I'm going to agree with keeping applications open. I think that would help. I know we closed applications ages ago because we were having too many placements and too many characters thrown into the queue, but obviously, things are different now. Another pro to apps open all the time is that if you do app someone and they don't click, you can always app someone else easily. I don't mean to encourage a high turnover, but I think a number of us are looking to change things up for ourselves (especially in the wake of being in the game for a while). Plus, newcomers can come and join the game whenever. Basically, there's a lot of options available.

If things become unwieldy again, then apps can be closed, but yeah!