fandomhigh | Defending Yourself [Monday, Period 1]

I'll be glad when this project at work is over...

I know I'm not in your class and so I probably have no place saying it, but I wouldn't be able to play the game without sign-in threads. Especially weeks like this one, where I'm starting a new job and the best I'll be able to see myself doing until I fall into the swing of things is sign in, if I manage to get that far at all.

I'm already planning on spending a few nights this week sleeping in the studio, I have no phone, and the internet there is for animation reference only. This is my life for the foreseeable future. Hell, this is my career. If I were in your class, I'd have to pull out.

Yes, this. I know having people do nothing but the sign-in isn't ideal, but just about everyone at some point is gonna hit weeks where that's all they can manage, time-wise. So it's nice to have that option there.

Agreed. And, at least for me, there are other concerns on top of time issues -- I've got an anxiety disorder on top of a depression disorder, and there are days where I can barely manage the spoons it takes to remember to sign in, much less interact with people -- virtually or otherwise. I don't know that anyone else in the game has my particular combination of concerns, but neuroatypicality is not exactly common in fandom-at-large, so it wouldn't surprise me if several other players had their own sets.

(Mental problems: gotta catch 'em all?)

Like

answer2bheard, I'm not actually in this class, but I wouldn't be able to take any of Max's in the future, either, if there were no sign-in threads.

I must third this here. Some days there just isn't the brain space for anything more than work and RL. Not even having the option to establish your character there on those kind of days, well, kind of sucks.

I'm another person who isn't in this class, but "just sign in as the minimum" has always been the rule around here. No, it isn't ideal to have students just sign in week after week, but the answer to that is to make class more engaging or get to the heart of why class participation is down -- not to force people to participate via OCD.

Maybe I have a migraine, maybe So-and-So's mother is sick, maybe he stayed late at work, maybe she decided to take the day away from the game and catch up with old friends. Everyone has the right to put RL > RP when they need (or choose) to. If you have to tag into the body of class, you have to actually come up with IC responses, and then other players might tag you, and that commits you to threads, instead of firing up a browser and writing your character's name. Which is, sometimes, all I'm capable of.

I generally hate copy/pasting the same answer to multiple comments, but I feel like it applies here:

Thanks for the input! Seriously, don't let the copy/paste nature take away from my appreciation. Based on your, and other peoples' feedback, it's pretty clear that sign-in threads will be making a comeback next week. So I'm seriously glad you spoke up about it. Otherwise, how would I know?

So, again, thanks, and next week we'll have sign-in threads again!

Also also, now that I'm grabbing the school links for radio today, I can't help but notice that you didn't actually specify what the students were supposed to bring in for their homework assignment. So not only do people not have the option to sign in on busy days, but in order to participate, they have to navigate the comm as well.

That one, I'm going to assume was just an oversight on your part. But it makes things extra difficult for anyone who has other things to do with their Mondays. I won't be taking your classes in the future if this keeps up. I flat-out can't.

This. Honestly, I came thisclose to not even posting the one-line comment I managed, because I was peeved I had to spend time hunting up last week's class. I can understand if it's an oversight, but it's an annoying one for those of us with other things taking up our Mondays.

Totally an oversight. Mea culpa, and sorry for making you dig for the info. Especially when I knew it and could have tossed it in. I just forgot to.

That was totally an oversight on my part, so that's totally on me.

I generally hate copy/pasting the same answer to multiple comments, but I feel like it applies here:

Thanks for the input! Seriously, don't let the copy/paste nature take away from my appreciation. Based on your, and other peoples' feedback, it's pretty clear that sign-in threads will be making a comeback next week. So I'm seriously glad you spoke up about it. Otherwise, how would I know?

So, again, thanks, and next week we'll have sign-in threads again!

Well, presumably you'd know because the rules of the game have been, from square one, that minimum participation requirements for the game are signing in to classes. Taking that away from people as an experiment is a bit of a dick move- Especially with no warning. They're not your guinea pigs. They deserve more respect than that. They have lives outside your class.

That said, thank you for fixing this for the future.

You know, the copy-paste and the exclamation marks do not fill me with confidence that your apology is sincere. Perhaps there's a lovely career awaiting you at LiveJournal.

Hey. Look. He apologized and said he'd reinstitute a sign in thread. Most of the complaints were from people not even in the class - only one of whom said it could be a problem when we were asked last week.

He oopsed on the homework issue and apologized for that as well - and let me just say he's not the first or only teacher who's done that!

Can we please not make unpleasant comments about his reasoning or the 'sincerity' of his apology?

We're all better than that.

He did oops in the homework assignment, and he did apologize for that. I wasn't pushing that point, and actually figured it was more a reason to validate the need for easier sign-ins than to point a finger and be all, 'J'accuse!' Digging back for more information is difficult, not just for people in the class, and I thought I'd mention it because as the squirrel on the class beat, having to dig back was hard on me, too.

That said, even the points made by people not in the class were valid ones. Them not being in this class doesn't change that it would be difficult, or even impossible, for them to take his classes in the future, had they not spoken up.

I'll admit, the experiment thing bothered me whether I was in his class or not, and I mostly just want to be certain that he understands that there's a reason the sign-in threads (and many other conventions of the game that one might take for granted) were there in the first place, because now I'm that much more wary that something like this will be sprung on me in the future.

Petty comments, we are all better than. But there's a time and a place for experiments like this, and if even one person said last week that this would cause difficulty for people, I think that should have been taken into consideration right off the bat, rather than pressing again to see if it would get hackles up.

I think you're assuming he did this to see if he could bother people and I don't think that's the case at all.

And yes, the people all had valid points and expressed them nicely and he immediately responded that he'd change things.

At which point, to my mind, it should be 'enough said' rather than the additional comments. That's all I was saying.

Actually, I'm mostly assuming he did this to see if he could get more interaction in his class, which, while functional in theory, could have been handled better- Asking people how losing a sign-in thread would affect them would have gotten him the same answer without inconveniencing anyone with no warning, for example.

I'm not accusing him of being spiteful- merely inconsiderate. And, now that he's given his apology, I hope that he'll be more thoughtful in the future.

You're right. I was annoyed and hit the send button before I fully considered whether my snarky opinion was a constructive one to share. I apologize for the rudeness.

Thank you. Sincerely.

Defending Yourself [Monday, Period 1]

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