Early Sakura Post Mortem Thoughts

I wanted to give myself a space to reflect on Bleach Sakura, on the things I think worked, and the things I think I would have changed.

First off, some history. I joined this site initially as a player, then, I think I kind of made the previous owner really angry and they deleted much of the site and peaced. Iko/tits decided to keep the ball rolling and I joined to help out, writing race pages, systems design, etc. I don't want to steal valor, everyone on staff did a lot of great work, but I definitely took every spare piece I could to try and help out. I was excited to launch a Bleach site!

Things went really well, frankly the amount of energy we got from the players was incredible, and I'm super grateful for everyone who wrote on the site.

What sucked:

I took on too much, both in terms of designing the site and running the site. I think ultimately staff had some manpower concerns early on, and while I think adding folks to help run things I don't think this was ultimately the issue.

GRADING. Sucks. Garbage. 0/10. I stand by my gradings, but even if I am a good grader the idea of good writing is pretty subjective and this just engendered so much negativity among players. I bore the brunt of a lot of this negativity, but so did players who received good grades, and anyone who received good but not great or bad felt really bad. It stratified players, it created conflict, it was a lot of work. It sucked. Never again. Never will I grade. I think it owns, and I like that we made it entirely optional (the average grade was really the average!) but this did not mean that people used it!

I think more than anything the weight of grading and dealing with the conflicts that followed sapped the drive that was necessary to keep things moving was what killed activity.

Anyway, it's been a few years removed, here's what I'd do differently:

JUST GET RID OF GRADING!

Hey adam what about all those complex mechs you made that never got launched?

THEY'RE FUCKING GREAT, YOU KNOW WHAT'S TRUE? EVERYONE WANTS MECH, NOBODY IS EVER GONNA USE EM BABY. ANYWAY MY MECHS RULED.

Also I'd avoid putting anyone in the position to gate power, I'd instead put up staff to help structure arcs and guide when to take steps into the next level of power. It feels good to accomplish these things, but frankly if you're a bad writer, so what, so long as you play and make good threads that people like joining you'll get there, and if you can't you wouldn't be sticking around anyway. I think this stuff is fine for the right people but I think when considered universally it just makes an environment I don't enjoy being the captain of.

THE GOOD

GOD, we had so many great and wonderful characters! And big huge threads that did big huge things! And so many people showed up for events, and fun activities, it ruled! I had a great time, thanks to all the wonderful people who wrote here.

And it looks like a lot of us are still around so, come on in, let's clear some cobwebs and have some fun writing! : )

Thanks for reading if you did! This is a lot more for me than it was for anyone else, but feel free to add your own thoughts!

removing grading would be good.

I think one of the main reason why it died was because too many characters are being passive and not proactive with their characters. Expecting certain someone/s to carry them.

perhaps a thread where those that are still here, or at least on the discord, say why they stopped writing?

If people wanna, go for it. I don't really wanna reopen wounds or anything, I just wanted to reflect on my lessons learned.

I only stopped because I was waiting on replies.

D E P R E S S I O N tm

Meridith wrote:If people wanna, go for it. I don't really wanna reopen wounds or anything, I just wanted to reflect on my lessons learned.

I don't think there are any reopening wounds. It really was the case of everyone stopping at some point.

While we're on this.

Bin Hollow and normalise Arrancar.

Blazin Samurai wrote:

Meridith wrote:If people wanna, go for it. I don't really wanna reopen wounds or anything, I just wanted to reflect on my lessons learned.

I don't think there are any reopening wounds. It really was the case of everyone stopping at some point.

While we're on this.

Bin Hollow and Normalise Arrancar.

I'd actually disagree with binning Hollows. However, I do agree with letting people start *as* Arrancar. If someone wants to start as a base Hollow, let them. But if they wanna start as an Arrancar, they should also be allowed to do so.

As for why I stopped...

D E P R E S S I O N
and a bad case of
W R I T E R ' S B L O C K

So much fun to still be had here. I only stopped because, well, lots of people know that story. It's been fun to get back into the swing of it even with just a few players.

If you know anyone who likes to rp, be sure to invite them here. Let's have a blast together!

as i suggested it i should probably say too...

i stopped, or rather never really started, because the site died down before i was approved.