Original Post: Ember, December 29, 2016
Hi everyone! It’s been a pretty chill December around this website. We’ve solidified some of our plot planning, welcomed in new members, and generally had fun hanging around the roleplay forums. There’s plenty to look forward to next month as well. The website’s 8th birthday will be on January 16th, we have a unique NightClan plot on the horizon as the camp is raided by two-legs, and the New Year Gift Exchange is ending in just a few days. But December still isn’t over, so for this month, we have everyone’s favorite type of Monthly Meow: housekeeping!
First off is the survey. Thank you so much to everyone who responded, I can’t overstate how much these surveys help me understand how members interact with the website and what can be done to improve everyone’s experience here. If you hadn’t had a chance yet to fill out the survey, it’s still open and I’ll keep checking for new responses for another week or so. I have some changes planned that will be announced later, but there are a few things I’d like to run through all of you before settling on what should be done.
A few members mentioned that they’d like to see more landmarks, particularly in SunClan’s territory. I have a few ideas for what these could be, such as some boulders that form a sort of sunning rocks or a small clump of trees or bushes, but I’d love to hear any of your ideas.
As well, there’s been some talk both on the survey and on the website’s skype chat whether we should move from Skype to Discord. I’ve created a little survey about that HERE.
By far the most mentioned topic on the survey was the plot planning blog entries, but there was very little consensus about what needs to be done. Almost everyone rated that their voice was heard at least most of the time, but how often people reported posting on the plot planning blog entries was all over the place. Some members reported thinking that the plot should be more planned out, while others advocated for dropping planning the plot entirely. I don’t think it’s a good idea to rely entirely on member initiative with no overarching planning for the plot -as when we’ve done this in the past such as in the flood arc nothing ended up happening- but I agree that there’s also danger in over-planning. Finding the balance is, of course, tricky and the best thing I’m coming up with is to simply try and be mindful over whether or not we’re over planning instead of changing how the plot is actually planned. However, I’d love to hear your ideas on how we should handle plot planning.
One outlier response on the survey that caught my attention was the possibility of lowering character counts. While I can understand the frustration with members creating characters that don’t end up being used and the mix-ups that occur on the pages because of the simple fact of how many characters there are, I’m not sure how much reducing the character limit would actually help with these problems or how we could go about lowering the character count. Most members have a number of characters they’re comfortable roleplaying and hover around that number, rather than going all the way to the character limit, so lowering the character limit wouldn’t affect them. As well, members create characters with the intention of playing them, so lowering the character limit wouldn’t necessarily change how many successful characters there are. The pages might actually get messier as characters are created and removed more quickly as members work within the smaller character limit and I inevitably make mistakes while updating the pages. However, my biggest concern with this suggestion is if members do agree that the character limit should be lowered, how exactly the transition to the lower character limit will be accomplished. My best idea is to simply put a date a few months in the future and say that by then, all members must be below the new character limit of, say, 16 cats. Any thoughts, as always, are appreciated.
The New Year Gift Exchange is scheduled to take place on January 1st. Sadly, I have yet to hear back from Webs about the “error #2049” that’s been preventing members from uploading art to the photo app. If that error persists, anyone giving their gift-ee artwork will have to upload late or find an alternative method of gift-giving. I’ll tell you guys what I find out as soon as Webs gets back to me, so let’s hope that’s soon! As well, an unexpectedly high number of members has dropped out l from the gift exchange and not enough members have stepped forward to do extra gifts to make up for them. If you have the time, it would be amazing if you signed up to do even just one last-minute gift. To reiterate from the original blog entry regarding the gift exchange, gifts don’t just include artwork, but rather anything personalized that you can upload to the website or otherwise present to your gift-ee.
The number of cats in each clan aren’t very even right now, with MoonClan at 109 cats, NightClan at 71, DawnClan at 92, and SunClan at 93. In order to even out the clans, please consider making new NightClanners and avoiding creating new characters in MoonClan.
To close out this Monthly Meow, I’d like to point out that memberships are currently open. Activity has been slowing down around here over the past month, so it would be a great help if you showed the roleplay any of your friends who might be interested. Registrations are likely to remain open for at least a week, possibly as much as two.
MoonClan
Apprentices:
Swankit: Mid January
Mistletoekit: Late January
Warriors:
Mousepaw, Weaselpaw, Ebi: Early January
Copperpaw, Whitepaw, Pebblepaw, Sandpaw, Honeypaw, Glacierpaw: Mid January
Snowflakepaw: Late January
Elders: Mantis-strike, Sennagaze, Leo, Vervaintongue, Actaeaberry
Deaths: Smokehaze, Snaketail
NightClan
Apprentices:
Blazingkit, Shredded: Early January
Warriors:
Boo, Silverpaw, Fangs: Early January
Mikhail: Mid January
Sugarpaw, Shasta, Glucose, Broadpaw, Goldenpaw, Russianpaw, Witheredpaw, Queenpaw, Stainedpaw: Late January
Medicine Cat Apprentice: Blindpaw (Early January)
Deaths: Spikeback, Lostmoon
DawnClan
Apprentices:
Slatekit: Early January
Coffeekit, Rockkit, Umberkit, Mochakit, Foggykit, Javakit, Lattekit: Early January
Cappuccinokit, Dreamkit: Late January
Warriors:
Otterpaw, Sharkpaw: Early January
Spookypaw: Mid January
Citypaw, Damselpaw, Dragonpaw, Flashpaw, Emeraldpaw, Brightpaw, Prairiepaw, Wolfpaw, Walnutpaw, Antpaw, Puddlepaw, Snakepaw: Late January
Elders: Tenorwillow, Belugasplash
Deaths: Rippedheart, Dragonheart, Meadowbreath, Sugarglider, Wolf-fang
SunClan
Apprentices:
Pebblekit: Early January
Huntingkit, Charmingkit, Rushingkit: Late January
Warriors:
Beepaw, Purplepaw, Frozenpaw, Endlesspaw, Windypaw, Twopaw: Early January
Leopardpaw: Mid January
Elders: Mossfields, Ghoulfright
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