Story
Complete
Running a Roleplaying Group... Without Losing Your Mind
by
Categories
EducationalMusings & MumblingsRated - Wholesome/All-AgesSITE ADMINSoloTutorialWriting - General
First up, what is a RPG? The term is used interchangeably to represent both a roleplay group and a roleplay game, but both are, strictly speaking, the same thing. At their heart, RPGs are simply groups of people getting together to tell stories through roleplay. Why does this matter? Writing solo posts, as much as we like them, have a hard time keeping momentum. Being surrounded by like-minded people can jump start muses, and keep them going far longer than a single person can.
This allows us to take what could be a rather simple idea, and morph it into something unique, creating a story arc that surpasses one person's point of view and encompasses many. We can play off how certain events affect people differently. Sometimes, having another point of view or reaction in another character can affect ours viscerally, subtly (or not so subtly) changing them, for better or worse. This can lead to far-reaching implications for your characters and the story at large, and is something that isn't as easily done by yourself. Groups help bring characters together, and elevate them into a cohesive unit.
However, we'll all seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Putting multiple people with different personalities into one controlled space can sometimes be amazing, and other times be anarchy. How do you navigate the pitfalls and keep your group and yourself relatively sane?
Don't Go It Alone
The best run groups have multiple admins. There is generally one "head' admin, so to speak, and at least one or two others. Too many admins in the pot can be almost as bad as too few, so choose sparingly. We've found 3 or 4 work best for a group of no more than 30 writers. For larger groups, more admins may be necessary; for smaller groups, you might be able to manage with fewer. Be careful not to have too many admins per player. Choose people that you know are fair and unbiased, that can talk easily with others, and have a decent amount of empathy for others. Troubleshooting and basic technological skills are a definite plus. Your group members will rely on their admins to help them with issues, and a good admin must be able to keep the peace no matter what. Make sure your admins are capable writers. Sometimes their writing will be the only thing holding the group together, so they need to be adept at it. People get more active when they see activity. Keeping active is an admin's job.
When executive decisions are needed, having one "head" admin and 2-3 underneath them can help with decision making. Majority rules tends to be the usual option, but we feel that compromise is just as important to not alienate your admins. Work together! Make the head admin the "face" of the admin team. This way, all users will go to them first and then the head admin can contact the others. Otherwise, it becomes like a game of telephone... no one knows what the other is doing. Do NOT allow your admins to be played against each other. Yes, some users will almost certainly try it. Having one active admin being the "face" of the admin team curtails this. Once sent an issue or question, the head admin alerts the admin team, and they all work together. Period.
Yes, Rules are Required.
When starting a group, the common thought is that rules will stifle creativity, and so you try to get away with as few as possible. This is a very. bad. idea. Out of 10 group members, you might find one asshole. While that doesn't sound like much, one asshole can create a pretty big stink. Rules are a way to keep the group structured, and keep it moving forward. Much like a playground, it can devolve into chaos without a general set of guidelines to follow.
Some ideas-
A minimum posting requirement.Some require once a week. Others require once a month. Don't go too strict so your members don't have room to breathe, but try to set a good middle ground so that users aren't showing up only to disappear for months. It's impossible to run an active group if members are wandering off frequently. Have a set of consequences in place. How many times can they miss their required post before getting a warning? Before losing the character? Stick to it. If something is going on in a character's life, make sure they know to tell an admin so they aren't considered on walkabout.
Interaction.Make sure that users understand when they join the group that they are a part of the group. If there is a group storyline, they need to make themselves available. If someone asks to write with them, they need to make every attempt to do so. Do not allow resentment to breed. Everyone is a member of the writing group, so everyone will act like it. Discourage those who only interact with a set few, or seem to disappear whenever someone else would like to write with them. This is not their solo show, it is a group effort, and in order to succeed, everyone needs to play their part.
Contact an admin for important character changes.For some, this may not be as big of a deal, but if you're a canon group, this is more important. Especially if you allow non-canon characters to join. When sticking to the author's world, your group members must be able to tell you why whatever change they want to do will benefit the storyline, and their understanding of how it fits with canon. This might include relationships, pregnancies, upheavals in their lives, moving, etc. If you allow people to do what they want willy-nilly, you may come to a standstill once the next book/movie/season comes out, and not have the slightest clue how to work the ideas in with the new information you get.
Absolutely, positively no drama.This is a hard one to enforce, but it is vital to the smooth operations of your group. As group admins, you are responsible for what your users do and say. Set up your expectations early, and again, figure out consequences for breaking them. Infighting in the group, rudeness to fans/group members, breaking a network's TOS, posting inflammatory or derogatory comments about others are all good things to curtail. If there is one member that a majority of your group members seem to take issue with, pay attention. Generally, there is more going on behind the scenes than what meets the eye, and if many of your members are having an issue with one person, they will tear your group apart if you let it. You have to weigh the integrity of the group as a whole for each issue and decide where the line is drawn. Then? You MUST stick to it.
Finding Members
Now that you've gotten your admin team and your rules set up, how do you find members? This is one of those questions that doesn't have a single answer, it has many. Ask your friends. Post a status to get interest from your friends list. Post in advertising groups with photos and possible plot ideas. Set up a Google Form or Jotform interview and share the link to interested writers. Ask people you know to share the link out to their friends list as well. The more eyes you get your links in front of, the more likely it is that you'll find people who are interested in what you're planning. It takes work, but with a good interview process where you discuss the rules and expectations, as well as ask for a writing sample, you should be able to see whether they'd be a good fit or not fairly quickly.
One important thing to remember is that your group should be quality over quantity. Adding a bunch of members super fast can muddle things. Without clearly defined roles and stories, a plethora of new recruits will quickly be lost in the shuffle, and it's a quick way to watch your hard work go down the drain. Add members for the important/must needed roles first. Get them settled into the group routine, and then branch out to lesser needed roles. Make sure every new member has a place, a story, and a reason to be there. Ensure that older members will work well with newer members to show them the ropes and involve them in already started threads and storylines. If you gain a reputation for losing members due to them not feeling wanted or fitting in and being snubbed by older members, it is a very hard reputation to break.
The Writing Makes The Group
While some groups exist for one off storylines, others are created to be able to continue on and do multiple storylines and form a cohesive unit. No matter which option you're going towards, stick to it. For each storyline, have a basic idea, and allow the group members to have their own input on what they think would fit. Try to include as many of the members as you can, and give them each parts in the storyline that fit with their character.
Allow room for solo posts to let them delve deeper into their character's thoughts and motivations, as well as larger group-wide posts with multiple characters on one thread. Make every post something that moves the story arc forward, or includes more insight as to what's going on in the grand scheme of things. Try to always have something going on, whether it's a larger story arc or multiple solo posts. Remember that constant large arcs can be draining on your members, so give ample downtime in between them so that users can explore their character's reactions to things that happened in the previous storyline via solo and smaller group posts.
When a storyline or thread is done, BACK IT UP. Do not trust whatever social network you are on to always keep your data safe. Accidents happen. Technology fails. Group members delete and their posts disappear with them. Copy/Paste and Word/OpenOffice documents are your friends. As the group grows, you may even look into a website to create a group web page for yourself as an archive and advertising outlet.
Some examples of online group archives-
http://darkhunterdarkside.weebly.com/
http://darksidearchives.weebly.com/
http://psiforce.weebly.com/
Expect It To Be Work
You and your admin team are responsible for keeping other members involved and working towards the same goals. This is not easy, and many roleplayers simply can't do it. That's not to say there is anything wrong with admitting it's too big of a job, but knowing what it will take going in can help with some of those issues. If you are a canon group, the admins must know the material as well as they possibly can. This means buying all books/comics the day they come out, or seeing all movies quickly. As soon as there is new material, the admins must be the ones to delve in head first, because you will be the ones your group members come to with questions over it.
This is even more important if you are a non-canon/indie group. You are responsible for giving your members the framework of your world. They can build on, add tweaks, and sometimes come up with amazing things you'd never dreamed of, but in the beginning, the bulk of information sharing falls on you. There is no resource manual for them to read or view. There isn't a handy checklist of important events in their characters lives. As an indie group, you must provide your writers with enough detail to begin with, so they can branch out and help their character fit in your world.
Running a group or page can destroy the love of writing, if you let it. Too often, you will find that you log on, get roped into admin issues, and by the time you're done, you have no patience or time left to do your own writing. This is a fast track to burn-out, and one of the reasons groups end up closing. Set yourself time limits. Admins will work on items between these hours, and then the next however many hours will be set aside for writing. Stick to this whenever possible. As stated above, the admins are the hub that keeps the wheel moving. The group needs you as an admin, but they need you as a writer just as much.
Try to never show other group members when you're stressed or irritated with a few. This is very hard to follow, and we're all human, but an admin that is constantly angry achieves nothing good. There will be issues. There will be drama, infighting, people not holding up their end of the work. Sometimes it will feel like you're forever handling squabbles and issues, and unable to move forward. Solve issues as quickly as you can, don't let things fester. Make it a point to include the writers in the discussions, if there is cause for concern. Listen to your writers. If there are glaring issues, having your writers invested in the well-being of the group as a whole will help things get sorted far quicker.
When storylines are being done, it is the admins who keep people on track, let others know when they are up/due for a post, do the backups of the work, repost as the group, etc. It may be smart to delegate this, and have one admin solely responsible for backing up work in progress, while another admin keeps everyone in their posting orders and aware of what is happening at each stage. Yes, this is hard work, but done right, it can be amazingly rewarding as well.
Helpful Tools
For admins, knowing what you're doing is the key to keeping a group together. Don't rely on solo messages for all group actions. If the group messaging system here on RPL isn't enough, consider opening a Slack or Discord chat for all group members. This allows people to get to know each other, as well as keeping storyline/group discussions all in one place.
Also consider opening a Private Page, to allow your members to post ideas and snippets of things they're working on, to help others in the group see what is currently going on. This will help them create their own posts that mesh well with what others are doing. It is also a spot for group admin posts, keeping track of face claims, and posting the group rules so everyone has what they need in one location.
Utilize backup features. GoogleDocs is nice for this, as is saving your group files on Dropbox or OneDrive. To keep a full archive, Weebly is free and has a drag and drop editor that is fantastic for newbie web creators.
Idea/Storyline Resolution
There will be problems. Being ready and expecting them to crop up goes a long way in solving them.
If someone proposes an action that will derail or bypass the planned story, ask yourself these questions: Can I make another story with this? Will it be fun? Will it be more fun than the planned story? Can I pull it off? Will the other players enjoy it? If you answer yes to these questions, then let them do it. If you can get the players to drive the story, it's that much less work for you. Just get a step or two ahead of them by the end to give them a twist or two and a good reward, and let them run with it.
If the answer to any of those questions is "no", then work with the group member to find other alternatives. Compromise is the name of the game for effective conflict resolution in groups. Just because you are the admin doesn't mean that you are the sole provider of ideas. You shouldn't have to be. Your members joined because they wanted to contribute to the stories, so let them. Find ways to help their ideas be more cohesive, to mesh better within the group's framework. Help them tweak things if necessary so that everyone feels like they've contributed to the success of the group.
When everyone feels involved personally in the stories, and like their voices are heard, your group will run more smoothly and have a mutual respect between members and admins that will make everything far easier to work with, and make your group a joy to run instead of a consistent headache.
Removing Members
When things go bad, and occasionally they do, you want to have something in place as a framework for how to handle this. When a user is kicked from the group or leaves on their own, you need to decide how you will handle that. Will they keep the account and just remove the group name? Will you require them to turn the account back in by providing login details? Will you have the profile closed, and lose the writing that was previously done?
Most groups prefer for accounts to be handed back in. This keeps the writing intact and allows the group admins to find another person to drive the character without losing any writing. To do this though, you must make it clear to new members that the profile and any writing done on it belongs to the GROUP, and if they leave for any reason, you retain the rights to that profile since it is a group profile. If you choose to have the account deleted, you as the group admin are responsible for backing up writing for storylines before that account is deleted.
For this reason, we recommend the group admins make all profiles for group characters, then give the user the login details. This makes it so if a user quits or is kicked, the admins know the original email and information that was on the account, and that can assist site admins in restoring group accounts from people that aren't following the removal rules.
If there are interpersonal issues that cannot be solved, group ADMINS are exempt from the "Naming Names" issue that is a TOS violation on the site, with special provisions. If someone has left the group on a bad note and is causing issues behind the scenes for your members, a GROUP ADMIN may post AS the Private Page for the group members. Explain the situation briefly without details, and provide links that all members of that writing group must unfriend or block. Key things- Make sure you're posting as the group, not your profile. Remember to be sparse, do not turn it into a litany of complaints. Explain the situation impersonally. Caution your group members that this only applies to the accounts that belong to the group, and anyone caught spreading accounts and names past that Private Page will be guilty of a TOS violation. DO NOT post links to accounts that you are not 100% sure belong to the member in question. Only include the contact profiles that you have worked with that member on.
Remember, your fans/readers are watching you. You do not want to be seen as the admin that's throwing an immature fit and shitposting other people, whether they left of their own accord or were kicked out. You must be the voice of reason and maturity, even when a situation has you wanting to punch walls. If prospective members see the group admins behaving badly, they will be less likely to continue giving your group a chance. Don't be "that" person.
Remember The Goals
Depending on the group, that may be to simply have a good time or it may be to have something publishable by the end of the story. Different goals call for different strategies, but you have to always keep the end goal in mind. Groups as a whole exist to bring people together, to create something bigger than yourself. While they can be quite a bit of work, the end result will always be fulfilling and worth it if you keep the end goal in mind and steadily work towards it. Whether it's a one-off storyline that will be done when the last scene is written, or a full time writing group that goes beyond their source material, you are responsible for building a world, and that's a goal to be proud of.
Contributed by Kalypso Skotos Ds and Loki Silvertongue.
This allows us to take what could be a rather simple idea, and morph it into something unique, creating a story arc that surpasses one person's point of view and encompasses many. We can play off how certain events affect people differently. Sometimes, having another point of view or reaction in another character can affect ours viscerally, subtly (or not so subtly) changing them, for better or worse. This can lead to far-reaching implications for your characters and the story at large, and is something that isn't as easily done by yourself. Groups help bring characters together, and elevate them into a cohesive unit.
However, we'll all seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Putting multiple people with different personalities into one controlled space can sometimes be amazing, and other times be anarchy. How do you navigate the pitfalls and keep your group and yourself relatively sane?
Don't Go It Alone
The best run groups have multiple admins. There is generally one "head' admin, so to speak, and at least one or two others. Too many admins in the pot can be almost as bad as too few, so choose sparingly. We've found 3 or 4 work best for a group of no more than 30 writers. For larger groups, more admins may be necessary; for smaller groups, you might be able to manage with fewer. Be careful not to have too many admins per player. Choose people that you know are fair and unbiased, that can talk easily with others, and have a decent amount of empathy for others. Troubleshooting and basic technological skills are a definite plus. Your group members will rely on their admins to help them with issues, and a good admin must be able to keep the peace no matter what. Make sure your admins are capable writers. Sometimes their writing will be the only thing holding the group together, so they need to be adept at it. People get more active when they see activity. Keeping active is an admin's job.
When executive decisions are needed, having one "head" admin and 2-3 underneath them can help with decision making. Majority rules tends to be the usual option, but we feel that compromise is just as important to not alienate your admins. Work together! Make the head admin the "face" of the admin team. This way, all users will go to them first and then the head admin can contact the others. Otherwise, it becomes like a game of telephone... no one knows what the other is doing. Do NOT allow your admins to be played against each other. Yes, some users will almost certainly try it. Having one active admin being the "face" of the admin team curtails this. Once sent an issue or question, the head admin alerts the admin team, and they all work together. Period.
Yes, Rules are Required.
When starting a group, the common thought is that rules will stifle creativity, and so you try to get away with as few as possible. This is a very. bad. idea. Out of 10 group members, you might find one asshole. While that doesn't sound like much, one asshole can create a pretty big stink. Rules are a way to keep the group structured, and keep it moving forward. Much like a playground, it can devolve into chaos without a general set of guidelines to follow.
Some ideas-
A minimum posting requirement.Some require once a week. Others require once a month. Don't go too strict so your members don't have room to breathe, but try to set a good middle ground so that users aren't showing up only to disappear for months. It's impossible to run an active group if members are wandering off frequently. Have a set of consequences in place. How many times can they miss their required post before getting a warning? Before losing the character? Stick to it. If something is going on in a character's life, make sure they know to tell an admin so they aren't considered on walkabout.
Interaction.Make sure that users understand when they join the group that they are a part of the group. If there is a group storyline, they need to make themselves available. If someone asks to write with them, they need to make every attempt to do so. Do not allow resentment to breed. Everyone is a member of the writing group, so everyone will act like it. Discourage those who only interact with a set few, or seem to disappear whenever someone else would like to write with them. This is not their solo show, it is a group effort, and in order to succeed, everyone needs to play their part.
Contact an admin for important character changes.For some, this may not be as big of a deal, but if you're a canon group, this is more important. Especially if you allow non-canon characters to join. When sticking to the author's world, your group members must be able to tell you why whatever change they want to do will benefit the storyline, and their understanding of how it fits with canon. This might include relationships, pregnancies, upheavals in their lives, moving, etc. If you allow people to do what they want willy-nilly, you may come to a standstill once the next book/movie/season comes out, and not have the slightest clue how to work the ideas in with the new information you get.
Absolutely, positively no drama.This is a hard one to enforce, but it is vital to the smooth operations of your group. As group admins, you are responsible for what your users do and say. Set up your expectations early, and again, figure out consequences for breaking them. Infighting in the group, rudeness to fans/group members, breaking a network's TOS, posting inflammatory or derogatory comments about others are all good things to curtail. If there is one member that a majority of your group members seem to take issue with, pay attention. Generally, there is more going on behind the scenes than what meets the eye, and if many of your members are having an issue with one person, they will tear your group apart if you let it. You have to weigh the integrity of the group as a whole for each issue and decide where the line is drawn. Then? You MUST stick to it.
Finding Members
Now that you've gotten your admin team and your rules set up, how do you find members? This is one of those questions that doesn't have a single answer, it has many. Ask your friends. Post a status to get interest from your friends list. Post in advertising groups with photos and possible plot ideas. Set up a Google Form or Jotform interview and share the link to interested writers. Ask people you know to share the link out to their friends list as well. The more eyes you get your links in front of, the more likely it is that you'll find people who are interested in what you're planning. It takes work, but with a good interview process where you discuss the rules and expectations, as well as ask for a writing sample, you should be able to see whether they'd be a good fit or not fairly quickly.
One important thing to remember is that your group should be quality over quantity. Adding a bunch of members super fast can muddle things. Without clearly defined roles and stories, a plethora of new recruits will quickly be lost in the shuffle, and it's a quick way to watch your hard work go down the drain. Add members for the important/must needed roles first. Get them settled into the group routine, and then branch out to lesser needed roles. Make sure every new member has a place, a story, and a reason to be there. Ensure that older members will work well with newer members to show them the ropes and involve them in already started threads and storylines. If you gain a reputation for losing members due to them not feeling wanted or fitting in and being snubbed by older members, it is a very hard reputation to break.
The Writing Makes The Group
While some groups exist for one off storylines, others are created to be able to continue on and do multiple storylines and form a cohesive unit. No matter which option you're going towards, stick to it. For each storyline, have a basic idea, and allow the group members to have their own input on what they think would fit. Try to include as many of the members as you can, and give them each parts in the storyline that fit with their character.
Allow room for solo posts to let them delve deeper into their character's thoughts and motivations, as well as larger group-wide posts with multiple characters on one thread. Make every post something that moves the story arc forward, or includes more insight as to what's going on in the grand scheme of things. Try to always have something going on, whether it's a larger story arc or multiple solo posts. Remember that constant large arcs can be draining on your members, so give ample downtime in between them so that users can explore their character's reactions to things that happened in the previous storyline via solo and smaller group posts.
When a storyline or thread is done, BACK IT UP. Do not trust whatever social network you are on to always keep your data safe. Accidents happen. Technology fails. Group members delete and their posts disappear with them. Copy/Paste and Word/OpenOffice documents are your friends. As the group grows, you may even look into a website to create a group web page for yourself as an archive and advertising outlet.
Some examples of online group archives-
http://darkhunterdarkside.weebly.com/
http://darksidearchives.weebly.com/
http://psiforce.weebly.com/
Expect It To Be Work
You and your admin team are responsible for keeping other members involved and working towards the same goals. This is not easy, and many roleplayers simply can't do it. That's not to say there is anything wrong with admitting it's too big of a job, but knowing what it will take going in can help with some of those issues. If you are a canon group, the admins must know the material as well as they possibly can. This means buying all books/comics the day they come out, or seeing all movies quickly. As soon as there is new material, the admins must be the ones to delve in head first, because you will be the ones your group members come to with questions over it.
This is even more important if you are a non-canon/indie group. You are responsible for giving your members the framework of your world. They can build on, add tweaks, and sometimes come up with amazing things you'd never dreamed of, but in the beginning, the bulk of information sharing falls on you. There is no resource manual for them to read or view. There isn't a handy checklist of important events in their characters lives. As an indie group, you must provide your writers with enough detail to begin with, so they can branch out and help their character fit in your world.
Running a group or page can destroy the love of writing, if you let it. Too often, you will find that you log on, get roped into admin issues, and by the time you're done, you have no patience or time left to do your own writing. This is a fast track to burn-out, and one of the reasons groups end up closing. Set yourself time limits. Admins will work on items between these hours, and then the next however many hours will be set aside for writing. Stick to this whenever possible. As stated above, the admins are the hub that keeps the wheel moving. The group needs you as an admin, but they need you as a writer just as much.
Try to never show other group members when you're stressed or irritated with a few. This is very hard to follow, and we're all human, but an admin that is constantly angry achieves nothing good. There will be issues. There will be drama, infighting, people not holding up their end of the work. Sometimes it will feel like you're forever handling squabbles and issues, and unable to move forward. Solve issues as quickly as you can, don't let things fester. Make it a point to include the writers in the discussions, if there is cause for concern. Listen to your writers. If there are glaring issues, having your writers invested in the well-being of the group as a whole will help things get sorted far quicker.
When storylines are being done, it is the admins who keep people on track, let others know when they are up/due for a post, do the backups of the work, repost as the group, etc. It may be smart to delegate this, and have one admin solely responsible for backing up work in progress, while another admin keeps everyone in their posting orders and aware of what is happening at each stage. Yes, this is hard work, but done right, it can be amazingly rewarding as well.
Helpful Tools
For admins, knowing what you're doing is the key to keeping a group together. Don't rely on solo messages for all group actions. If the group messaging system here on RPL isn't enough, consider opening a Slack or Discord chat for all group members. This allows people to get to know each other, as well as keeping storyline/group discussions all in one place.
Also consider opening a Private Page, to allow your members to post ideas and snippets of things they're working on, to help others in the group see what is currently going on. This will help them create their own posts that mesh well with what others are doing. It is also a spot for group admin posts, keeping track of face claims, and posting the group rules so everyone has what they need in one location.
Utilize backup features. GoogleDocs is nice for this, as is saving your group files on Dropbox or OneDrive. To keep a full archive, Weebly is free and has a drag and drop editor that is fantastic for newbie web creators.
Idea/Storyline Resolution
There will be problems. Being ready and expecting them to crop up goes a long way in solving them.
If someone proposes an action that will derail or bypass the planned story, ask yourself these questions: Can I make another story with this? Will it be fun? Will it be more fun than the planned story? Can I pull it off? Will the other players enjoy it? If you answer yes to these questions, then let them do it. If you can get the players to drive the story, it's that much less work for you. Just get a step or two ahead of them by the end to give them a twist or two and a good reward, and let them run with it.
If the answer to any of those questions is "no", then work with the group member to find other alternatives. Compromise is the name of the game for effective conflict resolution in groups. Just because you are the admin doesn't mean that you are the sole provider of ideas. You shouldn't have to be. Your members joined because they wanted to contribute to the stories, so let them. Find ways to help their ideas be more cohesive, to mesh better within the group's framework. Help them tweak things if necessary so that everyone feels like they've contributed to the success of the group.
When everyone feels involved personally in the stories, and like their voices are heard, your group will run more smoothly and have a mutual respect between members and admins that will make everything far easier to work with, and make your group a joy to run instead of a consistent headache.
Removing Members
When things go bad, and occasionally they do, you want to have something in place as a framework for how to handle this. When a user is kicked from the group or leaves on their own, you need to decide how you will handle that. Will they keep the account and just remove the group name? Will you require them to turn the account back in by providing login details? Will you have the profile closed, and lose the writing that was previously done?
Most groups prefer for accounts to be handed back in. This keeps the writing intact and allows the group admins to find another person to drive the character without losing any writing. To do this though, you must make it clear to new members that the profile and any writing done on it belongs to the GROUP, and if they leave for any reason, you retain the rights to that profile since it is a group profile. If you choose to have the account deleted, you as the group admin are responsible for backing up writing for storylines before that account is deleted.
For this reason, we recommend the group admins make all profiles for group characters, then give the user the login details. This makes it so if a user quits or is kicked, the admins know the original email and information that was on the account, and that can assist site admins in restoring group accounts from people that aren't following the removal rules.
If there are interpersonal issues that cannot be solved, group ADMINS are exempt from the "Naming Names" issue that is a TOS violation on the site, with special provisions. If someone has left the group on a bad note and is causing issues behind the scenes for your members, a GROUP ADMIN may post AS the Private Page for the group members. Explain the situation briefly without details, and provide links that all members of that writing group must unfriend or block. Key things- Make sure you're posting as the group, not your profile. Remember to be sparse, do not turn it into a litany of complaints. Explain the situation impersonally. Caution your group members that this only applies to the accounts that belong to the group, and anyone caught spreading accounts and names past that Private Page will be guilty of a TOS violation. DO NOT post links to accounts that you are not 100% sure belong to the member in question. Only include the contact profiles that you have worked with that member on.
Remember, your fans/readers are watching you. You do not want to be seen as the admin that's throwing an immature fit and shitposting other people, whether they left of their own accord or were kicked out. You must be the voice of reason and maturity, even when a situation has you wanting to punch walls. If prospective members see the group admins behaving badly, they will be less likely to continue giving your group a chance. Don't be "that" person.
Remember The Goals
Depending on the group, that may be to simply have a good time or it may be to have something publishable by the end of the story. Different goals call for different strategies, but you have to always keep the end goal in mind. Groups as a whole exist to bring people together, to create something bigger than yourself. While they can be quite a bit of work, the end result will always be fulfilling and worth it if you keep the end goal in mind and steadily work towards it. Whether it's a one-off storyline that will be done when the last scene is written, or a full time writing group that goes beyond their source material, you are responsible for building a world, and that's a goal to be proud of.
Contributed by Kalypso Skotos Ds and Loki Silvertongue.