MEMORY THREAD FORMAT CONSIDERATIONS

[worldlyafflictions]

HEY IMEEJI

A quick idea I wanted to float before another memory mingle goes up!

PROBLEM
DO YOU EXPERIENCE DIFFICULTY ENGAGING WITH MEMORY MINGLES? Does the cognitive dissonance of having your character witness a memory and then ICly go hunt someone down to talk to them about it when they probably wouldn't want to bother someone about their difficult experience put you off tagging? Does feeling inundated with too many memories or like engaging immediately doesn't make IC sense make it difficult to even bother reading through people's memories to see if there IS anything you'd want to tag?

YOU'RE NOT ALONE. Or at least, I have had these problems with memory mingles for... since I got in! and have heard from a few others that they feel similarly--SO. I have a few solutions I want to try, but the one I need the most help with OOCly is an adjustment to how we mark memory threads!

PROPOSAL
I would like us to start using the subject lines in memory posts to mark a memory thread as either TH, WN, or T&W

TH (Threading): This means the memory is open to being jumped for threads! This is basically the default way we've been handling memory threads, where people tag in expecting to thread about the memory or memory-adjacent-ish things with the top-level character.

WN (Witnessing): This is basically a memory top-level made specifically for just getting the memory written up and posted in public for characters to potentially see. You would reply to a top-level marked "WN" with maybe an OOC note to the player or a quick IC reaction so that they know your character saw the memory. This is so that the OP will know who might be interested in having the subject of their memory come up more naturally in future threads. Hopefully having an option like this reduces the need to immediately engage with a memory while still creating opportunities to play with it later on! Also hopefully this makes it less scary to wade through a memory mingle to see if there's stuff that would ping your character.

T&W (both): And of course marking a thread with both means opening a top-level to both threading immediately or just letting people tag in with having seen it.


OBVIOUSLY THIS IS ENTIRELY VOLUNTARY and me-proposed, so it's not gonna be like OFFICIAL EVERYONE HAS TO DO THIS (I'm not a mod!) so I'd need the cooperation of whoever thinks this is good idea! I WANTED TO LIKE put this up at the same time as my own memory mingle specifically for testing out this formatting but also I have too many memories to write up so THIS COMES FIRST I GUESS... (to be pimped again later when I have my shit together enough to do a memory mingle for everyone that I can actually top-level in.)

Comments

[furrytailprince]

I am here to endorse this concept full-heartedly as someone who experiences that cognitive dissonance and never knows how to tag but also gets intimidated by the sheer amount of memories at any given time.

[worldlyafflictions]

THANKS FOR THE ENDORSEMENT and obvs I still have some of the other stuff I wanted to try out ICly that we talked about. HOPEFULLY I WILL GET AROUND TO IT. soon.

[neigh_sayer]

This is just on first glance but I'm gonna be honest this confuses and intimidates me and would make me tag out into memories even less than I do now EVEN KNOWING THIS IS OPTIONAL and CLEARLY NOT FOR ME


but i felt i should say that regardless. I WILL WATCH FROM AFAR

[worldlyafflictions]

It does look intimidating as a block of text in an ooc post, but really it's just, "I want the option to let a person know Pink saw their memory but isn't gonna tag them about it right now. Maybe it'll come up later!" without tracking them down somewhere else to let them know and hope we both remember.

[we_meet_again]

I'm into it! I often have a lot of trouble interacting with memories, and I also would like the option to share memories without people having to tag them, since sometimes the memories are downers and that can be un-fun to play with.

I'll try this out next time I post a memory!

[sleeplessknight]

As a person with similar issues (both in terms of posting memories AND interacting with them) I love this idea and will definitely use it for future memories!

the mod hat is off for the record

[sancrimony]

i think this is a solid idea but i also think that TH/WN/T&W aren't really like intuitive to guess at and so look intimidating at first glance :|a but i'm down with the concept of like, marking down like, indicators. probably for myself i'd just do like "threading OK" for the toplevel or sth and then like "watched this memory but not engaging" or sth.

on that note i also don't actually get how WN/witnessing would be something that the memory poster should be denoting in order to soothe the scariness...? like i can see the function for a memory poster to say "threading ONLY" or "threading/witnessing both OK" but then like, "just witnessing pls" makes it sound like there are just going to be toplevels with JUST memories without actually ANYONE engaging with it which is not bad as a concept but i don't think it really connects to "and then it'll make people feel less intimidated about engaging with memory mingles".

imo it's in the right direction though! probably you could even just cut it down to "witnesses OK" at the toplevel and then encourage people being able to just note, "hey i saw this thanks for the rares" and if we can take that and roll with it then memory mingles i think could be way less scary for everyone :U

Re: the mod hat is off for the record

[worldlyafflictions]

THAT'S TRUE even just that much would probably help.

I think as far as for posting goes for just witnessing stuff like, at least in my situation, Pink isn't normally super keen on sharing with people as a general concept. Depending entirely on why he broadcasted something, or if he was intending to share or not, direct follow up threads would just be him redirecting or not engaging with the thing the thread should ostensibly be for engaging with. Active pursuit makes him more likely to try to dodge, basically. Also I don't generally think of his memories as stuff that would garner a lot of active reactions so much as like 'ah, that's why he's like that' (though maybe I'm wrong, I haven't been trying to engage with the memory regain mechanic more until recently!) So for me I'm imagining like, I want him to have broadcasted a memory and want people to have a chance to witness it and know a little more about him, but mostly it's for the sake of maybe informing people's opinions about him, and that can just come up naturally in threads later without having to thread about the memory itself.

[worldlyafflictions]

OH ALSO I guess when picturing it myself like, I liked the idea of being able to tag into a bunch of memory top-levels like 'PINK HAS NOTED THIS' without the pressure of it being immediately an additional thread I need to reply to--so since there's less feeling like 'I have to thread now to show interest' I would feel less guilty about like actually browsing through people's memories instead of just avoiding the post entirely.......


I'M SURE NOT EVERYONE WORKS THE SAME WAY THOUGH and tbh I'm planning to try to tackle this from multiple angles at least for myself and hopefully some people around me, I just needed to build up momentum/motivation.