ARCHIVE HIGHLIGHT: Acceptable reply times
#1
So I've wondered for years, since I've been on enough sites to say I've been around the block, just what acceptable reply rates are for you guys. A day? Two days? A week? When do you draw the limit? When do you feel stressed at the rate?

Share, share share! Big Grin
#2
It depends. Extenuating circumstances can excuse big delays, especially for typically reliable members. The importance of the thread matters too, though this can be rough because one character's 'main plot' might only be a side plot for someone else. Typically speaking, I think it's normal to wait three to seven days, but it varies widely from person to person. If you're an avid poster, finding another person with the same pace is your best bet. In my case, I prefer having a jumble of threads with different paces, that way I can post a lot in a thread I'm really inspired for, and still enjoy other threads at a leisurely pace where I wouldn't have had time for them if they were all crazy fast.

I'd say that if you're waiting more than a week for a post, there might be a problem unless you also take that long to reply back. In my experience, some people are just down with that pace; as long as it's not one-sided, I think any wait is tolerable.
#3
Eeehnn... it really depends on how busy I am otherwise. XD

Yesterday I was getting overwhelmed because you, Erin, and someone else? were all instantly replying, and by the time I had typed a reply to one, the other two had already been responded to. XDDD I gave up eventually. >_>

But normally that insta-replying doesn't bother me in the least when it's just happening to one thread, and if I get to the point where I feel swamped (which I haven't yet) I'll always ask people to just chill. :O I have the tendency to write superfast replies myself, and I have it noted in my profile that if my reply speed is ever problematic, simply PM and I will chill-the-hell-out.

Also, if I notice you are lagging a little in your replies or have posted a notice of slowness in Roleplay Related, I will relax and give you extra time. But I'm not the best at paying attention to these things sometimes, hence the PM-please notice. :3

As far as the other end of the spectrum, I don't care how long it takes others to reply, ever. :o Sometimes I am laggy myself. If the thread isn't replied to in a month, I simply archive it. Generally when that happens though, the player has dropped out or something. If not, I might PM if the thread was plot-intensive, if not I usually just let it go. :p
#4
I'll be interested to see the results of this. ;P

I'm typically slow. Very slow. Sometimes I blame it on always having too many threads, but even when I only had one character and maybe three threads for him, I was still heinously tardy... :3 So it's just me. And as such, I'm not fazed whatsoever when people take weeks to get back to a thread - it just means I'm not keeping them waiting, which is a relief. =D
#5
Depends on how much time I have, and how many threads i'm juggling at the moment. Some days I'm faster than others, and some days I take a break from posting at all, or I post on my other sites I'm on. Sometimes I'm irked by the insta-replies, but not often. The only times I'm irked about it is if I have like six replies to do on another site or with another character or something or if the thread has sat there for like six weeks and hasn't been responded to. Other than that, I really don't care how long it takes, just as long as it's not a thread that I like and it's hasn't been responded to for like ever.
#6
I usually tried to reply within two days to a week and preferred the same of those I threaded with. I would get frustrated with both myself and others if replies were dragged out longer than two weeks.

Obviously, things can be forgiven if extreme life circumstances come up, but even in such cases, a lot of times the momentum of the thread is lost in the shuffle and it isn't really the same after such a long delay, especially if it was a plot-heavy thread.

As for quick replies, I never mind, even when it's like OMG STOP REPLYING SO I CAN REPLY TO OTHER THREADS LOL because I mean, worse comes to worse, you'll have to let it sit a bit while you balance your other work or whatever. You don't necessarily need to feel pressured to respond to a thread quickly just because your partner is. That said though, the fastest threads tend to be the most fun because quick replies generally means that the player(s) are really into it. XD I know Reb and I used to beast through our LarukuxTsunami threads because they were so much funnnnn while pretty much ignoring all our other threads, lmfao. And Mel and I used to beast through a bunch of random Laruku/Ahren threads at all hours of the night with AIM conversations that went thus:

theKIRIBEAST (12:38:33 AM): goooo
a talented child (12:44:49 AM): go
theKIRIBEAST (12:52:34 AM): go
a talented child (12:55:49 AM): go
theKIRIBEAST (1:05:49 AM): go
a talented child (1:14:03 AM): go
theKIRIBEAST (1:22:46 AM): go
a talented child (1:29:42 AM): go
theKIRIBEAST (1:37:24 AM): go
a talented child (1:49:01 AM): go
theKIRIBEAST (1:54:53 AM): go
a talented child (1:59:51 AM): go

... Big Grin
#7
Mine use to be almost daily replies, but right now since we still haven't got net out at our place (They are installing FIOS right now so we're waiting for them to finish) It's more like a 2-4 day wait.. sometimes more if busy.

I use to fly through threads when it was a few characters. I know I had days where the thread would almost be complete before the day was over.. and those are actually my favorite but I understand that most people don't have all day to type up threads..

Mine are done in masses. So I collect all my threads at once, get off the net reply to them all and come back and post them all... that's why at times it seems that half the replies on the board are made by me...
#8
Lately I suck at replying... like making people wait weeks, so I just warn them before I pick up a thread. Life has been awful for me lately so I just really can't help it. I don't mind waiting for other people either, because at the end of the day this is just a game, and not everyone can work it into their life always so I understand. One thing I do think is horribly rude is to have like ten threads but only reply to the five that are most interesting. When people ignore some threads but reply very speedily to others, that annoys me. Especially when they let half their threads die on their turn simply because they didn't feel like finishing. It's one thing to give priority to plot threads, but to just up and abandon a thread without telling the other person is bad news.
#9
When I'm in the normal swing of things, I can usually reply in 1-3 days. If I really like the thread, I'll do it more than once in one day, but that isn't very often and usually only with Gwen.

When I'm not in the swing of things, it can take up to a couple weeks, sometimes longer. I really, really try to keep up and when that happens, I literally can't go any faster. There is too much going on. >_<
#10
When I fall behind, which can happen for a few different reasons, up to a couple weeks is my average time. Sometimes longer if I'm just not feeling the reply. But when I'm on my game and not sidetracked playing games, my replies can come every couple days or so.

I don't expect people to jump right on my replies, simply because I know most members either have a job, go to school, or both. Plus it would be just a little bad for me to expect people to jump when I don't always. Big Grin
#11
For me it's pretty much:

ULTRA BUSY ~ 7-14 days
NORMAL BUSY ~ 3-7 days
NOT BUSY ~ 1-3 days

Mmyup.

I don't tend to care when other people reply to my threads as long as none of the threads get outrageously behind. Ideally I'd have threads wrap up within a month, but that never happens. Since I like most threads to be about 9-12 posts total in length, I guess that'd be ideally a post every 3-4 days, which is pretty unrealistic when both parties have other lives/issues that come up. Even so, when a thread starts to get past the two month old range I get a little twitchy and try to have it resolved as quickly as possible.


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