Lobby Behaviors and Best Practices Discussion

[Jake]

I’d also just love a place to give a shout out to the amazing writing happening, even when I’m not currently active in the rooms!

Just as a note, we do have the Words of Praise thread where people can do just that.

[Eden Parker]

On behalf of the staff, I want to thank everyone who participated in this discussion. I know it isn’t always easy to offer opinions in public, but we all benefit when people are willing to share their thoughts. We appreciate hearing all the different perspectives and the thoughtful and measured approach you all took to the conversation. We won’t be able to respond to all the specific suggestions raised, but we have discussed them thoroughly.

At this time, we’re not going to add any rules to the lobby beyond what we already have outlined in the community guidelines. We agree with what so many of you said---being an open community is an important part of who we are and we trust you all to treat each other with respect.

Instead of any formal new rules or guidelines, we’re going to prepare a description of the lobby’s purpose that will be pinned there for easy access for new members. Additionally, we’d like to incorporate the suggestions outlined in my post on lobby best practices. While the lobby will continue to be an unmoderated space, we hope people will find these suggestions helpful in regulating their own behavior and put them to daily use.

We’re not keen on adding too many additional OOC spaces since we want to keep the focus on what’s important: RP! But so many of you spoke in favor of a Green Room and we can see the potential usefulness of just such a space to enhance the RP experience. We’re going to be rolling it out on a trial basis to see how it goes. Michelle will have more information about the Green Room soon!

We hope everyone found the discussion helpful, including hearing the things so many of us want from our experience in the lobby. We hope you all keep those goals in mind, and keep your fellow community members in mind, as we share the lobby together.