IN REGARDS TO RIVERCLAN HIGH RANKS AND PLOT FINDERS

[Fish]

Originally Posted by BEAR.

Hi, former RiverClan leader here. Prior to Lionstorm, we didn't have much in terms of a unified roleplay experience - it was a lot like the Private Roleplays area where things were isolated.

I think it's important to remember high ranks can and should delegate tasks too! Sometimes, life does get in the way of ensuring a smooth sail and that's why "social ranks" are included in our roleplay. Lionhearts, Hornets, Enforcers-- these were positions made with encouraging engagement in mind and spreading out duties so they feel less overwhelming! You can also offer to help regardless of rank! Issuing patrols, handling problems, etc. does help take pressure off high ranks.

Part of why throwaways are created are to fuel engagement. It could be because people feel there isn't enough actively going on, maybe they're just bored and want some chaos. Regardless, recognizing it isn't a high rank's job OOC to control these situations is crucial. You cannot control what everyone does, but you can control how your character handles situations. Communication is key to success, whether it be scheming with other high ranks to navigate tricky binds or using the support of the Clan to back what you do.

For those concerned with the IC opinions, please consider the cards RC played: Larkstar was young to be a leader and very inexperienced, Birdsnow has a bad reputation for a 3 year apprenticeship, and Tansypaw told the Clan-- in front of ThunderClan-- she would not heal them. These are traits that should be concerning to most cats, and while some may not handle it in the best way, the majority of characters do not have ill intent and want to voice their doubts about the direction their Clan is going.

As a leader, I had plenty of cats question/disrespect Lion and go against his wishes. His solution was to smite them, and while that may not be the go-to for every leader being firm on punishments and seeing things through is valuable in keeping things maintainable. As a roleplayer, the only time comments bothered me was when OOC mischaracterized my cat into something he wasn't or didn't do. IC didn't matter to me, it's nothing personal. I strongly agree with Dino's point that if IC is impacting you OOC, you need to take a step back and breathe! For me, I would have been BORED if everyone just went along with what Lion wanted. Give me some SPICE! It gives the Clan so much more flavor and opportunities for conflict and activity.

With that being said, I do agree there has been an abundance of violent plots and would encourage you guys to brainstorm with your local high ranks to change things up! Having the same old, same old does get stale and getting some respite-- even if for just a moment-- might be a nice refresher.

I will mention that those social ranks are not treated any better than the other high ranks. Lionhearts get dogged on all the time themselves and I would not be surprised if many stepped down just because of this as well. It great and fantastic that you don't let this effect you but you aren't the only person that there is.

I understand the beginning disrespect towards larkstar but after the 800th time it becomes a bit much and I sincerely doubt that just murder and exile would have fixed this.

Yet again I am not saying that HRs are controlling every plot. Literally just saying that not every little rando cat fight should be the end of the world.

People have taken breaks and gone on long haituses but nothing changed, does that seem like the system is the best?

[Fawn]

Just a thank you to former (and current) HRs that have talked personally about your experiences in this thread.

[stag]

Originally Posted by Faith.

A high rank, no matter what clan, is usually an amazing member on the site that is picked by the current mods and admin on the site. If that doesn't tell you anything, I don't know what does

Hey, I just wished to point out that staff don't pick high ranks, we are not that super involved in the high rank selection process if we're being honest!

Staff are pretty much only involved in activity checks of the pool that the High Rank selects and send to staff as we wish to avoid inactive characters from getting a rank that won't be active or engaged with their clan!

The HR send in a possible pool of cats that they wish to have in the HR position they are filling, staff see if the selected member and character meet the requirements (or major infractions) and the HR goes through with the rest.

[Faith.]

 

Originally Posted by vampire

Hey, I just wished to point out that staff don't pick high ranks, we are not that super involved in the high rank selection process if we're being honest!

Staff are pretty much only involved in activity checks of the pool that the High Rank selects and send to staff as we wish to avoid inactive characters from getting a rank that won't be active or engaged with their clan!

The HR send in a possible pool of cats that they wish to have in the HR position they are filling, staff see of the selected member and character meet the requirements (or major infractions) and the HR goes through with the rest.

Ohhhh, my bad!

[sillycreatur]

 

Originally Posted by Fawn

Just a thank you to former (and current) HRs that have talked personally about your experiences in this thread.

agreed, a big thank you to all of you who are talking civilly. it's much appreciated and also educating for people who wish to roleplay hrs in the future! /gen /pos

[Fawn]

Originally Posted by TheLostAmongTheStars

Honestly, I fundamentally disagree with this here. It goes against the whole point of what I was trying to say here. I am not saying you cannot roleplay plot finders. I am not saying that HR are going to control every little aspect of every little plot of every little rp. What I was trying to say here was that plots that have short live fights on boarders and only have cats that were made for the sole purpose of dying to that plot and are brand new otherwise shouldn't have such an impact. No throwing every tiny little thing in the face of the HRs. Blaming every little thing on them. Harassing them on every little thing. When all the characters had only been made a day, maybe, prior from dying.

If we want long lasting rps we should do these things with characters that truly matter, it will have much more of an impact and would lessen the constant onslaught of hate coming towards a single leader. Which has been happening.

I'll chime in to say that you can go back pre-2018 or so to see this in action if you'd like! Throwaway characters weren't really a thing back then. Unfortunately, the result of this was that next to nobody died in RPs, battles, events, etc. or got permanently injured / there wasn't really any impactful things because nobody wanted to volunteer characters they were attached to.

Editing to add: It felt like battles and wars held less urgency (and naturally there was very minimal organic drama/tension between Clans)--going into it, only characters who were already inactive would be killed off sometimes by the RPer just to get rid of them, and that was even rare. There was no sense of realistic danger, if your cat never knew anyone who ever died in RP due to those kinds of circumstances.

[Aolani]

I very, very much agree

[zBlaze]

This is smart.
I think your idea could work splendidly.
All of this has got me thinking about how we can improve it in the future.
Now, I think maybe we should just notify people we don't always agree with what our characters say and do, and apologize if the person legitimately seems upset on their responding post.
We need a little less murder and maybe some good news, too, in my opinion.
Honestly, that kind of drama is okay occasionally. But we need to have happy times, when the roleplayers get to feel just as content as their characters, if you know what I mean?
We need to have time where everyone can just... I don't know, not be quite so dark and angry all the time?
i think maybe we should give high ranks a break when they need it- like maybe they could write in their sig for a little while; "Do not include in dark roleplays until this is removed, thank you for your understanding" or something like that? Just an idea, maybe.
I appreciate all you high ranks and former high ranks so much- I don't want any single one of you to feel bad bc of this site.

[Spookez.]

Time to go on a yapping spree.

(THIS IS JUST HOW I FEEL, THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE ROLEPLAY CHARACTERS AND NOT THE HUMANS BEHIND THEM. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ANY OF THIS TO HEART.)

I feel like due to the war and the large amount of fun stuff going on, people are taking advantage of that.

Sure, a leader can step down and stop all this. But could they really? Sure, Dawnstar sure did imply that state of mind. That's only because messing with her basically slams down character death. Whenever it was consented or not. Even that, Dawnstar has been around for as long as I can remember. It took months if not years to smash this rule into everyones heads.

So it will take a while to control a clan. Even more so with all this clan drama going on. I mean come on, Thunderclan is getting raided by Shadowclan while Thunderclan is busy raiding Riverclan. Honestly the only chill clan now is Windclan.

It was never Larkstar's fault. She didn't go out and hand out perms to raid and kill other clan cats. But it isn't the other leader's fault for them reacting to it. Hell, if I was a HR I would have attacked Riverclan on the first kill. It isn't the people's faults either! They just want some Roleplay fun, and I understand.

Honestly. I feel like this bunch of HR's is gonna stay here for a while. Can't wait to see how this all turns out.

Now, the IC And OOC drama. I understand where she's coming from. Disobeying someones rules and calling them "Mousebrained." is all cool fun! But it can get stressful when every single cat in your clan hates you. Minus a few kits or so.

I feel like if your getting so much backlash, get the deputy to help you with knocking your clan into shape. Or bring back the sort of group of high ranked warriors. Forgot what Windclan called them. Their like a mini group of polices.

My best group of advice is to tell people how you feel (Which you did just now.) and put your foot down on clan rules. Make it known that your character WILL face death if not exile if they try anything.

--WIP-- @TheLostAmongTheStars (Just for you to see if you want.)

[Dakotaa]

Originally Posted by Fawn

"I can't really talk about it"
Please do, I think it'd be helpful for this thread / you won't get into trouble or anything if that's a concern. If there's a specific situation you're thinking about, it might be nice to provide that context for others & allow better systems to come into place.

As for the selection process - I haven't been involved in it directly in a long time. But I'm 99% certain it's the same: where the high rank chooses options, staff make sure they don't have massive infractions and meet the activity requirements, and that's that? Again, if there's a scenario where it didn't happen this way, please elaborate!

Okay, so in my personal experiences, something that was never addressed. I was bullied by two members of staff on the discord months ago, and humiliated by said two members. From what I’ve seen, these members haven’t been punished, and rather, one got a promotion. I don’t have positive looks on the older staff because I’ve heard things from other former HRS and how they weren’t exactly given an agenda and proper warnings (allegedly,) with my personal experiences and the things I’ve heard from people I trust, I can’t exactly say you guys are angels. I also never got an apology.