has no "flaws". It does precisely what it's been programmed to do. I know, I wrote the code. Because it doesn't work the way you want it to work does not make it flawed.

Third - If the quality of RP is not up to your standards, encourage your guild mates to do better, encourage the people you post with to do better. There is no magic formula for a "good" RP post, that's why there's no magic program to check up on it. Since I don't see any specific threads mentioned, I'm going to have to assume this is just talk with no substance. If you're trying to suggest that everyone needs someone or something to hold their hand, watch over their shoulders, and make sure they follow every rule, every hour of the day, that's an easy problem to fix. If no one's following the rules, I can just take away all the rules. And the forum. And the game.


Fourth - This thread isn't for discussing the quality of RP in this forum. It is to inform all of you that the post counter was run this morning, and will continue to run on a weekly basis. It is for questions about what happens to people who do/don't post enough.

I think it is really neat that the post counter is now working and I offer my thanks to those involved for your work in getting it implemented.

Ooops edited ... moved the suggestion part of this to Game Changes

Again thanks

Excellent news on the post counter. *is a happy gm*

Our roleplay agm is gonna be ~very~ happy


But...



I know that that is for real.. yet I gotta ask..

IS THAT FOR REAL ?!?!?!

Yes, yes it is real. Sorta makes you feel proud to say "I play Maxim", doesn't it? ;>

All I know is that Its about time it happened... and Im pleased by it.

He's right, I am very, very happy to see this implemented, hopefully now we'll start to see people taking the rp aspect of Maxim seriously. And so I thank the admin for introducing it into the game once more.

Great one!
Now Maxim will become an RP-game again!

Again? I don't recall there ever being a time when the rules didn't say everyone was required to post twice a week. Maybe its just old age catching up with me, but I doubt it.


Also: Last week would have been a very good time to check that posting page everyone has in their account manager, and make sure every alt you post with is actually linked to your main account. There was a thread about this weeks ago, but, silly me, I assumed that meant everyone would have actually taken care of this weeks ago, so the post counter could do its job accurately. So, anyone who hasn't taken care of this yet *glares*, you'd better e-mail me with the alts in question, and the username you use to log into the game, so I can duct tape all the loose ends together. Alternately, I'll just link the unclaimed alts to -my- account, and never have to post RP again. ;>

I actually did send an email about this when it was posted in admin news.. but it wasn't dealt with.. so I'll email you now



[edit.. sorted out very quickly.. Thanks Magus!]]

I, for one, want to thank you admin types for starting the post counter again. Things are gonna get good and interesting now...

That would be my mistake. I still have a handful of emails from people who needed their accounts fixed. If you know you posted twice, and you got penalized, please contact Magus with your username.

I'll be giving him a list of those emails I got - if you are on it, he'll remove the turn loss.

And for this past week...

"Of 319 players, 143 met the posting requirement, while 176 did not."