Overview

The goal of the Activity policy is to encourage players who have or want to take on rank to get out and RP with Igen. This applies to IC ranks as well as OOC 'ranks' like Staff and SearchCo.

As an area, we want movers and shakers out there moving and shaking! Characters with rank can and are encouraged to embrace the authority of the roles they’ve taken on. The policy is designed to give flexibility to players in meeting the activity requirements for ranked characters while being simple for staff to monitor and enforce.

The policy described here will define Active status, how to maintain it, and which PC positions are required to stay Active. Read on.

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Active Status Requirements

In order to keep a rank, a character must be Active. Active status centers around:

PUBLIC ACTIVITY

Scenes conducted on the grid with one or more other characters in a room owned by a Builder are considered ‘public.’ Furthermore, a character is considered ‘Active’ if they are in an average of 1 public scene a month posted to the wiki. And finally, for the purposes of tracking, these posted scenes must be tagged with ranked. If you are not sure how to tag a scene, please contact Igen Staff via the Sand Staff channel or by @mail to *igenstaff. Players with ranked characters are responsible for making sure the tag is added appropriately.

Active Status Requires:

  • an average of 1 scenes a month
  • conducted on the grid in a room belonging to a Builder
  • with at least one other person
  • posted to the wiki
  • tagged with ‘ranked’

Activity Periods

The wording 'average' in 'average of 1 scene a month' is deliberate. The year is broken up into 4 months long periods ending in March, June, September and December. At the end of each Activity Period, staff will check activity of any characters holding positions with activity requirements and demote players who have not posted the required scenes.

The activity periods and scene counts are:

  • January - March: 3 scenes
  • April - June: 3 scenes
  • July - September: 3 scenes
  • October - December: 2 scenes

Distribution of Scenes and Leaves of Activity

Our goal is to have ranked characters out there scening, so if you hold a rank, do your best to distribute scenes evenly across the Activity Periods. Everyone wants or needs a break from time to time and this policy inherently allows scenes to be distributed unevenly across each Activity Period. Short-term leaves of absence are engineered right into it. There’s no need to request time off — just take it if you need or want it.

For longer requested leave of absences, ranked characters/players may take LOAs of up to a quarter, but the next quarter will be probationary and full activity must be hit. Players taking less than a full quarter of leave may be required to hit a pro-rated version of their scene reqs to avoid probationary status, to be discussed at the time of their leave request. LOAs should be requested PRIOR to inactivity, and may not be accepted if requested after the fact. Staff is always willing to take extenuating circumstances into account, but these decisions will be on a case-by-case basis.

If you have not requested an LOA and are unable to meet the requirements for an Activity Period when the Activity Audits happen at the end of March, June, September and December, the probationary activity rule comes into affect. Additionally, clustered Activity Periods are of concern.

An Edge Case
This activity policy means that your scene distribution might look like this:

  • January: 0 scenes
  • February: 0 scenes
  • March: 3 scenes

This distribution represents a flurry of activity before the Activity Audit, though a cluster of scenes might occur in any of the three months. These high activity months aren’t really the concern, the low activity months are. While the distribution shown is technically compliant, staff reserves the right to remove you from rank after two such highly clustered Activity Periods.

Clustering over the long term undermines the purpose of allowing flexibility to players and consistent activity of ranked PCs for the area as a whole. Please be aware of your scene distributions.

Staff is not responsible for issuing warnings to players at risk of demotion.


THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION

During the activity audit at the end of an Activity Period, if a ranked character has missed a full quarter of activity without pre-arranging for an LOA, they will be placed on probationary status and must meet full reqs the next quarter or be demoted.

If a character fails to meet full reqs in the subsequent quarter, for any reason, they will be removed from their rank. Even if you got 8 scenes in and you were so close, but X, Y or Z happened, you will be removed. The best buffer against this is doing more than the required number of scenes in any given month. When you can RP, hit it. Get out there and scene!

If it happens that you are removed from your rank, Staff will be glad to work with you to come up with an IC reason for this.

Be advised, because of the inherent flexibility in this system, we are going to be strict about enforcing it. The onus is on you to get out there and do public RP with your area.

I've Been Demoted for Activity, Now What?

Same as always! RP. If the position is one that a lot of people want, there may be some competition for the role. In some cases, you may only have to re-establish your Activity and @mail *igenstaff to signal your interest in the position again.

How ranks are approved varies from position to position and is detailed at the rank policy page.

I'm a Rider and I Got Moved to Tumbleweed, Now What?

Tumbleweed is a holding place for inactive riders. Logging in does not affect activity in this sense, only scenes posted to the wiki do. Staff will make a pass from time to time on the PC Wing rosters to keep, so Tumblweed's membership flexes quite a bit as characters shift through it. If you see your activity on the upswing, you have only to ask a staffer to be placed back into the PC Wing of your choice.

Characters are not kicked from their old wing mailers or channels if they're moved to Tumbleweed.


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Ranks Requiring Active Status

The following positions require that a character maintain Active status to keep the position.

  • Bazaar Leadership: Bazaarmaster, Guard Captain
  • Weyr Leadership: Sr. Weyrwoman, Jr. Weyrwoman, Weyrleader, Weyrsecond
  • Weyrstaff: Headman/woman, Head Cook, Head Nanny, Weyrharper, Weyrhealer, Weyrherder, Weyrminer, Weyrsmith, Weyrtanner, Weyrvintner, Weyrweaver
  • Wing Leadership: Wingleader, Wingsecond
  • Other: Candidate
Special Cases

The following positions require activity at the same rate, but have other opportunities or contingencies attached to them.

  • Goldriders: Goldriders are automatically part of Weyr Leadership. Any goldrider who falls under the Activity threshold will be removed from IC Leadership and assigned to an NPC Weyr of their choosing as canon allows. Only Active goldriders are eligible for clutches. See the see rank policy for more information.
  • SearchCo Leads and Members: A player must be currently Active in order to be selected to lead or participate in SearchCo. Thereafter, Leads will set their own activity requirements, and may call on Staff at need to enforce those requirements.
  • Staff: Active status for Staff is counted across all Igen alts, but only scenes conducted in rooms owned by the IgenBuilder count as 'ranked' scenes.
  • Weyrlingstaff: Weyrlingmaster, Assistant Weyrlingmster - During PC Weyrling cycles, the '1 public scene' requirement shifts to '1 public scene with or about Weyrlings.' If a PC Weyrlinghood passes without this requirement being met, the WLM or AWLM will be removed from the rank. A 9 week Weyrlinghood means no less than 3 PC weyrling scenes.

Ranks that Do Not Require Active Status

These positions do not require Active status to have or keep:

  • Crafters: Apprentice, Sr. Apprentice, Journeyman, Sr. Journeyman, Master
  • Bazaarfolk: Family Leadership, Bazaar Merchant, Guard, Guard Sergeant
  • Weyrfolk: Dragonhealer, Dragonhealer Trainee, Head's Staff, Jr. Weyrling, Sr. Weyrling, Wingrider, Weyrbrat, Weyrfolk
  • Traders: Caravan Leadership, Caravan Second, Caravan Member
Crafters

Does it seem surprising that Senior Journeyman or Mastercrafters don’t have Activity requirements? It is a little, but consider that Crafter knots are acknowledgements at milestones for contributions to the Craft. A Crafter who isn't Active is considered to be working behind the scenes contributing quietly. For Crafter promotions, see the rank policy.

Traders and Bazaar Families

Because these are entirely homegrown player constructs, there are no Activity requirements by policy for leadership of or membership in these groups. Players are encouraged to consider and set out their own activity requirements, detailed on their caravan page.

Absences or Inactivity During Ongoing TPs

Whether you hold rank or not, if you expect to be away from HT and you’re involved in a TP, please send a @mail to *igenstaff and *TP to let staff and players know your character’s IC activities while you are not actively participating.

This is so that if your character is playing a pivotal role in the plot, there can be some provision from you about how your role will be handled. If no instructions are left with the TP coordinator, it is Staff’s or the TP coordinator’s prerogative to work around your involvement as they deem necessary to keep the TP moving.


Ranked Scenes

These people hold ranks and are held to the activity requirements listed above. If you see someone on this list who's falling behind, grab 'em for a scene! If you're on this list and you're falling behind, grab someone for a scene!

Senior Weyrwoman:
Weyrleader: T'rin
Weyrsecond: Kyriel
Junior Weyrwoman: Diem, Kopriva, Nasrin
Mirage Leadership: Diem, Kopriva, Nasrin
Parhelion Leadership:
Whirlwind Leadership: Kyriel, T'rin
Sirocco Leadership: Khu
Arroyo Leadership:
Vesper Leadership: Issa
Oasis Leadership: Ze'ran
Weyrling Staff: R'xim
Headman: Edric

Diem had a total of 4 scenes in Q1, 2024.

Diem had a total of 0 scenes in Q2, 2024.

Diem had a total of 0 scenes in Q3, 2024.

Diem had a total of 0 scenes in Q4, 2024.

Igen's Staff

Staff: Issa, R'xim, Th'bek, T'rin

Issa had a total of 2 scenes in January, 2024.

Issa had a total of 5 scenes in February, 2024.

Issa had a total of 2 scenes in March, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in April, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in May, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in June, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in July, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in August, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in September, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in October, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in November, 2024.

Issa had a total of 0 scenes in December, 2024.