I believe that these are the steps that must be taken in assuring MR's greatness and previous condition. Being a part of this isn't without effort, but when it performs well, they payoff is astronomical; if these are followed, many of the current problems should be resolved. The following are in order of priority.
1. If you're online, don't wait for anyone or anything. There should be no more waiting at all; if someone else is there, continue your arc with them, or if you're locked by somebody else (covered by number 4), start something someplace new. Always provide an opportunity for interaction whenever possible, and don't hold arcs until people get there.
2. If you're stuck, find another way to interact. The how doesn't really matter, but we all have enough characters and accounts to make something work. Don't let yourself get eaten by the activity of others.
3. Don't stop interacting with someone for any reason. If there's nothing else to say, do something, talk about life, really anything other than dropping conversation. If you feel you may have been dropped, or are awaiting a response (especially if the person is online), check the IC to see if you missed it. If not, ask them or "poke" their character again in the IC.
4. Don't start an arc, battle, or anything else that will consume other characters if you know for sure you're going to be gone for long periods of time. Locking other people into one story isn't fun, especially if you can't drive it. Don't let this discourage you from starting anything, but if you know you have a six hour dress rehearsal (for the sake of example) that prevents you from being IC, don't start a plot or battle.
5. If you're online/available (even if you're busy), just check in every so often. Once every ten minutes is preferable to "I have to focus on this 100% and can't do a single other thing." We all do/used to interact while doing other things, and even light multitasking is possible, and even easy. Just don't leave everyone in the dark if you can be there.
6. Similar to #5, if you can only be there for short bursts, make the IC the priority. The OOC can be caught up and discussed without much issue; the continuity of the IC cannot.
7. Avoid short responses that are hard to make conversation with. If the other person isn't leading somewhere, responding with "Yep," "Mhm" "Yeah," or other filler words isn't conducive to a thriving environment.
8. Respond quickly if you can. We're at less than a fraction of our former speed, and I find it hard to believe that something's preventing that when somebody's here.
