User blog comment:Flamefang/Raising Concerns/@comment-1759824-20111215033546

To me, it seems like we're now in a self-sustaining downward spiral. Lots of people spend most of their time on chat, and only bother to RP when nagged about it, for various reasons. Personally, I dont RP as much as I used to, because I'm normally only on for an hour or two a day, and there just isnt enough time to RP in that window, since no one ever wants to pick back up where they left off the next day. At the same time, RP seems to have split, between lott, bach, and flame, and all the cool stuff you guys do in your elaborate plot lines, and everyone else. Either you get lucky and get to be invited into a one-time deal with those three elite few, or you're stuck with the general riffraff, who you just sort of have to pray can get their shit together long enough to finish a quest or RP. I dont know when the last RP I finished was, due to various inactivities. For example, Iko's timeline has been all shot to hell because az couldnt get a rescue mission on, so he is, all at the same time, real world time, sitting in a dungeon, on a quest inside of a volcano, working in the armory, and doing god knows whatever else needs doing. It seems to me, that either you get in with one of 'the three' or you're left praying you get to finish your next RP.

as for the char killings, I dont think they should be taken as seriously as they are. for me, it's just a way for people to clear out chars who have been sitting in the adoption system for a while, and they decide whatever, I'm bored, lets have a little fun. Personally, I never really consider that part of any canon, it's just a little one-shot thing for a quick laugh, and a chance to let loose and do a bit of total god-mod ass-kicking. It seems harmless and trivial compared to other issues the wiki faces.

I think, though, that the biggest problem for this wiki is time. Almost all of the members here are either in some form of school, which limits their time on the wiki, or work a job, which also takes time away from them. Not all of us have flexible schedules that allow us to just hop on. I dont go to college, I dont set my own schedule, I follow the rules I am forced upon. get up at 6:30 am, get back at 6:30 pm, food, homework, wiki-time, bed at 10:30 or so. Hopefully, with winter breaks rolling around for many of us, we can get a new shot of energy into the wiki.

I remember how it was when I first joined here, but a young noob myself. It was a pre-guide era, so to get started you were left to stumble hopelessly around, and just hope you caught the gist of it. Well, I stumbled pretty damn well, and got accepted first try. It was a different time. Summer break was just starting, the wiki was only a few months old, and things were just getting into full swing. Things just sort of fell into place for me, really. In my first two weeks, I was a counsellor. Another two weeks, and I was an rb. a month after that, an admin. I showed up, had a good time, and stuff just sort of followed after. New users flooded in all the time, and everyone was very welcoming. The wiki was in its heyday, and losses were low, if nil.

Fastfoward to now. New users are a once every few week occurrence, all the admins are either overtaxed or resting on their perceived laurels, and reports of users leaving are coming in at an all-to-rapid pace. With this, new content is at a low, so RP quality has degenerated rapidly. We're now sitting in the state that flame has described. Whether this is the fault of the end of summer vacations, time, or a fault of our own, I cannot tell, but I do know that we are not what we once were. We are a hollow shell of our former wiki, and that isnt right. We need to go back to how things once were, some how or another. I'm still not sure how that should be done, but I intend to do something about it.