• Each day that confessions are open, I will post two google doc links, one for PoSI and the other for Non-PoSI, at the top of this thread. These links will be posted here in the evening for the next day. This division is because each player will have a cap on how many Non-PoSI confession requests they can send (limit is 6 levels). Old links for previous days will be moved to the bottom of this post and locked from further editing.
  
• When adding yourself to these lists, please specify which type of confession you prefer to receive (whimsy, pride, all non-PoSI, etc.). If you have no preference, declare ANY. The format to add yourself will be [Name] – [Preference]. Example: NiteBrite – Whimsy, all Non-PoSI.
  
• If you would like to be added to the links above but do not want to use google docs directly, just post to this thread instead. State your in-game name, your PoSI status, and if you have any preferences as to which types of confession requests you will accept. It would also be good if you list dates you plan to keep your menaces high so people know when you will be available, but this is optional. Format [Name], [PoSI status], [Confession Receipt Preference], [Optional: Dates available]. So for example: “NiteBrite, PoSI, Any type, All days”
  
• Optional: When you sign up for a list for a specific day, you commit to only sending confession requests for that day (or until you hit your confessions quality target). This isn’t critical but it is to your advantage to stay available for the duration of the day.
  
• Optional: When you send a confession request, use this link: Confessions Sent Tracker and submit the player name. Example, if you sent a confession request to me, you would type NiteBrite and hit submit.
  
• Data submitted to this form goes into a google spreadsheet which counts unique entries and we will post up the results each day. The idea here is to help even out the distribution of confessions by providing stats on how much of a queue individual players have. A player with a backlog of 10 confession requests waiting is more likely to get to your confession request than a player with a backlog of 100, no? This is an opt-out system with voluntary input, so if you’d rather not be listed let us know.
  
• Please edit the documents responsibly. I am leaving them open for anyone to edit as of now, but if we have to move to a submission set up like the confessions tracker we can. It just makes life harder on everyone else, so I encourage you to be respectful with your edits.
  
• Do not edit other player's entries, please only edit your own.
  
• If you are a Non-PoSI who has hit your confessions quality limit or just don't want further confession requets (or a PoSI who wants no further confession requests), please edit your entry either here on the forums or in the linked spreadsheet so that the types of confession requests you will accept is listed as NONE.
  

• Pride: Nightmares and Wounds at 3 or more.
  
• Whimsy: Scandal and Suspicion at 3 or more.
  

• Violence: Wounds 3+
  
• Curiosity: Nightmares 3+
  
• Impropriety: Scandal 3+
  
• Guile: Suspicion 3+
  

(I ended up using Fate to give me actions so that I could at least stop seeing new confessions pop up on my messages tab--I should be able to finish the rest and then deal with the ones I've received. I really hate to use Fate on actions instead of content but I felt bad for deliberately holding myself out as available for confessions and not keeping track of how many I was getting. Next year I will accept as they come in, not stockpile, to avoid this problem.)

Can I just say that the level of Magnanimous for the Fallen London community is just stunning? We've been using an open Google Docs that anyone could delete the information off of just for the fun of it. Not only have the thread directors been incredibly trusting of FL players, but the FL community has proven their trust in full. Good on ya everybody, good on ya.

This is why I think that betrayals without prior notice or arrangement is very rude as it can really hurt the one betrayed.

I once accidentally sent a REALLY CREEPY dinner invitation to the person at the top of my list when I'd meant to send it to a newly joined friend

. . . Current Goal:

It is a role-playing game, and it has role-playing consequences. A consequence of betrayals (in real life, at least) is that you will lose the trust of others. I'm not suggesting starting a witch hunt, or even sending mean gifts. But it seems a little absurd to say "it's part of the game, so there! You can't complain."

Betrayal isn't that big a deal. The person you betray doesn't lose any Spirit of Hallowmas or Echoes or really anything of note. Just a little Making Waves. It's not that important.

Same here! And it turns out that you, dear Lawrence, was the last one on my list. I was so happy when no other name popped up below yours!

Seriously, there is nothing wrong with people betraying you. It's an inbuilt and intentional feature of the game. You are *supposed* to feel betrayed.

The vast majority of players are not on the forums and even those that are do not know about the betrayals thread. Likewise, the idea that during such a massive action-intensive season you are somehow suppose to be spending action to ask permission to betray is really not tenable.

Regardless of one's view on blacklisting, the kind of behavior people were condemning above is genuinely unsportsmanlike, not an intended feature of the festival.

While I STILL don't like the idea of a blacklist...

(20 minutes ago) [X] ([X] in Fallen London)'s shocking betrayal costs you. You are kept waiting at doors that once opened at a knock. Your own doorstep becomes gloomy and unfrequented. You name is no longer spoken with regard. It is rarely spoken at all. Trust [X] (0) You've gained a new quality: Scandal at 1 - Suspect Exposed by [X] (1 - Your confession was betrayed)Making Waves is dropping...

I am not above naming and shaming

Do you have any Darkdrop Coffee? 10 actions and a CP of wounds - if you're saving it for a rainy day, this could be it.

On the contrary, every invite I sent was off a shared document that did not include an agreement to be betrayed, there is a place for the people behind the characters to arrange betrayals, if they wanted.

..I tried to get a little fancy with it using two windows so I wouldn't have to change tabs to change my hats.

. . . Current Goal:

Sir Joseph Marlen wrote:

Can I just say that the level of Magnanimous for the Fallen London community is just stunning? We've been using an open Google Docs that anyone could delete the information off of just for the fun of it. Not only have the thread directors been incredibly trusting of FL players, but the FL community has proven their trust in full. Good on ya everybody, good on ya.

There is something about the game that breeds out the troll mentality of doing something like that, I think.
The sort of person with that level of immaturity and malice is rarely the sort of person who enjoys text based browser games based in Victorian London.

You know what, Estelle, I've been talking out these issues with some folks in the IRC and I think we can address just about every key issue with both the google doc lists and the confession tracker system as a whole by building a more robust user interface (UI). The core technology seems pretty robust. This year put it to the test, and it held up fairly well overall, but we can totally improve things. Unfortunately this is more of a long term project so it probably won't be implemented this year.

I've pulled my friend Alan into this project and we've got a proof of concept mock-up in development. But like, here's the basic concept we're thinking of so far:
Start with a link to a standard form where you input your relevant hallowmas information, the same sorts of information that you currently put on the google doc list this year. This is things like your profile link, posi status, and types of confessions desired. Then you submit and it takes you to a page where you hit a button and it pulls a few random names from the list for you to peruse.

Say it gave you a name and a link, and next to that you could have a button to click to confirm you sent this person a confession, or a second button to reroll and pull a different random name from the list. Having the tracker submission made into a button and having it come with the name so that you don't have to use two links would probably reduce error and improve responsiveness of users. And like if it keeps good track of it, then you could maybe have the initial user data input form allow players to specify how many requests they want to receive (ex. remove my name from the random pool after 50 confirmed requests) or leave it blank for no cap. Maybe when it pulls a random name for you it could display current number of confirmed requests a person has received. This is just some of the brainstorming we are doing right now on how we might improve things.

This may all be wishful thinking, and we'll need to test things out with developing this idea, but I feel confident we can improve the system and the experience of hallowmas player lists and confession tracking in the years to come.

How long does one have to answer outstanding requests? I have like, 29 waiting from folks on the list, some several days old so I'm worried that they might end up lost. If there is more time to answer them, I'd like to know so I don't spend the actions racking up menaces for each request, and can instead use them to send them out.

Looks like http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/michael7050 is at Spirit 95 as of this moment. So he needs, what, five more Confessions to make it to 100?

Thanks again everyone, now get cracking on grinding those menaces!

I was just looking at the options of what to do with the confessions. Besides the reward, is there a difference between burying a secret or telling it to the Bazaar? I mean, is telling the Bazaar really not a breach of trust?

. . . Current Goal:

Can I just ask for clarification on something that's confusing me? We talk about sending and receiving confessions, but that's not actually what we're doing, right? We are sending out and receiving confession requests. So when I send an invite out to another player, I'm actually sending out a request to receive their confession, and when I accept an invite from another player, I'm giving them my confession, correct?

Now, as a non-PoSI, I can only hear six confessions before I lose the ability to send out anymore invites. However, if I've sent out more than six invites before getting locked out, those people can still accept them and give me their confessions, it just doesn't help me further.

However, it will still help them by giving them a Spirit of Hallowmas point, correct?

So should I leave those invites pending because it's harmless to me and beneficial to the other person or should I cancel them?

Now, even though I'm a non-PoSI, I can still accept an unlimited number of confession requests and give others my confession, correct? This will give them one Confession point and me one Spirit of Hallowmas point. This is beneficial to us both. So even though I can no longer send out any requests to hear confessions, should I still put myself on the list every day to receive requests to give other people my confessions? After all, I assume that if other players send me requests to give them a confession, they must want said confession and my inability to ask to hear others' confessions is irrelevant to them. Yes, I cannot ask to receive a confession from the player who asked for mine, but this doesn't harm them and anyway, since they got my name off the non-PoSI list, they know there's a chance I've hit my cap already.

I have hit the 6 confessions cap as non-PoSI. My question is: should I still send out confessions to other non-PoSI's and or PoSIs to help them get a higher spirit rating or is this considered more a waste of time? I really like to help. Likewise I can and will, of course, accept all improtiety confessions send to me.

Sincerely,
Desmond Jordan, P.I.

Exactly!

Kaigen wrote:

Top Spirit is 500.

Have we had confirmation of this?
I know that was the top Spirit from last year, but do we know there aren't further options this year?

I have a question: where can I see the results of the Confession Tracker?

Best regards,
Desmond Jordan, P.I.

It was a nice idea, but it just doesn't live up to it's potential. The results are largely useless, but people seem interested so I'll leave it up for the rest of this year's event. I don't know if I should bring it back next year though.

Final call, dawn of the last day. If you have confessions quality that you have not cashed in yet now is the time to do it. Day 7, November 8th is your last chance to spend these points. Take care and plan your time accordingly, especially if you are trying to answer those last few requests in your inbox.

I just want to point out that you don't need to send an extra message asking to be betrayed. I had many people who listed "mutual confessions" or "mutual betrayals" in their confession invites.

I definitely agree with the role play aspect, but here are two questions:
1) if you're betraying for role-playing reasons, can you at least send a message? Getting a betrayal with no context is just frustrating.

Gonen wrote:

Nigel Overstreet wrote:

This. A betrayal never costs you Spirit.
The only thing a betrayal costs you is a little bit of Making Waves.

1000 Posts! Hurrah!

I find that most amusing when he also started the 1000 Spirit thread too!

What I don't get is what advantage accrues by withdrawing an offer to Confess. The actions have already been spread, the sender has nothing further to gain or lose, as far as I can tell.
I'd be inclined to think that what happens in the game should stay in the game, so if X turns out to be untrustworthy, he can be exposed in social actions. Starting a flame war in the forum (especially if the individual isn't even a regular denizen) would seem to be a bad idea.

-- Mal
edited by malthaussen on 11/7/2015

Nice caveat, Nigel. Knee-jerk justice makes for a mob of just jerks. I've betrayed -so- many people this Hallowmas, which in some people's view might render me blacklistable. Though I did sign up to that openly seeking Betrayals list early on. And I've been spoon-feeding poison and slander to help the heroes who've taken on too much. I reckon my karma's balancing out :P

Still ploughing through confessions - Just wanted to note that I'm canceling duplicates that I can't accept, just in case anyone sees a rejection and gets alarmed - if you see a cancellation from me, I've already accepted your constitution previously! *terrified of accidentally upsetting anyone*

(oh my gosh I don't even know how many invites I have left because ones that had been pushed off the list keep COMING BACK when I accept the ones ahead of them)

Ahem. That is to say, I am doing the best I can to accept everyone's, truly, but I have no idea how plausible that is.