Mod Post - update for non-members
I'm posting this for the benefit of the many former members of doctorwho_eps who are waiting for more information.
I've had quite a few people ask me about delays in the vouching/inviting process, what they can do in order to rejoin the community more quickly, or how to go about getting their friends to vouch for them without breaking the rules. I hope the following information helps clear up some of those issues.
What NOT to do:
* Prospective/former members may not contact/friend/harass/troll any of the current members, or the mods, in order to secure or request an invite, unless they are already mutual friends.
* Prospective/former members may not post about this community in any public place, which includes communities, unlocked posts in personal journals, or any other forum/site/chat/list/whatever which is not private. Locked posts in personal journals and private discussions among friends (e.g. IM, PM, face to face, phone, email etc.) are fine.
These things will only serve to get you permanently banned from this community, and in extreme cases, from other communities as well.
What you can do to speed up the joining process:
* You can post a locked entry in your journal telling your friends that you'd like to rejoin the community.
* You can respond to locked entries in your friends' journals asking whether anyone wanted to be invited to join.
* You can contact your mutual friends who are current members, and let them know that you'd like to rejoin the community. You can do this in locked posts, IM, email, or whatever way you normally communicate with those friends, as long as it's private.
If your friends don't know you want to join the community, they won't know to vouch for you, so let them know, but please be polite and discreet.
What you should know:
* Each of the current members has a limited number of "vouching slots" they can use, so your friends may have used theirs up already.
* The vouching slots for current members will be reset periodically, so that if your friends have used up all their slots this time round, it doesn't mean that you'll never get an invite, just that they'll have to wait till the next round to vouch for you.
* If you haven't received an invite after a friend told you they'd vouched for you, it doesn't mean they lied to you; it's much more likely that your journal's a part of our backlog (or "waiting list") and you'll get an invite as soon as we can squeeze your journal in.
* In the event that we have concerns or questions regarding a particular journal whose owner has been vouched for, we invariably contact the member who's vouched for this person, for clarification or further information. This type of situation is likely to cause a delay in inviting a member who's already been vouched for.
* Who's vouched for whom and when this happened is private information, and we will not divulge it to anyone, so don't ask.
Finally, I'd once again like to assure you that we have not forgotten about the many members who haven't rejoined us yet, that we are doing everything we can, that we're listening to the entire membership's input and ideas on how to go about things in the most efficient way possible, that we are at least as frustrated with the current situation as you are (probably more), and that we fully intend to continue working our asses off to restore the community to what it was before we were forced to take the drastic measure of rebuilding the membership from scratch.
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience, and my thanks for your continued (superhuman) patience.
ETA: I will be editing this post to address the issue of former members who don't have any mutual friends within the community as soon as I have a free second.
I've had quite a few people ask me about delays in the vouching/inviting process, what they can do in order to rejoin the community more quickly, or how to go about getting their friends to vouch for them without breaking the rules. I hope the following information helps clear up some of those issues.
What NOT to do:
* Prospective/former members may not contact/friend/harass/troll any of the current members, or the mods, in order to secure or request an invite, unless they are already mutual friends.
* Prospective/former members may not post about this community in any public place, which includes communities, unlocked posts in personal journals, or any other forum/site/chat/list/whatever which is not private. Locked posts in personal journals and private discussions among friends (e.g. IM, PM, face to face, phone, email etc.) are fine.
These things will only serve to get you permanently banned from this community, and in extreme cases, from other communities as well.
What you can do to speed up the joining process:
* You can post a locked entry in your journal telling your friends that you'd like to rejoin the community.
* You can respond to locked entries in your friends' journals asking whether anyone wanted to be invited to join.
* You can contact your mutual friends who are current members, and let them know that you'd like to rejoin the community. You can do this in locked posts, IM, email, or whatever way you normally communicate with those friends, as long as it's private.
If your friends don't know you want to join the community, they won't know to vouch for you, so let them know, but please be polite and discreet.
What you should know:
* Each of the current members has a limited number of "vouching slots" they can use, so your friends may have used theirs up already.
* The vouching slots for current members will be reset periodically, so that if your friends have used up all their slots this time round, it doesn't mean that you'll never get an invite, just that they'll have to wait till the next round to vouch for you.
* If you haven't received an invite after a friend told you they'd vouched for you, it doesn't mean they lied to you; it's much more likely that your journal's a part of our backlog (or "waiting list") and you'll get an invite as soon as we can squeeze your journal in.
* In the event that we have concerns or questions regarding a particular journal whose owner has been vouched for, we invariably contact the member who's vouched for this person, for clarification or further information. This type of situation is likely to cause a delay in inviting a member who's already been vouched for.
* Who's vouched for whom and when this happened is private information, and we will not divulge it to anyone, so don't ask.
Finally, I'd once again like to assure you that we have not forgotten about the many members who haven't rejoined us yet, that we are doing everything we can, that we're listening to the entire membership's input and ideas on how to go about things in the most efficient way possible, that we are at least as frustrated with the current situation as you are (probably more), and that we fully intend to continue working our asses off to restore the community to what it was before we were forced to take the drastic measure of rebuilding the membership from scratch.
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience, and my thanks for your continued (superhuman) patience.
ETA: I will be editing this post to address the issue of former members who don't have any mutual friends within the community as soon as I have a free second.