In light of current events, should we have a central location to report on our status? For instance in the game I run I have quite a few players who are older or in generally weak health, and I haven't heard from one of them in two weeks.

Well...the problem I see is, if they haven't checked in with the games for health reasons, why would they check in at a central forum?

Maybe they can check in when they're starting to get sick, and list which games they're playing in without having to post in each one. Maybe someone else on here who knows that player on Facebook or IRL can chime in with an update.

Bear in mind that it would be a breach of the rules of any of our public forums to list the games you are in.

If you really want to keep an eye on the health of players, do it in your own games - don't make players go to another location to tell people (who possibly have no idea who they are, and potentially have enough to worry about already) that they are sick.
This message was lightly edited by the user at 21:51, Thu 12 Mar 2020.

we have a standing  rule inmy games to give us a heads up when RL kicks in...only takes a few seconds  for  folks to post OOC 'hey i'm sick"

 and if they can't    even do that..there isn't any link that's gonna help them.

What donsr said - it's easier to copypaste "I'm sick" over games already on your Sticky List than to seek out a new forum-game to list GMs on and make said GMs check it, but...doing all one can to become less sick is the more urgent thing.

Since the RPoL Vanish is a known phenomenon anyway, I find it useful to have a standing absence policy (mine's "one week, GM moves PC to the land of Over There Somewhere, one month, your character is now an NPC"), so someone who gets sick or breaks a leg or has to deal with a crisis etc. knows that if they didn't manage to put a post up, their character will be gracefully moved out of the way before it's a problem. One less thing to worry about can help people save energy and recover.

over the years, my most successful games, we lost   some  great players to RL death..one. told us of  Diabetes..and things were going  well..he vanished  a month later... another guy told us( he was from England)  that he had Tumor problems  in his brain, he was the only  player i ever skyped with,. because he wanted to ask  questions about the game... he vaniched..his Sister  sent me an Email because i was on his gamers lies ( whicj included the MAyor of his  town and some other offical!)

 others in the GAme  have thier share of RL suckiness , but  say 'hey..i'm  done for a bit"..so the character  moves to the back round..

 if i do not hear from a player  in a week, i send a PM... if they ghost  for a Mouth. they are out of the story line( As Tibiotarus  said )..and then  they'll get moved to NPC.. if they don't not   pop up in a RL  year, they get cut.

 Bottom line, nasty, sudden stuff  happen and there isn't a thing the player  can do..house  burns  down, floods  ect ect..you have to get  on you r phone, or hit the library if you lost you  computer..and? lets  face it...RP Gamign  falls  way down the list when stuff like that happens.

 i also  cut a couple player s after being gone a year..who came back late last year!..stuff hapened, and now they are back to   activity!

 the best  i can say.. Good Luck to all of us, to stay away from Evil forces in RL!

Sometimes people just disappear and we never know what happened.  I remember a few who did reappear.  The guy who totalled his truck, broke both his wrists and didn't type for a while.  Oh yeah, he got re-married in there too.

One of the saddest was the one who had a rough late teen-early twenties, and was just getting her life together, great new man, going to have a baby.  She disappeared for a while that we expected because it was a high risk pregnancy, but was gone for a long time.  When she eventually reappeared, it turned out she'd been struck by a car and had brain damage.  Somewhere in there was a slight memory of the site we had shared, though she could never remember any of her nicks for very long, so every year or so for a while she would come back, create a new one, then disappear again.  So sad!

But mostly people just disappear.  Unless a RL friend is also around to tell what happened, you'll probably never know.

Yeah. I don't get this. But I hope everyone is alright. We've got 2 cases in my hometown so we're all being cautious.

With #FlattenTheCurve trending I'd like to use this thread to comment that even if you think people are overreacting about COVID-19 there is no question that it is widely spreading so we should all do our parts by limiting exposure to other people.

WaPo did a great job illustrating that with some simple simulations where by limiting our movement and contact with other people we can halt the virus in its tracks and protect those most vulnerable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...ld/corona-simulator/

Even if you or the people you know aren't at prime risk you don't know about the people they come into contact with or the people those people come into contact with etc.

/sigh. I cannot handle people going on FB bragging about how it's no big deal. "Oh there's just a couple of cases in my town. Everyone is just being a wuss..."

DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW EXPONENTIAL NUMBERS WORK!?!??

It took about 40 days to reach the first 100,000 confirmed cases, 11 days to reach 200,000 and 4 days to reach 300,000. Yesterday alone had over 25,000 confirmed new cases worldwide and that number is only just starting to accelerate.

Italy surpassed China in terms of deaths a couple days ago with Spain and Iran hot on their heels.

That's bad but then you see pictures of crowded bars during spring break and sometimes I can't help but think that maybe we deserve a plague for humanity's hubris.

In reply to praguepride (msg # 11):

With any luck, maybe this plague will lower the dangerously stupid part of the world population (not that we have ever had good luck with reducing those numbers any other way).
The Stupid ones seem to be the ones to spread the virus around more than any other types. They are so self absorbed they can't even see that THEY are the problem.
Sad to say it, but things like this are needed at times. Makes people stop and maybe focus on something important and not the normal stupidity that seems to be a common problem world wide. At least for a little while, maybe ...

Unfortunately, the idiots that are out partying like it's no big deal aren't the only ones that are getting sick (if they're even getting sick). It's disgusting, and one of the comments I came across in a twitter rant about it summed it up best: Our grandparents were asked to go to war, and these schmucks can't even sit on their couch for two weeks.

Jerks.

Burn! I love it. Less than 100 years ago we survived the Great Depression. What lessons did we learn from that? Absolutely nothing. People get wind there might be a blip in their paychecks and are banging down the doors of our government demanding money b/c they can't survive for a few weeks...

This country is screwed. Guns and Ammo at the ready to defend my garden, animals, and food stores.

Zombie Apocalypse 2020 on its way. >:-(

In reply to byzantinex (msg # 14):

Not all of us can afford to stock up on basic essentials, let alone afford the land and livestock to be self-sufficient. Rather than belittle those that need the help, question the circumstances that caused that need.

In reply to NowhereMan (msg # 15):

Thank you :)

Sidenote, but every time I see someone gleefully referring to COVID-19 as the "boomer remover" I lose a little more faith in my generation.

I'm way more concerned for my parents and the socioeconomic impact of this than I am for my own health, considering what we know about the virus so far. If you're in a position to do so - i.e. you're young and healthy - try and do what you can to safely help those you love who're the most vulnerable.

Best of luck, everyone.

Boomer remover? It isn't the Boomers that are the idiots filling beaches and doing their best to catch this thing.

Young folk are dying too, children. Just not as often. So...please, stay in your huge groups of idiots in public, doing your best to catch this thing. You'll beat the odds....well, most of you.

Yeesh

 i saw a  news Vid.. kids on spring break saying  they didn't  carfe..they waited  all year for this..they wanted   to get  drunk and party ( i assume sex)

 I am a Boomer, i was born  1955... I played pick up  foot ball yeasterday, we play every sunday morning, I have been doing this  for 52+ years..we had  to  go to an 'out of the way' football field, because  the stadium we use was locked  down from close closing...

 there were 9 of us.. in the fresh  air and sun ( dirctict sunligh is  supposed to help kill the  virus)

  the thing here is , we  were all far apart, i heard a translation of  Chinese Med guy, who said.." was your clothes  as soon as you come in, if you cannot, hand them in the sunlight'... " take a shower   with  any soap that foams, as  soon as you come  in".... clean metal surfaces   as the  Virus can live longer there ( doorthandles, handrails ect ect )

  In short.. try to stay away from  enclosed areas, drink hot liquids  when you feel a sore throat..

 so Yeah?... remove us Boomers, they'll be no  'clear thinking' humans left.

In reply to donsr (msg # 19):

Well donsr as you're not supposed to be congregating you've failed at the "clear-thinking" assertion.

Direct sunlight doesn't kill the coronavirus, please do your research before making claims. Do it twice. Don't get medical information from Facebook or from something you need translated for you.

Please cancel your next pickup football, and hope none of your literally elderly friends are now headed for a quick respiratory degeneration.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:46, Mon 23 Mar 2020.

well?   It was information from the chinese  rercords  fro Autopsies . and  information gained from such

 so i must go with that, over   a random fellow here.

I think the point is that, much like when my mother (she's in the high-risk category) tells me she's going to go play pickleball with "only four" of her friends, "outside", I have to tell her that it's still not safe.

It's safER than some other alternatives, but it's not SAFE.

If you want to be safe, stay home (that doesn't mean inside, your yard is still valid), and stay away from people that don't also live there*. And remember that it isn't just about you, it's about all of the people you come in contact with, and the people they come in contact with, etc.

*-Unless you obviously have no choice, like needing to go to the pharmacy, or to the store for foodstuffs. Having fun isn't a need.

@donsr Fact Check: False/Misleading

Sources:

https://www.politifact.com/fac...en-kill-coronavirus/

https://factcheck.afp.com/heal...avirus-disinfectants

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51735367

Really? Info from the Chinese over info from the National Institute for Health, and the same Doctor in Infectious Disease over there that figured out what AIDS was?

I think I'll stick with my government's warnings than those from the folks that produce a new plague every few years.

In reply to donsr (msg # 21):

Well you actually don't need to take my word for it!

Unless you think the Center for Disease Control is an untrustworthy news source? The director of which has cautioned against assuming any interaction between warmer weather, more sunlight and a decrease in the virus

So again, do your research, you can't both claim to be clear thinking and simply go on half-remembered translations you heard in passing and assumptions you have about how safe something is.

@SunRuanEr: yes this. Much more polite than I have the desire to be here, but if my tone offends you donsr, read SunRuanEr's post over and over instead

well? I have  just checked the  sun-light  thing.. the  'best' they said   there was  about vitamin D helping immunity, but  not  specific ect ect..

 so?..i do apologize  for that.

 The  rest  i have  have to look into as well..since some of it is linked to the whole  'hand washing' thing

 I will have to get  in touch with my Cousin.. i checked the maps? Uruguay  only has a few hundred  folks sick down there.

 I do  appreciate  you folks calling  that out... as far as the football thing goes?..  I am the only one  over ( way over) the    limit..a couple guys in the   40s', most are in thier  30s...once a week out in the fresh air  shouldn't be a bad  thing, we aren't all jammed up together, were are  spread out on a   filed 100 yards   long and  wifth veries  by hash marks , depending on how many folks show up

In reply to donsr (msg # 26):

But it was football. Touch, flag, or tackle, there was a lot of contact. Plus huddles, scrimmage lines, etc.

You couldn't have been all that spread out.

Plus, of course, is the hang time the virus has on materials. Even Pigskin. Everyone that touched that football was potentially exposed.

Well, that went from zero to get off my lawn in less than 25 posts ...

Hey! Hey! Social distancing! Be on your own lawn! =)

Hell, my kid put me out to pasture. Literally. I live in an RV next to her barn. Hell of a front yard, though.

we play flag, too many of us have  jobs( and i'm old!)..we have a few guys who played  semi pro.. some played in the arena team here  in Johnstown a few years ago..got some College  guys.. we get highschool guys to come up and get reps  and  do some teaching  with them.

 Last two weeks   has  been slim, going to  'torny' games of   4 - 5 man teams  to just  10 guys last week  and 9 this week.

 we just got the word that PA schools are close until the 6th... the kids supposed to go back the 9th?... I heard Kansas  and VA  are done for the years... My oldest grandson is a senior this year..don't know who that's going to mess up thier   stuff?.. i mean..do they just get rubber stamped?..or will they have to make it up.... The college across the   road from the stadium we  normally play in( UPJ)  has been closed  2 weeks ahead of the school closings?..so who know if the   kids  will get to start there? and  i supposed they have to come up with a way to have finals?

 I laughed at some of the folks who said  'its a hoax'..when the  NBA..NHL and  'The Big Dance' shut down..all that money the owners are missing out on...its not a hoax.

..............

  for those who corrected the thing  about sunlight?..I  told my cousin in PMs and sent him the blink to  the   search i did, after you folks pointed it out to me... hopefully he passes that on to any of his wife's side of the family.

So FYI if you understand plagues you will quickly realize why every modern plague comes out of China or Africa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYh5WACqEk

It's wort the time start to finish but the point I'm making starts at around the 4:50 mark

---

As for spreading infection dosr is right that it can live on surfaces for a long...long time. Some trials have shown it surviving for 3 days under ideal conditions on stainless steal.

What they are recommending is that if you do go outside and are in risky contact that you shed your outerwear outside of your house. Pretend it's like an airlock and you don't want to carry germs into your safe hidey-hole.

Perhaps this is what the doctor meant when he said to show your clothes the sun: to keep them OUTSIDE so you don't piggyback them in.

Otherwise masks are basically useless unless you have a high grade full face respirator. If you're sick use the masks to stop your germs from spreading but if you're not sick don't buy the masks to save them for medical professionals who NEED them due to constant contact throughout the day.

Proper ventilation when outside does wonders for cutting down the spread so yeah, you are probably safe playing pickleball HOWEVER it is very selfish to take that risk. Stay the fruit inside. If you get sick that is another patient that has to be treated by already stressed medical systems and yet another point of infection where you and your loved ones' health is put into jeopardy.

You are risking your life, the lives of your close friends and family, and the medical workers that will have to treat you for what...because you can't take a couple weeks off from your social calendar?

Our family has our phones going all day with video chats with friends and family so we can socialize without putting anyone at risk.

We are in a crisis. Don't be an asphole and become yet another statistic for the stupidity of humainty.

STAY THE FRUIT HOME!

Nah. it's because China is too cheap to upgrade their bioweapns research facilities, and things keep getting out.

Now, be clear: That was a joke. But this is the internet. In a couple days people could be spreading that around like it's fact.....

Because an image is often better than words: to understand why confinements (or "social distancing") measures work: https://corona.katapult-magazin.de/

In reply to tmagann (msg # 33):

If this is a bioweapon, I am extremely disappointed. Where's the instant fleshmelting? The horrible mutations that pervert God's creation? I haven't even seen a single zombie. Get it together, China.

Have you seen the pictures or Spring Break bars during quarantine? We already have brainless zombies walking among us!

To be fair...they HAVE shut down the world economy. Impressive for a bioweapon, really.

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

I love that expression. It is one of my main tools I use when trying to help people with problems they're having with other people.

You realize the conditions are not exclusive? In fact, as I recall, both figure prominently in that sub class of high school bully "the Jock".

It's probably the steroids.

In reply to NowhereMan (msg # 35):

I had some friend of a friend try to convince me on FB that this was all concocted by Bill Gates for the sake of artificially reducing the world population, based on a talk he gave about the values of population control...

My counterpoint was, if you're going to create a virus to try and reduce the world's population and keep the numbers limited, wouldn't it be better to have something that was more virulent among those portions of society that are actually STILL creating babies?  Maybe something more akin to mumps, that causes sterility in adult-onset victims?

There's a lot of very weird garbage circulating about this thing, and I try to treat most of it with a simple rule -- If it's too <weird/good/simple/horrific/stupid> to be true, it probably is.  Sometimes, I'm proven wrong, like the whole hoarding toilet paper thing, which is definitely too weird and stupid to be true.  But most of the time, it's a pretty effective filter, and it takes only a little digging to start finding all the flimsiest spots in the story.

Actually, that may not be true. Birth rates are down (ie: the youngsters aren't breeding the way our parents did). It's we boomers that have the numbers. We're the ones to kill off.

Hell, folks, give it another 20 years (maybe 30 years for those born in the early 60s), and it'll take care of itself. The oldest boomers are already 75.

Here is a great video that talks about how the world population probably won't reach 13 billion due to declining birth rates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsBT5EQt348