The Toughest Decision I've Ever Had To Make

[Kennedy/Kylie]

If there is one final show maybe Kennedy could sign a 1 day deal and maybe Kylie as well?

[Joe Smarts]

That sucks

WCF was my first home, and I'll definitely miss it.

I'll be back for the farewell show, if that's happening.

[Speede]

I would also like to participate in any sort of farewell show.

If I may present an idea for how to keep the memory of the fed alive, even if it's not in a permanently active state, maybe an annual show around the time of One, signups running end of November through December 14, card on the 15th, roleplay deadline on December 29th at midnight and the results to go up on New Years Eve, regardless of the day's of the week they may fall on? I could never picture an internet without the ol Dub See Eff dead. I've seen some amazing Feds die, but the dub is the pinnacle when it comes to great Feds. It would break my heart to think there might never be a "next show", even if we only plan to have a card a year.

[Salem Shepard]

I hate to see this place close, its one of my favorite places Ive ever RPed in.

[James Wolf]

You know if you somebody needs to step away I could step in as a temporary GM, and get help for booking the cards, and writing results at least until you had the time to come back.

I've got the experience being a human resources department, and I am sure we could find something for everybody to do. I wouldn't change anything. Just keep steering the ship until you get back. This way the WCF has the history going, and is extended.

Then you'd have angles to catch up on once you did get back. I've had the unfortunate pleasure of having to take a back seat to rping to run feds before and manage everything at once. Even if you decide against it shoot me a pm, and I can use my real name as the GM.  

As a part of the WCF family it would be my honor to continue the fed if its allowed. what does everybody else think?

[Corey Black]

The problem isn't wanting to continue, the issue is 4 RPs in a week and impossible recruiting people that will stay.

[Lilith]

At least this time you can't blame it on me or Logan

[Teo Blaze]

Apr 18, 2019 19:36:08 GMT -5 Corey Black said:

The problem isn't wanting to continue, the issue is 4 RPs in a week and impossible recruiting people that will stay.

I don’t want to sound like I’m calling for a continuance, but I actually have an observation.

In my entire TV title reign, not counting myself this week, in 22 matches I probably had 3 or fewer no-shows. Now the common denominator is the TV title, buuuut- the other denominator?

2500 words.

Now I don’t want to sound radical, but is it possible that it maybe be time to review the word count, even temporarily?

I agree with what the first reaction to this will be- I also lived through the days of unlimited RPs. Now the 5k is a nice limit to ensure good matches, but it can also honestly be difficult to fill up week in, week out. In addition, if you are up against one of our amazing writers (all of you are amazing) and they post 5k an hour from deadline? Weeeell, that can be discouraging if you’re only at 1500.

Now if I were to make a suggestion, it may be time to look at things and say that while 5k a week from everyone might be ideal and fair- is it realistic?

I’m not suggesting we should go down to 1k a week, if I were to suggest it would be 2.5k for a non-title match or tv title match, 5k for a hardcore/US title match, and 5k twice for world (make those title matches something that you have to perform better than week in and week out to win).

Might fix both problems. Slam matches, while no less important, require less dedication, while Title matches and pay per views become displays of elite RP skills...

But this would be more like for a reboot if we were to continue in the future. I don’t have a solution for Recruitng.

[Matt Draven]

Apr 18, 2019 19:36:08 GMT -5 Corey Black said:

The problem isn't wanting to continue, the issue is 4 RPs in a week and impossible recruiting people that will stay.

Unfortunately, that's only the result of the other issues that plague WCF. Now I just want to make myself incredibly clear when I say that I am NOT blaming any particular person or thing; in fact, I feel like it's just a bunch of smaller issues that have compounded into.....this mess. Keep in mind that I've only been doing this "Efed" thing for a year but I can easily give a couple of examples/ideas that may help.

1) Consider lowering the word counts as Teo suggested. 5k a week (10k between two rps for world title {I think}) is an extremely effective way to burn somebody out. This isn't the "unlimited count" wild west days anymore; you all can relax a bit lol. Plus it'll be less daunting for any potential newcomers.

OR

If you don't like that idea then consider going bi-weekly. Cause you know, real life issues pretty much decimated WCF over the last month.

2) Try keeping up on any updates that might be essential or anything that might help morale (or some such). For example; anybody remember when I made a comment or two about the championship portion of WCF not being updated? Yeah; that was a shoot. If the powers running the place can't be bothered to occasionally update that section then people are going to see that and read it as them having lost interest. Which happens, don't get me wrong, but unless you were here for the last 4 World title changes then you would think that Odin was still champ just from the board. (Or Noble from the coloring thing).

3) Recruiting; always a major thing. Of that there isn't a doubt. However, if you want new people ( and I mean NEW) then you HAVE to start using other methods then just asking old people to come back. Use Facebook. Use Twitter. Use instagram if need be! If you want NEW people that may or may not already have an interest in wrestling then ya gotta go out there and make WCF known! I'm not trying to drum up sort of bad blood, but the fedheads in AW have been doing a hell of a job in that department and it has been showing some major results. I think there was a time where they had 100+ on the guest counter after a Clash. It was freakin' nutty.

[Corey Black]

The only thing I really have to add is Price is using Twitter.

I don't know if updating Champions or lowering word counts will increase production/attract people. Low RP counts, low match writing, at some point Price just has to say enough is enough and stop wasting his time, ya know?

[Teo Blaze]

Apr 18, 2019 22:52:25 GMT -5 Corey Black said:

The only thing I really have to add is Price is using Twitter.

I don't know if updating Champions or lowering word counts will increase production/attract people. Low RP counts, low match writing, at some point Price just has to say enough is enough and stop wasting his time, ya know?

Objection, your honor!

I submit for consideration that Jayson Price has not wasted even one second of time nor effort.

Does anyone think I’ve written all those role plays for my health, or reinvented Teo over and over in the name of my own ego?

No your honor! If Jay Price feels his time is wasted, then allow me to correct that suggestion here and now! Price, Odin, Singh, Black, anyone who has contributed anything to this great beautiful beast has wasted nothing, and I stand by that statement with every ounce of conviction in my body.

The love is there, the dedication exists. Look no further than the responses for WCF’s next (and final) show if you need proof positive of that. And all the people who have willingly given their time over the years just goes to show how damned good of a job we do keeping this machine running.

So I object to the statement that Price has ever wasted any time, because he has served something bigger than all of us, and though we may not be the best at demonstrating our appreciation, I nonetheless submit to you that there is not one person here who does not truly appreciate all he has given to let us do what we do best, and that goes out to every administrator, match writer, or volunteer that has ever served the WCF without asking a single thing in return.

[Corey Black]

I mean lately. Obviously not overall but the trend is little to no effort from most so..

[Teo Blaze]

Honest question, and not to immediately dismiss the problem- why did we have such a problem with match writing?

I have three theories:

1- people don’t view match writing as essential to their individual role and thus are more likely to pass the buck. Adding to this problem is that match writing is almost always a literal thankless job, in that people rarely recognize quality match writing.

2- people are intimidated by match writing, and feel that they can’t do a match justice (especially new guys or first-timers) so they’re more likely to defer to the veterans.

3- the responsibility of having to write both a match and a role play puts the writer at an inherent disadvantage because they simply have taken on a greater responsibility, thus giving the person who only has to worry about an RP total freedom to focus.

I’ll admit, I’ve fallen off match writing, and I’ve made no secret about my real life obligations, but my question will still be, is there a solution? We all want well written and thorough matches, but unless extra dedicated people are writing multiple ones (which is really not fair) or we’re going back to the 8-man tags of yore (which we don’t want), we need more dedication. Asking for contributors has not helped, so all I can possibly think of is some way to recognize or reward match writers, but I can’t imagine what that would be. A best written match award? A weekly recap from the higher ups written in-character about the matches? (I miss you so much Gemini)

I don’t know the answer there, and I have deliberately avoided bringing up real life.

["The Animal" Samuel McPherson]

TBH, if lowering more than 3000 word limit were to happen, I would've left cos it's no fun when creativity is limited when you have to worry about not going past a certain word limit, especially as this character isn't able to talk.

I did make a suggestion to afflict with other feds to get some hits. Honestly, I said to Jayson I would be back, but I wasn't able to commit right now because I had family emergency to take care of without warning.

[Corey Black]

Teo, I appreciate the kind words and trying to find a solution. I really do. But I'm not going to talk for Price anymore, haha. We all know he's the workhorse behind it all. I'll let him handle the questions and solutions and everything. I'm just a guy that has to take time out of work to post OOC nowadays.

[Jayson Price]

When it comes to match writing, the honest issue is time and real life. I could go the easy route and just post 1 paragraph summaries for every match, but it looks shitty and isn't worthy of the effort the Roleplayers put into their work. And I simply don't always have the time to write multiple matches. Some weeks I do, but mostly I don't so I rely on others.

[Jayson Price]

But to be clear, if the main issue was match writing, I'd find a way to fix it to keep this going.

The real issue is we lost too many people and couldn't recruit new ones to take their place, leaving us with a roster that is extremely talented but too small to sustain a fed.

[Odin Balfore]

I know I've busted my ass to keep WCF chugging. I guess it's down to having a stake in a place where u spent x amount of time in

Or not

It's not ultimately fixable because there is no more community. In addition I find all of teos solutions disingenuous and annoying considering his track record

[Corey Black]

As it pertains to Teo, I put a lot of stake in his opinion. He's very much a thinker, haha.

[SickWaves Blackamura]

Tbh, WCF closing doesn't mean it just doesn't exist. Torture and Gravedigger have been pushing and welcoming WCF kayfabe in AW for over a year and it's allowed a lot of people to just pick up right where they left off here. I know that a lot of people are coming and jumping into the mix, but legit, WCF HAS a Noah's ark and has for some time. I don't want it to come off negative or shitty about the state of things, it's not. It's a positive if anything. Running an efed CAN be very tough. I ran into a similar wall with UCI and didn't see it recovering, so I did what I felt was best and shuttered it, just like Price and co. are trying to do (a bit more than me, considering I didn't feel capable of a send off show and just shuttered). The thing is, we transitioned that. Between WCF, UCI, NBW, and AW, we've been able to learn a lot and keep the general community strong and at the end of the day, that's what makes the fed, not the name of the brand or the place you hold it. I consider many of the people in this community badass and awesome people and really, WCF closing doesn't mean the core of it's ideas aren't continuing on with the same people because that's exactly what we're doing. I hope WCF has a very positive and enjoyable send off show, seriously, but you're not looking at the end here, just a transition.