A) Much like in regular life, an application is a form you fill out to get something. Most of the time for MCM it's a character application to get a character, but there are other forms, such as TP forms and upgrade forms.
A) The long app is mostly for new players. The short app is for players with an existing character. Sometimes returning players with no current characters are allowed to use the short app. There are a few circumstances where we may ask you to use the long app, but this is very rare (outside of fachead apps it's probably been done once in the MUSH's history). The questions in the short application are also in the long application, so if we ask you to use the long app you won't be wasting all your old effort, though you might need to add to it.
A) Between 1 and 7 days. After 7 days, you can poke an admin about it.
A) Like most MUSH-related delays admin have real life and other things to worry about as well. Also, characters sometimes require research, some apps are just plain harder to work with, etc.
A) First of all, it should be noted that apps do NOT have a queue, and never will, for a variety of reasons. Some of these include that some apps are just simpler than others, some have admin who are familiar with the theme, some are for whatever reason particularly hard to write a helpful rejection for, some require voting among the admin (especially powerful characters), etc. As for how they're handled, typically for between 1 and 4-5 days they're allowed to sit and wait for someone who's got the time or knowledge to actually process the particular app. After this point an app is usually just assigned or charstaff as a whole is prodded into moving on it. In other words, it's picked up at the discression of charstaff.
A) Three weeks. It used to be two weeks and may return to that at some point. The 'cool down' period means that after an app is successfully submitted you can't send another one for this period. This is because some people in the past have tried to get us scrambling around on multiple apps at once, or several apps one after another, or constantly dropping a character and apping another. All of these are taxing on charstaff's limited resources and time, and as such are not considered a good thing.
A) No. They vary depending on just what's going on. On occasions we've moved up the app response time to 10 days and the cooldown period to 3 weeks (it was normally 2 weeks during that period); this was when we were both low on manpower, the admin we had were sick, and the box was stuffed full.
A) An alt is an alternate character, an additional character you control in addition to any other characters. These characters can be just about any type of character you want, although you have to be careful not to let them interact too much.
A) Alt interaction is when two alts by the same person interact with each other in RP. This is not allowed on many MU*'s, but on MCM it is allowed within reason. You have to be careful not to do things like inappropriately help another alt. For instance, bringing in your alt for reinforcements in MOST cases would be considered unfair alt interaction, although there are exceptions. In general - ask before doing. As a further note, 'just knowing' what another alt knows is VERY BAD and considered twinking (i.e. your alt Jim was told that there's an attack on Big Base #9, and suddenly Joe who works at Big Base #9 knows it - uh-uh, no way).
A) Theoretically, with admin permission, as many as the database will hold. Practically speaking, six per person without additional permission. If you're playing your current alts and the admin allow it, you can get further alts, though you need to ask permission for each additional alt. Most of the time it's fairly easy to get this permission, though the more you get the more active we'll expect you to be. We have recently instituted a 2:1 ratio rule - for every two Union characters you have, the third character needs to be a Confederate. This is because of a distinct lack of bad guys we've experienced in the past. Note that this does not apply to people who had characters before the ratio (though if they are not in compliance with the ratio the next time they app a character they may have to drop characters to become in compliance with it) and written requests may be considered to allow you a special exemption from this rule.
A)
Maximum number of alts - 6 without special permission
Ratio of Union to Confed alts (max) - 2:1 without special permission
Cool down - 3 weeks
Typical response time - 1-7 days
Bug-admin-OK time - 8+ days
Times may vary depending on the situation.
A) This depends on a lot of factors. First off, THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE APPLYING FOR. If it's something others wouldn't have a lot of fun around, or worse yet is actively disruptive to others' fun, odds are you won't get it. Remember - just because it's a featured character from a canon theme doesn't mean that we'll let it in. Also, pay special attention to how powerful it is - if it's ridiculously so, it's probably going to get squashed. Second, make sure you do everything with it with as much attention to detail and care as is reasonably possible, so as to fully flesh it out. Third, if you're really worried, check on the E-Character channel, or even page a charstaffer to see what they think of it. That said, we're able to have very strange ideas here, and if you can do it well in a way that benefits the MUSH overall we may be willing to entertain the idea, at least so long as it isn't already totally banned (see 'news banned'). It's also advised that you've been on the MUSH for a while.
A) First off - you've got an uphill battle ahead of you. If you want to try anyway, it's advised you've been on the MUSH for a while to know what we're looking for. In general what you'll need to do is do a lot of rewriting, tweaking, and otherwise 'aging up' or making it more serious. Generally the more coherent and self-consistant the theme is the better and more likely it is to pass muster. For instance - most Adult Swim shows will be almost impossible to get passed. On the other hand, "kiddie" themes might - IF you put enough thought and effort into it. Some of them have been our most successful themes. For an idea of what we might be looking for, compare Bleedman's rendition of the Powerpuff Girls (http://ppg.snafu-comics.com/) and other Cartoon Network shows to the "real thing", or even the original Transformers cartoon to the Transformers movie from July 2007.
A) Yes. However, the more of someone there is, the tougher it gets. We also are less likely to approve a version that's identical or nearly identical to another version.
A) App into a faction (Union or Confederate). Try for a medium-powered FC (though "big name" FCs are OK, too, and might even be a good idea). Often joining an existing cast is a good idea, as well. Often if your character is well-known, it will help. Go into as much detail as you can in the application, but don't worry too much about making it a novel or anything. Also, try to avoid characters that are too tightly tied to other characters.
A) Sitting on an FC and never using it, i.e. logging on one a month to chatter and never RPing.
A) Contact charstaff, possibly via +feedback, but it's better if you do it in person. Tell us what's going on, how long it's been, and that you would like them to start moving again, or that if you're interested in apping the character. If the problem is severe enough they will be warned by charstaff, and if they won't fix it they can be removed. Note that in MANY CASES there are ways around this, i.e. using alternate subthemes, and in these cases an alternate solution may be used, i.e. if you want character X which is being charsquatted on, we may end up advising you to app character X from one of these themes instead.
A) We have no automated process. In general we'll leave OCs alone for quite a while, but if after three months there are no logins we'll usually wipe them. FCs vary quite a bit (see above), but often they end up treated similarly to regular OCs.
A) Post on the vacation board, type in the command '@set me=vacation', and contact charstaff if you're going to be gone for a long time, especially anything longer than three weeks. It's also courteous to post on the vacation board if you're regularly on and you're going to be gone for a short time, i.e. a week - people might be looking for you. At some point, of course, we must purge a character; often this happens around the year mark. If you had a character and this happens to you, though, you may be able to get them back with minimal hassle, at admin discression; this is particularly true in the case that you were very active and a player in good standing when you were here previously.