Hello everyone! It’s been a fairly subdued December here on Warrior Cats of the Forest as everyone trudged through that last home stretch of the semester. In-character, EarthClan moved in with MoonClan after their camp flooded, a border skirmish resulted in the deaths of a SunClan queen, MoonClan’s deputy, and EclipseClan’s leader, and now MoonClan and EarthClan have attacked EclipseClan in what is planned to be a battle of almost unprecedented bloodshed. Out of character, we voted on what the role of StarClan should be on this roleplay, going forward. On December 16th I announced that the website will be closing on its tenth anniversary, January 16th, and we readjusted our plot plans to tie off our loose strings and give the roleplay the send-off it deserves. The History Page and Planned Events have both been updated to reflect this change, so if you’re uncertain of what’s happening, please check that page and share your thoughts on the specifics of what we should do.
For this last Monthly Meow, it seems only fitting to look back at past Monthly Meows. Monthly Meows have been a consistent feature of Warrior Cats of the Forest since 2012 and have extended far past their original intent as a housekeeping feature to cover a wide variety of subjects ranging from demographics overviews and summaries of leaders and rule changes to analysis of trends on the website such as categories of names. In fact, there’s even a Monthly Meow about Monthly Meows, Monthly Meow LXIV, which delves into the newsletter’s history, past trends, and a few broad categories of Monthly Meows. For today’s Monthly Meow, I have compiled a list of every surviving Monthly Meow alongside a brief description of its contents. Feel free to peruse these at your leisure and read over any that strike your fancy; the bolded ones are the ones that I expect members will find the most interesting.
Monthly Meow I-Monthly Meow IV: The first four Monthly Meows were not archived and have been lost.
Monthly Meow V: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with member-submitted questions and a request for members to post up to date character lists to aid in cleaning the pages.
Monthly Meow VI: Descriptions of current and past clans.
Monthly Meow VII: A rule change about how seasons progress in-game.
Monthly Meow VIII: A list of rule changes including changes in the character limit and a requirement to cite lineart and dolls on the art page.
Monthly Meow IX: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 50 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow X: A housekeeping meow with ceremony reminders and a small change to the aging system.
Monthly Meow XI: A housekeeping Monthly Meow pleading for people to help with new member recruitment and advertising.
Monthly Meow XII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with a request for members to help advertise.
Monthly Meow XIII: A list of common roleplay mistakes, both in terms of bad writing and rule-breaking.
Monthly Meow XIV: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 25 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow XV: A fun facts Monthly Meow with facts about the site’s origins, family trees, and unexpected outcomes of plots.
Monthly Meow XVI: A description of the new adoption system.
Monthly Meow XVII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with reminders about the rules for the upcoming StarClan and Dark Forest Halloween event.
Monthly Meow XVIII: An overview of how to create a Warrior Cats roleplay, including the responsibilities of a site owner, tips for record keeping and rule making, site layout, choosing a host, plot planning, and more.
Monthly Meow XIX: Brief descriptions of all of the leaders, including their personalities, major events during their rule, and their lasting effects on clan identity and the plot.
Monthly Meow XX: A proposal of several map changes and a description of major landmarks.
Monthly Meow XXI: The first demographics overview, looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on March 2, 2014.
Monthly Meow XXII: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 50 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow XXIII: A Monthly Meow that extrapolates from the website’s age, number of posts, and average post length how many novels worth of content have been written on Warrior Cats of the Forest.
Monthly Meow XXIV: A housekeeping Monthly Meow asking members to help with advertising the website and recruiting new members.
Monthly Meow XXV: A housekeeping Monthly MEow with reminders about advertising the website and recent changes to the clan maps.
Monthly Meow XXVI: A housekeeping Monthly Meow giving reminders about proper formatting on the Character Updates Page.
Monthly Meow XXVII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with reminders about the Skype group, a plot recap, and a plea to help clean the pages.
Monthly Meow XXVIII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow giving a plot recap and reminders for the upcoming StarClan and Dark Forest Halloween event.
Monthly Meow XXIX: Suggestions on how to constructively and positively comment on other members’ artwork.
Monthly Meow XXX: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with some fall cleaning reminders and suggestions on how members can get a deputy.
Monthly Meow XXXI: A demographics overview looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on December 29, 2014.
Monthly Meow XXXII: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 50 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow XXXIII: A poll on how frequently Gatherings and Medicine Cat Meetings should be held.
Monthly Meow XXXIV: A 20-question quiz about the website’s history for members to challenge themselves with.
Monthly Meow XXXV: A brief description of every leader, including their personality, the major events during their rule, and their lasting effects on the plot and clan identity.
Monthly Meow XXXVI: A housekeeping Monthly Meow welcominging in an influx of new members and giving reminders about often-broken rules and procedures.
Monthly Meow XXXVII: Examples of stories that queens or elders might tell kits, showing how actual events can become skewed depending on which clan a cat belongs to and how long ago the story was.
Monthly Meow XXXVIII: A history of the clans’ territories and how Warrior Cats of the Forest’s maps have changed over time.
Monthly Meow XXXIX: A demographics overview looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on August 14, 2015.
Monthly Meow XL: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with a plot recap and a reminder about the upcoming StarClan and Dark Forest Halloween Event.
Monthly Meow XLI: A question-and-answer Monthly Meow with member-submitted questions about running the website.
Monthly Meow XLII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow with a plot recap, a reminder that the website’s domain name was set to renew, and a brief survey.
Monthly Meow XLIII: A demographics overview looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on December 18, 2015.
Monthly Meow XLIV: An explanation of a few frequently misunderstood or misinterpreted rules and procedures.
Monthly Meow XLV: A in-depth description of several pivotal scenes in the roleplay that were simplified down on the HIstory Page.
Monthly Meow XLVI: A discussion of why and how the website’s rules have changed over time.
Monthly Meow XLVII: A discussion of how changes in the website’s rules and procedures have affected the roleplay in-game.
Monthly Meow XLVIII: A demographics overview looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on May 13, 2016.
Monthly Meow XLIX: An overview of frequently-overlooked features of the website such as The Update Log, the Helpful Links, and the mentor-apprentice list, alongside tips on navigating the website, such as sorting art by “recently added.”
Monthly Meow L: A brief history of Warrior Cats of the Forest, focusing primarily on out-of-character events.
Monthly Meow LI: An update of Monthly Meow XXXV offering a brief description of every leader up to that point.
Monthly Meow LII: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 25 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow LIII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow in which I listed the clan counts, upcoming events, and a plea for members to submit feedback.
Monthly Meow LIV: A demographics overview looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on November 18, 2016.
Monthly Meow LV: A housekeeping Monthly Meow in which I discuss the responses to an anonymous member survey and potential procedural and rule changes.
Monthly Meow LVI: Part one of the series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon universe to this roleplay, this time going over The Warrior Code.
Monthly Meow LVII: Part two of the series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon universe to this roleplay, with a focus on naming conventions.
Monthly Meow LVIII: Part three of the series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon universe to this roleplay, this time with a focus on clan demographics.
Monthly Meow LIX: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 25 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow LX: Part four of the series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon universe to Warrior Cats of the Forest, this time with a focus the relationship between the living clans and their dead ancestors.
Monthly Meow LXI: Part five of the series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon universe to Warrior Cats of the Forest, going over the general similarities between Warrior Cats of the Forest’s clans as a whole and the canon ones.
Monthly Meow LXII: Suggestions on how to write villains and heroes by the long-term member Kingfish.
Monthly Meow LXIII: Part six of the series comparing the canon universe to Warrior Cats of the Forest, which compares individual clans to each other.
Monthly Meow LXIV: A Monthly Meow of Monthly Meows, much like this one, where I go through the history of Monthly Meows and categorize a handful of theme into trends or series, such as demographics overviews and comparisons between Warrior Cats of the Forest and the canon clans.
Monthly Meow LXV: An analysis and categorization of naming trends on Warrior Cats of the Forest, written by the long-time member Kingfish.
Monthly Meow LXVI: An analysis of past home page text and appearances with WayBack Machine archives.
Monthly Meow LXVII: A demographics overview looking into the clans’ populations, gender ratios, age structure, and working:nonworking cat ratio on December 15, 2017.
Monthly Meow LXVIII: The seventh part of the Monthly Meow series comparing the canon universe to the universe of Warrior Cats of the Forest, focusing on the clans’ relationship to the predatory animals they share their territories with.
Monthly Meow LXIX: A getting-to-know you Monthly Meow with a list of 25 silly questions for members to answer.
Monthly Meow LXX: An in-depth demographics overview showing how cats’ naming styles, origin, appearance, and general personality characteristics, gender, and rank vary from clan to clan.
Monthly Meow LXXI: An analysis of Monthly Meow LXX’s personality type information and clan descriptions through the lens of “The Enneagram of Personality” written by River, a moderator.
Monthly Meow LXXII: An overview of realistic fur color and patterns and eye colors written by L, a long-time moderator and administrator.
Monthly Meow LXXIII: A housekeeping Monthly Meow welcoming members to the new Wix-based website and urging members to invite their friends and post on plot planning.
Monthly Meow LXXIV: A brief history of Warrior Cats of the Forest written by Silverwing, one of the original founders.
Monthly Meow LXXV: Part one of a short demographics series comparing the clans’ populations over time, age structure, gender ratios, average age, percentages of working and nonworking cats, cats/roleplayer, and the number of roleplayers active in each clan.
Monthly Meow LXXVI: Part two of a short demographics series comparing the clans’ population, gender ratio, naming style, origin, ey color, primary coat colors, coat lengths, build, and personality category.
Many Monthly Meows fit into a larger series. Below I have collected seven such categories, for members who are interested in a particular topic. Feel free to comment below with any other series that you’ve noticed.
Demographics: Monthly Meow XXI, Monthly Meow XXXI, Monthly Meow XXXIX, Monthly Meow XLIII, Monthly Meow XLVIII, Monthly Meow LIV, Monthly Meow LVIII, Monthly Meow LXVII, Monthly Meow LXX, Monthly Meow LXXV, and Monthly Meow LXXVI
Canon vs. WCF Clans: Monthly Meow LVI, Monthly Meow LVII, Monthly Meow LVIII, Monthly Meow LX, Monthly Meow LXI, Monthly Meow LXII, and Monthly Meow LXVIII
Leader Descriptions: Monthly Meow XIX, Monthly Meow XXXV, and Monthly Meow LI
Naming Trends: Monthly Meow LVII, Monthly Meow LXV, Monthly Meow LXX, and Monthly Meow LXXVI
Roleplay Commentary: Monthly Meow XXXVII, Monthly Meow XLV, Monthly Meow LXV, and Monthly Meow LXXI
History of WCF: Monthly Meow XXXVIII, Monthly Meow XLVI, Monthly Meow XLVII, Monthly Meow L, Monthly Meow LXIV, Monthly Meow LXVI, Monthly Meow LXXIV
Member-Submitted: Monthly Meow LXII, Monthly Meow LXV, Monthly Meow LXXI, Monthly Meow LXXII, and Monthly Meow LXXIV
Finally, some housekeeping. Everyone, please remember that the New Year’s Gift Exchange is coming up, so if you signed up for that, be sure to post your gift on January 1st. If you won’t be able to get it done, let me know as soon as possible so I can find a last-minute gift-er and your giftee isn’t left empty-handed. As well, some leaders have been having difficulty with the aging system and knowing when to post ceremonies and which characters are eligible for each round of ceremonies, so here is a guide.
Early-January Ceremonies (can be done at any point between January 1st and January 10th)
Kits with birth dates from December 1st to December 10th become apprentices
Apprentices with birth dates from October 1st to October 10th become warriors/medicine cats
Assign mentors to any apprentices with a “???” beside their name on The Clans Page.
Mid-January Ceremonies (can be done at any point between January 11th and January 16th)
Kits with birth dates from December 11th to December 20th become apprentices
Apprentices with birth dates from October 11th to October 20th become warriors/medicine cats
Assign mentors to any apprentices with a “???” beside their name on The Clans Page.
As the website is closing on January 16th, there will be no late-January ceremonies.