Dave - Discord Owner and Canon Administrator[]
Daves role within the canon administration has to do with setting policy with both of the other administrators. He is in charge of handling any complaints with regards to the other administrators and does not typically handle any of the day to day running of the canon.
Any issues, questions, or problems to do with the rules or enforcement of the rules, or the other administrators should be brought to him.
Moderation[]
Aside normal moderation as per Ponychan rules and regulations (please see 'Rules' for details in the link), Better Layton Never as a canon also has its own set of mods who manage the roleplay's political structure from Arc Scheduling, New Membership Policies, Bannable Offenses, and Discord Moderation.
The current moderators for the roleplay are Grell and Sassy as indicated by the Admin role in the Discord chat.
A ban from the Discord is not typically a ban from the canon itself, it is however as close a thing as you can receive and should be taken seriously.
Circumstances that can result in a ban which the mods will act upon are listed in The Rules.
Any issues with either moderator should be taken up with Dave.
Grell - Canon Administrator[]
Grells role as an administrator is being in charge of Arc Schedules, when those are in use. Along with the day to day running and enforcing of the rules within the canon. Issues with other players, or problems arising from rule breaking, drama, or poor roleplay etiquette should be brought to her
Sassy - Canon Administrator[]
Sassy's role as an administer or BLN is handling the day to day running and enforcing of the rules within the canon along with Grell. The same issues that are brought to her should also be brought to him depending on who is online and available at the time.
Arc Scheduling[]
Arcs are defined as instances in the roleplay that:
- Tells a story.
- Affect the setting to where it must be referenced outside of the participants.
- Is a consecutive sequence of connected events.
- (Optional) Lock characters in for the entire storyline.
If these conditions are satisfied, the storyline in question must be registered as an arc instead of an event. Arcs are given special treatment as they often require a large amount of planning and control by the GM. As such they may request at their benefit to have the RP focus on whatever storyline they may be promoting. The benefits to scheduling an arc ensures there is ample time management to prepare for it, sufficient continued interest in hosting it, and the perk of focus redirection if any side-RPs start interfering with the focus of the arc itself.
Events are smaller than arcs and generally don't need scheduling. However, people coordinating an event will need to ask the current GM of the scheduled arc if they may go ahead. Any 'light RP' such as 'Slice of Life' style does not need to ask for any permissions but may be asked to pause in more focused Arcs.
Tournaments are considered Arcs if they have a storyline which does impact the overall RP. If they do not, then they may function as a separate event hosted in a different thread than the main RP.
Arcs that are hosted outside of the main setting of the canon can be hosted in a separate thread. The purposes of this is to keep all the posts easy to find in the event of a pause, as the main thread can very easily push any important or relevant posts off the 50+.
While in the past we have used a Schedule to allow for the easy planning of Arcs, we have since ceased to use that in favor of allow players to plan with each other as they will. For reference the previous system is below.
The Arc Schedule may be found here: Arc Schedule Page
As of now, scheduling dates are set twice a year. Once in December and again in June. These scheduling dates encompass the first six months for the December registry dates, and the final five months in the June registry. December is historically off-limits to schedule as this month coincides with hectic retail scheduling for those working in BLN as well as Finals for those still enrolled in school or university. June registry has a limited registration cutoff, as any member who did not get an arc date during the first half of the year may register with priority over those who have run an arc already for that year.
New Membership Policies[]
When a potential new member to BLN is first introduced or introduces themselves in the OOC thread, a process starts to either induct or reject the potential new player. In the OOC the new player is given links to the Resources of the wiki as well as a written summary of the canon. New players are questioned on their prior histories and experience in RPing. These questions determine how much information should be given to a potential player in terms of how the RP works, what are the typical uses of rolling or otherwise, or the more advanced information regarding the canon for seasoned players. Writing ability alone is not a determining factor to be part of the canon.
Inside the Discord Server, however, all existing members are questioned about the newcomer. As established members of BLN, every member's opinion matters when inducting a new member. These questions are a simple request for any known out-of-character contact and even temperament of the new player. A majority of cases this assessment goes fast, as if there are no immediate negative stories given about the newcomers they will be added to the New Player list and set on their waiting period for induction.
In the case where an existing player does have a negative opinion of the newcomer, an existing player may either state their issue in chat or approach the mods anonymously to report their experiences with the new player. In this state, the player's induction to the wait list will be held off as a 24-hour deliberation period will be launched to determined whether the potential member will be accepted or rejected. Even a single serious negative opinion will trigger this phase.
The Negative Response policy comes from multiple previous issues of incoming players with prior negative histories with other RPers in the canon. These players were accepted and later banned from the canon for various reasons which reflected the earlier complaints regarding them. The anonymous reports prevent witch hunting the whistle blower or exposing them to the requester on the off chance they may know one another and cause grief elsewhere. As there are also a few friend referrals, the anonymous system also prevents those who do report bad attitudes, behaviors, or prior RPing practices, from being hounded by biased parties ooc.
Should a new player pass the screening process their wait time is precisely one week. This week period is non-negotiable as it tests the patience of a new roleplayer as gives them the opportunity to go over all the necessary information regarding the roleplay during this time. Also during this time it is highly suggested that the new player interact with other players in the OOC thread to acclimate to the canon before jumping right in.
With the switch from Steam to Discord, new users can also be given an invite to the chat by any player to begin their trail of hanging out and seeing what they think of the group and the roleplay, assuming no players within the group have a problem with this person. They will be left unassigned a role within the server, preventing them from taking part in any channel other then the OOC-Chatter channel, as the other channels are for full members of the group.