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[personal profile] greenstorm
Types of written communication:

TEACHING;

This can be one-on-one, many-to-many or one-to-many, realtime or delayed-response, interactive as in the case of the NEWBIE CHANNEL or non-interactive as is the case in the WIKI or semi-interactive as in CHARACTER GENERATION. Used primarily to help new people (have been here less than three months) understand the theme, commands, and social context though it continues throughout the lifetime. Usually this function is performed by staffers, however, anyone familiar with answers to questions asked is encouraged to teach, and in fact many people are proud to display their knowledge in this way. CHARACTER GENERATION is teaching forced upon a new player, teaching on the NEWBIE CHANNEL primarily occurs only in response to questions on the new player's part.

STORYTELLING;

Generally many-to-many realtime, always interactive. Involves the manipulation of one or more character(s) or the narration of an environment. In the end, this is the point of the game. Everyone tells stories; non-staffers tell them only by manipulating characters which have been approved by a staff member. Staffers are understood to have enough knowledge of the world not to need pre-approval, and therefore use characters created on-the-fly and more environmental narration in addition to their approved characters. See examples of this in the LOGS.

DISCUSSING;

Interactive, realtime (CHANNELS, PAGE) or delayed-response (FORUMS, +BBOARDS). Administrator-to-administrator, or administrator-to-player. One-to-one, many-to-many. Staffers discuss all aspects of their job via text, as we never see each other face-to-face. We discuss what we do with each other and with the playerbase, to inform ourselves and make policy changes if need be. We discuss all aspects of the game with the playerbase to build social cohesion, and just because it's fun. More formal discussions and requests for information tend to take place in delayed-response arenas, because our playerbase is never online all at the same time. Often, private discussions occur; especially, discussions of how best to storytell are requested remain private, as an aid to immersiveness.

INFORMING;

Generally non-interactive non-realtime (+BBOARDS, +CALENDAR) but sometimes realtime (@WALL) Often staff members need to announce decisions or other information that is not subject to discussion. Such things may be: the location of a roleplay, a request for information in a different forum, or a change to the rules of the game. When this information is time-sensitive, a special coded tool called @WALL is used. When this information is always pertinent, the WIKI or CHARGEN is used. When the information is important to all, but useful for a limited time, the +BBOARDs are used.

Playerbase mostly 16-40 years old.
High proportion of writers.
10-20% have been here over three years.
10-30% have been here less than three months.
Maybe 60-70% distributed across North America, plus distinct Australian and UK populations, with others from Japan and Korea to Brazil, Italy, and Panama.
All have computer experience.
Most highly literate.
Most non-writers come from a heavy games-playing background.

Date: 2005-11-20 04:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
Don't forget-- ROOM DESCRIPTIONS are a form of one-to-many non-interactive storytelling.

Date: 2005-11-20 04:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
A very large quantity of text will cross the screen. In order to be able to operate at a reasonable speed, a great deal of skim-reading and prioritising is done. Various tools are used to facilitate this, including tags at the beginning of many communications which help us to sort what we are reading into categories, differentiating STORYTELLING and DISCUSSING text, for instance.

Date: 2005-11-20 04:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
I just hope they don't ask me why I do this.

Date: 2005-11-20 04:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
I've been staffing in this position since Nov 5, 2001. I've been doing this generally since 1999.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2005-11-20 05:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
It's supposed to be an informative presentation rather than making some sort of statement-- it will be organised around either 'desired outcomes shape the types of communication' or 'types of communication are used as best fit desired outcomes' depending on which feels brilliant at the time.

Seminars, many-to-many, good point. subcategory of LOGS/TEACHING (depending on which way I do this).

Thanks.

Date: 2005-11-20 05:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
[Newbie] Gerald says, "how do I look over the commands to change money?"
[Newbie] Rise into the black Ohio skies... Wik'ikik says, "Type look [object] and follow the instructions there."

Date: 2005-11-20 05:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
Don't you dare get into chantitles as a way of writing that helps to create online OOC personas, Greenie, and how that helps create/define the community. No way.

Date: 2005-11-21 08:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] estrellada.livejournal.com
you might wanna define terms and processes, such as 'character generation' etc

Date: 2005-11-21 06:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
http://www.frappr.com/jointhesaga

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