I said this earlier on the discord but I feel its appropriate here as well.
I'm a returning veteran player from back in 2012, admittedly nearly everything I submitted has apparently been lost but otherwise I believe I'm one example of those the community is trying to get to come play and help bolster the numbers. I realize I have no sway in the community but as an outsider I think I can comment on the things prevalent in Discovery that push me and likely many others away. No one likes being railroaded or discarded. Joining Discovery is taken too seriously to the point its more work than fun. Just joining the community forces rp interaction on players that may not be comfortable enough with roleplay to join in rather than welcoming them to come just to play and putting that onus on the seasoned members of the community. Just listing the RP restrictions in the rules puts barriers in place to drive new players away. I don't mean that RP should be set aside but that instead it should be rewarded. Every barrier put up hurts the community and only makes things worse and this newest development is a perfect example of that.
Instead of throwing up new barriers to player involvement they should be tearing down rules that don't really contribute to the goals of having stories worth reading about. The rules on re-engagement with alternate characters just means that now with the dwindling population you have to wait before you can interact with that player again, meaning your both stuck waiting for an arbitrary time out of potential story. Most of the rules were made with good intentions but in practice they just suppress player interactions in artificial ways that will continue to drive players away.
