For the sake of sorting things out, let's try to explain my logic for who's entering the game & when:
- The roster is 6 players, not 7. I'll open a Seventh under special circumstances -- usually when there's a player that shows a strong interest, and I have some doubts about the current 6 holding up.
- Prior to Sparky joining, there were six players involved: dpdx, Uriel, Festy_Dog, doghead, DrZombie, and Tonguez. At the time, two were new, and I generally give new players about a fifty-fifty chance of sticking around for the long haul, not to mention the chance there always is of losing anyone... Figuring it was more likely than not to have a shot open shortly, and because of Sparky's interest in the game, I opened that Seventh slot.
- I don't have any concrete system for what qualifies as "occupying a slot" -- generally it's open until someone posts, but in some cases I'll give the spot before than, if the individual has established a strong enough interest OOC that I know they're not just going to wander off. The emails exchanged regarding character definitely strike me as a strong enough interest, and border on qualifying as "posts"... In short, I've been treating Sparky as part of the roster for some time now.
- On doghead's leaving, this "upgrades" Sparky from a temporary slot to a real slot -- leaving us with six, which is the roster. I could open up a Seventh at this point, but then why not the next time? And the next time? And then we have a roster of seven, which gets upgraded to eight in special circumstances... You see how that goes.
- Although that pretty much resolves it, I still have to deal with the fact that both Mith and Lu Wei have about equal claim to "first place in line" at this point -- Mith lost his spot apparently prematurely, and Lu Wei lost his place in line because of that... Anyway, to sort that out, I'm treating you both as having the "same" place in line -- meaning that once a spot on the roster opens, a Seventh slot will open along with it, as that qualifies as a special circumstance.
I understand that all of this is subjective and open to argument, and so I am open to hear some arguments. I try to keep as rules-light as possible, not just within the game, but as far as the game is run as well -- but this only works if, in its place, you try to reach concensus.
And speaking of concensus: I'm willing to expand the roster to eight, just this once, if I hear agreement from everyone that it's a Good Thing. I, personally, don't think it is, but I can deal with it if everyone prefers it (considering that I don't have to deal with statsheets, it doesn't create all that much extra work for me)...
Does that answer everyone's questions?