Okay. I think the shock and awe is over and done with. Is there anyway a general guideline of the timeline can be put out so those of us that aren't in all the details can actually plot without our character timelines becoming a total mess? Please.
With all the back dating on major war plots I keep having to shove things back further and further and it is making a mess of timeline unless I ignore dates and simply follow order of events. Which is more or less what I do most of the time anyway, but doesn't always work out with posting partners.
When major plot threads are being backdated 2+ weeks how are our current threads suppose to maintain any accuracy?? Threads are started this week are soon to make no sense without lots of re-editing or time shuffling.
Anyways, I think it'd be easier for us all to plot and get involved if we had an idea of what is going on at this point rather than waiting for the next backdated thread to come out before we can move forward.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I've only recently picked up a temporary character to participate in the plot, so I'm not having former plots jumbled like Katie's are, but I can see how many other characters, members, and their future plans are being affected by simply guessing at when things are/will be happening.
For me, I'm not sure if I should be backdating my threads or not in order to let other characters (prisoners, mainly) join my threads. I think a generalized timeline would be useful; it doesn't necessarily have to give away details, but it could abstractly let us know if we shouldn't be plotting with a certain character or whatever. ^^
I understand that revealing information takes out the fun of it, but eliminating the confusion should make up for that.
(I probably contributed nothing to this post, but I just wanted to say that I agree. xD)
Sorry for not replying to this until now, I was away this weekend with no internet 
I can only speak for myself, though I assume my views are shared by the other ones leading the plot. I never intended for things to be backdated so much, and I have been struggling to fix this in a good way while still maintaining some kind of realism with the timing of events in the plot. I've been aware of this from the start, and we've been trying to remedy it by not backdating, stretching the timeline and so on. You are not alone in having your frustrations - I/we have been trying to deal with them as best we can.
That being said, running this thing is a formidable task, and many unforeseen things have happened on the backend of it all, which has caused it to become much more stretched out than intended. I can only apologize for this, and I can understand the problems you have (I have them with my own characters as well). Trust that we are on top of this problem, and have been for some time. I hope that you can forgive us for the problems it's causing, and I'm hoping it's evening itself out soon
I'm not actually having this problem since I'm not immersed into the middle of the plot, and I see why the orchestrators of the plot want every moment to be a big surprise/reveal, but it is not that epic when it's doing this to the RP. I think with a board-wide plot such as this it is the responsibility of the players who are organizing the plot twists to have some sort of guidelines or time line announced in advance so we can look and see what we need to at least account for in our RP. It's really not fair to have a character have not reacted properly to something because we've gone back and changed what's happened (by backdating threads so far). It doesn't give people a fair chance to stay immersed in the plot, and is kind of like power playing when you go BACK and say "oh yeah by the way, this totally happened in the past that can possibly directly effect your character but your character didn't know about". :-\
Not to say that I disapprove of the plot. It just sounds like a sucky problem. People should have an idea of what's going on when it's as big of a plot as is. I know a few people who have big grievances with the plot, some I agree with and some I don't, but things should be more fair.
EDIT: And I think my support of Katie comes a little late with the update to the War plot thread, but yeah. x.x
Still I think that having a basic, bare bones timeline available would make things easier across the board, for everyone involved (and not). I do not know the difficulties that you have had on the back end, obviously, but I can't help but think that things would have gone, and would be going smoother if the rest of us to know what to plot for and [u]basic[\u] idea of when.
It is my opinion, that after the first raid on CD and it was known that captives would be taken, a general timeline should have been put out for the general public. Just basic things, like when the parley thread would be, when CdM would become involved. I mean, we knew from the beginning CdM would be involved from the July(???) News Announcement, but not a word of when or why. The why I can understand being withheld, but the when I can't, not after the AW raid on CD. Before then, sure but if you want people to get involved and plot to help make the war dynamic, then give us the information we need to do so. Otherwise, yea no wonder its a mess when no one knows whats going on but those privy to the information. When we are just sitting around and waiting for things to happen. And its harder to get involved after the fact than if we were allowed a grace period to plot with others.
Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who has been helping lead this plot, we honestly could not have given out a timeline with dates of when things were happening. We did have a sequence of events planned out, but it is almost impossible to plan hard dates for those things to happen when there are so many factors that we simply do not have control over, such as how quickly large threads (such as the raid thread) move, how active some people with key characters are, etc. We didn't plan on having to back-date so much, and as Marit said, we are working hard so that that is not happening any longer. Trust me when I say that we were not anticipating it going on for so long and that it really is not easy to run something like this.
I can't speak for any of the other leaders, but I know personally I have not had anyone coming to me asking what was going to happen next for CD or wondering what the timeline of events was going to be. It's kind of hard to know what people want when no one is giving me feedback.
We understand it's frustrating, but we are doing all we can to make it run smoother and get it completed.
It is hard to track when certain things are. It's hard keeping track of who is doing what when, especially when every single leader and admin and mod have a life outside of this place. Some are busier than others and some live here more than others. For such a multifaceted board plot, it's hard keeping track of what and providing people what they want, when it's hard for leaders to get it themselves. Quite frankly, I'm sure it was a lot of the same thing with the Dahlian wars and previous plots. I don't quite recall hearing as much then as I do now. Sometimes plots just can't incorporate every single person that wants to join, because it's just not smart and it just isn't going to happen.
But you can always find side plots that still fit, and sometimes it's not too much of a deal if you go fluid with your timelines. We're to have fun and putting heat on an leader or someone who is planning this stops making it fun for a lot of people. This is meant to develop characters and the natures of the packs, and it's an experience, sometimes not good for a character, and it can't always be good. But subtly putting blame will get us no where. The leaders and the SA tried hard to make this work and are working hard to keep it doing so. I can't say I helped much since I had no clue it was happening 
Firstly, I am not trying to blame anyone. And secondly, anytime I asked a question the answer I got was 'i don't know' or 'it's secret, only leaders can know', admittedly I never asked you, Erin.
It seems the problem simply is, no one knows what's going on? I mean apparently
And I wasn't asking for a set in stone 'it will be this exact date' but at least a heads up of what's coming next.
The main problem with giving out even a rough timeline in advance would be that the plot changes as it's played out, unfortunately  Imagine the chaos if we gave you a rough timeline, and then that didn't happen either.
Like I said, there's only so much we can do to help you guys navigate (it's hard enough for us to navigate). Still, there's the general info thread, which has all the updated information, and which should at least help you guys figure out if you need to fix something (by the dates in the timeline). It's usually not as much "you can't know that" behind it, as it is "we don't know exactly, hence we can't say", and not all the involved pack leaders have known everything that's been going on at any point, either. We're not holding information from you, but weære trying to execute this in the best possible way.
However the newest thread is not backdated (so in that sense we're up to speed again), and things should be arranged more smoothly in regards to dates from now on
I don’t think anyone is trying to put heat on any of the leaders. No one is discounting the hard work and time that has been invested to weave and execute this plot, nor trying to seem ungrateful for it. It’s feedback, it’s not an attack, no need for the defense.
Of course we know that everyone has lives outside of ‘Souls, and we’ve all experienced plots big and small and are familiar with them never quite going as planned. It’d be silly to expect exact dates, but I got the feeling that all Katie was asking for was a sketch of what’s going on. Like if you say “we expect the raid to happen around this date” or like “the week of yadda yadda” then your plot twist isn’t revealed, but players can still conduct their characters accordingly if it doesn’t quite hit the moment planned.
No one needs a detailed graph of all of the side plots that happened, but it’s reasonable to have an outline of big events to know about. She's not asking you to keep track of every last little event. Ok, so we didn't manage to make that happen for this plot, at least we can learn from the concern she brought up. The point that we should take from this is; when planning big plots in the future we should release the main important date expectancies.
I personally had seen a bit of talk about the plot happen in chat when it first started and have seen information be withheld. Nothing pertinent was ever withheld from me personally but I was not that involved with the thick of the plot. A few others also complained to me at times about the same problem through AIM. However, those complaints fettered out after the first few weeks so I don’t know if people got their answers revealed in RP or if they just gave up.
Anyway… Maybe it’s worth reiterating that no one’s trying to dog, give heat to, or even criticize anyone over the plot as far as I can tell, just asking for a little clarity from here out and trying to nix a concern. Which Marit seems to be trying to accommodate, and that rocks. A little understanding on both parts would be nice here guys. I don’t see anything unreasonable about what Katie is asking.
I guess I'm just sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong, I just feel like the response was a little... "funny"...
I hope you're not reading my replies as being defensive, but I am trying to explain and to properly respond to the complaint
I am understanding the issue completely, though, as I'm struggling with the same with my own characters. However I hope you guys can trust us to try and take this feedback to heart. Try is a keyword, however. My point is just that I can't give an outline of big events if I don't know which big events will be happening. This is, of course, a problem for us as well. There was always the intention of better information flow, but things never work out the way they are planned, and it's been hard enough to have enough people to even keep it moving at times.
But, like I've stated, we're now up to speed date-wise, have updated all info in the info topics and I am hoping that it will be easier to navigate participation in the plot from now on.
No, Marit, it wasn't you that came across that way.
I apologize if I came across any other way. I'm rather scatterbrained sometimes.
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