We are not going to sugarcoat this; we're still quite pissed off with recent events. A suggestion was made that we should not name anyone, but we don't think you have to be Sherlock to figure it out, and it would be insulting to everyone's intelligence to pretend otherwise. We are talking about the recent departure of Angie/Bobby. Two characters, one writer.
Put bluntly, we feel that deleting the way she did was very rude. A tweet was posted, and a twitlonger, and barely ten minutes later the accounts were deleted. For reference, when accounts are taken down, so are all the messages/tweets/notifications that go with them, and the moderators are not on 24/7. Nor are the partners of accounts. We wonder if her fingers were itching on the delete button, hence why she could not wait? We're not upset about her leaving the group. We've been here for more than a year, we have 100+ members, people come and go, it happens. It is the way how you leave defines you. Just like RL. If you quit a job (I know, many school people, but try to think as a grown up adult for once) how do you leave the company? Like ‘Fuck this shit, I’m outta here', or finish your ongoing projects, hand over all your tasks to the colleagues your boss assigns them to, then leave with a goodbye and good luck in the future? I can only hope the last one because trust us, karma is a bitch and bad reputations travel fast. There were players who deleted themselves but just after a few tweets, probably realized it’s not for them. That is acceptable, however gives us more administration problem and again, we don’t get money for this, but whatever. But when your character is highly involved in the group, has friends, even a family (the Lady group) and the other character is in love with someone, then deleting in the middle of scenes is very fucking rude. Did we swear? Yes we did. That's how angry this sort of thing makes us. What if the same thing happened to you? Waking up, logging in and your RP partner quit while you were away? Without a word? We all have RL, so stop waving the RL flag; it's not going to work. RL doesn't excuse selfish behaviour. We've seen people quit in a very nice manner (saying goodbye - giving the chance to members to acknowledge it and say goodbye as well - finishing on-going SLs) when heavy RL hit them. It defines who you are, as a person and a writer. Please, members who are missing her, stop and think for a moment: if she truly cared for you, don't you think she'd have done more for you than just walked out after a quick five second goodbye? What does that say about her compassion for the people here that clearly cared for her? Personally, we think she is undeserving of such affections, after that behaviour. It was selfish, immature, and should she come back, /if/ we let her in, we will be having a stern chat. We all put effort into our characters, RP and telling stories is a nice hobby. But also we all have RLs and feelings. Show respect if you want to be respected. We will not tolerate such acts in the future. Also, totally different, but annoys the hell out of us lately. Many people made new characters or joined then suddenly school happened and dropped their characters (I’m not talking about the ones who just need extra time/hiatus, but the ones who abandoned them or quit). Why? The moderators are adults and working but we remember, school starts every September. Always. So why is it so shocking now? I mean didn’t they know yes it will happen? So for example in August when you made a new character did not think it over that perhaps in September you will have no time? You made yourself unnecessary work with creating the account and also making them a background story. But you gave us more work as well with all administration and website stuff, not to mention many times we had to help you guys how to make the character, the bio and explain all the AU things (and all things are on the website, by the way, read, read, read.). You also made unnecessary work for others in the group who reached out for you character, thought of an SL and worked with you. Before you create a new muse, think. Would you have muse for them after a week/month? Does your RL allow to play? We know, emergency RL shit can happen, for that you cannot be prepared and we hope nobody will have it, we wish no bad things for anyone, but for most RL things you can be prepared. You know school will happens, etc. Hiatus or break is cool (exam times, lots of work, etc.) that always happens, but please don't over reach and then leave people in the lurch. It's just not fair. So to summarize: Don’t be an inconsiderate person, both in RP and RL. Nobody tolerates it. Happy Monday, Un-amused moderators. Dear Members,
While we are glad that you are all interested in having more members in the college, please be aware that we are not a recruitment agency. We are not sitting here waiting for request to go and find you RP partners. We are here to accept applications and sometimes promote the college itself to outside RPers. Please, if you want people to be part of the group, or you are after certain characters to write with your own, advertise off your other accounts, or off your personal account. Put out requests with other writers you might already know, and can trust, to write with. Bring them in and have them write with you. The College AU website and twitter list displays all active members, and therefore those roles not displayed are open/free. Anyone can come in and join for any role that is free, and there are over 5000 Marvel characters, so plenty of free roles. We appreciate that everyone wants people part of the story for their characters, but remember, this is also an AU, and the Moderators have very busy lives. Please have a care and acknowledge that we are not here to chase people for you. Happy 1st Anniversary, Everyone!Writers and characters, it’s a great day for us all, whether you’ve been here since the first day or newly joined this week. As Moderators, we’re very proud to see this group become a year old today. As you know, we’re very fond of nostalgia and today is no exception. #CollegeAU started as a thought in passing, a “I’ve been thinking about doing this,”, and within a matter of a week, we had four Moderators and character plans and so many ideas we had multiple emails going back and forth. The four of us had RPed elsewhere together and truthfully, each of us were getting unhappy with RP for various reasons. Things were changing, people had changed, and we wanted a new group with new experiences - much like the real college environment!
This group was our first RP group, and remains our only one. We started with a few rules posted in a twitlonger and it grew more and more with additions coming whenever they came to mind. We weren’t sure what we were doing at first, having never been part of a serious RP group and certainly never running one before - mind you, we’re still not sure we’re doing it right/good, but as long as you’re all having fun, that’s all that matters to us! The #CollegeAU has grown exactly as we first wished it might - though what we imagined might be a small, close-knit group of people has become a group of over 100 members, writers from all over twitter joining us with not just amazing Marvel characters but with some of the most enthralling OCs we’ve seen. We wanted this group to become an escape from RL, something fun to come home to after a hard days work, and this is exactly what it’s become. The TL is always alive characters and it’s almost never the same day twice! It’s grown beyond our imagination. We first thought that we would all play together but as it’s grown more and more and it’s now at over 100 members and we learned that this is impossible. Smaller groups have formed within the larger one, but all our members are nice and friendly, and incredibly welcoming to new ones, and we cannot emphasize enough how important it is to reach out to anyone you wish to play with - they would always respond, even if it seems they found their closer groups within the larger one. Sadly, two of our Moderators left us shortly after the group started due to other RP and RL commitments. Though their help with setting up the group and promoting it in it’s early stages was monumental in getting #CollegeAUstarted. We later welcomed another Moderator, known to you all as the wonderful writer behind @Amora_Amata. Without her input, we wouldn’t have the gorgeous website that we have today, and she was so helpful with keeping the Mod DMs active during the times that us European moderators were sleeping. Her input with new rules, resolving dramas and other issues on the TL - things which were new to us! - were far more valuable than we can put into words. We owe her huge thanks for all the help she was during her time as a Moderator. Those of you who have been here since the early days will know that we’ve lost a lot of people since our group was created. We used to have other versions of characters who have come along later with new writers. Remember our original Steve and Johnny? Or what about our Professors who went on to have jobs outside of the AU? Or scary Thanos? The first Miles Morales? Our special mascot dog, Lockjaw? The first huge SL,#TheRussianConnection? All the early first-semester parties? The Homecoming ball? There are so many great memories here, and it’s not until we’ve sat today to list them that we realise just how many there are. The college isn’t the only thing that’s grown, our characters have too. Some of our members have sadly left due to unhappiness that they experienced, or disputes that they may have had, and while we’re very sad to have seen them go, we’re also very pleased that all characters were greatly missed by everyone on the TL when they chose to leave. It’s nice to know that you all care about each other as much as we care about you! We hope that all the people who have left us, whether due to a busy RL or just wishing to leave because of other reasons, are happy where they are, still writing and creating epic SLs, and if they ever wish to return to #CollegeAU we would never hesitate to welcome them back. As you’re aware from our constant weekend updates, we’ve added many new features recently which we’ll continuously promote for all members to take advantage of: the SLs page, which can help people across the timezones keep up to speed on what’s going on in other members SLs; the FAQ page which has a whole range of questions that pop up quite frequently in the moderator DMs; and as always, if there’s anything else that you think would be helpful, please let us know so we can look into adding it! In the theme of promotion, the Moderators characters of @SpoiltBratStark and @BadBoyWilder are planning on throwing the summer party that they talk about on the TL along with their fellow hosts @Amora_Amata and @BartonTheMan. Distractions have taken form in other places but we will be making a date for this. As always with our parties, it will continue across all timezones with a hashtag for everyone to join in on. We’d also like to thank you for spreading the word about the AU. More than half our members have been gained through word-of-mouth and your own persuasions - whether they are RL friends or RP partners in other fandoms. But more than a thank you - please keep this up! :) not only does it keep our group active and fresh-faced, but we love to see your enthusiasm and how much you enjoy the group. It’s also a great way of recruiting the characters you want to see. Want to see a Rhodey, or a Falcon? We’ve been admiring those characters in the MCU for some time and been trying to encourage these characters into the group by approaching people we know in DMs, and it’s been a fantastic way of recruiting other members in. It also adds some more nostalgia for us - there are members of this group who we remember RPing with on our very first RP accounts together, who were close friends and even family to our characters, and it’s heartwarming to know that we’re still writing together! From the bottom of our hearts (and the battery power of our computers!) we thank you for a fantastic first year to#CollegeAU, and we greatly look forward to sharing the second with you all! Much love, The Moderators Xxx Dear Players,While we encourage you all to make great SLs (we even made a section for themhttp://marvelcollege.weebly.com/ongoing-sls.html, that we will update today and tomorrow) we would also like to encourage you to make them as realistic as possible.
We know 'realistic' sounds a bit odd in the AU world where mutants exist, but yes, realistic is the word we're after here. This is an environment where continuity is important. When students or staff are injured, by other students or staff, then it is fair to assume that action would be taken by those around and within the environment to correct or avenge the problem. This is particularly important in positions of power dependent upon the University, or being employed by the University. Think about when you watch movies or TV Shows; isn't it nice when things make sense and everything flows? And when it doesn't make sense, you point it out, right? We cannot tell you what to do in your SL (though can always give advice to make it beliveable to the readers) but we can tell you not to treat Marvel University as a tester facility, or trial area for your ideas. We made this#CollegeAU to be a place where students can go to school, make friends, learn from each other (whether they be mutants or humans) and to create great stories. We do not appreciate our TL being utilised to 'test' SLs or ideas. We want the real thing, or nothing at all. Yes, action is fine, violence/killing is fine (with TRIGGER WARNINGS!) but please make it believable and do not use the University's tools without thought. There is no way that a member of staff would be brought into the University or kept there should they have the propensity to harm a student, or had harmed a student. That is diminishing the reputation of the University quite heavily, and we do not appreciate it. Please also remember that is has been stated in the past that teachers/students/etc of Marvel University feed into or from SHIELD at times, so it is fair to assume the University would have connections and would be well aware of other government agencies, staff, or potential threats to their highly exposed and unique students. This is not a warning, nor would we kick anybody out of the group for it. It is just a good example to learn. We would advise a reevaluation of the SL and its content, goals, or 'end game'. Keep up the good work everyone, make good SLs, /read/ each others SL, interact and make friends. That's why we still rock after a year. Thank you, Moderators. We've done some big changes to the website this week that some of you may have already noticed! For those of you that didn't sneak a peek while they updates were taking place, we've put together a bit of an explanation of this so everyone can benefit from them!
ONGOING SLS: Under the link for the home page, there's now a link to a new sub-page called "Ongoing SLs" with two examples (we thank the writers for allowing us the details to show the examples!). We thought this would be a good way for people to keep up with SL scenes without having to worry about time zones. It's not always easy to read back when the TL has been busy, and we hope that the information and links provided as such can help with this. There is a template at the top of the page which explains the details needed, and a moderator email address that you can send these too. We can then feature it on the website and add to it as your SL progresses with additional twitlongers. Just DM us a link to the twitlonger if you've posted one relevant to the SL on the website and we can update it. Once the SLs have finished, we will add a new page for "Past SLs," where there can remain a documented listing of the SL and the links pertaining to it. If you want to start sending through details of your SLs with the template, along with links to any of your twitlongers for it so far, please feel free to do so as soon as you're ready! FAQ: There's a new section under "Rules" for "FAQ". Here we've gathered together a list of frequently asked questions that come up in the Moderator DMs a lot. Since some of the questions aren't just aimed at new members, we thought it would be good to get these written up for everyone's easy reference should the need arise. If you can think of any questions that aren't featured on there but that could be useful, please let us know! CHARACTER CHANGES: The character listings have changed only slightly. The main character page is no longer for students, the student bios now have a separate dedicated page along with the faculty and affiliate characters. The main page under "Characters" is now a quick reference list of characters in the group. This is mainly for the benefit of new writers joining who want to see which Marvel characters are available and which ones are active. We've split this list into Marvel characters and OCs. On the list of your bios and avatars, we have attempted to update as many of these as possible, though to let us know if you'd like yours updated. You now also each have a link to your full twitlonger bios originally posted as your applications. Some members bios were not easy to find and we have DMd you to request the link, however we would ask that you add this link to the website section in your bio. It makes for very good reference with new characters joining who want to know more history about the AU version of your character. We noted while doing this that many of you have created revised or updated bios to include details of what has happened during the first year of the AU being active, which we think is a fantastic idea. If anybody would like to revise their twitlonger bios and include information from SLs that were completed or even if you have a link to any head-canons written about your character, please do send us through the links and we can get these featured on the website! EXTRAS: We previously had a link to the Marvel wiki page that was a fantastic Marvel database with many character examples along with very in depth Marvel information. We've expanded this now into a section called "RP Extras." Here we've started a collection of links that we hope will be a help - mainly the existing Marvel wiki link and a link to a world clock, great for those with time zone troubles! There's also some general role play links that have been written by others as credited that we thought may be of some help. We plan for this section to grow as we come across more helpful sites. Thank you all, as always, for making this an enjoyable place to write (and for not giving Daddy!Mod too much trouble while Mommy!Mod was away!). If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to come to us at any time! The Moderators x Statement One - group moderatorsDear Writers, We feel it is time to do an announcement as Moderators, though for once it’s a personal one. Consider it as a coming out! :-) As you can see, it's not going to be an official moderator thing as we usually post. We feel people keep guessing who the moderators are. Are they playing in the group as well, etc. And we feel it is time to reveal who we are to put people’s minds at ease. The group is getting to its first anniversary already and we can be sentimental too. For those of you who have been here since the beginning, we’re sure you’ll agree. There are two reasons why we did not say who we are before, even though we saw other groups often tells who the moderators/admins are: 1. We do not think that it matters much. We have one goal: to make this work and have fun. 2. The fear that some would treat us differently (favor or avoid, pick an option) and we would not want that at all. And the second point can lead to the announcement: Yes, we are in the group as players. As we’ve emphasized in many of our statements before, we are also RPers and we know how things work. The moderators are: @BadBoyWilder and @SpoiltBratStark. We had more moderators before, and people changed, but the remaining active moderators are the two of us only now. *moderators take a deep breath* Our story: We started writing together 2 years ago and mostly playing in MARVEL fandom but due to dramas/lost muses/etc. we decided to make a group. What started as a random DM became a string of email planning and ta-da! It happened in last August. It is our baby and the first one (and the only one, we use protection now LOL). It started as a small group and then started growing and still grows which makes us happy - after all, with all the Marvel groups taking over our TL’s at the time, we were unsure whether or not this group would really take off. Naturally, things changed. Rules changed and/or added many as more issues occurred and were overcome. We are still learning and appreciate all the patience and help we receive from people here. Neither of us have ever acted as a Moderator in any group before this, neither have we been part of an exclusive RP group. This group works because of you guys mostly. Without players and great writers it would be dead. We saw many groups dying, yet, this is still going on and active. People leave, people come, things change and we just want to make sure always that the people who are in this group having fun. Nothing pleases us more as writers and moderators to wake up and see the TL alive with your enthusiasm for a group that was once a simple idea. Great SLs are happening here every day, whether big scenes or small, funny bantering and 4WT fill the TL and group events aren’t easy to interact in - but look at all the big parties the TL has hosted! You should be all proud of yourselves. We are proud of you all! We wanted to reveal ourselves to make you see we want the same thing that you all do: to tell great stories. As writers and moderators we support this only. After all, we came here to put the past behind us, on TLs where we were hurt and saw conflicts between friends. This was a place firstly for us to find a fun place to RP again and it has been that, and we do thank you for that. It’s always sad for us when we dramas or conflicts and we do our best to resolve them quickly and keep everyone happy. Mission impossible? Maybe. Just as in the past we do not want any of you to treat our characters differently. If we have never played sure we will. If our characters don't get along that is between them, as writers we are fine with all writers, and as moderators we would never treat you any less just because our characters are yet to interact. We hope that this will also serve to let you know that we are approachable. Many of you have come to our DMs and made conversation OOC, and we do welcome that. We understand that having problems or questions it can sometimes seem daunting to come to the moderators for advice or answers, but that should really not be the case. We are players here as much as you are, and we are here for everyone in the group as moderators, writers and characters. This statement is written together and we will plan to add individual ones under Axel!Writer and Tony!Writer as well, today or so. Thank you everyone, big love, Moderators. statement 2 - tony!writerDear Writers, This is Tony!Writer's statement: I feel like Tony Stark at the end of the first Iron man movie: "Truth is, I am Iron Man" LOLOLOLOLOL. But really, it was hard to do this announcement and I am still nervous and hope nothing will change after this. The people I am close with knew I am the group moderator, one of them anyway but when it came to AU group problems I was never their friends but a moderator and they respect this and actually always here to support me. If I had problem as a player with someone then other moderators (we had more in the past) stepped up as moderators and same rules applied to me (hence a few not so nice statement had never been posted due to dramas :P ). Even if I have a bad day in RL or have a conflict on Tony when I jump into the moderator account I push aside everything and do my job there. I say job, but with pleasure because my goal is to write, to create. Even my RL job requires lots of creativity and luckily I work in a sector which needs me to watch lots of movies and TV show and basically supports my fanboy sides (never growing up, yay me :P) and I love coming here to switch my brain off and write with you all. Also a job because we do not get paid for it, yet trying to be on every day even for short period to check moderator messages/requests and to make sure this group goes well. Sometimes feels killer SLs (I was in tears not once) sometimes funny banters, sometimes 4WT bickerings ... and sometimes smut. *extra shifty*. But sometimes it is hard, especially when we have a drama and we see people are upset. We do our best to mediate things and sometimes I have no more energy to do it, balancing my stressful RL (especially job wise) and then solving problems here can take a lot out of me. But luckily this year we had minimal drama and had lots of great SLs and cannot wait to read more good ones and write out some as well. Axel!Writer and I have our past and I trust the writer the most. We came here together but since we started this group I met many other talented writers and I am so glad this group gave me the opportunity to do so. Not going to name them, I think they know who they are as I talk to them IC/OOC and we create stories. Small SLs and/or big ones, both are appreciated and always an honor to play here with them. And now jumping back re my RL. As a writer/RP I have my demons and insecurities. I'm not an native English speaker, every day struggling with the language but thanks to amazing writers (yes, sure you know who you are) I improved since I stepped into RP world. Great stories and characters always inspire me and love following other's SLs as well, which makes me wanna write better, give feels as I receive them a lot. Please treat me the same way you did just before the statement. If our characters don't get along well then do not change that (unless they will develope in the future) and if we have a conflict don't fret, we are equals. No idea how to end this statement, should tell a joke but now just feel better writing out all of this. Come, talk to me ... I have cookies. :-) Xxx STATEMENT 3 - AXEL!WRITERHello all, this is Axel!Writer.
Firstly, thank you for the truly lovely comments in response to our joint statement that was posted a short while ago. We did have some mixed expectations about how the statement would be received, and to see all the comments of respect and thanks reminded me of all the good reasons why we started this group, and also demonstrated why this group has succeeded whether others have failed - that you guys care about this group just as much as we do. For me personally, this group is an escape. I have a tough job that is mentally draining (seriously, the first half an hour after getting in from work I’m basically a dragon), and I’m not able to be on the TL during work. I’m limited to being online in the evenings, and sometimes in the morning if I’m not too late for work, though I’m not a morning person (see above dragon comment, and add “fire breathing” before it). In the four-five hours I can truly be online, I love to spend my time here with the AU, and reading over the TL to see the plays that have taken place during the day is a great way to rid my mind of work-stress. Admittedly, I have not always been the most active as a moderator, not only due to my timezone but because of my stupid employers blocking social networking sites at work (and apparently they expect me to focus on accounts work during the day, ugh). So while I was a moderator, I did take something of a back seat of it unless I was needed for an objective approach. I can honestly say that I’m loving being this active as a moderator, especially when it comes to seeing all the new people excited to join us. As we have previously said, this group is our baby, and while a fun metaphor, it really is appropriate to call it that. We bought it to the TL, and then we hand it over to the babysitters (you guys) who feed it and entertain it while we play along, and then it’s handed back to us for the official business and to change the shitty diapers. Probably wise to point out that due to my times of being online, the credit of being the nurturing mother definitely goes to Tony!Writer, while during the early days I was more of the group father coming home with inappropriate jokes - and yet, he is the man! But joking aside, I really want to thank you all. Before this group I had found myself at a low for RP, and I simply wasn’t enjoying it as much as I had been. Then this group was created and I’ve had so much fun here and continue to do so every single day. Even when it seems like I’m not online at my usual times, I’m always reading along and watching the TL because you’re simply an amazing group of writers. Before this group, I only considered myself very close with three writers, only Tony!Writer actually coming along into the AU of those, and I am so happy to say that this has changed - I’ve found great friends and witnessed some fantastic talents in this group. So thank you all, from me, for helping to restore my love of RP. Love to you all, Axel-Writer. Good morning/afternoon/evening, writers!
Firstly, WOW. The group has grown at an incredible rate in the last few weeks and as Moderators were are so pleased to see everyone having fun on the TL together, and especially seeing how welcoming everyone has been to new writers who are joining us. However, that time us upon us, the sun is shining and summer is almost here. By all means, students mostly go home for the summer, however we don't want our TL's suddenly becoming empty due to students going home. We have a wide range of ideas for the college to remain and active place including the following: Summer classes Sports competitions Parties and barbecues We've already heard mentions about the MAPX Games, Spring Prom and house warming parties off campus, so if there are any further details regarding those to let us know and we'll make sure the details are seen. We'd like to take this opportunity for you all to approach the moderators in DMs and make any suggestions for any particular activities or classes over the summer period. We have plenty of active teachers within the AU, so students, don't be afraid to reach out to them to arrange anything! It's also an opportunity to re-evaluate your character's path, studies as well, to gather more friends to join the group. It's not uncommon for students to change majors or pick up extra hobbies, so please do bring that into your character if you see fit. But please do consider this a chance to make your ideas heard. We're happy to help in any way that we can, as you all know! Even if the Moderators cannot physically arrange any of these, we will happily advertise any student or faculty activities that you'd like others to know about! Thank you, The moderators. Welcome to the new announcements page for Moderator news!
We will be doing weekly updates here to keep everyone up to date with new/removed characters and keeping everyone in the loop on changes made to the group or this site. We'd like to start by firstly wishing all members a Happy Easter, and a thank you to all writers for making this group into the thriving AU that it has quickly become. It is a wonderful relief for us Moderators to see that the group we created is not only fun to manage, but fun for all interacting within it. We have a group with 70+ active members that is growing every day, not only of popular Marvel characters but of some creatively designed AU characters. We have been making several changes to the website this week (isn't it amazing what Moderators can get up to on a bank holiday weekend!) which we would appreciate all writers take a time to look over: Rules: We have added several new rules to the group. Obviously the rules created when we started a group do not work as well with a group this large so we have accommodated several of our original rules and also added new conditions on the follow points: - Unfollowing and writer disagreements - TL activity - Trigger warnings We will also be monitoring character activity more. The demand for popular Marvel characters is high and we want to encourage new members as much as we can. If you feel that you no longer have time for your account and wish to give it up to make the role available, please do contact us so that we can make arrangements as necessary. Thank you all for reading and more importantly, for continuing to enjoy the group we've created! The Moderators. |
MODERATORModerator account for @College_AU Archives
April 2015
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