Community Newsletter - Literally 1884

[arano]

Very nice, looking forward to the new world

[digency]

📯 📯 South Tahoma prequel, yeehaw!

[Riverrun]

Is there still a whitelist process to access to jobs or the economy is now opened?

Love the Apache as a faction! 

[Bailey]

18 minutes ago, Riverrun said:

Is there still a whitelist process to access to jobs

Yes. 🙂

 

[Riverrun]

all right got my answer then 🙂 

PS: didn't realize the new server and lore wasn't active just yet!

PS: love the trailer video.

 

[Riverrun]

Hello. I have a few questions concerning this topic of factions and/or roles.

Faction Question: I see the Apache faction mentioned here. Will the Apache faction be open by default, with native Apache characters joining automatically, or does someone need to open the faction first?

Coordination: If someone has to open the faction, can this be coordinated OOC (out-of-character) with other players before the launch? Is there a specific topic or section dedicated to this coordination?

Application Details: What does the application process for the new server look like? I'd like to prepare accordingly and be ready for the 6th.

 

[MiaMika]

2 hours ago, Riverrun said:

Coordination: If someone has to open the faction, can this be coordinated OOC (out-of-character) with other players before the launch? Is there a specific topic or section dedicated to this coordination?

To answer this much: The leader of said faction will be a whitelisted position. So once someone has an accepted app, they're free to co-ordinate as they see fit. They'll be responsible for curating their own membership and ensuring their membership is up to snuff, as any faction leader is expected to. 

Until someone has an accepted WLJ app to lead the Apache faction, there's not much point in planning around it, but if people want to chit-chat Apache inspiration in the era that's their own business. 

[Riverrun]

Seems a few people are interested, and we can prepare ideas for the group. Is there a format to propose a faction? 

[ewthn]

4 hours ago, Riverrun said:

Seems a few people are interested, and we can prepare ideas for the group. Is there a format to propose a faction? 

The format will be released on the 6th, and you'll have 14 days to put together an application. We will not be rushing into any decision about who will be in charge of any group. The prolonged period of consideration is to allow all players the time to seriously review the application and put together a strong case why they should be in charge.

[Guest Sunny]

I am curious as to what this will mean in roleplay, will the story change at all from villanising black or non-white characters in day-to-day roleplay from people, (and therefore be acceptable to be called slurs all day when I log in) or will this be somewhat removed from irl history to an extent.

As this year was still very deeply ingrained in slavery that is one thing I'm curious about, as honestly my first experience of 1900 Tahoma in roleplay was... less than friendly, and whilst I appreciate that "it comes with playing a non-white character", when does it just become a free reign to play as your most racist self with calling others slurs.

[MiaMika]

4 hours ago, Guest Sunny said:

I am curious as to what this will mean in roleplay, will the story change at all from villanising black or non-white characters in day-to-day roleplay from people, (and therefore be acceptable to be called slurs all day when I log in) or will this be somewhat removed from irl history to an extent.

As this year was still very deeply ingrained in slavery that is one thing I'm curious about, as honestly my first experience of 1900 Tahoma in roleplay was... less than friendly, and whilst I appreciate that "it comes with playing a non-white character", when does it just become a free reign to play as your most racist self with calling others slurs.

The simplest answer is OOC racism/bigotry is absolutely not allowed, IC it is. The time period doesn't substantially change that. The issues of bigotry in American society were prevalent in the 1880s, the 1900's, and unfortunately well into the future outside of the time periods we'd ever consider setting in. We're not doing an 'alternate history' that side-steps that.

For the rare individuals that use historical racism as a vehicle to interject their modern prejudices and  use the setting to do a thin veiled pantomime of what's clearly OOC bigotry? Staff aren't obtuse to that. That sort of thing has been handled before. I, personally, have very little patience for that. There's also a reason racial hatred factions (ie doing the KKK) are restricted concepts and heavily scrutinized.

At the end of the day historical-themed roleplay inherently includes some mature and unpleasant topics from the era its set in. If handled with maturity by players they can be part of meaningful narratives, much like any good film, book, or T.V show set in an era has the potential to do so. 

 

[badteaspoon]

5 hours ago, Guest Sunny said:

when does it just become a free reign to play as your most racist self with calling others slurs.

To back up what @MiaMika said, several individual players have been spoken to, warned or removed from the community for using our permission to racial undertones in roleplay as an outlet for their racist self. We ask that it is done respectfully and with thought and you can often spot a clear difference between giving a distasteful topic justice in writing vs. self-insert internet racists. So, if you happen to give STRP another shot down the line and see a recurring theme of thoughtless slurs being thrown for the sake of doing it, feel free to approach staff or submit a report.

Unfortunately we're not all-seeing to every roleplay scenario that goes on. If you think somebody is getting away with things they shouldn't, likely chances are that their conduct hasn't been brought to our attention.

And to anyone reading this guilty of such roleplay, do better.

[Goldberry]

Is ST 1884 going to try and be more time period accurate? Because the only time I see that people even try to be historical is when it comes down to being racist. 

The 19th century wasn't full of pants wearing, gunslinging, publically open lesbians everywhere and that's like 50% the server's population. 

[kate]

1 hour ago, Goldberry said:

Is ST 1884 going to try and be more time period accurate? Because the only time I see that people even try to be historical is when it comes down to being racist. 

The 19th century wasn't full of pants wearing, gunslinging, publically open lesbians everywhere and that's like 50% the server's population. 

Hey Goldberry.

For a long time now RPQM has been working on these issues internally. We do not publicise the actions we are taking bar the few circumstances where we have addressed the server at large; one of which was in fact with regards to the exact thing you mentioned. Nevertheless, we still do not ever release the individuals we have worked with and never will due to the sensitive nature of our school of work.

Rest assured we do work hard on these issues. STRP 1.0 made it very difficult to assert change because people had been permitted these less realistic concepts when the server first began when there was no quality management. It was unfair for us to retroactively say “you can’t do that now” when the previous cast of admins (whose values vastly differed to ours today) told them it was A-OK. 

Hard reset, however, resolves that problem.

Hope that answers your query.

[Guest Sunny]

I appreciate you guys taking the time to respond, I am still very much going to be part-taking in the server after the reset. I only did not comment with my account because I can't seem to log onto it on mobile where I am typing.

I am also grateful to know that there is a limit and that perhaps what I experienced first hand was one of those outliers of people that were taking it too far rather than the general and constant situation so that makes me hopeful for still being able to enjoy myself in the server. By all means I expect the racism tones and such, I was just not expected to be called the N word with the hard R out of nowhere when I first showed up haha.

Nonetheless I am looking forward to the reset and making a new character & story.