Closing Open Registration on January 15th

[Hecatoncheires]

You're a true patriot, my friend.

 

[redblood]

Things staff and volunteers do (Not a complete list):

- Check up on multiple account claims (Happens a lot)
- Check up on ban evasion claims (Occasionally)
- Find possible multiple accounts
- Make sure people aren't smutting with the wrong age group (which means we need volunteers to check as many in character threads as possible outside of the libertine forums)
- Stop fights if needed
- Take care of NSFW pictures anywhere they might appear on the site (which also means looking through the forum and character gallery regularly)
- Graveyard threads
- Check up on members that does suspicious activities
- Post new topics/Challenges/resources to keep the members happy and active
- Take care of harassment issues (Cause the ignore button can be a really bad idea for members who are active in group roleplays as they won't see the ignored persons post, thus might miss parts of a roleplay if they accidentally joins the same rp as them)
- Move threads when they are posted in the wrong section (Happens almost every day somewhere.)
- Answer all the questions (On skype, in the help desk, in PMs, they come EVERYWHERE all the time. You cannot escape them.)
- Investigate people who seemingly lies about their age or talk to people who seems to have accidentally put in the wrong age (Happens a lot)
- Train community volunteers (Staff job)
- Train new staff members (Admins and the old farts *cough* I mean old staffers job)
- Find and investigate possible sexual predators
- Revive threads for members
- Archive groups
- Check groups to make sure no rules are broken
- Erase extremely old groups
- Moderate chats so no one is being harrassed or left out of roleplays
- Moderate blogs so no one writes inappropriate stuff
- Moderate the character gallery so there won't be any NSFW images or images that doesn't belong there
- Moderate content sections which is way too complicated to explain shortly
- Be sort of 'secretaries' to the admins when stuff needs an update or lists have to be made.
- Beta test new systems before members gets them (though if it fails for one reason or another, the members don't get them, like the group system we tested but never got ]: )

Do I have to go on? Everything needs constant moderation, not only to prevent fights, but to prevent people from breaking the site rules or the law (smut rps between adults and teens for example), preventing NSFW pics to go around where they aren't allowed, make sure every thread lies in the correct place, etc. Etc. Etc. People need half the handling, the other half is needed for the forum. And this list doesn't even touch upon the admins or Jared's work with codes, bug fixes, updates and all that.

There's a lot to do, and if we didn't do most of these things, iwaku would be a mess. Heck, when people stop moderating their section for a couple of weeks, it turns up as a horrible mess. It has happened multiple times that sections has been neglected and it takes hours to half a day to fix it back into shape. One section.

The same goes for reports, when they have been neglected it becomes a mess that takes time to fix back up. The problem is that we aren't payed to do this, so real life has to come first. We cannot be here 8 hours a day 5 days a week and we don't have the manpower to take care of an infinite amount of members and problems. Before we have a good amount of staff members and community volunteers whom we can depend on and has time to do the job and are properly trained to do the job, we simply cannot take in more members. Eventually it will just make people quit staff because they can't handle the chaos. And then we will be in even more dire need of staff and volunteers and can take on even less members. o_o

While we aren't as limited as a cafe, we still need to be able to do our job without being crushed by the weight of everything that needs to be done.

So for now, for all the staffs sanity's sake, this is for the best.

 

[Mowkie]

I honestly understand it from both perspectives, and while I get why some are griping about the fact that we won't be getting a new flow of fresh minds, I also completely understand why the staff needs some time to breathe. Honestly, our community won't suffer from shutting the doors for a bit (and opening the back window for those special invites). It'll give our hard working staff and CVs time to catch a break, take a deep breath, and get the forum back under control. Those of you who want the doors open again, perhaps try volunteering and help the staff and admins out a bit. I'll just be here, continuing to juggle RT and Iwaku time. <3

 

[Durandal]

Imagine all the weeaboos we could have gotten rid of wtf diana

I sure hope you have the self-awareness to have stated that ironically ;)

Anyways, glad I got registered now!

 

[Noctis the Devious]

If you want my oppinion, people are freaking out over nothing 0.o Statistically speaking, there are over 2500+ members on this site, 600 active group roleplays, 569 private roleplays, 6 chat roleplats, and 3 universe roleplays, and don't even get me started on how many posts are being made on a daily basis. I agree with @Insomnant, Iwaku isn't a restaurant; it's a small city! And cities need a lot of maintenance and looking after. Imagine if cops stop doing their job or the mayor just didn't give a care?

Just like city politics, most members are left unaware of the going ons of Iwaku and just continue with their roleplay lives. This won't effect current members as much as you think it will. With, again, 2500+ members and even with restricted registration, you will still meet someone new. I mean, think about the amount of people in your town and compare that number to the amount of people you actually know. Trust me, no one will grow bored nor will the forums become static. And Iwaku will still gain new members through invitation!

If you're still worried, take a look at Archive of our Own. That site has been invite only for the longest time, if not from the beginning, and see for yourself how much it's grown through invitation alone. There is literally nothing to worry about :)

 

[Kyy Namosaka]

I honestly understand it from both perspectives, and while I get why some are griping about the fact that we won't be getting a new flow of fresh minds, I also completely understand why the staff needs some time to breathe. Honestly, our community won't suffer from shutting the doors for a bit (and opening the back window for those special invites). It'll give our hard working staff and CVs time to catch a break, take a deep breath, and get the forum back under control. Those of you who want the doors open again, perhaps try volunteering and help the staff and admins out a bit. I'll just be here, continuing to juggle RT and Iwaku time. <3

I'm in the same boat. If I wasn't as lazy as I am, (I know, it's a problem.) I'd volunteer. I genuinely love Iwaku! It's like a home away from home for me. I'd rather be part of a smaller close knit community than a massive POS that can't control itself. I've been there before and it sucked more than not rping at all. I really respect this decision and support it a hundred percent!

 

[Kyy Namosaka]

If you want my oppinion, people are freaking out over nothing 0.o Statistically speaking, there are over 2500+ members on this site, 600 active group roleplays, 569 private roleplays, 6 chat roleplats, and 3 universe roleplays, and don't even get me started on how many posts are being made on a daily basis. I agree with @Insomnant, Iwaku isn't a restaurant; it's a small city! And cities need a lot of maintenance and looking after. Imagine if cops stop doing their job or the mayor just didn't give a care?

Just like city politics, most members are left unaware of the going ons of Iwaku and just continue with their roleplay lives. This won't effect current members as much as you think it will. With, again, 2500+ members and even with restricted registration, you will still meet someone new. I mean, think about the amount of people in your town and compare that number to the amount of people you actually know. Trust me, no one will grow bored nor will the forums become static. And Iwaku will still gain new members through invitation!

If you're still worried, take a look at Archive of our Own. That site has been invite only for the longest time, if not from the beginning, and see for yourself how much it's grown through invitation alone. There is literally nothing to worry about :)

OMG exactly!

 

[Minibit]

Makes sense! It's time :3

 

[brother4u]

Way to go

 

[Peter Feels]

Then I have no further problems :D I look forward to hopefully a better community! Now I shall be able to effectively achieve my goal of becoming the most hated user! MWAHAHAHA

You've got a long way to go, sport.

 

[Noctis the Devious]

@Karakui, Yeah, I think Asmo held that title. May his withered soul rest in piece.

 

[Karakui]

You've got a long way to go, sport.

@Karakui, Yeah, I think Asmo held that title. May his withered soul rest in piece.

Aaw... So you too would deny my life ambition.

 

[Peter Feels]

Happily, yes.

 

[Crow]

Well, anything to get banners back, I guess.

 

[Saint Tribs]

Seriously though. If you're afraid of not playing with brand shiny spankin' new members on a daily basis, there's a lot of other places on the web to roleplay at! Smaller! Less staff! Let's see how you do in that sort of environment. Iwaku is HUGE. It needs a ton of moderation.

Why?

Because people can never ever be trusted to behave themselves.

Ever.

If there is a way for them to use and abuse someone else, they will take it. The sheer amount of people who have joined Iwaku to use it as a dating site over the years and have tried to prey on our underage members is staggering. Without an active and constant staff, those kids could have been seriously hurt. This is the kind of world you're encouraging with your 'Oh just let people do their thing and it'll be fine!' vibe you got going on there.

There are predators and trolls and terrible hurtful people who get their jollies by fucking up other people. The Staff helps to stand in the way of that. To even insinuate that they aren't needed is just plain lunacy.

The Staff (Bless them) are incredibly overworked and stressed! They are just people and they are people who aren't getting paid to do things for us.

It's time to close the doors for a while. Help the Staff out and Volunteer if you want the doors open again faster.

But don't tell the Staff that they aren't needed.

 

[Insomnant]

Imagine if cops stop doing their job or the mayor just didn't give a care?

Oh no, people would actually be responsible for taking care of themselves!

When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

I've been robbed before (I defended myself successfully with a revolver, but still). The cops showed up thirty minutes later and took a report. I could have gone to bed much earlier if they "stopped doing their job."

 

[jared555]

But... how am I going to justify raising server prices if iwaku's load level doesn't keep increasing? :(

 

[Karakui]

Oh no, people would actually be responsible for taking care of themselves!

When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

I've been robbed before (I defended myself successfully with a revolver, but still). The cops showed up thirty minutes later and took a report. I could have gone to bed much earlier if they "stopped doing their job."

You missed the point. Cops aren't really there for solving petty issues, they're there as a deterrent. Imagine how fucked up the country would be if there was nothing to stop anyone from doing whatever they liked regardless of how bad it was. Imagine what Paris would have been like if we didn't have police there. Imagine how much more damage would have been done if the cops never showed up at all.]

And to bring it back on point: No one's here for constantly arguing with trolls, which is what this place would be without staff. Want to kill a forum in a fortnight? Remove all the staff. In fact, it'd probably take even less time. The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of people who aren't capable of solving their own problems, or simply don't want to because it ruins everyones day to get into an argument for no reason, and that's where staff come in.

 

[Noctis the Devious]

Or how how unsafe minors would feel if there was no one to enforce the law of inappropriate relations between them and an adult, because yes, that is a official law, not just a site regulation. This is also why players are not allowed to play characters under thirteen in sexual situations. These are situations the moderators have to deal with and thus need people to scope out such material. They can't very well do that if there's just too much content and not enough man power to do it.

If you want to blow this out of proportion, @Insomnant then feel free to take this to the ranting thread. This topic is quickly going off topic.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

It's an Announcement. Of course it's gone off-topic.

Now we just need @Seiji and @Kooriryu to appear and begin shitposting all the gifs (preferably of Nikki Minaj), and the cycle will be complete.