Chaos costs too much.​

It costs too much time, too much effort, and too much work to get any sort of momentum going with our stories.

When I moved this community from a smaller galaxy to a much bigger one a little more than four years ago, we entered unknown territory. With it, free reign was given to those individuals deemed appropriate to lead.

But over time, those individuals - myself at the forefront - have slammed again and again against a community that tests the fences with such absurdities that lead to rules like 'Gundam is banned, Dragons are banned', etc. The Factory, the Codex, private and open Role-plays - they generate so much content that needed to be regulated that we felt pinned in the corner.

When faced against such insurmountable odds, we often feel the need to fight back harder to remind the community that law and order presides, but we did so more harshly than necessary. Time and time again, an off-color member (who by no means represents the majority) brought a knife to the debate table. Time and time again, we would answer with an ICBM.

Chaos costs too much. It costs too much time, too much effort, and too much work.

And I claim responsibility for this mindset.

The current discussion is about Major Factions, but really it's about time. How much time do we have to devote to this massive pen and paper MMORPG we've accidentally created, and it goes both ways - both member and staff. How much time do we have to devote to regulating every submission, pour over every statistic, how much time do we have to cross reference guides and charts. The software can only be augmented so much to the point of automation - the rules often cry for manual control.

This manual control is always the bottleneck.

We've created a crucible of time and energy and we're sacrificing administrators, judges, and members into it. It's unsustainable at its current pace. We're going to fail, eventually.

This isn't about whether you're known or unknown.

This isn't about what clique you belong to or what faction you claim home.

This is about a mandate that's slowly evolved over time that to get anything done, you have to devote more and more time. It's compounded and cumulative. Just when you think you're done giving, we ask for more. From the axe you create in the Factory to the NPC who wields it in the Codex for the Major Faction he/she serves, each of these items serves to distract the member from the ultimate goal of this website and community we call home : role-playing.

Stop asking for more time, I beg of you. From development threads to submissions to dominions to invasions, we should all - from the highest Administrator to the newest member - look at how much time it costs. I want you to challenge it. Question it. Ask for more for yourself, and don't allow your time to be taken.

These next few months, Staff is going to sit down and discuss what insane amounts of time we're wasting, and how to get members into role-playing faster while also accomplishing the goals of what they want to do - Factory, Codex, Companies, etc. I'm going to be coming after unnecessary Development threads. I'm going to be coming after the Rules that delay and waste time. I'm going to be shining a light on every process, every detail of this website in an effort to make it simpler - not batter it down with more rules. We already have too many.

Challenge it. Question it. Ask more for yourself. Join in the discussions.

You deserve to spend your time as YOU choose.

We only have a limited amount.​

-Tefka, Owner of StarWarsRP.net