PLEASE READ: Regarding Cliques

Alright, so I've seen a lot of complaints about this lately, and to top that off, there are a number of people leaving the site partly because they don't feel like they belong as well as others do. Let me just start off by saying this is NOT going to be an announcement consisting of me yelling at you all not to branch off into cliques and demand that you include everyone and love each and every member like he or she is your best friend. Yes, there are instances in which people have one or two really great site friends, and they tend to talk to them more than they do others. But this is fine, and completely understandable, because this is exactly what happens in real life, and this site is basically a little community in its own right. We can't expect regular human instinct to suddenly disappear as soon as we're online. And for the most part, I feel like everyone is warm and welcoming to all; even if you're not great friends with everyone here, each and every member on this site should be friendly to you. If you've got a specific problem with someone/a group of people that are being exclusive, then please, please PM me or another staff member about it, and I promise we'll take care of it. Let us know who it is and we'll talk to them privately (we won't mention your name; I swear everything will remain confidential) and just let them know to be a bit more open to everyone. Because the site is a family, and even if you're not as close to some members of your family as you are others, every member deserves the same respect you'd give to anyone else.

But that all isn't the point of this announcement. Here I'd like to stress, because I think some of you may have forgotten, that the main purpose of this site is RPing. If you come on here expecting to suddenly be the most popular member, to have all sorts of friends and talk to absolutely everyone and be this real social butterfly all the time, then I suggest you find some sort of discussion forum instead. This is a forum with a main focus of roleplaying; come on here and let your main focus be writing - with friends, strangers, anyone at all - and I absolutely promise you'll be much, much happier. With roleplaying comes making friends, and not the other way around. If you're feeling excluded, then rather than whine about it, why don't you get out there and do something about it? Get involved, get writing, make open threads, reply to open threads, start a plot. If you're really looking to talk to people, but you're nervous about feeling left out, I highly suggest finding/starting a discussion thread in the District Square rather than the cbox, because there's less chance of cliquiness/exclusion there. The cbox is wonderful, but if you're going to use it, please don't get upset if your message/greeting/hello is missed. People get caught up in conversations, especially in cbox rush hours in the evening, and sometimes they just unintentionally miss things. An approach I like to take is to just jump into a conversation, rather than say hello; if you do that, there's less chance you'll be unintentionally ignored and, obviously, you won't be coming into the cbox at a time when no one else is around to talk to you.

So, bottom line: everyone feels left out sometimes, by someone or another. If you're letting that interfere with the site's main purpose, RPing, then you're missing out. I promise there will always be someone out there to talk to - no one can be liked by everyone, it's just a fact of life. So you've got two options; wallow in it, complain, be upset and let it interfere with the fun you have writing here and on the rest of the site, or do something about it, and get involved in other things have fun anyway. If you're a newer member and you're feeling left out, give it time; our more senior members tend to be the most popular, simply because they've been here for so long and talked to everyone. so keep trying, meet new people, talk to and be nice to everyone, and more often than not, you'll find yourself with some great site friends. It really does work that way, I swear. If you're feeling really down and you're thinking about leaving the site, then I highly suggest you talk to someone about it, tell someone how you feel, rather than just take off right away without notice. Because if you're only leaving because of social issues, not because you're just tired of the site in general, then I can promise you'll regret it. Most people do.

Thank you all for reading,
--Lulu.