I sometimes worry I write too much lore when I make sites, since sadly, I have heard for some it can be a turnoff. However, that won't stop me from writing it all since... well... it is a part of the world and I want to provide whatever I can to give a world depth. Just means my sites are not for people who wanna read a bunch... cause I refuse to spoon-feed people since there is too much for me to remember 100% of what I wrote, but small enough that I can get an inkling and know when to reference my materials.

Just keep on writing that lore and do what you want. Even if it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's still good to have depth to your world and should give people most answers to what they are looking for. (We're somewhat in the same boat.) I'd suggest bullet pointing where you can because I feel like that ends up making things much more digestible. At least from what I go through as a member. 

For lore writing, I suck at remembering my own lore most of the time, or I constantly add to it. Write all the lore you want, but if it is too much for members, maybe write summarized versions for the member base and write everything in depth in your admin or staff section so that you can go back to it. OR get an external world-building program to save all your notes in. Whatever works for you.

That awkward moment when you realize you can tweak some staff.

When I look back at mod regrets, the thing that circles my mind the most is how worryingly good I got at people-pleasing. It's been on my mind lately.

I tend to go hard in plots, but the faction I was revamping had a lot of anxious people who wanted everyone to always get along both IC and OOC. When I put great effort into faction stories that felt rewarding to me, I was repeatedly disappointed by the lack of interest in anything that was high-drama. I figured out which roleplayers were sensitive and easily hurt, I figured out what roleplay they enjoyed and responded best to, and I figured out which roleplay experiences I put forward that intimidated them most.

Without realizing it, I started diluting my stories so that they were less satisfying to write and more enjoyable to an audience that wanted something I didn't want to give. Hard edges in complicated characters were softened. NPCs who were 'cuter' got way more traction than those who were severe and intimidating. I began to resent that my favorite stories kept being ignored in favor of the ones I phoned in.

Even in conflict events, I found myself frustrated by this phenomenon. Evil actions by a sympathetic villain were interpreted as morally gray, and attempts to erase ambiguity by worsening the evil behavior was still ignored to the point of OOC roleplayer distress when characters who supported that villainy had consequences.

It was exhausting, trying to field people's fragile IC/OOC boundaries all the time. It felt like I was being punished any time I wrote the stories I personally enjoyed.

I think of this sometimes, because it's a good reminder that community-fit is so real in roleplay. You can give your all to something in a creative hobby, but if it doesn't give something back to you then it's not a worthwhile use of your time, even if other people love what you're creating. When modding (or roleplay in general) begins to feel like a job and not like a fun creative outlet, that's the sign for me it's time to let go.

Being a member in a community that welcomes what I want to write has been so much more rewarding than shaping stories in a community that didn't appreciate what I had to give.

^ reading the above.

People need to learn how to separate IC and OOC. People in general have a tendency to argue. Why can't characters? Humans are capable of both true good and absolute evil, so why can't characters? If you(generic) can't find people that you can absolutely war against in threads and still talk about getting pizza or something outside of it, then they're not worth writing with. People have to respect boundaries, and you've got to set them. Your characters do not. Characters can do whatever they like, as long as it's not against the overall rules of the site.

I am glad you found a place where you can write again and enjoy writing again. It can be really hard sometimes. though this is much less a staff confession as much as it is just a normal rp confession I think...

I think often mods are treated as people who don't have wants and desires of their own as roleplayers, to be honest. They're seen as a roleplay vending machine -- or at least, I began to feel like one near the end, hah.

Setting boundaries is important for everyone, but absolutely essential for mods. I suspect I let people walk over mine without realizing it for too long.

(And thank you! It's been very rewarding to just write for myself again, self-indulgently and shamelessly.)

With this, at the end of the day, I hope that people at least learn to understand that staff doesn't make an RP because they want to be roleplay vending machines-- they want to share a world and write with others too. If it does not spark joy, it makes no sense to continue when you're doing so much work. It's good to learn to set boundaries! Everyone wants to be nice and wants to be helpful, but at the end of the day, if you fall into a pit of people pleasing, it's like becoming the Giving Tree, giving until there's nothing left at all.

I really hope that everyone who's a staff member remembers to take a step back and make sure that they themselves are writing things that they enjoy. If you're not, you're not doing what you've set out to do by staffing on the site. I also hope that anyone who's a normal citizen on a site remembers to take a step back and thank their admins for the work that they do and for letting them play in their space. If the local admins aren't writing, ask yourself if you've checked in on them as they've taken care of you. 

we actually just had to do this on ours because I was getting super overwhelmed with everything and wasn't quite happy in my admin space. There are other projects that I want to work on and write in more than the major one we're doing, and it took a lot out of me to do as much as I have been, on top of all of the irl stresses. Moving forward though, the rest of the staff team has picked back up on the slack a little and I'm getting back into writing rather than planning which is nice.

Normalize staff taking breaks!

Normalize staff vacations! I know when I'd used to admin, I'd felt a little guilty when there were things to process piling up and questions that needed to be answered and I would just not publicly tag my thread partners because I didn't want to look like I was slacking on my job. But really, the people that should be writing the most are staff, who did the work because they wanted to RP!

Normalize not being scared to approach staff to plot! Yes there's something a little bit intimidating about messaging a staff member, but they're RPers too, looking to RP. No one staffs because they just want to staff, they do it because they want to help make the site run smoothly.

as a certified staffer who also writes too much but also a member who can and WILL be in staff dms to be a nuisance about plotting - agreed on every single moment!!

i am a fool who often doesn't take breaks despite burnout when it came to staffing and that nearly fucked me over so bad back in november. the break was needed. felt bad because i'm the most active bc of how much time work gives me but i also just want to plot too! it's ok to take breaks!

even though i don't usually staff, i became a head admin (eventual owner) of a site early on, like 12 years old. but i think what shaped my impression the most about staffing is my gm-modded pokemon adventure with a mod who eventually became my friend. she's also someone i highly looked up to and respect as a writer to this day, using her as inspiration for how i rp. i never saw staff as someone who should be always there to answer my beck and call, or to produce content for me; i saw them as someone very talented and passionate. the first one who would leap at the opportunity to write with others.

and then compounded too by another staff team i spent a long time with collaborating as a member of their site. they emphasized early on that they're members too looking to rp, and because of how they handle staff + being active in plottign themselves, it felt like there was no line between staff or member at all. we as a community (talking about predormitum v1, for anyone curious) always discussed issues openly regardless of our position in the site.

i still feel that way, honestly, and sometimes i wonder if that's why staff get the wrong impression about me as someone trying to veto/overtake them =)) i see them as fellow writers, and while i do understand that it's their site to run, i can't say i agree with the notion of heirarchy in a hobby like rping. rping isn't mean to be like a office setting. it's a silly place to have fun and make friends. but again, i know everyone sees it differently but that's just how i've always vibed and i don't think that wuold change