I can only imagine how thin your patience must have worn by now, Merc, and I'm aware that you and the others have been waiting for far too long, many times as long as I had hoped it would take and even longer than I ever had the imagination to fear it would be; as I just said in my previous post that is one of the reasons that I really can't keep just silently accepting the absence of posts. I haven't heard anything about anyone reacting to anything I've done in such a way, which honestly doesn't do them any favors in my eyes and display a complete lack of willingness to communicate and work towards the good of the RP and its players. That kind of behavior makes me think that such a person was incompatible with the way I run things. Those kinds of issues don't go away on their own, usually... it takes talking to solve them.
(That last part obviously wasn't meant for you, Merc, but for the as of yet anonymous player you mentioned.)

And the thing is, while I would prefer to be the agreeable and understanding GM that endeavors to accommodate everyone, there has to be a point where I say "enough". I am prepared to write out characters if that is what it takes, even if doing so ends up seriously affecting a lot of other characters and players, but I would prefer not to do that and find a different solution instead and wanted to give the people we're waiting for a chance to help finding a solution.

I don't know why people would prefer to try to sabotage the RP rather than talk through what is wrong, but I imagine part of it might come from the fact that people more and more go to Shien with their thoughts and concerns instead of me, making her the one people work with constructively and me the "bad guy" that keep complaining about everything. Now, I'm fine with people going to Shien for most part - she knows a lot about the TP-universe and I have nothing but trust and respect for her - but completely shutting me out just isn't going to work.

So yeah... Here I am, trying one more time to find a way to move forward cooperatively and figure out what the problems causing people to post so very slowly are. And yes, if we can't find the tools to constructively improve the situation, I'm prepared to break out a bulldozer and force things along if needed.