At Aeipathy, we believe that finding that right activity balance is key to a successful forum and happy roleplayers. We never want to push or force members to write (where's the fun in that?!) and we never want to see other members feeling out of sorts or bored because their partners aren't replying fast enough. At the same time, we don't want to navigate around slower players and have them feel left out or be left behind. Nor do we want to cause stress or mental health problems because people are desperate to keep up! So, where is the balance?

Well, the first thing worth noting, is that we never hold activity checks on Aeipathy. This has been the case since November 2019. Instead, Aeipathy has devised a unique and exclusive system that runs behind the scenes. No member interaction, sign-ups or confirmations required. It's unobtrusive to regular players and only comes into play for those not meeting expected posting rates.

So, what are the expected posting rates? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. Every player writes differently and every character is needed with differing levels of significance at different times, depending on the story they are currently telling.

We work hard at Aeipathy to create the best possible system for our current community. We aim to enforce just the right amount of expectation and required standard but balance it with fun and a sensitivity to real-life responsibilities. Our activity system is developed solely for us and the way our community best likes to write. This makes for a detailed and slightly complex system that is entirely unique to Aeipathy. So, bear with us as we explain... Disclaimer Before we go into the finer details of our Activity System, please allow us to confirm: we advertise ourselves as an active, intermediate-to- advanced roleplay forum. This means that we expect our members to reply to threads in a timely manner that is appropriate for that thread, for those characters and for those members' needs. Aeipathy is also a collaborative story. We are not a platform for individual writers to exist in estranged bubbles. All of our stories interweave, putting different time constraints on different threads.

Whilst a single rule for all players doesn't work for this kind of set up, it's also not realistic to moderate activity based solely on 'whether it seems okay'; some form of system is necessary, so that active stories can keep progressing and slower plots are given support. For this to be successful we have a series of different rules for different types of character; a system that is flexible to the needs of the community. After all, that's why we have an activity system at all: for you, our members and for us, the community.

The best arrangement that Aeipathy has managed to come up with is a series of differing rule sets for different 'statuses' of characters. Then to implement a rolling, monthly activity sweep that checks in and makes sure that all characters are following the rules that specifically apply to them.

To hit all subjective points, in an appropriate manner for each character, our monthly activity 'requirements' seem long and complex. Please be assured that you are not required to memorise them. Again, if you are following the three blanket expectations below, you should not need any of the rest of this page, at all. The information is only here because, at Aeipathy, we applaud transparency. Blanket Expectations Posting Frequency
In general, we recommend that all players attempt to complete 1-2 posts per week, per character. This, however, is an average. We do not hold that this has to be done every-single-week-without-fail. We do, however, expect that, when averaged across a month, each character will have completed somewhere in the range of 4-8 posts. If that includes a week where nothing was written at all because real-life responsibilities took the forefront, this is 100% acceptable, hence calculating an average rather than chaining players to their keyboards.
Forgotten Threads
When we see players posting to a particular thread back and forth we couldn't be happier! Inspired and excited writers is what we're here to be! Such love, however, does come with a caveat. Rapid-fire posting is never a problem, so long as other members do not feel that it is impacting on your replies elsewhere. We rely on our members to have a little empathy. If most of your threads are up to date with a few waiting for a reply for say, a week? maybe two? And you want to rapid-fire? Then, go ahead! Two days posting back and forth with your bestest bud will only add another two days to the other members' wait time. And if your muse is on the rise for Thread A, that can help encourage your enthusiasm and help get a reply out for Thread B, all the sooner. On the other hand, if you have a thread that has been waiting for over two months, you've replied to everything else you have more than once and you've been nudged politely by members who are waiting on that post? Yeah, posting a dozen times back and forth somewhere else can read as insensitive or disrespectful. Remember: a thread that's not so urgent for you could be incredibly important to someone else. We expect all of our community to put themselves into other writers' shoes and try to be considerate / aware of how long they make others wait for threads.
Significant Threads
Some of our members on Aeipathy play 'Major' characters. These include characters in our royal houses that were developed for the purposes of moving the main, global plot forward. As such, we expect the writers of those characters to post in all relevant events or global plot threads. For example, if you are currently playing a princess of the realm and the king dies, you would be expected to place your character into the funeral thread. It just becomes too jarring on the canon lore to have them absent. Whilst our staff team are always happy to listen to our members if they explain that they are overloaded with threads, we do generally expect canon writers to accept this expectation as a requirement when applying for the character in the first place and work hard not to introduce too many Events or global plot threads at once, so as to avoid any overload. Monthly System Sweep Every month, our staff team go through our character roster and check that each character meets the following expectations. Expectations are calculated based on a character's 'status'. Check our Character System for each 'status's definition. Statistics are measured via the last, full calendar month. So, if the sweep is being done on the 3rd of February, we are checking the character's stats from the 1st January to the 31st of January.
'Major' Characters 'Minor' Characters 'Legacy' Characters
* These requirements are measured by the date that is on the right hand side of our automatic thread trackers (found on a character's profile page under the Books icon). If another player has posted in that time, the time frame is calculated from that post; not the last time the character in question posted. As far as our staff team are concerned, if someone else can post in the thread then the lack of post from this character has not held it up. This is the most finite way we can handle these requirements, rather than relying on subjective opinion on who should be posting next. We work on the date on the right. If a threads last poster was not you and the date on the right is longer than the specified timeframe, it will be flagged.

God Characters
As our God accounts operate slightly differently to others, activity expectations for Gods are made clear upon their account creation and updated every month, depending on how much divine intervention our IC world needs at that point. In order to reassure those who want to apply for God characters, a God character will not be asked to complete more than a Major character's post total: 4 posts per month but is also expected to meet the blanket expectations where possible. Working It Out Ready to see how it all shakes down? Well, first of all, it's important to note that every character has its own activity sweep and is not influenced by any other. So, if you have more than one character, the above requirements are accumulative. You will be expected to post X number of posts for one character and then X for the other, making a total of Y. Also, all expectations / requirements operate on a 'whichever is the highest number' system. So, if you have a 'Major' character (expectation of 4 posts per month) and you have already involved them in 7 'significant' threads that are awaiting posts, you will be expected to post in all 7 of those threads (the higher number) not just the 4 minimum needed for a 'Major' character. However, the 7 posts you write do go towards your 4 total and you do not (just to clarify) have to write 11 posts for one character.

We understand that working out these requirements could end up lengthy and complex, with multiple overlaps and concerns. This is why it bears repeating that members are not required to monitor this system or calculate their own posting requirements. Again, if your characters' threads are up-to-date and come under the blanket expectations listed above, you can ignore all of this. However, in the efforts of transparency / honesty, here is a made up example to help show you how staffers will assess each member's character roster each month:

In this instance, Member A needs to write a total of 8 posts across their three characters, to ensure that none of them are flagged in our activity system. But bear in mind this example is based on Member A having written nothing all month for their characters thus far. 8 posts across a month = 2 per week. And as our blanket expectations are 1-2 per week per character, these 8 posts fall perfectly in line with Member A's 12-18 posts expectation for the month, across their three characters. Again: if following the blanket expectations of this system, the finer points are obsolete. Support List Okay, so what happens when a character doesn't meet posting expectations and is flagged? If we get to the end of the month and have a short list of characters who haven't met with the activity expectations... what happens to them? At Aeipathy, we don't like to guillotine characters off the site without a fight. You've spent time making them, we've spent time reviewing them and the community have put in time and effort to write with them. Not to mention all the future plots that might be resting on their shoulders. Getting rid of them in one-fell-swoop because they didn't post in 'that one thread' they forgot about? Yeah, no. We don't do that. None of the above is made to be a one strike and you're out system. Instead, it has been developed as a means of monitoring activity and helping members if and when they fall behind. We don't want them to lose motivation, we don't want them to struggle. We want them out there and having fun with the rest of us. To that end, a character that does not meet their monthly requirements is moved onto our support list. Our staff team step up to provide new and interesting inspiration for the player, plot with them and encourage their muse once more. When a character goes onto our support list, our staff team promise the following:
A Staff Starter This is a thread that has been created solely for the support list character by one of our most active players - a member of our staff or mentor team. Sometimes inactivity can come from a lack of something new, the feeling that all of your threads are old and hanging over your head like chores to be done or mountains to climb. A staff starter is not an obligation or new thread that you have to post to, but it is an open starter that you are given without the need for forethought or planning; something fresh and new that you can just dive straight into spontaneously, if you choose to! If unused, the thread can be reappropriated for another member or left as an open thread on the site - no waste, no fuss!
A Match-MakerThis is a match-up with another member (a non-staff member) in the #muse-power channel on the Discord server. You'll be matched up with a character that might be able to help create a new plot or something exciting. It might also match you up with someone you haven't written with before and give you a new lease of muse for your support-listed character! Again, this doesn't have to be acted upon; it is simply a suggestion to help with new muse and get the motivation cogs rolling.
A Plan of AttackIf you are sent a DM at the end of the month to confirm your character is on the support list, it will include all of the threads you are required to post in by the end of the next month to see them off the list. It will also include an advised plan of attack on what order to do them in and how to approach them. Sometimes people fall out of love with their writing because they feel too overwhelmed to know where to start. This DM is not a mandatory order for you to follow but, if you are someone that cannot see the forest for the trees, this could help give focus to what you're doing!
Let's ChatThe DM sent at the end of the month to anyone whose characters are on the support list is also a conversation starter! If you need help finding plots, making things happen or getting your muse back, our staffers are there to help! We can forward your ideas to other members or match you up with people that might be interested in similar plots. You won't be sent requirements and then left on your own: we want you here and we want to help! Character Removal If, after all of this, a character does not meet their activity expectations in the next month, they sadly face removal from our forum. This is an unfortunate duty to ensure that other members are not left hanging for longer than two months on a completely absent character. Prior to removal, the player will be contacted with the idea of adjusting the character's 'type' (if possible) to make posting expectations more in line with their abilities. If this is not possible or the player cannot be contacted, the character is removed from the site.

Please note that all removed character accounts are deleted from the site so that others might take a character by the same name or recreate a lost canon character. However, every removed character app is saved by our staff team. Whenever a character is removed from the site, all of their active threads are taken up by staffers and messages sent to members to ensure that their plotting and stories are disrupted as little as possible.
Multiple Support List Placements
If a character ends up on the support list three times in a row, they are removed: So, if Character A did not meet requirements in January, then was on the support list in February (and got back up to date) and then did not meet requirements in March, and was put on the support list for April (and got back up to date) and then did not make requirements in May... instead of going onto the Support List for June, they would face removal or character type change. Characters that are this unreliable for this long cause issues for the community as a whole. If, on the other hand, the character had a month in which they didn't end up on the Support List in between these, they would simply go on the list in June as normal. This is an overriding rule to ensure that characters are not inactive for long, sequential stretches of time. Re-Creating a Character All members are permitted to recreate characters that have been removed in the past. All of our removed applications are saved for this very purpose, in case a member comes back and requests their old information. There are, however, a few contingencies to be aware of:
Re-Creating a 'Major' Characters
If a 'Major' character is removed from the site due to not meeting activity requirements or being added to support list too often, that player cannot reclaim them. If, however, a player drops the character, pre-empting their activity issues and alerting us to the issues ahead of time, they can reclaim that same character at a later date when their circumstances change, if the character is still available. We all have times where roleplaying is difficult and we understand that dropping characters is a natural part of roleplay. But 'Major' characters are important to our global plot and even if players are having trouble in their own lives and need a break from writing, we need to trust in the communication of those players. This is why a character forcibly removed because of a lack of activity is not permitted to be remade by their previous writer but a writer being open and communicative about dropping the character will have a second chance at playing them. This being said, the (same) 'Major' character that has been willingly dropped three times (by the same person) cannot be reapplied for. It is our opinion that a character that has been dropped thrice is one that cannot inspire the interest to see them written through the tough periods. We would prefer our members to roleplay characters that can hold their interest better and not feel the pressure to go back to a character that they have had trouble maintaining before.
Creating New 'Major' Characters
Any player who has pre-emptively dropped any 'Major' character(s) more than five times will be politely asked not to apply for 'Major' characters in the future. 'Major' characters are super important to the global plotting of our forum. And the taking and dropping of 'Majors' is highly disruptive to global plot game play. Therefore, five chances at any / difference 'Majors' is the maximum.
Re-Creating a God
If you play a God character and the character is lost in an activity sweep, the player must wait six OOC months before reapplying for that or any other kind of God character, if there is still the position for one available. This rule applies to Gods both voluntarily dropped and those removed by staff. Gods are incredibly important to the divine plots of the site and they are highly coveted roles. If a player does not keep up with the roleplaying expectation, their role is opened back up to the community and the player forced to take a six month respite from divine rp, to see if playing a God is something they realistically have the time for.
Support List Characters Players are not permitted to submit new character applications if they have a character (of any type / status) in the support list. In short, it can be seen as rude or disrespectful to other players to have spent the time and effort creating a new character when they are waiting on activity from current characters. You must wait until the end of that month's support list period (when the character in question comes off the list) or drop the character in question before submitting a new one for review. From Your Perspective So, that's a whole lot of information. A lot of which, as we said, you don't actually need to be keeping on top of. Here's the long and short of it (just in case you missed it). If you keep to these guidelines for all of your characters, you can ignore the fact that we even have an activity system.
We're All Human
At the end of the day, one last note to say is: we're all human. Sometimes shit happens. That's the way life goes. The staff team are the same! We're human beings - you can talk to us. If there's an issue with your writing or characters and you are worried about meeting your activity requirements, don't stress and don't panic. Just come talk to us! We're not monsters. Any system can be edited, worked around or just plain ignored under certain circumstances. At the end of the day, we would much prefer characters to stay with us even if they need a short hiatus than we would go through the hassle of rearranging plots and histories to exorcise them from the site. And that is what this system is for: not to penalise and punish but to ensure that people are able to actively roleplay, and have fun, without falling into worries or concerns over theirs or anyone else's activity.