[Office] Den of the Sea Witch

[Nimh]

Den of the Sea Witch GM Nimh's Office

The Meaning Behind the Name Nimh: Gaelic for 'Poison'

A Little About Me Name: Lauren, with no variants of the name whatsoever. From: New Jersey, in the states - I rock out the North-Eastern thing Profession: Web Content Coordinator at Forbes - basically, any Forbes Magazine publication you can think of, I'm responsible for getting it onto the website and making it look pretty (as best as I can with what I have). Moderation Experience: I've been moderating since before the infamous crash in 2002. I started playing this game back in 1999 and moderated very briefly before RL called me away. Since then, I've moderated in numerous locations through the empire including Ieffreon (as both an AGM in the early/mid 2000's and currently as a GM), Midpoint (AGM), Diana (AGM), Archadoon (AGM), Natura (A/GM), and Vers (GM). I think those are all the places, but who can be sure? Moderating Loves: Character development, trade skills, arcana and adventures. I am a storyteller first and foremost and a smoking guns moderator least of all. Do not look at me for 'wow, omg' sword-slinging adventures - combat is something I fail at regularly. I will, however, try to accommodate people's skill sets that allow you an opportunity to gain skill points at the end of the thread, so expect some fighting action from time to time if you are an action-oriented PC.

Moderation Schedule Tuesdays & Wednesdays - These are very busy days for me, since I do most of my work these days. Posting will trickle during these days. Saturdays & Sundays - While these are my least busy days (usually) don't expect much posting on my end. My love for the game started with my love for my own PCs and thus I spend my weekends relaxing and posting with my PCs with the occasional and rare mod post. Don't expect a lot out of here. Mondays, Thursdays & Fridays - These are my least busy days and these tend to be the days I do a lot of my posting. Note: I try to put up posts every week day unless I am super busy with work. How many posts I respond to in a day will and often does vary.

Moderation Habits I generally try to approach my subscription list in a way I think is fair, selecting those threads of which have been waiting longer and working my way up to those most recently posted to. I do abandon this sometimes and here are a list of reasons why: - Location threads are often quick and simple posts for me to jot out. If I have a person waiting at a location to get a job or apply for training, then I will usually help them out quicker than adventure/character development threads. - I simply know what I am going to write for one thread more than another thread. If I have a plot device that I absolutely know how I'm going to tackle, I will run with it in a thread that hasn't been waiting as long as another. - I overlooked your thread and do not have it on my subscription list. Note: - I will never let a thread sit for more than a week unless I have made an announcement that I will be super busy and/or not around. If I have let a thread sit for more than a week and I am posting elsewhere, please nudge me--this means your thread has fallen off my radar and is likely not on my subscription list. - I will never play favorites with particular PCs. If you see me posting for someone else over your thread it is for one of the reasons listed above. - I very rarely will sit and power post with a person in a thread that is NOT a location thread. Training, character development and adventure threads all get handled the same way--they wait in the posting queue like everyone else's. Location threads are the exception to the rule, as I have mentioned above. - I will always be very prompt when answering PMs unless I decide to leave it off to the side and answer it later. I have a good memory, but sometimes it fails on me. Sometimes I need to be reminded. If it takes me more than a week to respond, please hit me. Nothing bugs me more than a mod who is posting but can't take the time to respond to a simple PM.

Last of All I am not an unapproachable person. If you, for any reason whatsoever, have questions or concerns related to my moderating or that of my staff, please feel free to contact me. I am always willing to listen to what a person has to say, particularly if those concerns reflect your enjoyment of the game.

[Nimh]

I've updated this into something different. It's no longer realistic for me to keep a listing of my threads, as I have far too many that I take on regularly. The list became out-of-date regularly and too quickly for words!

I'll probably pretty this up later.

[Nimh]

In another month I'll have been in Ieffreon for nearly a whole year. For a few mods, being in one place for a year straight is not an accomplishment. It's a fact. But on the other side of the coin there are many mods who rarely stay on for more than a handful of months and then disappear or grow too busy or too burnt out that they fall apart and can't hold on to modding. I'm usually one of those mods, something that I can admit to without much shame--it's a fact of my modding career that I tend to stay in one place for 6 months or so before the burden of modding (particularly GMing) becomes too much for me to handle.

This time around I think I managed to get lucky. I came back to modding because I saw an opportunity to open a city that lacked a lot of baggage. There were no PCs sitting there, waiting for someone to pick up their abandoned threads. There were no PCs there who had high expectations or demands that I could not possibly meet without angering someone, somehow, someway. As a bonus, the city lacked much in the way of special enchantments and high magic that have previous led me into frustration and feeling trapped.

To put it frankly, I never really connected with places that I modded in the place. Often I went to places because of changes in mod structures. I became GM of Natura because, for a second time in a row, my GM abandoned me, leaving me high and dry as an AGM. I'd endured that for more than just a handful of months in Archadoon and loathed my time there as a result. So I stepped forward. And I wasn't ready for it at the time.

Things went badly. I never really felt the city was mine to do with as a I pleased. I think I even let myself get bullied by a player or two because I considered them people I was on good terms with. It was an extremely busy city and I simply did not have the support system in place to keep me from falling apart. I started cracking and even the small breaks that I took to try and alleviate the stress didn't help. So I fell apart and burned out in a fashion that was...extraordinary, over-the-top...not very good at all. But it all came down to feeling so extremely stressed out that I just could not contain it any more.

So I took a break. I retired. I went on vacation and I focused on my PC and remembered why I actually enjoyed the site--something that I forgot somewhere along the way. I stuck with people who made the game enjoyable for me and began to excise those people who made the game a stress pit.

And then the opportunity came along to go back to modding and while I was hesitant, I really did my research this time around and found Ieffreon, a place that, as I mentioned before, came without the baggage. I've made my nitch. I've discovered how to manage my time and energy without feeling stressed. I've learned my limits, not only with how many threads I can handle, but how I let people approach me (I have refused to let my IM information sit in my profiles any longer - having people approach me over IM simply proved too aggravating). I stick up for my processes and refuse to let people bully and badger me. Things work the way they work and if you don't like it, then I'm not the GM for you.

I have to say that my time here has been relaxing and reassuring, reminding me that I can mod and not fall apart and end up hating the site. I'm not a gushy person. I am, in quite a few ways, like my PC Iseult--I hide behind my sarcasm and my snark and don't often turn around and tell people that I do appreciate their efforts--emotions are awkward things to hand out to people, particularly when you don't really know them. My AGMs have had to deal with my gushing now and again...because they're great. They're a great support system and they've helped alleviate some of the burdens and stresses that have popped up now and again. When they finally move on to cities of their own, it'll be a difficult transition, but transitions that leave me feeling sort of giddy and excited, because I know they'll be great GMs--GMs I'll actually want to visit with PCs of my own.

Anyway.

There's some changes coming, I think. Good changes. Changes I'm excited about and hope take place without any major problems. I'll be able to share them with you when things are laid out and definite. I just wanted to take this time to reflect and acknowledge how happy I am to be in Ieffreon with the PCs that have made Ieffreon their home. All of this has helped me reaffirm that modding really isn't the stressful, horrible thing that it has been for me in the past.

Yay Ieffreon.