Police Force

[coniurati]

Because apparently it's Mod Spam Night!

Many of you may have noticed a scarcity of the Police Force as of late, and there's a reason for this! Basically, we've had an attrition of members, a loss of a leader, and a loss of interest from the community in general.

Now, the Police Force in kind of a big deal, because without it, we've got nothing left but vigilante justice and a jail that can't be kept up. All of our lovely, cherished villainous creatures out there could simply run amok! And we've got a lot of law & justice types out there that wouldn't be too keen on that. But at the same time, without enough of the playerbase behind it, it simply can't be upheld.

SO

We'd like to talk to you guys about it.

We're of the opinion that the Police Force is something that's simply inevitable, as there's always going to be a character (or more likely, several characters) that are going to notice the lack thereof and try to make something of the sort to fill the gap. But it's kind of obvious that the system we have going now isn't working as well as it should. Some of the main concerns are:

- Low Membership. This is the biggest problem. A lot of characters that were on the Force have just plain left Discedo, and others have simply quit. In order for it to function properly, it needs more members. How do you propose we solve this?

- Leadership. Currently, the Force doesn't have a leader. We've already figured out that it needs something of the sort, so that's a moot point. So it needs a new one! Or more ideally, more than one new one. This would be in case of one character leaving, going on hiatus, etc, the Force wouldn't be stuck without.

- Laws. the laws that have already been established need to be re-hashed, or re-instated at the very least. There are many characters and even players that don't know them at all, and therefore they could be broken pretty easily. who would like to do this? Who would be in charge?

- Organization. Some sort of page needs to be made, so all of this information can be easily accessed by everyone. Us mods are willing to help on this one of course, but we're going to need all of the information to put on it first!

- Cooperation. We're looking at you, Discedo badguys. Up to no good? Well, you're going to have to let the Police Force know, OOCly of course. It doesn't mean you'll have to be caught right away of course, but our boys in blue are gonna have to be on the up and up if they're gonna do their jobs properly!

And that's it for our main concerns. Note, however, we're not saying that the Force absolutely has to stay. If these things can't be ironed out, disbandment is certainly an option.

Thanks everyone for your time and patience! It's gonna be tough, so we really appreciate it.

Comments

[dividend.livejournal.com]

Well the lawyer's muns are well aware that the laws are in serious need of a revamp, and we're trying to figure out a way to best fix this at the moment. I'd kind of like it if this was still kept in our hands, but obviously input from the police force is still necessary, and also the citizens as before. We're just finishing up with the safehouse laws at the moment, but I'll try to get Meg and Sia on side so that we can get the rest of it worked out.

The only question that I've got with the laws side of things, though, is how often should they be revised? Obviously things in Discedo are going to change, but there's also a lot of new people coming in that could also have ideas about how to add to stuff, so some input about that from whoever wants to say something would be awesome.

/rolls over

[angelic-lawyer.livejournal.com]

I've more or less got the same opinions and questions as Jas. We need to get our timezones to match up 8| THIS WOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE IF I STILL LIVED IN JAPAN.

Although, one of my ...issues, I suppose -- I'm not sure what Jas and Meg find -- is that when posts relating to law are made, they go mostly ignored or are replied to by the same few people. It's frustrating to say the least.

[(Anonymous)]

More comfortable being anon for this, I hope no one minds.

My opinions go as follows:

Low membership.

This may be more of a OOC than IC issue. There used to be a standard sign up post/IC application that was checked regularly for a little while, but that didn't last. There's a good chance that interested characters have no idea how to sign up for it, or that there even is a police force. Making a post that's actually kept up with might help with that. Or a general IC recruitment drive.

Leadership

I honestly think the Police Force ooc leadership is better off in mod hands, with the most active/suited characters on the force acting as IC leaders.

Laws

I have no advice on this because none of my characters would be suited to rework them. I do think they should be kept simple and reiterated every once in awhile so that new characters are aware of them.

Organization

I thought there was a page on play_my_ace concerning the police force already? If not, I'm sure a couple of the more active players wouldn't mind writing something up. If I still had a character on the force I would.

Cooperation

Most of the bad guys do seem to end up caught, so I think this part is/was handled fairly well up until recently.

[dividend.livejournal.com]

Aaah I thought there was still a post /sobs. I agree with the idea of getting a new one, if there isn't one already - and I also like Richard's idea of doing a kind of police force activity check, or something along those lines. Just to check that people are still interested, otherwise if one drops, they all kind of... tend to follow suit. The only question is where the post would go - maybe it's a thing better for the mod LJ, so if people drop it's not lost?

Also agreed on the co-operation side of things.

[dividend.livejournal.com]

Okay, now the other things.

Low membership in the force is kind of a hard thing to tackle. Muns have to be OOCly interested to want to get their characters involved, and they also need to have characters that are so inclined to do something. But to be honest, I'm not sure that the police force's outlines are clearly stated enough, and it might hold some people back from joining because they're not sure if their character would fit. I think it'd benefit from more of a structure, instead of just "leaders" and "the rest of the force" so that people can be more sure of whether or not they can actually get their characters involved. Real police work isn't just limited necessarily to those who can point a gun; there's other work that can be done too.

Leadership's always been kind of a hard one, but I think at least two would be a good idea, perhaps three depending on the size of the force. It ensures that it's not just one person shouldering all of the work, and people get a fair chance to get their character involved in that field if they want to. The only concern I have with this is how the leader gets elected - we need to try and find a fair way to do this, so that people who want that position actually have a chance to get it.

I think that covers everything I have to say Dx /tl;dr

[kan_chyan]

This is just my initial thought on the leadership, but perhaps we could use a systems somewhat close to real life police departments? With a chief, a deputy chief and so on? And maybe one of the lawyers could sort of be like the DA which has a little bit of control over the police? If that makes any sense.

I also agree with the anon above that said OOC leadership might be best handled by the mods, with the most active member being the IC head. It might keep messes from happening, and might make it more fun. I know that several times managing the police force has caused some stress OOC.

For organizing I think it should be taken over by the mods, like the housing list was, leaders and information could be updated as appropriate.

[coniurati]

We'd be willing to take care of the ooc organization and negotiate between players, but we'd like to avoid been 100% in control. The Police Force is a player-run thing, it's always been a player run thing, and we'd like it to stay that way. Having the mods in total control would make it too overbearing and people would be hesitant to have their characters commit crimes, which we honestly need to happen to keep the Discedo atmosphere as it is.

[procrastinado.livejournal.com]

This is something I've talked about before, but as for the organization along with the suggestions people have already made, the police force needs its own community where it keeps all the OOC and IC info about the members, positions on the force, details of what said positions entail, laws, notification of crimes (rather than in playmyace) etc. in separate posts so that it's easily accessible. The comm could be mentioned in the game info, so if someone wants to join the force, they can find the comm easily and simply click the post about joining. If they just want to know the laws, they can go to the laws post, etc. It would keep information and structure from disappearing with OOC posts and such. 8|b

Also if the police force gets organized and such, a very basic records of crimes could be kept? Like, a character IC who takes on a role of secretary, and their mun or someone could just put things in a post on the comm I mentioned like 'on XX/XX/XX phoenix broke the law by stealing miles' tea, went to trial on XX/XX/XX, and was sentenced to cleaning miles' cravats for a week' or something like that.

[priceoftruth.livejournal.com]

i think that even if the police don't get their own comm, at least organizing the info in playmyace with the sticky post otter wants to do could really help. a lot of the problem seems, to me, like the information isn't widely known or easily accessible, so if we had a directory and people could actually find a link to police information, it could help

the police-only comm is something i'd never thought about or heard mentioned, but that's another good idea. same with crime records

-waves a small hand?-

[hellsingmaster.livejournal.com]

Um, hi. I'm relatively new to the game but I play Integra Hellsing and for those unfamiliar with the Hellsing canon, she's the head of the Hellsing Organization, which specializes in keeping the peace in England from the supernatural baddies and evil Catholics.

I'd be more than willing to offer her to help, because that's sort of her job and she's a bit bored sitting in her apartment waiting for Alucard to find a way home.

And, as a bonus, she has complete and unchallenged authority over Alucard, which is a huge benefit, no matter how one looks at it.

So, sorry for poking my nose, but I'd like to get more involved ic'ly 'career wise' because 'Tegra's not really the social sort. But she is rather organized and is used to dealing with hoodlums and the like. <33

[coniurati]

If you want to join the force, please, by all means! We simply need a new way for people to join up, now that the previous leader has stepped down. This will all be taken care of soon, hopefully.

[declaim.livejournal.com]

I know Esther has sort of failed lately when it comes to the force, but I've always wanted her to be (more) active in it.

Low Membership: Even though old members have dropped/quit ICly, Discedo is always getting new characters. If a new recruitment post was made ICly, that might be one way to attract new members.

Leadership: This is just an idea, but what if there were certain 'teams', each with a leader? It would be a lot easier than to have everyone report to a single person. And I personally would like the police force to be left in player's hands, as long as everyone can pull together and get this straightened out.

Laws: ...Are best left to the lawyer-people. 8D

Organization: A shiny new organization page is needed, but maybe there could be a monthly discussion post as well...? One that all the players can work out details in, tie up loose ends, plan ahead, etc. (Or we could go all-out and make a separate comm for the force, which would be pretty cool, too.)

Cooperation: I think cooperation has been going pretty well lately.

I'm also willing to help out with organizing/anything that needs to be done, if it's needed.

[embracethewaves.livejournal.com]

re: leadership, that was how it was run about a year ago! it was actually more like shifts -- there were three, and one character was in charge of each shift. i think that worked out pretty well, and would be a pretty cool way to do it again, if other people are interested in giving that a try

[verily-ergo.livejournal.com]

I'm agreeing with some of what was said in the handful of comments above.

While I don't want to add to the mods' work, I think either a mod page or a new community may be beneficial to organizing all of this. I say that because, should one of us make a page on our IC journal, it would be awkward and impractical to use it if we're on hiatus/no longer in Discedo.

I DO think that the organization of the police force should be worked out, and I have a few ideas.

These aren't just set in stone type things, and I'm willing to refine them. They're ROUGH ideas at best. orz

- A signup page which could serve as the criminal justice/law enforcement/what have you records ICly and reference OOCly.

- Perhaps some sort of page that handles police reports, although this would be more or less optional and is just a suggestion. You know, because most players report things via communicator, etc, it's just... disorganized and the entire police force is not aware and there's little communication widely.

- Three leaders or heads seems ideal for the reasons listed in the posts above (drops, hiatuses, etc). They could be 'elected' and the final decision could be made on each of them by either the mods or the current members of the force respectively.

Now, HOW they get elected... ideally I think we could have nominations, i.e., a form one needs to fill out with qualifications and the like. That said, there should also be a point made that activity is needed for that sort of job and if a hiatus needs to be taken, communication really needs to be had.

- A community would really help with keeping records of past criminal activity; a kind of log.

- Law revisions could be made every two months or as the situation calls for it (sometimes plots bring new issues to mind, etc). That gives things time to settle and new characters time to adjust.

Should there need to be a revision off-schedule, a discussion post could be made oocly and we could icly iron the details out once those things are taken care of.

As far as reiterating the laws so that new members are aware of them: That's... a little tricky and I'll get back to you on that, considering every two months seems awkward. Perhaps a post should be made about the laws once a month by the lawyers? IDK.

Ummm, and that's all I have to say at the moment. Sorry, distracted and tired.

Phoenix likes this post

[dividend.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of the above, but... yeah I dunno about how to reinforce the fact that the laws are THERE without it getting old quickly. I know it's beneficial for new players to know this kind of thing, but I just feel like it'd be a bit weird ICly, unless we just... changed who posted about it each time or something. Also perhaps to help that out the police force's leader/s could do it as well? /tired too idk

[(Anonymous)]

To be honest, I'm not too sure about how well playmyace is working out for organizational purposes like this. I agree that posts in the mod's journal or even a separate community for police related matters needs to be taken into consideration, because even with the new idea of doing stickied posts, I'm not too confident that it's going to change very much in terms of how badly organized some things are.

[coniurati]

We plan to make playmyace a more mod-run community in order to fix those problems. Really, something like it is needed in a RP of this size, so we can't do anything but to try and mend it. I know how you feel, though, and we will do our best.

[kongeriget]

Membership
I agree that right now, this is a big problem, but I think it's basically a temporary one. We've fallen really far behind in keeping up with the police IC, and I think that's part of what is causing the lack of people involved IC. But I also agree that while this is a big problem right now, I don't think it'll be one—like people have said, we're always getting new characters in the game, and some are bound to be interested in that stuff OOC and IC. As for the police application process—I think that is a good idea, IC, if only for organization purposes, but at the same time, ... a) It would need to be kept up with. I don't think it has been for months. And b) it would have to be... not just in the hands of one person.

Leadership
I've said this before OOC, but I think that the best system of leadership—that is, in terms of IC delegating and OOC keeping track of "cases," members, etc.—would be three people. I like the idea of two police officers and one lawyer—but I don't think any less would work. Three people IC/OOC ensures that there's almost always going to be at least one, probably two, around/off hiatus. And it really shouldn't be too much work anyway. I do agree that the idea of mods being involved OOC is an excellent idea. But I will state for the record that the idea of a mod's character running the force IC makes me a little uneasy, if only because the police force... has always been a bit—unofficial, and player run. Making it entirely mod run makes it feel, to me, a little too official, and "non optional."

Laws
Uhh, pass. Heya lawyers.

Organization
I don't think it honestly needs all that much. A list of laws/how the police runs; a second page or section that is updated regularly with police officers names/muns/aim handles; a third for the organization of crimes. "This event is happening where..." type contact; we used to have one; it could also serve as a catch-all "X was arrested and sentenced to Y on this date, completed that date." EDIT: And I'll also note that I liked the original plan of having a post in the mod community.

Cooperation
I think this goes into the organization thing more than a bit? But anyway! How optional are you planning to make the force? I think it needs to be made really clear just how optional or official the police is, because I think it's important not to DETER people from crimes... well, OOC at least. The police shouldn't be too powerful, because that could and would be limiting, IC.

[nomnomguts.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about disbandment, since there seem to be so few people. Actually, I'd be really really amused if Discedo declined into vigilante justice...

BUT IF THE FORCE DOES STICK AROUND.

MEMBERSHIP: I think... I don't even know how exactly, one would go about joining the police force right now. That's kind of the problem. And as you know, tis the season to be dropping, that's kind of an issue as people drop, oocly or icly, and new members aren't added to the force at all.

LEADERSHIP: If the force sticks around, yeah, I think leadership might be a bit better handled by modly forces, or at least multiple players so that not all of the responsibility gets shunted onto one person. Whoever is more active, or interested in being that active.

LAWS: For keeping characters informed, if this isn't already done (I don't recall), maybe ask that the people who generally provide the 'information manuals' for newcomers (like Patchy) add a link to the laws? At least that way we could say that most, if not all people end up having ACCESS to the laws.

I do understand the difficulty in having IC/OOC interest in it though. I play characters who just... aren't the kind of respond to people tacking up the laws. One honestly has nothing to do with the law, and breaking it, the other would just look at it, and smile sweetly...

COOPERATION: As someone who plays a baddie, and more than that, a bad guy who is actively interested in recruiting more bad guys to do nefarious and evil things, I think at least someone on the police force needs to ooc-ly keep up to date about crimes and who's planning on committing them, and what information the police will have access to when the crime is committed. It might be kind of a big responsibility though, so if the whole 'police force having a community' thing works out, maybe have a page dedicated to crimes-in planning to be updated by whoever?

Of course, if there's a crime, the player needs to like make it clear what evidence and information the police will have access to in trying to solve it. It doesn't need to be anything fancy (blahblah ripped throat out with talons, dead person bled out, will be discovered by [insert person] if the police want to interrogate them.

Also, Riful killed someone recently, if any police people want to like, look into it. XD;

[medanmyboy.livejournal.com]

Acccccccctually...I think having something - whether a community or whatever - for the police to all keep up on concerning crimes, judgments and punishments, etc, is a really good idea. Especially with the very loose system we have nowadays. It feels weird to have a whole new community; maybe just a sort of post to put down things as they come along idk /wanders off

[loyal-credo.livejournal.com]

Hrm, well when it comes to the police force I'm up for helping if I can. Though I do apologize for keeping Credo on hiatus when he had been one of the more active force members around. But anyway yes:

Low Memebership - Oh man. um... FREE PENCIL WITH EACH NEW MEMBER?

Leadership - Honestly this one I'm not sure about. I would be fine with helping out with this. At least like IC having Credo help out with leading things, or what not. Though I agree that it might work better with two or three people 'leading' if not OOCly at least IC while mods do their thing. Without some sort of leadership we all just end up going UH OH WELL WE WOULD DO THIS AND THAT BUT WE NEED SO AND SO TO OKAY IT BLARG. And that's no fun. So having a few leaders would make things easier for everyone. Except the force is pretty much only a few people anyway XD awesome.

Laws - GO LAWYERS GO! ♥ Credo is more than happy to help remind Discedo of the laws. He's done it a few times already.

Organization - Even with play my ace I have trouble figuring out what posts are current or moot or what not. So revamping or deleting and what not would be great. Or even like someone else mentioned a whole comm for the force. IDK. Just... something easier to work with? *is no help ever*

Cooperation - It does seem like people are getting much better at giving a heads up if they plan on doing anything real big and bad, which is nice. It makes it easier for us to be all SO YEAH WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT THIS. So I think as long as we keep up with that we should be cool.

And even if the force is disbanded Credo will probably be one of those losers who still tries to be all POLICE FORCY.

[singsingbluesilver]

Well, having a character in the force (although he is currently being more standoffish about it than his usual thing) I did have a few things that bugged me a little about the force. I'll try to be not that confusing but I am in the middle of NaNo so thoughts are a bit jumbled.

I was thinking that one of the main problems I had with it was knowing who was an officer and who was not, and who was used to what kind of work. It's all well and fine to send a few officers out to investigate things or act as guards, but maybe when the characters enroll, they should have a kind of tag added so we can send the right kind of office to the right kind of crime. If there's baddies needing the smack down and you got someone more use to investigating the scene of the crime then fighting off an attack, there might be problems. Also having a more definite schedule for officers patrolling in areas would make things a lot easier then suddenly having ten officers working the same side street at the same time.

Also having a record of crimes and what was done with things would be useful because that way the officers can look back in the files and see if there's a pattern and narrow the list down to the right baddie. It might not help the baddies, but it will help the police in their search and not have them spinning around in circles every time a person gets killed. So maybe make a couple people at a time, maybe on rotation, to go through the archives and collect information might prove useful.

I also second having more than one commander for the force plus setting a lawyer up as the DA and the others like assistants. It would be much easier during slow times, hiatuses and the occasion when everyone suddenly caught a virus and are too doped up to think straight.

Another thing could be an OOC account of the best times to contact the players for information they may need - like if their character is going to be patrolling an area or if there is going to be a police meeting or something. I tend to get out of the loop because my usual working times hit around the same time most people are online. I can imagine there are people also with that problem because they are in different timezones or work odd hours like I do.

[a-lone-flame.livejournal.com]

As part of another game that has something akin to a police force, I'd thought that some of what they do could be interpreted here.

The lists as to who's who on what squads, plus leadership and all that, are left up to the mods, and there is occasionally a sign up post that's posted by the Commanders (there's three of them, and they're played by the mods, plus two vice-commanders who are also played by the mods.) If a new character is interested in working for this police group, then what they do is usually ask via posting, and then one of the mods gets to it.

Now, the mods here have a lot of work when it comes to maintaining a game this size, so I wouldn't want to put all of that work on you, but perhaps there should be a sign up post, and then created groups as to who does what. For example, guard the jail cell, interview suspects, etc. That way, there's the same amount of work that goes into making sure that the police force is still on its' feet, but it's evenly distributed between those who'd be interested in keeping up with the lists. (Personally, I wouldn't mind managing a list of some kind, but that's because I'm sad and like HTML too much orz)

On to the actual issues!

MEMBERSHIP: For membership, I pretty much agree to all that has been said, so whee.

LEADERSHIP: I think someone said something about there being a Chief, Deputy Chief, etc? If so, then that could very well work when it comes to leadership, because then one person doesn't feel like it's such a hassle to maintain the force.

LAWS: As far as laws go, people should be made aware when they come upon arrival, like what Patchouli does to new members, because to those who have made posts regarding the laws don't feel like their hard work and studying has just been wasted, and that people know how things are run.

COOPERATION: Yeah, I know that not a lot of people are keen on letting their character be incarcerated for how many days/weeks/months, but knowing about crimes would be nice. I know that there's a few recent ones, so a list (again, I wouldn't mind making one and passing it off to someone. :D) linking to the post/log where the crime was committed, then threads that have been relevant to the discussion of it can also be linked?

... if none of this makes sense, please slap me with a salmon and call me Susan. D|

[medanmyboy.livejournal.com]

Concerning laws and new people being made aware: I think it is going to be very important that we have an ooc note about laws and police in the game. Like...maybe something on the FAQ or something - it's just an integral part of the game and it needs to be known.

[(Anonymous)]

Leadership

Unpopular opinion here, but I think the players need to be in charge, ICly and OOCly. The mods have enough to deal with already and the players really need to start stepping up to bat and taking responsibility, here. If you want a police force, organize it. Everything shouldn't have to fall into the mods' hands, especially when not all of them might have a character on the police force anyway.

[medanmyboy.livejournal.com]

Havent looked through all of the posts yet but so far:

Agreeing with this for the most part. I do think we need mod assistance and support of course, and mods having characters on the force is a definite plus, but we CAN handle this if we do it right, and in fact, it will make it more awesome if we do.

....yes.

[medanmyboy.livejournal.com]

MY TWO CENTS.

I dont in all honesty think that disbanding the police is going to work. There are too many characters that will object to just vigilantism. So with that in mind, let's get onto the problems of the force.

We definitely need solid leaders for the force; at least two if not three (or maybe more fdkgjkfs?). They need to be people who are active, available, etc etc. I think that is partly why we've been having problems lately - not that I don't absolutely adore the people we have/had as leaders now, because you know I do. They just got too burnt out or too busy, and everyone else began falling down as well. So. Yes. Leaders. Good. They need to be clear leaders ICly and OOCly as well.

Organization - I still hold hope for playmyace, so...a "police record" post sounds like a good idea so far. It can be updated regularly by any players who get contacted concerning police stuff. So like, "CRIME: This is Tom-mun, apparently Azula is going to pwn Jackie in a week's time and Adri just told me about it. Here are the details of the plot." Or "PUNISHMENT: Edgey flashed everyone on this date, he gets 2 weeks community service." If this is kept up and clean, it will work.


Ummmmmm that's it for now. .D.;

[nomnomguts.livejournal.com]

/stamps your two cents with the stamp of agreement

On the other hand, do we have anyone who's well... clamoring to be one of several leaders on the police force? I saw Integra's post up there, but anyone else?

...if I had a character who was actually police inclined, I'd offer, but... (ahaha no.)

[underthesakura.livejournal.com]

I'm not really involved in many other counts (Asch may get involved with the police force thought that comes later) but as for cooperation between baddies and the police force, I like the idea of there being a com where these things are kept up to date -- maybe require the criminal to fill out a form and post it there? Say when happened, when, where, who the victim(s) is/are, whatever evidence there is, who if anyone discovered and reported the crime, etc. etc.

There should also be clear distinctions (in the form of entry tags?) between solved crimes, cases that were closed without their being a conclusion due to lack of evidence or whatever, crimes in the process of being solved, rumors, and crimes that were never reported or discovered, so police and villains alike aren't confused as to what got discovered and how.

[nomnomguts.livejournal.com]

YES THIS.

[coniurati]

Okay, I'd like to personally thank EVERYONE for responding so thoughtfully and thoroughly, every last bit of this helps us out more than you'd ever realize! With all of these opinions, and the information provided, we should be able to work something out quickly to fix the problem and get things up and running again. So really, thank you! ♥

Feel free to keep posting and add on as you like, I just wanted everyone to know that we've read everything, and really appreciate the work you've put into it.

[dis-valentine.livejournal.com]

I don't have any real opinions on the matter, BUT I've been debating on putting Vincent on the Force.

So if you wanna point me to the people to talk to, or a place to sign up, I will gladly have him asked to enter--whatever needs to be done ICly & OOCly.

LIST OF PEOPLE WHO WANT IN ON LEADING THE FORCE

[medanmyboy.livejournal.com]

POST HERE.

I for one have been debating having Meryl join for a while, as well as Jackie (I know, wtf jackie) and so I. I AM JUST GONNA TAKE THE LEAP AND DO IT.


WHO'S WITH ME?

[loyal-credo.livejournal.com]

If we do go for the whole 'group leadership' I'd be willing to offer myself and Credo up.

IS WITH YOU~

[crippledroyalty.livejournal.com]

Pardon the shortness and fail; I had blood drawn so I can't type with both hands or really be coherent right now...

Anyhoo...I'm going to second the bit about other jobs that don't require running around shooting a gun. There are a lot of characters who worked for some sort of greater good in their canons but don't quite fit into the 'cop' role. Normally there would be people facilitating communications, doing PR, questioning/interrogating people, or piecing together what the investigators find in the field, right? I think some of this might also apply to the hospital for admin jobs that wouldn't need medical expertise. We do have characters here- I'm mostly thinking of the younger teens or chipped characters who can't do much without their powers- who are responsible enough to handle srs bzns but for some reason can't do the "main" work. Not everyone is gifted in the kitchen, after all. It would be really nice to have more things they could do. I can't be the only one frustrated by this...right? ^^'

[loyal-credo.livejournal.com]

I like this idea, and there are a few characters who have kind of done this so far I think. I just have terrible memory to name them off and what they've done.

But yeah, it would be nice if there were like... maybe a list of things characters could do besides guarding, patrolling and just you know. Being able to kick ass. Not everyone can run out and be awesome like that. Some have to be awesome without fighting~

[miniskirts4all.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: These are just ideas...they may not make sense..I apologize in advance...

In terms of leadership, I agree with pretty much everyone here that the best thing to do is to have at least three "leaders." Whether that means creating sub groups, or having multiple squads that have different leaders, it would not only give players a chance to have the opportunity to be a leader, but also allows for better organization.

In terms of organization, I think it's best that there be a list of members that could be updated by the leaders every...say, month or so, just to remind everyone exactly who is on the police force. I think that the leaders could also have some sort of post on their journals that's something like a message board, or a "HEY, I'M ON THE POLICE FORCE, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS/WHAT EVER, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT HERE." That way, should a "bad guy" want to do something/want the police force to know that something is happening, they could just leave a comment. In addition, any other police member could say something there, which could then be transferred to the community. For example, if someone was causing trouble, the police force member could make a post saying, "all officials should be on the look out for so and so."

Also, you could have sub groups. Not everyone needs to patrol...you could have secretaries, detectives, guards, actual officers who go out and do stuff, etc.

XD; I'm not really sure if that was helpful...

[loyal-credo.livejournal.com]

It made sense and they were some helpful pointer/tips/ideas~

Though technically I think the police peeps were suppose to have a post like that on their journals................. *oh right never did get around to that... whoops ffff*

[skullcracking.livejournal.com]

Seeing as how I'm still pretty new to the game, I don't have much of anything helpful to add except that I was hoping to get Chie involved with the police force at some point, because a) it is kind of her canon future career choice, and 2) her trap roommate is already involved and Chie's expressed a desire to help her out.

/should not be posting anything at 5 in the morning

/should be going back to sleep now

[ration.livejournal.com]

RE: Things like cooperation and laws. I think a huge part of the problem is that there are far too many players in this game who are far too content to sit back and let other people do the work and complain when things don't go how they want. I mean, these are the same issues that have been brought up time and time again and it's still chiefly the same handful of people doing anything about it.

I'm. Not entirely sure how to change this outside of urging players and characters to offer their input every time a post goes up, but it's an attitude that really does need to change if we're to make any progress on this.

Case in point; a people saying we should leave the laws to the lawyers. That's really just not a viable option due to the diverse nature of Discedo. We have three? Lawyers from two different countries on modern Earth (... And Jackie.) And a few hundred characters from various time periods/universes/planets. They cannot feasibly come up with a system on their own to accommodate everyone. The problem is, however, almost every time I've seen a post - both IC and OOC - go up asking for opinions, especially when it comes to laws and the like, there's a huge lack of participation and then I see several of the people who offered no input complain that they never agreed to these things/that it's useless/etc. etc.

So, yeah. There's that.


I like the idea of a police/lawyers/judicial type peoples comm that'd be linked in the profile (and accepted info?) for quick and easy access/location for players and to keep track of what's actually happening. I know in the past there's been a lot of problems with a lack of communication and assumptions made because of it. When I had police characters, it wasn't unusual to get IMs like, "isn't Raiden handling this," or "did King know ___ was happening?" About stuff I'd never heard about or that I was under the impression was in in someone else's hands.

I've no idea how well that may work, since the posts in playmyace tended to just get completely forgotten about and fall by the wayside and when a character who had posted something got dropped, it often takes a while for someone else to repost, but maybe with a dedicated community, that would be less likely to happen?

In that vein, it may be better to have a police journal instead of a community so you could have stickied posts with member lists and the like. Though that'd require putting a lot of trust in people to give them the password and limit player access... so. Maybe not.

/scuttles off now

[momentarily.livejournal.com]

I like and agree with this.

[notquitecap.livejournal.com]

HAD A THOUGHT.

If it turns out that this whole thing is too big for playmyace, I really think a police force journal would be the way to go. It won't be any good to give everyone the password, so I was thinking a group of like 3-5 people could take care of it and do it up like this:

A sticky post at the top of the journal. Most likely screened just to keep the spam down, but this post would be a sort of form that anyone could fill out (most likely the baddies) detailing the crime, blah blah blah, whatever else is necessary.

Whoever's taking care of police journal would take those, post each case individually in the journal ASAP and police force members could leave comments to show what they had found, link to any IC posts they've made about it, etc.

This is the best way I can think of managing something like that, if playmyace doesn't work out. And this would be totally player run - no hand-holding on the part of the mods. If you have a good group of people managing it (they can be the muns of whatever leaders there happen to be or just a group of people who love organization), and enough to make sure there's always someone around to update it, I think it could work out.

[a-lone-flame.livejournal.com]

Seconding this! If this idea is implemented when the police force stuff is all organized, I wouldn't mind managing the journal and keeping it updated with, like, a link to the laws, a link to individual character posts regarding the force and what they can do, stuff like that.

That, and I'm available pretty much during the school day, and when I get home.