Just recently I flaked (no-showed without warning) for the first time in my e-fedding career. Now when I got back and posted my reason for no showing it got me thinking… would the owner think my explanation was legit, or would I be lumped into a pile of cliché excuses? Well, the only way to look at this, was to find just what those “CLICHÉ” and most often used excuses were. So, I dug in forum post after forum post, going from e-fed to e-fed looking for others that had no showed and the reason they posted. I dug deep for all the current “I’m sorry” posts and read the responses as well. I kept going until I found 100 no-show reasons. Here is what I found:

  • Too sick to concentrate ………………………………… 13
  • Internet cut off …………………………………………. 10
  • Forgot when the deadline was ………………………….. 10
  • Computer troubles ……………………………………… 9
  • Writer’s block/ didn’t have any ideas ………………….. 7
  • Too busy with work ……………………………………. 5
  • Children/Child/baby troubles …………………………... 5
  • School work/exams ……………………….……………. 5
  • Busy home life …………………………………………. 4
  • Busy with another Fed/Tourny/Site ……………………. 3
  • Moved/moving ………………………………………… 3

    2 each = Being deployed… Job Interview… had to leave town… pregnancy of relative… relatives came over… lost their job… car crash… going on vacation.

    1 each = Family member went to ER… Power turned off… funeral to attend… too stressed out… got a part time job... wasn’t going to win anyways… forgot the web address… Internet unreliable… RP would not post… legal trouble…

    So, what can we make of these results? A few things actually. First, up how many of these excuses are legit. I’d say the first two about “Internet being cut off” and “being too sick” will indeed stop one from roleplaying and are next to impossible to prove. But if one of your roster claimed to be sick or had their Internet cut off, you’d be more than likely to give them the benefit of the doubt. Same goes for a lot of the excuses on the above list. However, not all excuses seem to be legit reasons. The “I forgot when the deadline was” excuse stands out as the most suspect. Why? Because in over half the cases the no show person claimed they had an RP almost finished, but did not realize when the deadline was, and was then asked to post their unfinished RP as proof, only to back out somehow. Kinda suspicious. The “I moved” or “Too busy moving” is kinda lame as well. When most peeps move they get tons of notice, it’s not like they get tossed out in the middle of the night (which none of the peeps posting moving as an excuse claimed), so getting too busy with a move is not a good excuse. The most honest reason for no-showing have to be the “writer’s block” and “busy home life” After all, not too many peeps want to admit such things in the first place. And when it comes to all those single reason listed, I think you can chalk those up as legit. After all, shit happens and the excuses listed seem like they too can stop one from RP’ing. Plus they don’t come up very often, I mean really, how often does one have “legal trouble”?

    So, the next time a person from your fed no shows, ask them why. Then back back here and see just where their excuse ranks. You might be surprised.

    Toodles!