"The first thing to say is that apterous is definitely not Countdown. It is not endorsed by Countdown, Channel 4 or anyone important at all. However, it is a game with rounds including numbers, letters and conundrums. This may sound familiar. You can play against your friends over the Internet, or other people's friends if you don't have any of your own. To play, just register and then log in. If you're having problems, head over to our FAQ and, if that doesn't work, please do email me and I'll do my best to help."
(The most interesting part I put in a bold underlined font.)
There has been a trend over the last few years toward staying on "Busy" all the time, and I mean ALL of the time.
There are many varied reasons for this.
1. Only wanting to play bots.
2. Wanting full control over who they challenge.
3. Fear of losing rating points.
4. Not being able to commit to finishing a game without taking breaks, childminding demands etc.
5. A general anxiety that an unsolicited challenge could come in at any second.
6. Peer pressure because the majority of players in the room are on busy, (often aside from those who are lower down in the rolling ratings).
7. General mean-spiritness and/or a lack of respect for Apterous.
The above list is not exhaustive... people have all sorts of reasons (some more worthy than others imo), and there is a strong case to be made that any paying subscriber is entitled to use the site as they wish. Of course, it goes without saying, there is a spectrum here. At the extremes, some players stay on 'busy' all the time... some never go on 'busy', but in between those extremes are a variety of styles, some of whom use the 'busy' function sparingly and only when they are genuinely busy, and some of whom make the rare cameo where their name ceases to be grey.
Earlier on this evening was my first time (though I'm sure it's happened quite a few times by now) seeing the game room completely grey-washed:-
^^^That's welcoming!
----------------------------------------------
Surely I am not on my own in thinking this is a problem?
In my opinion, it's not acceptable, and something should be done. I'd suggest one of these things:-
1. Change the bit in the Apto description where it says you can play against "other people's friends if you don't have any of your own".
2. Allow the busy status be enabled only for those who have paid an extra £20 or £30 on top of the regular annual Apto-subscription price.
3. Introduce a quotient of how often you are allowed set yourself to "busy" per month, e.g. somewhere between 30%-70% of the time.
4. Something else clever that someone else thinks of that makes the game room more welcoming without pissing too many people off.
). However, if none of those usual suspects are there, and you find yourself in a room that is mostly grey... be aware of your surroundings and be prepared to put yourself forward now and then. Doesn't have to be too often, just on the rare occasion. If we all were to take that approach, then it would ensure that while the shyer/busier members will still get to stay almost exclusively on grey, at least we won't end up with a situation where the whole room gets greyed out. At the moment, the trend seems to be: if there is too much grey in the room, then even players normally marked as "available" can tend to also turn themselves grey out of -what I can only assume is- peer pressure. That is *definitely* a trend we could do without!
