OOC: Some thoughts on 'open' RP.

[open_flame]

o·pen [oh-puhn] adjective 1.not closed or barred at the time, as a doorway by a door, a window by a sash, or a gateway by a gate.

As some of you are already aware, I had an issue with tagging to a thread from a muse in a very active verse on SWS a few months ago that was marked 'OTA' ( Open to all if you're unsure what that means). After I tagged in, I was told very rudely it was not in in fact OTA, but locked to that muses verse members only. When I asked why it was marked OTA if it was verse locked, I was essentially told I was 'too stupid to understand how they played' and told to not tag that verse again.

Hey, no problem there. You can't respect the basic 'rules' of SWS thread tagging, then I don't wanna play with you anyway. Furthermore, if you can't observe that basic level of courtesy and politeness to other players who are out of the loop and ask for explanation, have fun playing with yourself. Keep it up that's all you're gonna have.

Anyway, I'd kinda forgotten about that unless someone brought the matter up until this morning. I opened my twitter stream to find a bunch of open tweets (tweets with no @username to begin them) that confused the hell out of me. It's been happening for a few days and I ignored it as something I didn't understand (because, hey, it's already been pointed out I'm stupid, right?) I scroll back to try and understand, but...nope, not getting WTF this is about. That is until it was pointed out this is some sort of new way to play.

Not to get all Dennis Miller and go off on a rant here, but...

What. The. Hell?

This begs the obvious (to someone from the outside of the verse, like me, anyway) question.

Why?

• How am I, a seemingly random passer by in the wide world of twitter, supposed to know you're in the midst of a verse specific story line if you don't utilize the @ feature?



• How am I supposed to look at your twitter page to see who you're playing with and who to follow to watch your story?



• How am I to know I'm NOT supposed to @ you if it's an 'open' comment by definition?



• How am I supposed to know you're not batshit insane and talking to yourself?



• Are the up to16 characters ( at maximum) you'd lose including @username at the beginning of a tweet THAT precious to you that you have to resort to, and this is an outsiders POV here, flat out laziness?



• Is it that hard to use a dash, a (c) or even twitlonger, Deck.ly or one of the other shortener apps out there?

Yeah, I get it's your game. YOU know what's going on and in the end that's all that really matters. I'm not saying you're wrong to want to change the way you play. It's your game. Play how you want to, but don't act all shocked and be rude in reaction when people respond with "WTF are you doing?"

While I haven't had anyone jump on my ass for interrupting a thread on twitter, I'm waiting for the day it happens. Or...rather I'm not. It's was said, in so many words, 'If you don't like this new style of playing then unfollow'.

Um...gladly. I enjoy watching RP as much as the next girl, but if you're gonna take it personal and get butthurt OOC about people not understanding your shiny new playing style then it's not worth it.


/rant.

Comments

[riversings.livejournal.com]

I guess some people like to rp that way. I would think that it would be too short? You can only do so much in that few characters. *shrug*

I <3 you.

[open-flame.livejournal.com]

:-*

I learned how to RP on twitter, actually. It feels more familiar to me than thread based, actually. :D I make use of the (c) for multiple tweets to do long replies.

[microwavehero.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about others, but I know in the verses I'm in it started off as peanut gallery commentary and has exploded from there. I much prefer @'s but I think the thinking is, if you @ someone you're actively now involved in that thread instead of commenting on the sideline.

However, any time I post without an @ it IS a welcome to open a SL with me! Even if it's just peanut gallery commentary.

It IS very confusing, however, especially if you don't follow all the characters involved but if you do @ someone who is just doing commentary or arguing with someone without @ then they shouldn't get their noses out of joint because you want to start something!

[open-flame.livejournal.com]

See, that makes so mush more sense as to why it's being done. It's a system the players doing it understand. :D I'm all about systems. I was taught (not saying it's the only way to do it) that single brackets were how that was done because it was sort of meta.

*hugs* I know you're easy going, is why I love you. I was just very put off by attitude copped by someone whenit was brought up. I actually didn't even say it. It was on my TL when I woke up and I thought 'On, someone else noticed it!" Then I read the exchange and was like O.o.

That was kinda my point RE confusion. :D Yeah, I could @ you or DM and say "Who are you playing with? I want to watch. " but that seems like a million extra steps to me.(give or take.) I follow stuff I missed by making groups on twitter (YAY, I have a system) and this fucked it all up. >.<

Honestly, I did unfollow, not the whole group but the person who made the comment of 'if you don't like it, unfollow.' Lots of people I adore are in the group like you and Claire and Peter. I don't wanna unfollow! :D

[indestructigirl.livejournal.com]

I've always been kinda spammy with Claire's account, and it's something I've tried to avoid, and I'll stop for a while but then go right back to doing it again. :P But when I DO the @-less Twitter stuff, I'm cool if people reply to it or whatever, even if it looks like she's talking to someone else. I'm easy going. She's lost enough followers recently - people I've unfollowed in return - that I miss out on a lot of it now which has actually made my feed a little less cluttered. If I have longer replies I typically use dashes, and even then I try to keep it to two or three.

I was following people before who'd do like six-seven tweets per reply or more and I was just like "dude, get a Livejournal or even a Tumblr. Twitter is not the place for that stuff" and they one person even blew off a friend of mine because we did shorter posts. She was all upset about it, because they were a jerk about it, and I just told her not to worry about it because obviously they didn't realize that the POINT of Twitter is the shorter stuff. If they want to write a whole paragraph description, there are other sites for it! I get that everyone has their style but I just find it easier to do longer posts on the more bloggish type sites. And now that I've gone off on a tangent... *HUGS*

[open-flame.livejournal.com]

*hugs* It's more the reaction specific people had to being called on it that bothers me in both cases. Play how you want, play in the way that works for you. IDGAF but don't get huffy if it's misunderstood or confusing to some people is my point.

I don't think you're spammy. Not anymore than the people who only use their twitters to repost their LJ comments. >.>

Long stuff doesn't work well on twitter, you're right. I've played heavy long threads on twitter before because at the time there was no other option for either myself or the other player, but it shouldn't be a norm, at least for me. It's a bitch to follow along. To me twitter is for short fluffy interactions. We all need that too. We can't be big heavy srs bidness RP all the time. :D

[indestructigirl.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. It's why in most cases - on Twitter, anyway - if I have an issue I'll just quietly unfollow. On LJ I just try to drop the thread and avoid tagging that person again. I don't get why it's so hard to tag posts woth OTA properly for verses and whatnot on LJ but I've heard of it happening a lot.

Sometimes I get frustrated though because Claire will get tagged and I could swear that the tagger is trolling her. Or trolling me, I can't be sure. :P Either way it's uncomfortable threading for me and even when Claire tries to dismiss these people IC they continue. So I drop.

Twitter is definitely for short fluff. I can work in a little more IC drama now and then, but largely I just like to goof off there. It's rare I have a reply that's more than 2 or 3 tweets there. I prefer it that way.

[open-flame.livejournal.com]

Normally I do that too, but this begged me to say something. it's been bothering me for days and then the rudeness by a player that does it made me snap. >.>

I get trolled too. it's sort of scary because I wonder if they have an IP address tracker because I won't even have the muse on my master list and they'll get tagged but someone's I've repeatedly DMd asking not to tag me again. >.<

I hate dropping without reason but some people don't really give you a choice. If they ignore when you ask them not to tag you, then you gotta do what you gotta do IMHO.

Twitter's my on the go RP place. It's good for work or when I'm in line at the store or waiting from something.