LOGS: Personal / Duty / Etc.

[rosetto 0]

All:

 

First of all, I hope evreyone knows that I am QUITE new at this RPGing. I have been perusing the older posts in search of answers but I have come up empty.

 

I have been reading all of the SIMs Policy Packets and have found them more similar than different which is a good thing. In those packets it is pointed out that participants are 'expected' to add LOGS and on a frequent basis. It is stated that these logs are used to help guide the storytellers (GMs) which I thought would be very useful. As a writer, myself, I would definitely use these to help keep everything flowing in a sensible manner. They are impromptu outlines for future SIMs.

 

However, when I then turned to start reading some of these LOGS I quickly found that they were scarse at best considering the number of participants on each of these SIMs....

 

I know that in some of the posted policies it states that the participant must e-mail their LOG to every crew member upon approval from their GMs. Perhaps this is what's missing.... Were they e-mailed but not necessarily posted in forum?

[Crash Calestorm 0]

Rosetto, the short answer is yes.

 

Long answer:

 

We do encourage log writing for the Sims, and want Players to continue the ongoing live chat storylines through their own contributions with the fiction writing here to the boards and specific Sim email strings.

 

But, seriously, we can't tackle and hog tie people and tell them to write write write or else.

 

Some people write regularly, others write sometimes, and still other Players hardly write; if you aren't a writer, you aren't a writer. If you like writing, you like writing. If you have the time, you have the time. If you have family or school or responsibilities, those are the priority and writing is secondary.

 

Really depends on the individual Player if they write or not, and don't ever try to track a Sim according to logs; the actual volume of logs and writings might be low, but the crew number might be high, or vice versa, and anywhere in between.

 

Some command teams want you to post a log to both string and boards, other GM teams are more lax with the posting requirements.

 

This is all a bit like herding Cats. :P

[rosetto 0]

This is all a bit like herding Cats. :P

LOL I would say so.... The Academy SIM tonite was a prime example.

 

Some command teams want you to post a log to both string and boards, other GM teams are more lax with the posting requirements.

 

Is this to mean that members do post a log to the mail string (Whatever that is. Sorry, believe it or not I am behind the curve on internet interfaces even though I am a software engineer by profession. Wierd, huh?).

 

<still just pete for now> ENS rosetto

[Dash_Andrews 0]

The Mail string is the list of e-mails that you will receive when you join an advanced sim... that list is the e-mails of your crewmates... generally I've found if there is a LOG it's posted on here as well as e-mailed to the members of the crew...

 

Basically like Capt. Calestrom said... you can't really expect everyone to post a log every week... it would be nice, but frankly it's enough to have them showing up to their posts when the SIM comes around once a week... :P Also many people have been here for years and writing could get tedious if having to do so week in and week out...

 

Thank God for the dedicated GMs that work SO hard to keep this place enjoyable and lively... :P

[rosetto 0]

DASH>

 

Hip Hip! for the GMs! I agree. And can now appreciate their efforts even more. Good thing I'm not in command because I would run a 'very' tight ship. LOL j/king of course....

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

Hi Rosetto, thought I'd chime in.

 

I used to log quite frequently, and work on my character bio regularly, updating it based on what was happening plot by plot to my character. Now that I'm close to finishing a degree, I decided that I was going to force myself to attend sim regularly, and expect only that much each week. That is, I knew I wouldn't have the time or energy to write regularly because of RL. I think a lot players are in this boat, and though they really enjoy character/plot creation in the STSF world, they just can't commit to regular extra writing.

 

As stated above, not all sims are as stringent on the mail/forum posting. As for the mail string, it does sound a little more complicated than it is. It's basically just mass emails to everyone posted to a specific sim. so chat logs, people's personal logs, and briefings from the GMs all go to everybody in the sim. Some sims just have everyone keep a mass list of email addresses (a little messy), others use cloud services such as google mail to mass email everyone.

 

Arcadia is one sim where we are required to both email and post our logs, and I've observed this being held to consistently. You can check out that forum to read what you can be sure is a complete account from character log point of view of what people are writing.

 

Another nice thing about Arcadia (not that this is an ad for that sim :) ) is that we have a wiki (open source editable) for the ship, one of the features of which is plot summaries. They probably aren't updated to the current plot, but it is a running third person account of the events in each plot that anyone logged into to our site can edit, so it's accurate to everyone's point of view. You can get to the site by clicking the linked title "Arcadia" on the schedule page. This can give you an idea of a bit more advanced out of sim writing on the plots.

 

So as the others replies suggested, character/duty/personal logs are a bit of a hap-hazard system, variable by sim and player. So, if you feel you are really into writing and want to add to your sim's plots with an abundance of self-written material, then you should totally do it! Another kind of log is a back log where you essentially get to write about your character's past, just to write about it and round it out, those are fun.

 

That was a lot of words, hope they were helpful :P