State of the Sim - May 2023

Posted on Friday May 5th, 2023 @ 12:53am by Captain Franklin Johnson

Hey crew,

Since the arrival of the remaining crew of the USS Oberon, our sim has seen what could be described as a bit of a revival. I would like to personally thank all the players from the now-defunct USS Oberon for once again entrusting us - the USS Poseidon Community - to help you continue your simming experience. I sincerely hope you all choose to stay here, but I give you my word that if one day you so choose to revive your ship and community, I will be here to help as best as I can. You have all been wonderful community contributors and have pushed us forward so far in such a short amount of time. Thank you all.

Moving on, I want to encourage the community to create their cadet NPC's! Remember that if you choose to create an NPC to ask a member of the staff to assign it to your player account, otherwise it'll just sit there unassigned with you wondering where it went! I want to encourage you all to create cadets because we will soon - very soon - be undertaking a Grand Tour specifically catered to development of characters and cadets. I hope you seek to join us in this adventure or at the very least commit your time to help with the adventure and plot.

Next on the list, the Command Staff have halted for a time the start of the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour is a proposed mission assignment lasting over seven real life months, proposed by Lt. Commander T'Pri to the Command Staff. After a bit of refinement I and the Staff readily accept it as our newest mission assignment. It will cover several worlds each last from a few days to a few weeks, and is expected to be an ambitious undertaking. I hope you all enjoy the coming experience. That stated, for the time being we have halted the start of it to allow a conclusion of Risa threads as we get things in order. Thanks for your patience.

I'd like to remind the community of two new rules and several happenings. Traditionally utilizing Private Messages on the website was forbidden because I wanted my crew to utilize discord and have activity there. While the discord requirement will not go away, I have lifted the ban on website Private Messages. This was done because many of the crew from the USS Oberon were accustomed to it. I am doing my best to adapt so I lifted the ban. Players of the USS Poseidon can now freely private message on the website, both to staff and other players, and utilize PM's to notify of LOA's and other affairs - such as questions and comments. Please remember to continue to have a presence on the discord server.

Secondly, on the discord server there is now an "absences and hiatus" channel. Utilize this to notify the staff of pending LOA's. There are rules there and a disclaimer now. Read them. If your LOA is an emergency, simply PM me or a member of the staff - me preferably for the time being - and we will input your LOA into the discord.

Thirdly, I've created an "awards given" channel. This was done because before we used to catalogue awards for Pegasus Fleet monthly reports. Now that we're in Theta Fleet and are no longer required to do reports, I want to keep a catalogue of awards I give. I encourage all the staff to give awards and catalogue them in the manner I did in "awards given". I will continue to do so myself.

Lastly, things will be changing with a lot of what we do as I continue to streamline rules and make things just plain better. Expect further announcements and pings on the discord and remember to keep communication on your events and absences with staff. Lack of communication is no excuse anymore. If anyone persists without a valid excuse, their positions - if important - will come up for replacement to another crew member. You *must* notify staff of absences, pending absences, leaves of absences, et cetera to secure your important position. I understand life has its own events, but remember the greatest respect you can give to your community is a simple communication that you're busy. If you can't even do that, then you don't deserve your position.

Please remember this applies to Staff and Department Head positions only, and some Assistant Department Head positions as well.

In conclusion, please review the disclaimer in the "absences and hiatus" channel on the discord. I'll post it here for your review:

**__SHIP POLICY DISCLAIMER (DO NOT COPY):__**
*All users filing for LOA may notify in this channel if they're extending LOA's or ending at their liesure, so long as they first notify everyone of their LOA. Please note that going on LOA for extended periods without valid reasons will subject the player and character to site rules of abuse of LOA.

-- Valid reasons include: __Health, Mental, Emotional, Medical, Life, Emergency, being completely busy WITH notification, and other situations that completely warrant the users time__.
--Invalid Reasons include: __Boredom, Busyness WITHOUT notification, and lack of inspiration as well as other non-emergency reasons.__

Abuse of LOA will result in consequences up to and including removal from position, termination from sim, and position change to allow other active crew to have your spot. Even with a valid excuse for LOA, it is possible that staff will be forced to change your position (BUT NOT TERMINATE YOU) to allow crew greater flexibility due to your absences. In such situations, YOU ARE NOT BEING PUNISHED, but rather positioned so you can adequately continue your valid LOA. Thank you.

In short, I am extremely tired of players coming onto my sim and my community and abusing my hospitality. I will punish you for this, regardless of however many days, months, or years you've been on my sim. I don't care who you are; XO, any of the subordinate numbered XO's under the XO, Department Head, Assistant Department Head, or valuable player. You are all under the condition of giving your community members at least the courtesy of a reminder of your activity.

I will make this very clear. If I find out you have abused this hospitality that we grant with our LOA's, you will be dismissed and replaced and put into a position where you're out of the way. I cannot tolerate this behavior. Valid reasons such as medical and emergency are most absolutely excused and understood, but invalid reasons as "being too busy" or "not enough time" are not to be excused. You chose to be in that position, you chose to help out and be a leader, and you are expected to at the very minimum notify your shipmates of your activities and why you're busy. It's a simple request that surprisingly many people don't have the courtesy to adhere to. Because of this, I'm putting the hammer down, and I will punish you for abusing your community members and this sim for your lack of courtesy and respect.

I'll end this on a lighter note, however. I am very proud of the activity from my sim right now. Everyone is doing so fantastic! Keep up the good work and I apologize for how busy I am. Thank you all so wonderfully for your understanding and I appreciate you letting me know how busy you are and where you stand. The more you let me know, the more I can appreciate and honor your state of affairs. I thank you for honoring mine.

Thank you all,
Captain Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

Category: Sim Announcement
Tags: 2395, Sim Announcement

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